Why's that then? The ex had the sh1tty old stereo

Things done:

• Almost sorted out the oven - needs new hinges because i buggered one up when tryig to take the oven door off for cleaning. Need to pick up a new paper filter and charcoal filter for the cooker hood.
• Garden has been tidied up. Pond has been drained. There was frogspawn. No idea where the frogs where.
• Interior door handles replaced. Dodgy bathroom door sorted.
• Leaking radiator fixed
• All rooms wiped down, cleaned, vacuumed
  

Things left to do:

• order in appliances
• bed should arrive this weekend
• clean windows, reseat rubber seals
• await sofa

I wasn't gonna bother with stuff like tv or phone line but broadband is pretty much essential. Need to decide between Virgin Media, or paying for BT landline and sticking with PlusNet but going for Fibre.

Beds and appliances have arrived. Fitted and tested. Appliances were too large so doors had to come off. Replaced them back on. The appliances still need feet adjusting but this can't be done by hand and I need a spanner. My spanner set is nowhere to be found. Sofa to arrive next week. Windows cleaned.

I've made a note of the bulbs. Upstairs are all incandescent either bayonet or screw fitting. Downstairs has a mix of CFL, LED, halogen and incandescent. Considering swapping them all to LED at some point.

The downstairs toilet has an incandescent bulb fitted behind a frosted glass pane. Which gives a lovely glow but it stopped working since I faffed around with it and found it hadn't been screwed in properly. No rawl plugs were used. Fitted rawlplugs and now the bloody thing won't light. There's also two halogen downlights, one of which doesn't work even if the bulb is replaced. MR16 fitment by the look of things.

Does anyone know how to investigate?

The kitchen and utility rooms have halogen downlights. The fixtures are rated for a max of 35W each bulb. Whilst the utility room has 35W GU10 bulbs, the kitchen has 50W ones. If I replace all with LED variants, can I go for higher rating (50W equivalent) or will this pull extra current through?

Do you have a multimeter and can you test to see if current is being delivered to the socket. If not then the assuming its on the same ring main as the rest of the lights it might have come detached in the ceiling from the ring main



Yes - LED "50W" draw only 5W or so so you could (if someone made them) put a 35W LED that would be a couple of hundred normal Wattage in brightness

Thought so re: LED. Just wanted to double check (lack of sleep = poor concentration). Have read up that the transformers can sometimes go. Can't see why the wiring should have detached from the main ring for no reason. I think the light on the bathroom wall is down to wiring - the fixture was held in with screws that hadn't been secured so it was hanging. When I pulled the bulb out the whole thing fell forwards.

Get theLEDs in ASAP, especially since you'll have lights on all the time initially.

Used Philips 50W equivalent LEDs in the kitchen and utility areas. Didn't realise halogens got hot within a couple of minutes. The LEDs were still cool after an hour of use. The bathroom backlight wasn't working because the wires had slipped out whilst I was changing the bulb. Stripped the supply back and found a lovely bit of electrical wire covering the live wire where someone had used a knife to split the cable. Neatened it up and replaced it. Works fine.

There are two MR16 downlights in the bathroom and the first one doesn't work. Used a voltage detector which showed there was a feed to the socket. So suspect either faulty bulb (I tested with a new one out of a packet) or bad socket. Will convert the downlights from halogen to LED but I'll need to change to a suitable transformer. Again, found more electrical tape on the live feed.

I'm assuming it's to drown out the sound of your handcuff related shenanigans lol

Noise cancelling headphones FTMFW!

So we've been sitting on our nice new duck-egg blue sofas. Borrowed a cheapo coffee table to eat from. Still got lots of unpacking and unboxing to do but that will take to sort through.

Problem is the loft. Even on steps/platform, it's too short to reach into the loft. In fact my six foot tall brother in law lifted me on to his shoulders so I could look in. The loft hatch opens into the loft rather than downward. I couldn't see any lightbulb fitting but some of the loft has been boarded so possible storage area.

Ideally the hatch should open outwards into the hallway and then I could have had a ladder fitted. I'm just a bit wary of sticking a ladder up into the loft without support.

Ideas? Preferably cheap for now until we have saved up enough to get some work done on the house.

Wow how high are your ceilings if you can't reach it with a ladder?

Get a bigger ladder if the one you have is too small? The amount of times I go in to the loft I don't need a ladder up there permanently.

This is the first house I've had with a ladder built into the loft door. Generally that costs extra money, so people traditionally went with a simple wooden panel that you lift up into the loft.

It was only people who did loft conversions and used them as bedrooms / hobby rooms who generally put ladders in, when I was young.

I fitted one in my neighbours. Quite straight forward joist trimming to accept the box housing and an architrave planted to cover the tolerance gap below. What was more amusing was getting the the old galvanised water tank out through the now enlarged hole (before fitting the ladder). Quite often these redundant water tanks are left in situ because of their size.

The ladder was a 2 section and available from screwfix for £150. You will need some 4x2 and appropriate architrave and a bit of guard rail carpentry for the loft. Not to mention flooring. Certainly a decent project for a weekend.

Haven't done anything massive but so far I've:

• lifted carpet, removed virgin cable, er, cable.
• cut and wired some tv aerial and put this in the grooves under the carpet
• rearranged sofas to suit new position of tv
• fixed the shower isolating pull cord (which burnt out and needed replacing)
• reattached the curtain rail that was hanging in the spare bedroom
• fixed the air gaps around the patio doors to stop air leaks

Still need to:

• replace/repair bathroom fan
• replace the house numbers
• maybe replace the external lights
• fix the loose boards under cupboard units
• replace the bathroom panel

Pics?

Of the house or the work I've done?