Superheroes v. Pigeons

Summer is finally here and the cold dreary months at the house early this year seem a lifetime ago. My last post too for that matter...

Well, Paul and I both came down with a cold a couple of weeks ago which meant we had to skip working at the house for a weekend and we've also struggled a little to motivate ourselves to do much after that. But things are looking up and despite feeling that we have been taking it easy we are getting close to moving in time.

Weekend before last we had some more help from a friend: Brilliant Boiko and his roof-climbing skills & equipment. We needed to cap off our chimneys as rain was getting into them and soaking our fireplaces, not to mention the copious amounts of pigeon-shit getting splattered over our freshly painted walls! Grrr...

Paul and Boiko got up onto the roof - all safe and tied up with professional Abseiling gear - and fixed the problem. DIY Superheroes - One, Pigeons - Nil. ;)

We have also patched up the holes in the walls created when we (belatedly) decided to replace the door frames and have repainted them. The floor has been oiled - twice - and the kitchen and downstairs hallway have been painted with two undercoats.

But the real achievement is in having moved the toilet waste pipe into the corner and connecting it to the down pipe outside. This is a job we had been dreading and putting off, but once we got started it wasn't too difficult. So while we were at it we also moved the waste pipe for the sink to the inside, cutting a channel into the wall where it will be hidden behind tiles. Overall much better solutions and they certainly tidy up the outside of the house:

Once that job was done we were able to get on with installing the bathroom inside. So excited to see that going in, we can get a feel for the space now. We had some trouble with the wall fixing brackets of the toilet frame (the wrong ones were in the box) but Plumber Paul came up with the idea of making the existing ones fit  by simply removing the parts we didn't need. Having an entire workshop of metal working machines at your fingertips helps of course. :)

So the wall frame for the toilet was fixed in, and boxed in with plywood. Don't be fooled though, the toilet does not have a magnetic shield, not sure what the purpose of one would be either, it's just the spare plywood he picks up from work. Looks kinda cool though, eh?

All the plywood you can see below will be tiled over, as well as any parts of the wall that are unpainted. Tiles have been ordered and will arrive this week, so we can start that job soon after.

Lots of work coming up in the next few weeks... most excitingly our timber framed windows have been delivered and will be installed later on this week! Can't wait, feel like it will be giving the house new eyes.