What "man jobs" have you done today?
- Thread starter jaybee
- Start date
its taken today and yesterday but...
when we moved house 4 month ago the "drive way" was best described as a bit of waste ground at the side of the house.. the decorating and getting the house fixed up as taken priority over the garden. the only thing I did was pulled the hedge out between me and the neighbor. so with all the rain that's fell the "drive" had turned into a marsh and was bordering on being dangerous. so the boy's went back to school and nursery yesterday so it was time something got done..
1 mini digger to the rescue.. 15 tons of muck has been removed and then a weed barrier was put down and a layer of gravel then about 10 ton of type 1 was put down.. its still work in progress. plan is to get a fence up between us and the neighbor. finish the edge between the drive and the path rebuild the retaining wall between the drive and path then decide what's going on top.. but its now a hard surface!!
before
after
used the wife's mop bucket to throw water on the path for cleaning up..
before
after
as I say.. still unfinished but its an improvement on what it was..
and yes... for the eagle eyed.. we did pull out the large bushes up the back of the neighbors garden for her while we had the mini digger there.. but then she was kind enough to let me park my Audi in her drive..
when we moved house 4 month ago the "drive way" was best described as a bit of waste ground at the side of the house.. the decorating and getting the house fixed up as taken priority over the garden. the only thing I did was pulled the hedge out between me and the neighbor. so with all the rain that's fell the "drive" had turned into a marsh and was bordering on being dangerous. so the boy's went back to school and nursery yesterday so it was time something got done..
1 mini digger to the rescue.. 15 tons of muck has been removed and then a weed barrier was put down and a layer of gravel then about 10 ton of type 1 was put down.. its still work in progress. plan is to get a fence up between us and the neighbor. finish the edge between the drive and the path rebuild the retaining wall between the drive and path then decide what's going on top.. but its now a hard surface!!
before
after
used the wife's mop bucket to throw water on the path for cleaning up..
before
after
as I say.. still unfinished but its an improvement on what it was..
and yes... for the eagle eyed.. we did pull out the large bushes up the back of the neighbors garden for her while we had the mini digger there.. but then she was kind enough to let me park my Audi in her drive..
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Caporegime
- Joined
- 13 May 2003
- Posts
- 34,520
- Location
- Warwickshire
Having difficulty working out why the fact that it's an Audi is relevant 
. Or is it that Audi drivers are normally such knobs that she went above and beyond by letting you park on her drive 
.
. Or is it that Audi drivers are normally such knobs that she went above and beyond by letting you park on her drive .the one on the right^ Having difficulty working out which house the drive belongs to, left or right?
main reason I said Audi was we have 2 car's the other being a seat leon.Having difficulty working out why the fact that it's an Audi is relevant
also really no need to brag about my Audi.. its the oldest car in the street..
its an old 1997 A4 avant. but its diesel and 4 wheel drive.. it does everything I want it to do and gets me in and out of the village in the bad weather..
and I can throw my tools in the boot or the wee mans dirt bike on the trailer his bike gear in the back and him once he's covered in mud after a fun day out.. and I dont need worry about it.
no our rear garden is a lot smaller than the next door neighbors as we sit on the corner. the hedge I pulled out when we got the house looked as if it had been there for many of years. I also found the original concrete fence posts where the hedge was so it looks to be the original border.Be be honest I think that "drive" was infact a garden and was shared between both houses with a fence down the middle originally. Someone has come along in the past and claimed it all as a makeshift car park.
looking on google streetview you can see the hedge. when we moved in it was badly overgrown and the drive had no red chips.
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I managed to put a nail through a central heating pipe if that counts as a man job? Feel like a right idiot as I'd checked all the other floorboards I'd put down, just didn't check this one properly and there was already a nail hole through it so I just banged another one through. At least it was a fairly simple fix.
Associate
- Joined
- 12 Jan 2009
- Posts
- 2,331
- Location
- Staffs
Replaced an old light switch yesterday that had just started buzzing. Glad I heard it during daylight. 
Cleared out the garage which included moving a home multi-gym, treadmill and workbench as well as six car loads to the tip and one to the charity shop
went from
to
Also managed to squeeze a 5 foot freezer in the back of an A5 - much to the amazement of the chap working at the tip
went from
to
Also managed to squeeze a 5 foot freezer in the back of an A5 - much to the amazement of the chap working at the tip
Soldato
- Joined
- 13 May 2003
- Posts
- 8,989
Well on Saturday and Sunday the not Father in Law and I installed a loft hatch and ladder. Today I started to fit some loftzone loft legs for storage. Should finish stage 1 tomorrow or Thursday.
Soldato
- Joined
- 10 Mar 2009
- Posts
- 4,473
- Location
- South West
Know how you feel, 13oC in the bedroom last night, 11 in study.
Seems it's the diverter valve - I have less than no idea about boilers but I'm fedup spending hundreds on ripoff traders in my area.
Soldato
- Joined
- 13 May 2003
- Posts
- 8,989
OK so it took me 3 days of 1.5 hours to install a 2.4m by 2.4 m loftzone pack and chipboard loft boards as well as install the insulation under it. I'm really quite happy with it, it feels pretty robust. So that should be enough area for us to store what we need.
I'm going to put down some Wickes loft legs and loft boards to cover a few awkward areas around the loft hatch next to the loftzone flooring and improve the insulation there and then box the edges in with a bit of MDF.
We have a large loft and stage 2 is to put down some walways from one end of the loft to the other for access, intending to use a layer of MDF onto the rafters (400mm separation 3" by 2") in the direction the run. Then 2 layers of 50mm polystrene insulation then MDF again. That should be strong enough to walk on without being too heavy I hope. Then I have to remove some old dirty insulation and replace it (nice). Then I'm going to top up further as I have 150mm depth insulation at best. Penultimately I'm going to cover the insulation in paper to help keep it clean, ours is a very old house so the loft space gets bats. Finally I'm going to use scafold netting to barrier off the areas where I have flooring to stop the bats getting in there.
So I've made a big start but still a lot to do.
Did the manly thing and put my hand in my pocket and paid a tiler to do the splashbacks in the kitchen:
From this (pic taken before we moved in over a year a go):
To this:
Things to do for the kitchen:
From this (pic taken before we moved in over a year a go):
To this:
Things to do for the kitchen:
- Get decorator in to paint the walls, add a feature wall and re-do the gloss work.
- Sort some blinds to be made for the windows and for me to put the curtains up on the French doors.
- Get a new American Style F/F with flat faced front doors to add a more sleek look.
- Change all sockets and switches to shiny chrome to match the light fittings and door handles.
