Weary
Well, the long slog towards renovating the house goes on. And none of it smoothly. We have to move in on Friday - just five short days away - and it's looking increasingly likely that there will be no hot water and no shower or bath installed by then.
Partly - well mostly if I'm being honest - this is my fault. I drew up a mightily ambitious list of things to do in a very short time, then set about destroying what was there with little thought for the consequences. Now, when I come to put things back together, nothing quite fits as it should.
Take this weekend past. I've managed to get a few things done, but one in particular has had me screaming with frustration. I've been trying, unsuccessfully, to move a radiator from one end of the kitchen/diner to the other. In terms of joining up pipework, this should not be difficult, as both flow and return circuits feed right past the new location. All I needed to do was cut those pipes in the right places and solder in new T-pieces to feed the radiator. Piece of cake.
Well, it took me nearly three hours to get the incredibly hard paint off the flow and return pipes before I could even cut them. I don't know what this paint was, but they should sell it to NASA for use on the space shuttle. Not only was it resistant to abrasion, but playing a blowtorch on it had no measurable effect either. It even seemed to stop the heat from reaching the copper pipe underneath.
But I persevered, mad bugger that I am. And finally the gleaming metal was revealed beneath.
Then I had to cut the pipes - not as easy as I had imagined, since they were too big for my special cutting tool. So another couple of hours with junior hacksaw. More sweat, and some skin I obviously didn't need removed from my knuckles.
Meantime, I was still waiting for the special oversize T-pieces to arrive from the nice man on the internet. They finally did, and I rushed to fit them - only to find that they were too small.
Not a lot too small. Not so much too small that I could kick myself for having ordered the wrong thing. No, these are micrometres too small. Seems the pipes are not standard 28mm, but some long-forgotten Imperial measurement that's almost the same, but not quite.
Cue screaming and much bad temper. What should have been, at most, a half day job, has so far taken the best part of a weekend. OK, I've been doing other stuff around it, but it remains unfinished, and unfinished I cannot fill the heating system to check for leaks. Unfinished I cannot get the man in to connect the gas and power flush the leak-checked system. Unfinished I've got no hot water and no central heating. Unfinished, I can't put the floorboards back down and start laying the new floor on top. Unfinished, I can't fill that room with any furniture when we move in on Friday.
Altogether....
AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!
If I've any hair left tomorrow, I'll tell you how much fun BT are having fucking me around.
Partly - well mostly if I'm being honest - this is my fault. I drew up a mightily ambitious list of things to do in a very short time, then set about destroying what was there with little thought for the consequences. Now, when I come to put things back together, nothing quite fits as it should.
Take this weekend past. I've managed to get a few things done, but one in particular has had me screaming with frustration. I've been trying, unsuccessfully, to move a radiator from one end of the kitchen/diner to the other. In terms of joining up pipework, this should not be difficult, as both flow and return circuits feed right past the new location. All I needed to do was cut those pipes in the right places and solder in new T-pieces to feed the radiator. Piece of cake.
Well, it took me nearly three hours to get the incredibly hard paint off the flow and return pipes before I could even cut them. I don't know what this paint was, but they should sell it to NASA for use on the space shuttle. Not only was it resistant to abrasion, but playing a blowtorch on it had no measurable effect either. It even seemed to stop the heat from reaching the copper pipe underneath.
But I persevered, mad bugger that I am. And finally the gleaming metal was revealed beneath.
Then I had to cut the pipes - not as easy as I had imagined, since they were too big for my special cutting tool. So another couple of hours with junior hacksaw. More sweat, and some skin I obviously didn't need removed from my knuckles.
Meantime, I was still waiting for the special oversize T-pieces to arrive from the nice man on the internet. They finally did, and I rushed to fit them - only to find that they were too small.
Not a lot too small. Not so much too small that I could kick myself for having ordered the wrong thing. No, these are micrometres too small. Seems the pipes are not standard 28mm, but some long-forgotten Imperial measurement that's almost the same, but not quite.
Cue screaming and much bad temper. What should have been, at most, a half day job, has so far taken the best part of a weekend. OK, I've been doing other stuff around it, but it remains unfinished, and unfinished I cannot fill the heating system to check for leaks. Unfinished I cannot get the man in to connect the gas and power flush the leak-checked system. Unfinished I've got no hot water and no central heating. Unfinished, I can't put the floorboards back down and start laying the new floor on top. Unfinished, I can't fill that room with any furniture when we move in on Friday.
Altogether....
AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!
If I've any hair left tomorrow, I'll tell you how much fun BT are having fucking me around.
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