Had some fun and games working in the loft in preparation for moving the combi-boiler. The first task was to bring the central heating, hot and cold feeds up into the loft so they can be connected up when Andy the plumber physically moves the boiler from the kitchen up here. It’s the first time I’ve actually soldered plumbing work (let’s hope it doesn’t leak!) and seemed to go reasonably well. I say that because I actually avoided setting fire to anything else in the vicinity…… The trick seems to be using flux on the joint and then getting it hot enough for the lead free solder to melt into the joint.

The only other job was to use an angle grinder to cut a path for the pipes over to the wall to where the boiler will be mounted when it’s moved. The next big job is to get gas up here which travel via outside pipes rather than inside. That should be interesting to do and will obviously be certified by a fully qualified plumber before going into use as will the rest of my handy work!

On Monday I got round to doing some work in the loft as I had a day off in lieu from my day job. The aim for the loft project was to board the entire loft and insulate the tunnel which provides light into the bathroom via the Velux window in the roof. The Velux got fitted on the 10th November by G & N roofing who did a good job despite the weather outside. Still, a good supply of tea helps to keep spirits high…….anyway back to the loft. Once the roof light tunnel was insulated I moved into some re-wiring which involved moving the light switch from the old loft access hatch to the new one + fitting an additional florescent tube light. That actually took me an entire two days during a previous weekend but at least I can see a little better up there. With that complete, I was then able to get some loft boards from Wickes and spend some time slotting them together over the rafters to form a decent platform. The idea is to provide some additional insulation, some storage space and a platform to finish the firewall ( I didn’t fancy balancing on the rafters whilst bricklaying…). So, a day later and 200 odd screws (to secure the boards) I finished. I just need to complete the other half and do some bricklaying to completely finish the job. Let’s hope I find some time……

Had some spare time to finally take down the shed that’s been sitting in the yard for while! Actually it was quite easy as most of the wood was rotten. The most difficult and tiring thing was moving all the rubble to the front garden before making a total of three trips to the tip to complete the mission. I then spent the rest of the afternoon watching rugby and potting the vast number of plants Phoebe has deposited in the back yard.

Finally got round to taking the doors off upstairs and got them stripped at Guildford Door Stripping. Managed to drop them off the day before and then pick them up at Lunch whilst I was unfortunately working the weekend. Still, they certainly do make a difference once back in place! It’s worth remembering that they charge £25 per door to strip and only strip on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. They can do it in one day but you need to get the door(s) to them before 9am if you want to pick them up for around 430pm. Highly recommend getting someone to strip doors or anything else otherwise it’s a very long process using paint stripper and scrappers…….