Check out the photos! Yes, what you can see is a fridge, a dishwasher and a microwave in the kitchen! Woo hoo! No more paper plates! And yes, that is a tea towel which is as dirty as it looks, but no I am not using it as a tea towel!
It wasn’t actually the most productive day at all but I did get a lot of what I wanted done. I wasted a couple of hours going to B&Q because the road from the village was closed by the water company, which was ironic because I wanted to buy the bits to put my waste water back into their drains. This did mean that the normal ten minute trip each way was doubled.
I went in the morning and got some 40mm waste pipe and fittings to get the waste in place for the sink and dishwasher. I got home, after a top bacon and egg sarnie from the van outside B&Q, and cut the pipe into the lengths I needed to completely replace the waste system but then couldn’t get the push-fit fittings onto the pipe. It definitely said 40mm on the barcode on the pipe so I was really confused. I tried filing the pipe but it took ages and I wasn’t convinced that the fittings would be secure and watertight.
So back down to B&Q to get the compression fittings that would fit the pipe I had. I was in the aisle with the fittings when I looked up and saw two separate sections for pipes. There was one for solvent fittings and a different one for compression and push-fit but both were 40mm. So it turns out that there’re two different 40mm pipes. Well of course!
So having dumped the contents of my basket and picked up the other type of pipe I bought that and headed home. I got about halfway before realising that I did actually need one of the bits I had jettisoned to connect the u-trap to a straight piece of pipe. Aaargh! So I turned around and went back to get that piece before finally going home to fit the waste sections.
With the right piece of pipe the rest of the job was pretty easy. I also took the opportunity to fix the dodgy feed to the dishwasher that Colm had installed to get it running next to the wall and held securely with a couple of clips. I am so pleased with the neat plumbing job I have done that it seems a shame now to cover it up with the cupboard and dishwasher, but at least I’ll know it’s there. It’s the same with the electrical work I’ve done. It’s all really neat and fully compliant with regulations – no short-cuts at all – that it’s a shame that it will never be truly appreciated except by me.
After the plumbing, which took most of the day with the extended journeys to B&Q, I refitted the sink base unit for the last time and secured it to the wall and the adjacent cupboard unit. In the process I found a better way of securing the cabinets to the wall instead of the plasterboard fittings. If I use five inch screws I can drill into the breezeblock behind the plasterboard and screw into that with a wallplug. I may be old fashioned about this but I do trust a fitting that is screwed into something substantial more than a plasterboard fitting. This is good news for fitting the wall cabinets.
After all of this I was finally able to install the dishwasher, fridge and microwave in the kitchen. The fridge and microwave have been at the bottom of the stairs while the work has been going on and it has been weird going over there for them. I am happy that they are back in their rightful places, but that is nothing compared to the joy of having properly clean mugs and teaspoons! I just couldn’t get things properly clean washing them up in the bathroom basin. I’m sure that the cats are happier with clean bowls now too.
I didn’t get the wall cabinets made up but that is not such a bother now as the chaps aren’t coming over until Wednesday now to help me do the counters and wall cabinets. Tomorrow I will attempt to put up a wall cabinet or two but will retreat if it is an impossible job for one.
It probably wasn’t the most progress made in a day that I have had but I am pleased to be where I am at this point. It looks like I will have a functioning kitchen by the weekend. I had hoped to have the tiling done by the time I went back to work but it is very unlikely now. It will keep me off the streets for a weekend or so after though ;-)
It wasn’t actually the most productive day at all but I did get a lot of what I wanted done. I wasted a couple of hours going to B&Q because the road from the village was closed by the water company, which was ironic because I wanted to buy the bits to put my waste water back into their drains. This did mean that the normal ten minute trip each way was doubled.
I went in the morning and got some 40mm waste pipe and fittings to get the waste in place for the sink and dishwasher. I got home, after a top bacon and egg sarnie from the van outside B&Q, and cut the pipe into the lengths I needed to completely replace the waste system but then couldn’t get the push-fit fittings onto the pipe. It definitely said 40mm on the barcode on the pipe so I was really confused. I tried filing the pipe but it took ages and I wasn’t convinced that the fittings would be secure and watertight.
So back down to B&Q to get the compression fittings that would fit the pipe I had. I was in the aisle with the fittings when I looked up and saw two separate sections for pipes. There was one for solvent fittings and a different one for compression and push-fit but both were 40mm. So it turns out that there’re two different 40mm pipes. Well of course!
So having dumped the contents of my basket and picked up the other type of pipe I bought that and headed home. I got about halfway before realising that I did actually need one of the bits I had jettisoned to connect the u-trap to a straight piece of pipe. Aaargh! So I turned around and went back to get that piece before finally going home to fit the waste sections.
With the right piece of pipe the rest of the job was pretty easy. I also took the opportunity to fix the dodgy feed to the dishwasher that Colm had installed to get it running next to the wall and held securely with a couple of clips. I am so pleased with the neat plumbing job I have done that it seems a shame now to cover it up with the cupboard and dishwasher, but at least I’ll know it’s there. It’s the same with the electrical work I’ve done. It’s all really neat and fully compliant with regulations – no short-cuts at all – that it’s a shame that it will never be truly appreciated except by me.
After the plumbing, which took most of the day with the extended journeys to B&Q, I refitted the sink base unit for the last time and secured it to the wall and the adjacent cupboard unit. In the process I found a better way of securing the cabinets to the wall instead of the plasterboard fittings. If I use five inch screws I can drill into the breezeblock behind the plasterboard and screw into that with a wallplug. I may be old fashioned about this but I do trust a fitting that is screwed into something substantial more than a plasterboard fitting. This is good news for fitting the wall cabinets.
After all of this I was finally able to install the dishwasher, fridge and microwave in the kitchen. The fridge and microwave have been at the bottom of the stairs while the work has been going on and it has been weird going over there for them. I am happy that they are back in their rightful places, but that is nothing compared to the joy of having properly clean mugs and teaspoons! I just couldn’t get things properly clean washing them up in the bathroom basin. I’m sure that the cats are happier with clean bowls now too.
I didn’t get the wall cabinets made up but that is not such a bother now as the chaps aren’t coming over until Wednesday now to help me do the counters and wall cabinets. Tomorrow I will attempt to put up a wall cabinet or two but will retreat if it is an impossible job for one.
It probably wasn’t the most progress made in a day that I have had but I am pleased to be where I am at this point. It looks like I will have a functioning kitchen by the weekend. I had hoped to have the tiling done by the time I went back to work but it is very unlikely now. It will keep me off the streets for a weekend or so after though ;-)
