Letting me loose on any DIY task is always a risk! 😮 And recently was one of those (ahem!) ‘opportunities’ to demonstrate my talents (or lack of them!). Specifically, Ann’s new mini-greenhouse. It looked splendid in the pictures online, but like most things these days, it arrived (from those very nice people at Access Garden …
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Category:DIY
The IKEA Experience
As part of our regular dose of ‘retail therapy’, we headed over to IKEA in Bletchley today. Trish and Sean joined us, with a view to them getting some ideas for Sean’s new place in Burton Latimer – and maybe bag a bargain! I can’t remember the last time we shopped here, but judging by …
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Bank Holiday Weekend in Banstead
We travelled down to Banstead today to meet up with good friends Richard and Nicki. What made today different was that we decided to do it all by train (given the poor journey we had back last time by car!). Whether it’s a sign of getting a bit older, or simply the thought of the …
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Easter (2019)
This year, we spent most of Easter with Denis in Heckington. Good Friday We left home fairly early (8.15am) and there was hardly another car on the road. As a result, we made record time and arrived just before 9.45. We’ve got plans to catch-up with Bev too whilst we’re up here, but that’s tomorrow, …
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Lottie Time
It was a return visit to ‘Lottie the Lotus’ today to give Chris a hand in its rejuvenation. Specifically, the passenger side-door window was mis-behaving, and needed a very close inspection! We made excellent progress and by 2pm we’d even managed to strip the Driver’s door too. 😉👍 Steve PalmerI got into blogging quite late …
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Steve does DIY! (be afraid)
In our continuing process of slowly upgrading the House, today, one of last ‘originals’ from moving-in 20+ years ago – the side door to our Garage – got a makeover. Well, less of a ‘makeover’ and more like a complete replacement. Next job? An undercoat, then another undercoat, and then the top coat – to …
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Gardeners’ World
Today, we slipped into ‘gardening mode’ and headed off to our good friends Nicki and Richard who have just bought their first house together, in Banstead. We’re here until lunch-time on Sunday with a list as long as your arm of garden-stuff that need ‘sorting’. The specific target? Their back garden – a jungle of …
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Tech Alert (No. 877)
Warning: This Blog contains a serious amount of techy nerdiness, and (more scarily) me attempting some DIY. It’s not for the faint-hearted, so if you are easily shocked, please click HERE to exit! OK, so I’ve had my new whizzy Amp, sorry ‘AV Receiver’ for just about 12 months now, and recently re-cabled it all …
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DIY and Me! :)
DIY and I go together like Morecambe and Cream and Peaches & Wise!So, I deliberately stepped outside my comfort zone today and dropped in on my friend Chris. The plan was to lend a hand with his latest garden project. This required sawing, screwing, drilling, measuring and aligning – all the ingredients of a typical …
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Lounge Makeover (Part 1 of 9637)
And so it begins… The Lounge was the first room we decorated when we moved-in nearly 21 years ago, and although it’s worn well, it’s looking a bit drab, when compared to the other, more recently decorated parts of the house. Being us, simplicity and speediness didn’t come into it, and every square inch …
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Cordyline Corner
Thanks to Ann’s green fingers, our trellis-painting skills and some help from David to erect it into position, this corner of the garden that was looking a bit sorry for itself in recent months is now looking much more attractive! Ready!Steady!Go! Steve PalmerI got into blogging quite late in life, not publishing my first post …
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Dining Room
Out with the ‘Old’ Hot on the heels of the Kitchen makeover, is the Dining Room. The final addition – the furniture – was delivered today, and I can now say, we are free from any more makeovers (for at least a month or so!!) …and in with the New Steve PalmerI got into blogging …
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A Flaw in our Kitchen Plans
OK, do I get ‘pun’ of the year’? At last, the kitchen makeover is almost complete. The floor was completed yesterday and all we’re waiting for now, is the splashback behind the hob, and the swishy red window-sills. Steve PalmerI got into blogging quite late in life, not publishing my first post until 2004 – …
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Kitchens, Arks and Takeaways!
The Kitchen Makeover – Almost Finished We always knew today was going to be busy! It was the day we set aside for restocking the kitchen cupboards after emptying them last week in preparation for the kitchen makeover. In spite of the hard work by Anglia Interiors’s Grant, their kitchen installer, the job wasn’t quite …
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Let the Chaos Begin!
Sooooo last century! And so, this week sees the start of ‘kitchen chaos’ as it gets a well-deserved makeover. Stage 1 includes smashing the s*** out of all the tiling, together with the removal of two doors (to the dining room and utility room), to create an altogether more cleaner, more modern look. On Wednesday, …
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Table Mountain
After last week’s disappointing mission to locate and purchase a replacement dining room table and chairs, as well as look for ideas for the kitchen makeover – today could only be described as ‘mission accomplished’. We drove up to Downtown near Grantham, for a look round their furniture department, and discovered they had mountains of …
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The Perfect Equation!?
Phew! The perfect equation!? David + Me + 29 x 90 litre bags of Bark Chippings = Weed-free front garden and a happy Wife! Cheers for your help David! Steve PalmerI got into blogging quite late in life, not publishing my first post until 2004 – well into my 40s! My lifelong love of technology …
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Table Where?
Fabric Display at John Lewis MK – is it me, or do they look slightly creepy?It was a rather disappointing day today. We set off for MK in search of ideas for a replacement dining-room table and also to pick-up some ideas for colours for the planned refresh of the dining-room. First stop was the …
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HSL Project – Completed
The HSL (Hall, Stairs and Landing) Project is now completed, and here are some before and after photographs. The Old… Strip away! The New… Sorted! Steve PalmerI got into blogging quite late in life, not publishing my first post until 2004 – well into my 40s! My lifelong love of technology and communication …
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HSL Project – Friday
Fifteen rolls of wallpaper, more white paint than you can shake a brush at, plus 47 tea-bags later, Honor and Karen from Paint-Pals are 99% finished. Everything looks fab and once the radiators, lights and alarm panel are re-fitted next week, we’ll be totally sorted! Some ‘before’ and ‘after’ shots next week. Nice one ladies …
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HSL Project – Wednesday
Apart from Monday, where, due to my enthusiasm for getting all the ‘little’ pre-jobs sorted, I had decorators, electricians and plumbers literally tripping over each other, the re-decoration of the Hall, Stairs and Landing is back on track and going well. Honor and Karen from Paint Pals are doing a fab job with most of …
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HSL Project – Monday
This week sees the Hall, Stairs and Landing getting a major makeover. In order to ensure the most professional of results, I’m NOT going anywhere near the wallpaper, paint, electrics or plumbing – I tend to play to my strengths, so I’m looking after teas and coffees! Steve PalmerI got into blogging quite late in …
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Wallpaper sorted!
In what what seemed like a few gazillion hours searching the internet, and as a result, enough samples in the post to cripple the postman, we eventually tracked down what we’d been searching for: “Lucia Wallpaper in Gold with a Textured Vinyl finish” Wallpapering begins in a few weeks – a big job needing 18 …
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Job Done!
I wasn’t anticipating that after the difficulty of removing the cabinet front from the old fridge door a couple of days ago, that attaching it to the new fridge was going to be any easier! However, after some words of guidance from my brother, it all went very smoothly! The fitting kit was a doddle …
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Who Moved My Cheese? (Part 2)
As planned, the replacement fridge arrived today – and after yesterday’s fiasco (in Who Moved My Cheese? – Part 1) attempting to remove the cabinet door (that I needed to keep) from the fridge door (that I didn’t!), I was hoping that installing would be a far more straightforward job than removing! Probably the hardest …
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Who Moved My Cheese? (Part 1)
..but more to the point, who moved my fridge? As all good people-developers know, ‘Who Moved my Cheese? is the title of a very successful book & video by Spencer Johnson. It illustrates how to cope with change. Dealing with change seemed wholly relevant as I ventured into the murky world of ‘DIY’ – specifically, …
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Mirror, Mirror…
After lunching with David at Prezzo’s in town (courtesy of Mr Tesco’s vouchers!), we headed home where the task-of-the-day was to hang the new mirror for the converted bedroom. It was a heavy beast that required two us to position it so the supporting screws could be positioned .Job done! Steve PalmerI got into blogging …
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Kettering’s Smallest B and B?
And finally, with the bed arriving from Fenwick’s late last week, this was the first opportunity we’d had to get the ‘blue bedroom’ back to looking like.. well… a bedroom – it’s been the dumping ground for all sorts of c*** for what seems like months, whilst the office was being converted back to another …
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Steve and the Blind Man
Today was the day when Gary D from Notions came to fit the blinds to the windows in the office/bedroom conversion. Good timing really as we had Ralph and Karen staying tonight! Nice job Gary – thanks! Apart from a few bits and pieces for the ‘guest tray’, that’s the room all sorted! Steve PalmerI …
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From this to that
..and so, the old ‘office’ finally becomes a bedroom! Before Now Steve PalmerI got into blogging quite late in life, not publishing my first post until 2004 – well into my 40s! My lifelong love of technology and communication (in all its forms), together with a fondness for the art of writing seemed to be …
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