What "man jobs" have you done today?

Squid Vicious · 11 Dec 2018 at 14:31

Just replaced 2-way lighting switches (dimmer and a toggle switch) in the living room as the dimmer was dying - with a couple of momentary switches and wired in a Fibaro Dimmer 2.

Now all connected up with a Smartthings hub and setup to work with Alexa.

Martynt74 · 11 Dec 2018 at 15:04

How big are those Fibaro dimmers? How do you find the space in the wall to hide them?

Want to make my switches smart and looking at options.

Sui · 11 Dec 2018 at 15:08

Fit an integrated dishwasher on Saturday, end result looks pretty good but was a bit of a faff!

Next up is trying to locate the external stop-**** because the internal one has a slight dripping issue

Squid Vicious · 11 Dec 2018 at 15:22

Marvt74 said:
How big are those Fibaro dimmers? How do you find the space in the wall to hide them?

Want to make my switches smart and looking at options.

They're small enough to fit in a 1 gang back box - think mine were about 35mm deep and added a 10mm spacer on the front and managed to squeeze everything in without to much trouble.

Dimensions of the dimmer (L x W x Depth)‎: ‎42.5 x 38.25 x 20.3 - note that it's only 20.3 at it's deepest - and that's down one edge which gives a little more flexibility when installing it.

Image below gives you a better idea of the size.

Martynt74 · 11 Dec 2018 at 15:48

Cheers, might try them out. Have also been looking at the Lightwave RF stuff.

adwol48 · 19 Dec 2018 at 13:12

well after ripping up the conservatory floor relaying 22mm flooring and ensuring a good expansion gap the floor is complete today just gotta move all the kids stuff back in as we use it as there playroom. the project didnt come at a good time just before Christmas but it need doing asap. oh and also i need to practice skirting board my joints are awful but good enough for now just to get the room back

paintguy · 20 Dec 2018 at 12:17

Rearranged the furniture in my sons room and built him a desk for schoolwork/laptop/lego building.

Started with a simple frame slightly smaller than the desktop. This will allow the top to overlap around 30mm all round to echo the other furniture in his room.

The front to rear rails won't really bear much weight so didn't bother with fancy joinery/ half laps, just glued and screwed them together then fixed it to the wall, propping it up temporarily with the bargain £2.50 Ikea adjustable legs. And no, it isn't resting on the radiator, it just looks that way in the pics.

Added some extra framework where the legs will fix to. The desk offcut on the floor that's making up the height then got screwed to the underside of the frame (didn't get a picture of that)

The frame was painted to match his existing stuff then a piece of timberboard was used as the top itself, protected with 3 coats of satin varnish.

Just waiting for some desk grommets to come now so I can bore out some holes for cables to pass through.

The TV is above part of the desk and I'll be using a timberboard offcut as a shelf between it and the desk to house his consoles. Will probably run some trunking to keep things tidy.

Simon · 20 Dec 2018 at 12:45

Could put a hole in the table for the radiator heat to escape and a grill on top?

planty · 20 Dec 2018 at 13:41

Simon said:
Could put a hole in the table for the radiator heat to escape and a grill on top?

This was my thought too, you don't want all that heat just going straight into the worktop.
Looks good though, sure your boy will be thrilled.

paintguy · 20 Dec 2018 at 14:43

That's one of the reasons I'm waiting for the cable grommets.

Will put plenty in above the radiator and if heat build up causes a problem I can simply remove the centres and leave some decent sized holes for it to escape.

I can't imagine it will be as the TRV is turned down really low as that's always the warmest room in the house, but I've planned for it just in case

paintguy · 22 Dec 2018 at 15:49

And done.

I've got a couple more of the desk grommets that I can add in the future if I need to but it seems fine as it is. Plenty of open space around the desk for air to circulate.

I'd have painted the shelf brackets blue to blend them into the wall, but my lad wanted to keep them white to match the desk legs.

Loads of room for him to work now, and space for further expansion as he's hoping to get a PC in the near future. He's currently got some clothes on the wardrobe shelves but they'll be swapped for his games / schoolwork / general desk rubbish soon enough.

Terminal_Boy · 22 Dec 2018 at 15:56

Replaced 2 lighting pendants with non-****** ones, run an extension lead for the chest freezer, shifted various boxes of stuff in and out of the attic and stacked (badly) 2 steer of firewood.

Squid Vicious · 27 Dec 2018 at 15:31

Replaced the filter holder gasket on my gaggia classic as it had perished and was leaking - also switched the steam wand for the rancilio silvia steam wand for improved frothy milk

OLDPHART · 27 Dec 2018 at 15:37

Hoovered and polished.

alexakasloth · 27 Dec 2018 at 17:47

Fitted some matching shelves for the desk. I've left space to the right for when I get around to fitting shutters (concertina shaker panel style).

Starting on a bay window seat tomorrow.

adwol48 · 28 Dec 2018 at 03:07

installed a Geo minim led energy monitor, dont currently have a smart meter at this address but i kinda missed my IHD from my old house so bought this as a replacement so i can try to monitor the usage a bit better

Squid Vicious · 28 Dec 2018 at 14:28

Peeled and pickled about 2kg of shallots... yummy

Squid Vicious · 28 Dec 2018 at 16:12

And followed up with replacing a toilet seat.. what a busy couple of days!

Rilot · 30 Dec 2018 at 15:55

Reet! Over Christmas I have done the following:

Put Amazon Echos in every room
Fitted Ikea smart bulbs in every room apart from the kitchen
Put motion detectors in the hall and the landing to trigger the lights in those rooms
Fitted a smart wall switch for the kitchen lights (I have a neutral in my light switches. Yay!)
Fitted LED under lighting for the kitchen cupboards that is triggered with an IFTTT routine from the wall switch
Fitted a smart switch for the extractor fan in the kitchen. Also triggered with an IFTTT routine
Fitted a Ring Doorbell
Sorted out a Logitech Harmony hub setup for the living room and integrated it with Alexa
Fitted a smart socket in the shed connected to an oil heater and the Echo in there (Alexa, warm the shed up)
Built a cabinet for my 3D printer and wired it up with a smart switch, a Raspberry Pi running Octoprint, and a camera

Participant · 30 Dec 2018 at 16:16

Belt-sanded hallway floor, pending two coats of Osmo Polyx semi matt when it arrives next week.

Before / during:

After passes with 40, 60, 80, and 120 grit with the belt sander and by hand at edges and corners:

It had a nasty shiny varnish type thing on it, which I'm glad to see the back of.