House

It’s the final kitchen! (Well, more or less…)

I guess I can get someone in to fit the kitchen cupboards but… that’s just… not my style.

So I’m speaking to Lansdowne Boards, they can custom-make stuff, which is what I need, because of my, let’s say, unique requirements.

For example, the zink wash basin counter must be 1m high, but only 520-ish deep. The prep counter must be 1m high too. The stove lives at a standard 900 height. And because of the stove size & location (three dominos, remember), the prep counter must be 400 deep, not the standard 600. But the dishwasher has to go at the end of the prep counter, and that’s 600 deep, so the countertop has to be stepped in some way.

So I made an appointment with the fellow at Lansdowne Boards, to CAD up the kitchen. This costs R399+VAT for the first hour, but it’s worth it if you don’t know what you’re doing, like YT.

And then I spent parts of the weekend pasting little cutout shapes representing kitchen units onto a grid representing the kitchen. Not that there’s much leeway at the moment, I’d already decided (with Colin’s help) on the basic layout, and it was more a case of deciding where the drawers were going than anything else.

So this morning 0800 we sat down and played with his computer, and I came away with these pictures, as well as the set file. Which you can pull into the free-for-evaluation Kitchendraw program to manipulate.

Now we need to decide on the colour and pattern of the kitchen doors, and what the handles look like, and I want to adjust the size of the upper cabinet slightly, and then it’s write-a-cheque time.

2008-06-09 by wrm House 1

ADSL

Internet. More important than running water.

I found Lawrence’s Guide to Ordering Home DSL, which is excellent if a little outdated. It works, but I found that there’s a slightly better option.

1. Phoned Telkom around the beginning of April.

2. Technician came out on 19 May, installed the little box the phone plugs into (the house had a phone, of course, but I took advantage of the situation and moved the insulator on my side of the wire to the pole to the garage fascia, ‘cos that’s where the firewall is going to live. (Edit : Inside the garage, not outside on the fascia, of course!)

3. Phoned Telkom on the 20th of May. Oh no, have to wait two days for the line status to reflect on their system.

4. Phoned them again 22nd of May. OK, ADSL, no worries, with free modem, two year contract, no extras, I have an ISP, thankyouverymuch.

5. They phoned 2nd June, modem ready for collection.

6. I contacted Cybersmart, signed up. Saw that they have a new deal where middle-of-the-night bandwidth is 1/3 the normal price, but only if my ADSL is with them. Bugger.

So my modification to Lawrence’s guide is, go with Cybersmart for your ADSL and ISP.

2008-06-05 by wrm House 0

Teaching a new dog (old) tricks

When I got hold of Frank to do the stuff around the house, I went to see a reference to find out just what I could get Frank to do and where I would need to employ someone else. I was assured that Frank could do just about anything, but that I would have to watch him “on the squares” — he has a habit of not squaring things up.

Which brings us to tiling. I was (and still am) sort of worried about Frank’s tiling abilities. So I set him to tiling the bathroom floor, both square meters of it. That came out OK (but then again, it’s hard to stuff two squares of tiles up).

But then it came to the kitchen / dining room / entrance floor. Firstly we (Tanya and I) decided to use spot tiles here and there (which I did not think was going to be a problem) and secondly, after a lot of thought (about Frank’s abilities, specifically) we decided to lay the tiles at 45 degrees to the walls.

I explained this to Frank and could see that he didn’t *quite* get it. So I explained, explained some more, figured that the lights were going on. And they were, except that after day one it’s clear that he didn’t quite get the whole spot tile thing.

So I explained some more. Showed him how to use a 45 degree mitre to draw the cut line. Explained that the spot tile is 110mm wide, so the cut line has to be 55 plus a bit from the tip of the big tile. Drew lines, drew pictures.

And told him which tiles to rip out and redo (two of the four at left, the other two just have to be cut straight).

That’s the problem with not using the professionals. I not only have to understand the job, I have to figure out how to explain the job to Frank so that he understands.

But I think the lights went on this morning, we’ll have to see…

2008-06-05 by wrm House 0

Krankenhaus im Fischwinkel

So I stuffed my back up.

Again.

Tall people don’t always have all the fun. The world is not built around (or for) us.

OK, I’m planning to remedy that in my kitchen, but that’s the extent of my control over the world.

Anyway, I leaned over Tanya’s clothes rack exercise bicycle to pick up the camera and… yowch.

Spent the night flat on my back while managing not to snore, which is a feat in itself (Tanya gives me the hairy eyeball and an elbow in the ribs if I dare to snore). 50mg Voltaren and dicloflam are my friends.

But the plumbing will have to wait.

2008-06-04 by wrm House 1

Cheap^H^H^H^H^HLess expensive brass

This is R226 worth of brass fittings from Muizenberg market. A *lot* cheaper than buying from a hardware store.

And this is the progress I made on Saturday.

I cheated by making the frame on the ground, using No More Nails glue to hold it together (I realised that I would need four hands to build the frame in place on the ceiling). Even then it was tricky to get it tacked into position, one hand to hold the nail, one to hold the hammer, so I had to balance the other side of the frame on my head.

After the market on Sunday, Tanya and I picked some paint for the living room (off white) and Tamsyn’s room (a very light shade of purple). Also got a cheap lantern type lamp fitting for outside the back door. We then went past CTM to pick up some more spot tiles for the dining room / kitchen floor, but they’re still not in stock. While there Tanya found some light green border tiles on special, R5 each (normal price is closer to R25). We bought the lot (5 linear meters).

Sunrise from the top of Ou Kaapse Weg this morning. Cape Town is beautiful in June.

2008-06-02 by wrm House 1

Looking better

So the geyser (inside) plumbing is pretty much done. I finally found 90 degree 22mm solder bends at Mica in Diep River. Also bought a Ryobi belt sander for R800. The Bosch is far nicer, but also double the price.

I then went on to Builders Warehouse, their saving grace is that they’re open ’till 1900. Bought a 20L tin of primer (almost R800) and a double handful of 22mm brass compression fittings (R500). With a bit of filler here, a piece of copper pipe there, and so forth, this brings my day’s expenses to R3000. Fun.

So this morning the geyser got itself plumbed, bled, etc. Now for the outside work, which will be compression fittings and polycop pipe.

Frank’s also been busy. OK, so the picture on the right falls under “one step forward, two steps back” — the box was in the wall when I realised that I needed a second wire, because I’m running the main light off 220V and the downlights off 12V, and separate switches is the way to go.

And this was the view coming down Ou Kaapse Weg this morning. This shot taken on my mik&druk out the car window, it was a lot more impressive in real life, lemmetellya.

Cape Town. Gotta love the place.

2008-05-28 by wrm House 0

Progress Report

No great strides, but I made a little progress here and there.

After looks better than before, no? I’ve been meaning to relocate the existing hatch in the hallway, since I want to build a cupboard which would limit access to it. Wasn’t planning on having it in the kitchen, but then Frank slipped up (or down, in this case) and I decided to make the best of the situation. I added a crossmember and a few battons, and took a UPS pallet apart for the plywood which I used to build a platform I can sit on while getting into / out of the roof.

A bit of cretestone and paint and it’ll look OK (and the small hole on the wall side will be above a built-in cupboard, so no worries there.

OK, that’s the one step forward.

I originally thought to hang the new geyser on the outside wall, and started cutting the pipes leading to the old geyser in preparation. Then I bought a 200 liter geyser, and then I realised that 200 liter geysers can’t be wall-hung. And the pipes are of the old style, where the 22mm type is slightly smaller than the new stuff, which means that the solder fittings don’t. Fit, that is. So my attempts at rejoining the pipe were futile.

So I gave up, told Frank to knock another hole in the wall for the water to the geyser.

Now I need a hand full of 22mm 90 degree solder type bends to complete the work. I used two 45 degree bends on the hot side — nobody seems to have 90 degree 22mm bends (I can get plenty 15mm and even 28mm).

And then the outside plumbing starts. Rough estimate — For now I need six 22mm Ts, 4 reducing Ts, 4 22mm bends, 4 reducing bends, more pipe… this is another thousand rands’ worth of stuff, because I’m using poly pipe, so I need compression fittings. Doing it the other way ’round is worse — the fittings are much cheaper, but the pipe clocks in at something like R35/m for the thin walled (less expensive, but doesn’t bend) stuff. This is for the kids’ side of the house only, I still have to figure out where and how the pipes are going to run on our side.

And we bought paint, sticking to standard colours as advised by the chappie at Builder’s Warehouse. He advised us to use a roof paint (Bristol Acrylic Roof Paint) for the fascias, and on-special Dulux Weatherguard for the walls. Tanya picked cream (“Flamenco”) for the walls and red-ish brown (“Burgundy Red”) for the fascias. Bought two x 20l of the Dulux, will probably need that much again.

2008-05-27 by wrm House 1

Alice and the Red Queen

“Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place.” — Red Queen.

I’m spending about 2, 2 1/2 hours each morning doing (at the moment) the plumbing and electricity. Meanwhile Frank is running out of work to do, he has to tile the bathroom walls, but not before I’ve plumbed the bath mixer tap in and checked for leaks. He has to patch up the wall in the kitchen, but not before I’ve wired up the light switch boxes. And it seems to me that he works more slowly the less work he has, to make sure of his continued employment. Understandable, of course. But that means that I’m the handbrake on the works.

I told him that next week he’s starting to paint the outside of the house. That will keep him busy, giving me time to catch up with the plumbing.

Unless it rains, of course.

The previous owners added the triple garage, and a wondrous thing it is, but they never painted the cement blocks, so that’s where Frank will start. On the shopping list : 20 liters of plaster primer and two rollers & trays.

Meanwhile Tanya is choosing the colours — she doesn’t like the current green & white scheme. Me? I’m a guy. Red, green and blue are colours, Mauve, Lilac and Magenta are characters from the Rocky Horror Picture Show. (OK, I might be mistaken about Mauve and Lilac).

2008-05-22 by wrm House 0

Lights

How much light does one need in, for example, a kitchen? The answer is “lots” but if you’re the main contractor that doesn’t help much :-)

I found http://www.lightingplans.com/lightPlansDesign102.html which tells me that a kitchen needs 1 to 1.5 watts of CFL per square foot, which translates to about ten times that per square meter. (work-in-progress warning) The kitchen is 10.5 square meters total, of which around 6 meters is floor space. Call it 90 – 150 watts total. Looks like four to six downlights loaded with 13 watt CFL bulbs for task illumination, coupled with a central light for general illuminiation, will do. Along with that I’ll use some kind of undercounter lights, probably LED technology from LEDzShine. There’s no sense having a gas stove but still having to cook by candle light when Eskom does it’s inevitable thing — I’m planning to run the 12V lights off a battery charged by the mains, sort of a lighting UPS.

On the living room side of things, we have no idea what we want to do. I installed four light points in the ceiling, dividing the length and the width roughly into thirds. It’ll have to do.

We also bought (see “We’re Not There Yet” on Tanya’s blog :-) two chandeliers for the kids — a purple glassy thing for Tamsyn and a black gothy thing for Jessica. R599 and R699 from Mr Price Home.

Tanya saw this one at Builder’s Warehouse. For “our” bathroom. Expensive… but nice.

2008-05-21 by wrm House 1

Chaos

I feel that things should be coming together around now. Instead, it feels as if the chaos is taking over, like in The Never Ending Story. We’re still busy chasing pipes into walls, making holes for plumbing, and so on — I think mostly because of lack of planning on my part — I’ve not been able to visualise the process properly, to make sure that things get done in order.

OK, some of this is due to plans changing on-the-fly, but still.

On the upside, Colin helped me out with the kitchen layout over the weekend. We sort-of decided that the counter tops can’t be postform, mainly because of the 400mm prep counter with the 600mm bump over the dishwasher, a constuct like that has to be something expensive like granite or Corian or something simple like Formica with wood edging. Provisional choice is cherry.

The ceiling in the living room is in, being cretestoned and corniced today. That at least counts for progress.

2008-05-19 by wrm House 0