and today i have mostly been...

[steve_earwig]

Epic shedpics! Imgurrr seems to have thrown a wobbly with my uploads and scrambled them, so apologies if I cock this up...

Front door lintel thingy on acros /Stinky disapproves). Miloš had to get that straight and then move the wall beams up, one at a time, and nail them in place.

Chiselling out the rhs


My bro was out here for a week, did he want to go sightseeing? Hell no, he wanted to play with my shd

This was when Miloš was removing the boards at the back, he had to take 2 out. I was standing by with a baseball bat but we didn't hear anything from the next door retards.

My bro discussing bracing with Miloš

My bro has no Croatian and Miloš has no English, surprisingly communication wasn't really a problem...

In she goes!

Yes, my trousers are indeed falling down (knackered old jogging bottoms with no elastic will do that for you). It0s not like I can do anything about it...

Even the base of the wall between the two rooms wasn't spared Miloš' chainsaw






On to the main room floor (again a layer of sand, felt, plastic and mesh)

Miloš' general method seems to be to make level piers


I wonder if he was one of those kids who like splashing about in mud...

fill in between them


and then level it out


On the right now






Getting to the doorway


I didn't get a money shot as, while I was off cleaning tools, Miloš covered it all in polythene to keep the animals out


but this is what it looks like now


My bro had gone home by than so it was just me and Miloš. 55 cement mixer loads, 55 wheelbarrows. I think if I'd known how much I would've called in sick...

Miloš has come up with a window for the pig sty, it's a bit battered buy won't look out of place. This is where it'll go

It's much nicer in there with a proper window.

Just now the pig sty is a bit of a... oh

That's the window at the back, which I've stripped, fixed and stained

Much as it is now
although I've done a bit of tidying since.

Coming up: I tried fitting the window but I had to chisel some bricks and the wall just started disintigrating, so I'll probably wait for Miloš to do that. He's comeing back anyway to help me with the door. I guess anything else will depent on the weather and how busy he is. I also have to make the main double doors for the big room. Miloš' suggestion is to use t&g on the back, with the curved stuff like upstairs on the front. Not sure how strong that'll be but it should do the job. I just need to get my finger out and buy some!

[Welly]

Nice update!

Why did you have to shutter off and pour such a large plinth across the bottom like that (at the back).

[steve_earwig]

'cos that's how far up the rot went. I think the plan was to replace the lot with blocks but when Miloš got out the back it wasn't as bad as he expected. I dunno, I think I would've preferred that as I'll never be able to get to it again

[Welly]

In a slightly related topic....

How much money do you reckon a Bricklayer in the UK can earn right now per month?

Between £6K to £10K per month

[steve_earwig]

Is that one of those jobs where it can't be done all year so you need to do more when you can? Seems rather excessive to me anyway.

I've kind of been neglecting this thread, I keep forgetting to take pictures of what I'm doing but...

I made a pair of doors.

Make frame for the doors


Using 14cm x 18mm t&g, back half horizontal, tacked to the frame


Front half, vertical




Add hinges


Lever off of frame uprights, et viola


Job's a good 'un


I still need to fit locks, I spent a couple of days searching for some "wine cellar" locks. I finally managed to find some, got them home and... found they only work on doors that open inwards and I've lost the sodding receipt . Ah well, only 9 quid a pop and I'm sure they'll get used, erm, eventually. I was hoping to fit locks that didn't involve making big holes in the doors but I guess I'll just have to bite the bullet. I've already fitted one to the other door and, for the first time in at least 57 years, it can be slammed shut. Woo.

The weather was pretty horrible while I was making the doors, somewhere between fog and drizzle, I also ended up doing most of it in the dark, owning to all the other stuff I had to do. Amongst which was my revisit to the haematologist. Yes, the results are in and... well I'm not at death's door anyway, which is a relief, but she's still concerned about something. no idea what though as it's all Latin to me.

On the way back from the hostable the yoyo through a wobbly on the motorway. Literally, vibrations coming through everywhere like driving over an unsurfaced road. Shaking the steering didn't change it, neither did applying the brakes, however I could feel a lot coming through the handbrake lever and I had noticed one of the rear disks getting hot earlier while I was playing "hunt the parking space". Anyway, pull over to check car, nothing falling off. Start going again, more vibes, pull over for a more detailed check, can't see a thing. So I drive slowly to the next exit and took it straight to the garage. Krešo there took it for a test drive but couldn't find a thing either, but he did note the tyres were pretty knackered. Well, I did know as I have these winters already to go on. Booked in the next day to swap them and while you're there, could you check the handbrakes and see why the brakes are so crap?

The new brakes went on yesterday and I think we got to the root of the bad vibes: the handbrake cables were knackered. where the cables go through the backplates they go through an aluminium bracket that's part of the outer, both sides had corroded and broken, taking the sheath off the inners and jamming the cables. Another triumph of modern automotive design!

[Doggy]

Impressive doors, I approves.
Good to hear the medical stuff went not too badly.
Sounds like a result on the back brakes too.

Get yourself a lottery ticket?

[Ural4320]

Today, I'll mostly be ... preparing a trip! I'm moving to the UK because of work next year, and I'm planning a little "recon" trip around Cardiff beforehand, which will be a winter holiday trip with my wife and children at the same time.

[steve_earwig]

And back down to six cats This morning we lost Frankie. He'd been poorly for a couple of weeks with this bladder infection but Saturday night he started vomiting, Sunday morning to the vet's for more antibiotics and anti-emetics. He just wouldn't eat though, seemed to want to avoid us and hide somewhere quiet. Then this morning he seemed to be fighting for breath so I rushed him to the vet's. It's only 5 minutes away but sadly he died on the way.

I'm quite upset as he was only about 6 months old and was shaping up to be a nice little feller. Seems while he was fighting off this bladder infection he picked up panleukopenia, which is a highly contagious and very nasty disease. I wasn't even allowed to bury his body, he must be cremated.

It's one of those diseases he should have been vaccinated against but cat vaccines seem to be hard to get hold of here and we've largely got away with it up until now. We'll have to keep a close eye on our other young-ish cats, Pickle and Bean for 2 weeks and if they don't show any symptoms they'll be vaccinated. I really hope they don't, I'm hoping Bean is too old and Pickle seems pretty robust. I've washed pretty much everything Frankie has touched with antibacterial cleaner and now I guess I better keep my fingers crossed. And I will be sorting out vaccinations, even if I have to get them shipped here.

Lessons learned: If a cat pees on furniture they might not just be complaining about you not clearing the litter tray regularly enough (7 cats!) - straight to the vet's. Just because a cat refuses to eat the special diet recommended for them they might not just be being fussy - straight to the vet's. And it's probably not a good idea to watch your pet's autopsy, unless you really, really want to know what killed them in case it's something about which you need to act quickly to stop it spreading.

[Doggy]

Sorry to hear about Frankie, not a cat person but I can't forget the upset of losing all our cavaliers over the space of a few years and feel your pain.
Best of luck with the others.

[Bailes1992]

Thought I'd check in after not being about for 5 months.

Sorry to hear about the cat Steve, I'm not a cat person but it's surprising how attached you get to them.

We've had two for 5 years but unfortunately it's been becoming increasingly obvious our little guy is allergic to them. They've gone to our local Cats Protection charity to be rehomed. Few tears shed as we dropped them off Saturday.

On a gooder news note... I has new car! Got sick of my poverty spec Focus company car, especially on cold mornings.

After 3 MK3 Focuses/Foci, despite having one very problematic one I decided I loved how the handled and wasn't sure what else I could purchase.

So, I purchased a MK3 Focus in a pretty dress. 8 month old, 8,000mile ex-rental 2018 Volvo V40 D3 Geartronic Inscription. And, it's very nice. Gearbox isn't a patch on the ZF 8 speeder fitted to my Fathers BMW, in drive it has a habit of labouring the engine a bit much for my liking. Also at slow speeds it slips a lot and operates like a CVT where it maintains 1800-2000rpm when your accelerating and changes gear with no change in RPM. Was a bit worrying at first but driven another and been told by a tech that it's what they're designed to do. But it's got full leather and heating everything and it a much better car to get into on a cold morning.

[Welly]

Absolutely the right thing to do, I won't rest until everyone on here is driving Volvo's it's just the law and that's that

Very sorry news about the cat steve must've been a difficult trip to the vets I've got 2 cats and they're great fun in their own unique ways, they're pampered right down to the outdoor insulated and heated shed

[steve_earwig]

Thanks guys, I'm feeling my more philosophical about it today. I'm not sure about a difficult trip to the vet's, more like I was driving how everyone else here drives - "get out of my way or I'll ram you!" I've just come back from there again, I've been a-buying worming pills and flea ampoules, and there was a cat there on a drip: panleukopia again. Big fully grown tom though, hopefully he's in with a chance.

Hey, I remember you building your cat house but I don't remember heating - boy they is spoilt! I also built a cat house, it was only insulated though. Not that any of them have ever been in it Oh no, why go in a box outside when you can loll about on a warm bed all day?

[mjb]

I had to part ways with my 15 year old Ben recently. He's been really depressed the last couple of years - new house, lost his brother and sister, scared of the dog, utterly petrified of the kid... We took him to my parents' late summer to look after while we went to Germany for a bit, and when we came back it was obvious how much he enjoyed being at my parent's, and it was obvious how much mom and dad took to him, so I left him there. He was so much more relaxed, confident and happy. Someone had a bag of chopped onions in the car for the trip back.

Got to say the interior of the newer Volvos looks a heck of a lot better than they did a while back. The pricing of them's ludicrous though, especially with bigger engines. If you had £80,000 to spend on a car, would it be on a 300hp Volvo which'll be worth £1500 in a few years, or something like an AMG C63S, or BMW M5 - both of which throw around twice the power and will hold a lot of their value?

[Bailes1992]

If I went and bought my very V40 brand new I would be shelling out £32,000. At 8 months old with 8k on the clock I paid £16,000.

[steve_earwig]

No news is good news on the cat front, although Pickle doesn't seem to be eating as much as she usually does so I'm keeping my eye on her for early signs of diarrhoea ("Why do you keep looking at my bottom daddy?") and depression. Currently she's sitting on my lap clawing my arm...

Shed-wise, it looks like this now:


I managed to find a warm-ish day to paint the door, it still took 3 days to dry and is a bit streaky, but I figure crap paint is better than no paint at all. Miloš has also rendered the crappy brickwork. I also brought my stove here. I did think it would be a matter of sticking a pipe through the wall, Bob's your uncle, but Miloš said to take a pipe out, up the wall and end it above the roof. There are 2 sorts of dimovod ("smoke channels") here, enamalled thin tin and heavier tubes and I thought just to use the thin stuff - "that's not meant for outdoor use". Ok, I'll use the thick stuff. By christ that's pricey! What do the hangers look like? "They don't make hangers, they're not meant to be used like that." Then what on earth are they for?? So I went back to Miloš and asked him what exactly he meant. Thick stuff, out far enough to clear the roof then straight up, make your own hangers.

So that's what I did:


The bottom hanger (the one that takes all the weight) features a 406 rear silencer hanger and a galvanised lump of U channel I found on the side of the road one day - "that looks useful."

Let's get some heat into this berg!


Apparently the stove is rated for 6Kw, it's been going all day but it's a big draughty space to heat so not really warm enough to work in there yet. It will be drying out the timber though, and once the ceiling's done it'll stand a much better chance of just heating the pig sty.