Jerry's renovation blog

[Marty_d]

Good negotiating Jerry!

[onetrack]

1 hour ago, Jerry_Atrick said:

She has thrown me an incentive - as soon as the house goes on the market, I can go flying again! Yippee! Booking in a medical for both CAA and CASA end of November.

Well! - there goes all the house money in quick smart time!! 😀

[facthunter]

Planes Boats and Farms.  Great ways to get rid of Money. Nev

[Jerry_Atrick]

Well, I didn't get as much done last weekend as I hoped as my back was out before I even started, but here are some photos:

 

 

12 yard skip - biggest you can get. 

 

Got a bit of junk in.

 

Heap of junk to go.. 

 

Hidden under it is a bunch of rubble

Another junk pile to go.

 

Will probably need a second skip :-(

 

Gotta fill the skip this weekend!

 

[old man emu]

8 hours ago, Jerry_Atrick said:

bunch of rubble

Oh my stars! Jerry has picked up a viral Americanism. Someone administer an OED, quickly!

[facthunter]

jerry Bin LADEN. Nev

[onetrack]

This thread has just gone into the skip bin.

[Jerry_Atrick]

Thanks, @red750

 

10 hours ago, old man emu said:

Oh my stars! Jerry has picked up a viral Americanism. Someone administer an OED, quickly!

Let me assure you, it was a momentarily lapse 😉

 

Not too much aluminum in that pile, thankfully.

 

[pmccarthy]

Aluminum?

[old man emu]

2 hours ago, Jerry_Atrick said:

Thanks, @red750

 

Let me assure you, it was a momentarily lapse 😉

 

Not too much aluminum in that pile, thankfully.

 

I see you've picked the eyes out of it.

[nomadpete]

2 hours ago, Jerry_Atrick said:

Thanks, @red750

 

Let me assure you, it was a momentarily lapse 😉

 

Not too much aluminum in that pile, thankfully.

 

Don't you mean 'Aloominum'?

[Jerry_Atrick]

They all have a loo in 'em

 

I am a bit buggered today. Problem with long office hours and age is the old body ain't (sooory @old man emu about the Amahericaaamism) what it used to be. and I have used muscles a) I haven't used for years; and b) didn't realise I still had. 

 

The skip is alomst full.. One pile is gone to the chagrin of worms and spiders, though the robins loved the pile going. The big pile of trash (sorry again, OME) is about 1/2 way done. I will fill the skip tomorrow - and yes, if there was more than one person, we may have got a little more in than I have.. though there isn't too much air in the skip). 

 

Tomorrow morning, walk the dog for his weekly 6 miler; finish filling the skip, then off to Cheltenham to look at a Honda CBF1000 which is on for next to nix to replace the car for the commute to London (which will mean no more missing the trains and waiting 1/2 hour). Yeah, I know the stator is an issue with them, but I have a cunning plan to make it last a little longer. Proper servicing!

 

Photos on Monday (your time) to show the difference. 

 

Oh forgot.. need to do the gutters, too.. F! that is a pain of a job.. 11 or so metres of carbon fibre tubing to suck the leaves from the gutters and blast the downpipes..

 

I think my next house will be in Cooper Pedy... no gutters to clean!

 

Edited November 8, 2025 by Jerry_Atrick

[old man emu]

2 hours ago, Jerry_Atrick said:

ain't trash

They ai't trash. They are good words of English heritage.

 

Ain't:

Originally a contraction of am not, and considered proper as such until in early 19c. it began to be also a generic contraction of are not, is not, has not, etc. This was popularized in representations of London cockney dialect in Dickens, etc., which led to the word being banished entirely from correct English.

 

Trash:

c. 1400, "fallen leaves, brush, and twigs used as kindling;" also "things of little use or value" collectively; "waste, refuse, dross; something broken or torn to bits, tattered garment;"

[pmccarthy]

So who is a trash talking skip tracer?

[facthunter]

It's COOBER Pedy also and bloody hot. That's why some live underground. It's all mullocky heaps from Opal Mining. Nev

[Jerry_Atrick]

It's been a while since I posted on here. Will take some pics and upload on the weekend. 

 

But, as usual. there's a spanner in the works.. Having a fuse box replaced to bring it up to spec in prep for the electricaal approval and the sparky noticed a small hole in the conduit leading dform the old one. At some stage, when a small fuse box was added, whoever did the job drilled through the conduit and two wires, which explains why the old smoke detectors were tripping all the time. 

 

It's a long story, but the replacement fusebox isn't now the right shape or something to replace the old one with (well, as he later found out, there were two - an add on board) and cover the gaping hole that will be required, so he is reconnecting the old boards back and going off to get another board.. further delay and of course the expense of thankfully only an two hours or so that need to be done that shouldn't needed to have been done. 

 

Oh, and we need a whole day rather than the couple of hours!

 

This certainly is the gift that keeps in giving.. to tradies. 

 

 

Edited April 21 by Jerry_Atrick

[old man emu]

Jerry, I've been watching some videos in YouTube. Really rivetting stuff - unclogging blocked sewage drains. What amazes me is that the drains come into manholes which just have half-pipe chanels in them. Don't you get a lot of smell from them? Also, in towns it seems that the sewage drains run across properties, picking up from each house as they flow towards the mains.

 

Also the houses seem to have water pipes running all over teh place from the hot water boilers. I understand that the hot water feeds through radiators in rooms, but with all that water to be heated, and then for it to lose its heat, what are heating costs like?

 

Finally, and a bit yucky, those drains always seem to be clogged with what the plumbers call "wipes". The look like handkerchief-sized cloth. Don't they have bum fodder that breaks up in the water as it goes down the pipes?

[nomadpete]

Get ya mind outa tha gutter, old mate.

You're above all this.

[facthunter]

If you don't get rid of $#!t you are in it.  Cities are full of it. Sunlight sanitises. Nev

[onetrack]

Quote

Sunlight sanitises

Well, that makes the U.K. a poor candidate for sewer waste breakdown.

[old man emu]

Just look at this sh!t show.

 

 

[facthunter]

You get a Royal Flush every time at the Palace. Nev

[randomx]

On 01/01/2023 at 9:32 AM, Jerry_Atrick said:

What really pisses me off, though, is that, after our stint in Melbourne, my partner really didn't want to live in Aus, however, shortly before we bought the #FARMHOUSE, my partner said "If we can't find something soon, we should look at moving back to Australia, as if I can be happy living here [in the South West of England], then I know I will be happy in Australia." Literally, 2 days later the #FARMHOUSE came up, we looked at it and then bought it! If I had of known she would be Margo (which, given she grew up in a rural village with her best mates being farmers not 10 miles away from here, I had no idea), I would have said, "Let's get the removalists to Aus in... we're off!".

 

 

Bit of an older post l know, just found the thread.

Had to laugh though yeppa, sounds like a woman, sorry ladies.

My ex did the exact same thing , only about 6mths later- oh no l would've liked living there we should've done that. Well that's just great, you wouldn't believe the alternative later we wound up in - all bc of her opposite words only 6mths earlier at the old cross road. 

 

 

 

[Jerry_Atrick]

Haven't updated this thread for a while. 

 

Most of the structural work has been done.

 

We are fixing up the pointing on the outside of the house as well as the cracks in the cement and stone casings and sis )one of which was letting a lot of water in). That was all done yesterday. In addition, we had to remove a cast iron downpipe that was spit at the read and in a corner so we didn't notice it until it was too late and damp impregnated the walls. Behind it was pointing that was more like syrup, so that had to be removed and repointed. We are waiting a new cast iron downpipe (Grade 2 listed houses - can't replace with decent looking plastic stuff). 

 

I think I mentioned on another thread, the day I arrived back in Aus while back at the office (as it is closer to Heathrow, has great showers, etc), I got a call from the partney requesting me to get the sparky in for a power cut. That ended up with a rewire of the whole basement at what turned out in the end to be £5K (or close enough). Ouch... 

 

On the interior, we have had the downstairs boot room and dunny done; the living room done (except for the bay, where the new plaster doesn't seem to have been mixed properly and is flaking away.. so waiting for the plasterers to come back and fix it). We actually did the living room in a hurry for Christmas, so it needs some tidying up, but is passable. Same with the formal dining room.. although the fire surround and mantelpiece turned out to be black marble that was painted over, so we are painstakingly removing the paint. You wouldn't read about it.  

 

The study is now done (bar painting the segment of the wall that is damp from the leaking downpipe - which we are waiting to dry and using a dehumidifier to help). So, I have moved my desk and slowly moving by home office in there. It is lovely and affords a nice view to the village. 

 

Although the kitchen was done long ago, there have been cracks in the plaster (expected) and there was some outstanding painting. That is being worked on at the same time. 

 

The basement hallway is painted, which was a pain as we had all new pipe encasement boxes. We have opened iup the downstairs utility room and save for putting curtains (I have no idea why SWMBO wants them rather than doors) on the long sink unit, only the tiling is required. 

 

I will get some time on the weekend and try and put together before and after pictures.. Not promising anything as have a lot on this weekend. We are starting the clear out.. The place is full of stuff we have accumulated over the years and don't need. There will be tip runs and facebook marketplace listings. We have decided to go brutal as neither are wanting to move into a big house anymore. They are lovely, but f! they are a lot of work and expensive. 

[facthunter]

A LOT to heat, cool and furnish. Blinds Curtains . It all adds up. Big Shed, Small House is the go. Sheds  have character if you do the right stuff in there. Nev