Flat update

[andrewducker]

I had the plumber round last week to look at my radiators and solve my damp problem.  He told me that there wasn't anything wrong with the radiator, and that the problem was coming from somewhere else - but he didn't know where.

So I got in touch with my insurers who then put me through to their assessment company, who are sending me an expert to find out what the source of the problem is tomorrow.  If they will pay for it then that's me vastly happier.  Fingers crossed all round.

In the meantime, Julie and I spent Saturday going out to Seafield to look at tiles, then off to B&Q to look at showers, then to Ikea to look at sofa beds.  We found some amazing tiles - including some that were made of thing slices of slate, complete with embedded fossil plant shadows - but these wouldn't suit the bathroom at all, so we're going for cheap matt white ones.  And while we found a sofa bed we like, it's not going to work for the moment. 

We're currently sleeping in the study (where the sofa-bed will be) because the damp in the bedroom plays hell with Julie's asthma - and while the sofa bed will be fine for sleeping on for one person, or for a couple of nights, it's slimmer than the king-size mattress we're currently sleeping on, and we'd end up having to touch each other at night - a fate worse than death.  Still, once the damp is sorted we'll be able to get that sorted.

A victory of sorts has occurred with the bathroom - when we went to B&Q for a quote they said any bathroom would cost at least £4,500.  We now seem to have everything budgeted in/ordered for about £2,400.  And without actually cutting any corners!

Other than that the weekend was quite quiet - good time at bracknellexile's flatwarming, where I engaged in chat with pretty much everyone, and only took a dislike to one person :-> Sunday was spent nursing a pair of hangovers (Julie's was worse than mine), doing some tidying, watching the first season of Secret Diary of a Call Girl and then playing a bit of Peggle (belated birthday present from bracknellexile - I got him Braid, which Steam had on special offer over the weekend).

Tonight is the BSG board game, which I'm rather looking forward to. And then tomorrow I'm off work, helping Julie recruit first years for Mad! Science! experiments on their tasty, tasty brains.

Comments

[bracknellexile.livejournal.com]

And Braid is not only tempting me away from work on the teabreaks that suddenly end up being an hour long, but also messing with my head quite spectacularly. Thank you :)

[poisonduk.livejournal.com]

Ha well I have Andy to tempt me away from work so you can have Braid!! I might have to invest in braid - I've heard all sorts of good things about it.

[poisonduk.livejournal.com]

That sounds quite rude. I mean he pops up in my IM window and we throw little chatty comments at each other during the day. Tempt as in interesting chat, not tempt as in any other sense - for that I just type James Spader into Google images!!!

[andrewducker]

It's a pleasure. I played a couple of games of Peggle last night, and then Julie ended up taking it out of my hands and playing a game too...

[bracknellexile.livejournal.com]

It's a shame Peggle doesn't have head-to-head online really.

[poisonduk.livejournal.com]

Awww and there was I thinking you liked me! I LOVE peggle - completed it ages ago on PC and now have Kirsty hooked on it.

[bracknellexile.livejournal.com]

I got Andy the pack with Peggle Nights in too. If it's any good I may have to pick up the expansion for myself having finished pretty much every challenge in the original.

[a-pawson.livejournal.com]

The BSG boardgame is very good (unusual for a TV tie-in game) especially if you have 5 or more players.

[andrewducker]

Yeah - Simon, Mo and Erin have been playing it solidly for weeks now, and this is to be my first game. I'm scared :->

[marrog.livejournal.com]

I think we have Alex also which makes five, which is the perfect number.

Also, apostrophe fail!

[andrewducker]

I'm going blind - where?

[marrog.livejournal.com]

We'll try again, then - your insurer's what?

[andrewducker]

Well I wasn't looking at the post! I was looking at the comment you were replying to!!!

[marrog.livejournal.com]

WhatEV.

[terminalmalaise.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it really is a great game, and 5+ players is ideal. There is an expansion that just came out that adds even more to the fun (although at the cost of some additional complexity).

[channelpenguin.livejournal.com]

I did my entire bathroom for £900 in materials (including bigger bath :-) ). Labour was free or whatever price I ought to pu ton my time (and some of Steven's). It was a deliberate effort cos a workmate spent £900 on just the *taps* for his, and I was determined to rise to the challenge.

[andrewducker]

My parts (bath, toilet, basin, shower, taps, new floor) come to about the same as that. Then £440 for a tiler and £950 for plumber/joiner (and any extra materials they need). Which all seems pretty reasonable, as I understand it.

[channelpenguin.livejournal.com]

:-) I went for lino as the warmer option! Paying anyone else to do stuff never seems reasonable to me. Though tiling the walls was pretty boring....

[andrewducker]

Spending my time plastering has always seemed like a waste of my time - when I could be spending it doing something more fun instead!

[channelpenguin.livejournal.com]

Sometimes non-fun stuff needs done. I find it satisfying not to be dependent. And I suppose that doing things, rather than paying to have them done is what I grew up with. Life experience has taught me that the 'professionals' often do no better a jobn than I can. (though I do wish sometimes that were not true!)

[andrewducker]

Sometimes non-fun stuff needs done.
Yup - but preferably not by me. That's what my money is there for - to make my life more full of fun, and less full of not-fun.

I find it satisfying not to be dependent
I'm not dependent on plumbers - I _could_ do it myself. I'm perfectly happy to pay other people to write books for me, deliver post for me, take away rubbish for me, design CPUs for me, and occasionally install bathroom suites.

[a-pawson.livejournal.com]

You don't design all your own CPU's! Are you crazy?

[robhu.livejournal.com]

[Bad username or site: robhu' / @ livejournal.com] doesn't even write his own LJ comments - he pays me to do it.

[channelpenguin.livejournal.com]

Fair 'nuff.

Of course, this all only works because you enjoy your job. hmmm, you know, on balance, I'd rather tile than code (though I'd not want to tile for anyone else!). Of course I am doing neither right now :-).

Hmmm, I just seem to be not entirely comfortable swapping my labour for someone else's. Especially when it their labour cost more per hour than I earn (post tax). That seems somehow *wrong* when I can do what they do but they (generally) wouldn't have a hope in hell of doing what I do...

but that's all just my particular psychological peculiarities.... :-)

[andrewducker]

Absolutely - if the cost/benefit makes it worthwhile for you then go for it! And I'll happily drill holes in walls, etc. It's just plumbing and tiling that I don't want to fuck up, and don't feel confident to do right first time. The current bathroom needs redoing because the previous people did a mediocre job of it, and I'm not sufficiently sure that I wouldn't do things as badly.