lonemagpie

One unexpected angst of clearing some stuff out is when it comes to books, and you know half the authors personally, so you're going "but I can't charity-shop *him/her* - what if they find out?!"

Anyway, the bathroom, with sugar-soap to prep the walls for paint.

Actually I've taken a lot of "before" pictures with the phone but have yet to find the cable to connect it (and while typing this have just realised I should look to see if this machine has an SD card slot that I could just use...)

But until then, here's a picture I already had of Cleo on the old stair carpet:




And a picture taken with the netbook webcam of the new woodstained stairs.



In a week's time, those walls will be buttermilk coloured, and the handrail stripped back to the wood and stained the same as the stairs, by the way. And there will be further pictures.

OK, so, new toilet seat and lid installed (and gave the porcelain a go with the antibacterial bug-killing detergent while I was at it.)

New chromed shower hose and head installed too, but I can't get the bastard not to leak out of the back of the handheld head no matter what arrangement of gaskets and washers I mess around with. This happened with the previous unit too, which caused it to rust most unattractively.

A search on the internet, however, brings up the suggestion that one really needs teflon tape to make a proper seal with these things, so I shall see if I can get some tomorrow. While wishing evil on the manufacturers and retailers of handheld showers, who don't fucking bother to mention this.

Meanwhile, Lesley has sorted out another three bags of clothes for charity shops (in addition to the three this morning, for a total of six.)

My dad's bringing cutting bench and some appropriate tools for slicing up the chipboard for the floor on wednesday, so I'll be able to make those repairs at the back end of the week.

The stairs have been sanded - and by this I mean with glass paper and a sanding block, since I don't have a power sander, so it's on the knees and be a bit of a scrubber for this one - and are ready for their mahogany staining in the morning.

This means I got a bit covered in sawdust, and- oh, you know what, for those of you about to embark on DIY soon, I'm gonna throw you some personal grooming/cleaning yourself afterwards advice, cos, y'know, it's a messy business. Even when you're doing it to get tidy!

There'll be some about getting paint off later, but for today, the comedic but surprisingly effective way to get sawdust, old dry paint flecks, pieces of plaster crumble, etc out of your hair. (This also, and yeah, I'm speaking from experience, cos, come on we all get it occasionally, works for dandruff or flaky scalp or whatever. And it's unexpected: Go the pet store or pet aisle of the supermarket, and get yourself - wait for it - a flea comb. Yeah, even though you don't have fleas. See, the fine sawdust and bits of whatever are small enough that a regular comb won't catch them, and water will likely stick them to your hair (especially if it's thick) rather than washing it out without several repeat goes.

So, the secret is this - comb with a pet store flea comb *before* showering. That'll bring everything you've picked up from the rubble - er, work site - to the ends of the hair, if not just wipeable from the comb itself, and then just shower as normal- job done.

(And, yeah, like I said, this works for non-DIY related stuff like dandruff or psoriasis too, as a bonus)

Anyway, enough house stuff for today - tomorrow, it's mahogany woodstaining time for the stairs, perhaps some application of the self-adhesive vinyl surfaces to the kitchen units, and maybe, if I'm really lucky, managing to find the bloody cable to connect the phone to the lappie so I can post some of the pictures I've taken over the past week, so you can see how it's going.

(or Anne might comment, since she's here this weekend and is seeing it for herself!)

Hm, the home-mixed fabric/upholstery shampoo works well, but sadly the spray bottle doesn't, as I can't get a suitably fine mist out of it. However... As it turns out, thickening the mix and spreading it on with a sponge works way better anyhow. It includes a mix of soda crystals for grease-removal, some scent, and some antibacterial stuff too - clean and nice smelling.

Fuck the Rug Doctor, I'm the Rug Master!

Lesley, meanwhile, though impressed and shocked that when I said "I go from not bothered to nuke the site from orbit with no in-between", that I actually do mean the latter. I got a "fucking hel, you don't do things by halves, do you" out of her.

That said, she is perhaps less chuffed to discover than while she expected her Hand Of The Chair to be Ned Stark, she's got Tywin Lannister, who has relieved her of command, and mentioned to her "do not take my commands and statements of fact for requests or suggestions..."

(She also, having been clothes sorting tonight, wanted to have some ice cream as a treat, in the bedroom. And got told that we don't do that here. Well, actually she got told what we *do* eat in bed, but that's for a whole different thread...

Anne is here with the car, so we are taking the ripped-out carpet to the council tip, and then heading to Wickes (home and building supplies) for flooring stuff.

I need to stop putting "Day" whatever in the subject lines, don't I? Following the thread is what the bloody tags at the bottom are for...

Anyway, today's house stuff will consist of spending some time getting the old paint spots (from before we lived here) off the now bare-wood stairs, which can't be stained until they're off. Also, trying to re-mount the shower door now that (and I think I forgot to mention) the shower itself is fixed and working properly. Which makes my day a lot easier, as, while Lesley prefers baths to unwind, I prefer showers to wake up - and it's good to wash stuff *off* rather than sit in it, IMO, which is how it's been for a while.

And tomorrow Anne's coming, so there'll be tip trips to dump stuff.

Will also have to find a new toilet seat as the one we have is cracked (and the spare we have doesn't actually fit the fittings at the back, which is why it wasn't changed before). We're fancying one of those translucent ones with goldfish and seashell designs inside.

Meanwhile, Lesley has found rolls of sticky-backed wood-effect covering for kitchen cupboard doors on the internet (I think we're going a bit rustic here), and our friend Grouse has suggested that smooth surfaces should be cleaned with kitchen towel, which picks up dirt and grease a lot better than "proper" cloths and towels do (which actually just move it around and then can't be used for drying hands etc...). And it bloody works, too!

Oh, and yesterday I did manage to take some stuff to the charity shops as well, which I forgot to mention.

Hm, got a bit of a start when I noticed the pinkish red liquid filling the toilet bowl - before remembering that that's what the cistern block is *supposed* to do, with it being all geranium flowery stuff...

Oh, and was surprised to find on some of the now-bare stair boards, spots of pale pink paint from a previous colour scheme that a prior occupant must have been on before either Lesley or myself came here. So, may have to paint stairs rather than woodstain, unless I can get a really nice mahogany stain.

So, more "before" pictures taken, paint colour charts acquired, some kitchen tidying done, and laundry.

I had also grabbed some cistern blocks and upholstery shampoo, yay. Which Lesley immediately declared to be shit that she's allergic to and made me throw out. So, money wasted and upholstery not cleaned.

It turns out it's the limonene she's sensitive to. And the only upholstery shampoo (and carpet shampoo, but that's less of a problem, as the carpets are swapped) stuff sold in our local supermarket has that shit in it. This is a bit of a problem.

However... I didn't get those A grades in chemistry for nothing. I mean, people cleaned stuff before there was this modern shit, didn't they. It occurs to me that since soda crystals break up stains, and act as a foaming agent (and upholstery shampoo is generally foaming), it should be possible to mix my own, with a non-limonene/citrus fragrance element. White orchid or ylang ylang, maybe. So, that I'll do in the morning.

And yes! Lovely hardwood stairs - which means that fucking hideous beige uncleanable stain-magnet of a stair carpet is going to have an unfortunate accident *very* soon! In fact, pretty much as soon as I can take a "before" picture and get some dark wood-stain...

The cats will be disappointed that they don't have a stair carpet to get their claws into, but since they won't be able to piss on it either, fuck 'em.

Well, in the evening I did manage to get rid of a couple of binbags worth of part-empty bubble bath and makeup from the bathroom - well, originally from the bathroom, but which Lesley had brought down and stashed behind my chair in the living room the other day - and the trashed laundry basket and shopping bag they were all in.

I alse figure that I'm going to remove a set of kitchen carpet tiles and replace the lino, and find out if there's hardwood boards under the stair carpet, cos if there are, the carpet's coming off and dark woodstain going on.

Also have decided on new bedroom paint colour... It's helpful that there's a decorating shop at the end of our road! (Even though it's the logical place to put a pub instead.)