Sticks and stones and broken bones

Well, this is just going to be a short post, well, shorter than the usual posts anyway. As I mentioned in the last post, the DIY and my car repairs are on hold for a little bit, this is mostly due to the fact that I broke my finger 2 months ago. Yes, I did write that correctly, I broke it just over 2 months ago, but I didn't see anyone about it uuntil a couple of weeks ago.

The offending ring finger, still looking swollen Ann slightly misshapen

Now at this point, your probably wondering why I left it over 6 weeks to see a doctor (or ANP, Advanced Nurse Practitioner, because actually seeing a doctor is neigh on impossible), well that's simple, when you get hit in the hand with a cricket ball, its gonna hurt. In my case I failed to catch the thing and took it right on the end of my finger. Que sqwlling and pain, as expected. What want expected was to have said swelling and pain 6 weeks later, or as it stands about 9. After an x-ray, they have confirmed it as broken, an incomplete cortical fracture apparently, but there is nothing they can do, I just have to be careful with it and let it heal.

All this means that heavy lifting and such is probably not a good idea for a few more weeks, so its light duties for a while. I will do a little bit still, and I may do a lot of the marking up and calculations for the tiles, as they need planning. So it went be a total stop on the DIY front, just another slow period!

Bathroom update

I though it was probably about time for an update on the current build project, the bathroom. Well its progressing slowly, very slowly, as the floor took a while to sort out. It looked like it was going to be fairly simple to put the floor down as we were going for laminate, however, we hit a slight snag.

At some point in the past the floor has been wet, and by wet I means soaked over a long period, probably when the room was used as the original bathroom. I had already replaced a large rotten section, however, there was a join further across the room and this was the problem as it has swelled due to the water. The first laying of the laminate was a failure as the ridge made it feel like a trampoline! After trying to shave the wood down it was better but not perfect, so down went the leveling compound. Now, when something says it self leveling, don't believe it! I ended up with a big dent/divot in the middle which caused a problem when I laid the laminate (for the 3rd time), so down went more leveler. Unfortunately I think I went a bit over the top with it that time and ended up with a small mountain, which is just as bad as the dent/divot I had before! So after some sanding and settling, plus a ltiile bit of pinning of the laminate, the boards went down for the 7th and final time! Not its all good, no movement or bounce and with the toilet in and fixed, along with the shower tray, were all good.

The next challenge though is that I need to get the shower board in. This is not as simple as it sounds! While the floors pretty level, the ceiling is not and this leaves me with an option of either profiling the top of the board or cutting in to the ceiling. So the ceiling is getting it. Hopefully ill have it in and sorted by the weekend and then I can get the second board in and get the shower mounted. Ill probably leave the shower cubical until the tiles are done, or i may get it in and working so we could use it is we fancied.

Anyway, that's were we are at, and with the tiles sitting in the garage, ready to go on the wall, we should have been heading for the finish line. However, a broken finger has slowed things down again!

Birthdays the adventurous way

Well, we have finished this years rounds of child birthdays, well, our child birthdays anyway, there are sure to be lots of other child birthdays to come! While the young ladies birthday was a fairly routine affair, hired a hall, invited a few people, played some games. Its quite good as the hall that we generally hire is also the location for one of the toddler groups I attend and as such you can use the toys. So toddler parties are nice and easy, generally its friendsnand family as well, so not loads of kids running riot. This year though, the little man was to old for toddler toys, which left us with the question of what to do.

In some respects, the little man solved this for us by having a definite idea of what he wanted, one that was actually achievable! The problem was, it was outside, in feb, in Scotland. Outside in feb, in Scotland really means only one thing, it means your getting wet. Lucky, where we live, people are pretty use to that fact, so we cracked on with the plan, headed up to the woodland of choice for the little man, donned out wet weather gear and got on with it. As predicted, two things happened; one, it rained and two, the kids barely noticed, us parents on the other hand, grumbled in the background.

However, as much fun as the kids were having, there is only so much that they will put up with, so we didn't spend too long it there. My lovely wife had put a lot of effort in to a treasure hunt for the kids, so we did that as planned, although slightly shortened to avoid the windy bit out of the trees at the start. Personally I love treasure hunts, they can be great fun, I've fond memories of various treasure hunts as a child, one we did as a family in the car around the country lanes of Kent. I even remember the car, a white ford escort, L reg I believe. I also remember it squeaked a lot, somewhere down the back seats and despite several trips to the garage, they never found the route of the problem. Anyway, I digress, treasure hunts. The one funny bit was the fact thatthe kids went barreling off in to the woods at the mention of a treasure hunt and one of the teams found one of the treasure chests, it could have been a bit of a disaster, as it makes the hunt a bit pointless when you know the final destination, but as it turned out it was the wrong chest and they ended up at the other one! Oh, and the minion blind bags went down well at the end (picked up for the barfing price of 6p each! Good old wifey)

After the adventure around the woods, we retired to a local hall, it was our alternative/backup plan if it was really bad, for food, drink and cake. It got a little crazy at times, a bunch of kids with far to much energy! The wife tried to run a few games, but they didn't go down across the board, some kids ( the little man included) were more interested I charging around everywhere! Oh well, as long as their enjoying themselves!

The cake was made by the wife, and was another brilliant success, it may not be as polished as some peoples, but the little man loved it and that's all that matters!

So all in all, another successful party I think, now I just have to think of what I'm going to do for the wife's!

MOT

Well, I took my car for its yearly MOT test the other day, and yeah, not good. I was expecting a few advisories to come up, but nothing like this! A failure on 9 points!

Sorry for the picture, but for some reason my phone keeps putting it this way round not matter what I do!

Ok, so its not as bad as it first sounds. 2 for the hand brake and 3 for the fuel filler. I've got reconditioned rear calipers and hubs on route (with Hermes somewhere) and I'm in the process of sourcing a new fuel neck. That should solve 5 problems. A new tyre, new locking pin and tightening up a bolt are simple. The head light couldbe because the lense is dodgy and needs cleaning and polishing. I think that it should all be rather easy, just need to get the bits to do it all.

And then there is the whole raft of advisories to deal with!

Yes, that really does reach 21.

Again, nothing to serious. Brake discs are mostly due to lack of use, especially the rears, as the calipers are shot. A perished tyre, that'll be replaced with the other for an axle pair. That will also sort the valve issue. The rear beari21.will be sorted with new hubs (with the calipers somewhere). The exhaust mounts can be replaced easily, and are probably due replacement and the power steering issue is because I haven't cleaned it all up properly when I did the power steering gaiter change.

The only items that worry me are the CV gaiters. These are going to be more difficult to replace, but not impossible, however, I think I will replace both the inner and outer gaiters at the same time ( although I've yet to check the inner ones) so that I dint have to repeat the process again.

So all in all not so bad, just annoying and it will take some time to correct. Hopefully the car will be back on the road in no time.

Oh, and the rear handles and locks are playing up again! (New handles with hubs and calipers somewhere)