Bathroom progress

Updating the 60’s bathroom, it’s 70’s decoration and 80’s shower. We think it hadn’t had any tlc since the shower was added.

We are rearranging to give, hopefully, a nicer layout and retain a separate shower and bath. As the shower is used most it will be bigger than the current one and located where the door is. I’ve cut in a new door into bedroom 4 which will become part of the landing for access to the side extension.

Bath is moving back to it’s original location and is the biggest we can fit in.

I’ve replaced the hot water cylinder with heat store and heat exchanger which works better than I thought it would but will be adding a hot loop to give near instant hot water at the tap.

Replaced the soil stack that was coming apart at the joints. There is no original pipework in the house, soil, heating and water has all been updated.

Underfloor heating is only a small loop running from the heat store which will also heat a towel rail radiator.

Bath taps are concealed in the wall, note the big hole which is on a wall that is double thickness and tile hung outside with no cavity. Not great construction but handy as there was plenty of thickness to chisel into.

Nest to do is block off the old door, finish tiles and add the shower with its dual pattern rain head and hand shower, nice, but a pain to fit.

Great progress in Taekwondo

Eric recently got 1st place in his red belt pattern at the Welsh TAGB Championship, plus medals for team patterns and team sparring.

During black stripe grading both Eric and Som got A+, only 7 out of 40 got to that level and Eric got the grading award for being best overall. They are now proud owners of black stripe belts.

Their previous local club changed from TAGB to an independent club under ITC. Unfortunately, after a short time it was clear they needed to move club back to TAGB, even though the ITC red belt would not be recognized and they had to retake the grading. Now they are advancing to black belt and doing well it is important their hard work is recognized and the grading process correctly regulated by TAGB to the BTC standard.

It’s unfortunate that we had to go through club politics which has soured what should be a fun and enjoyable sport. However now back on the right track they are both looking forward to attaining a black belt.

Eric and Som trophies from the TAGB British Championships, Coventry, 21-Nov-21
Grading presentation, now a black strip.

Replacing the stairs

The old 60’s stairs had to go. Welcome a new oak staircase with winder at the top. What a pain to fit, should have stuck with a straight staircase!

Old stairs on the way out.
New stairs on the way in.

Finished orangery.

The rest of the floor down and steps from the lounge.

Step corners cut freehand using an angle grinder and the half bull nose edge done using a diamond shaping tool on a variable speed angle grinder.

Woodburner and Hearth

Hearth and step are thermal blocks faced with brick slips. The pointing takes forever and is boring. I used Mapei flexible adhesive, some rapid set but some the slow set that I used for the floor tiles. Slow set gives lots of working time.

The hearth stone was cut and shaped by a local stone works, they didn’t cut the first one in the orientation we specified which meant the pattern didn’t look right so they cut another one but obviously the second pattern wasn’t our first choice so a bit disappointing. Even so it’s a fantastic bit of stone with bits of semi-precious red bits and flecks of gold bits.

I very pleased with my lead work and lead burning, pity its on the roof out of view.

Eric gets stung.

Whilst at school Eric got stung by a bee at lunchtime. The sting was still in his hand when he came back home so mummy carefully extracted it. Luckily all ok.

Ouch!

Photo taken with USB circuit inspection microscope courtesy of Taotek Ltd.