Door Stops

Sometimes you just have to be lavish & splurge big time. I was looking for some door stops to stop my door handles smashing into the walls. I actually went out & bought some of those springs that you screw into the skirting board. But before I fitted them I spotted these rad silver domes, and realised that they are far superior to the springs. So I took the springs things back for a refund and bought the shiny domes instead.

Even though it's been a couple of months since I bought these things, I still smile every time I see them sitting there on my floor. Cool huh?

The Dump

After stripping out the old storage heaters, and having the wooden floor put down, I had a fair amount of crap to dispose of:

A trip to the dump was in order. So I had to then fit this pile of crap into my cart. Trying to fit it all in so that it didn't move about or obstruct my view was kinda like doing a 3d jigsaw. Not easy. But I managed just fine:

And here's the view from the driver's seat:

I then drove to the dump:

And I took great satisfaction in disposing of the awful heaters:

The only downside was that my car was then filthy, so I had to then spend time cleaning it up.

Cleaning Up & Leaving #11

Seems crazy that I let so much time pass on here. I guess this blog seemed like a cool project during the time i was moving, whereas after it felt pointless. But I think I'm going to keep it going, since transforming my new place into a better one is going to be a long-term project. But here's the end of the moving story...

In order to clean up my old apartment I had to hire a carpet cleaner. I drove about 5 miles to good old HSS Hire near Heathrow airport:

This place literally never closes. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Handy to know in case you feel the need to hire a welder generator at 4 o'clock in the morning.

Anyway, en route to the hire outlet I drove down some weird road that I had never been down before, which housed several huge hotels. But the weird thing was that some of them looked kinda like the kind of places I imagine you would find in Las Vegas or Miami. Here's a couple of examples:

Here's me using the carpet cleaning device:

And here are some shots of the empty number 11, post clean up.

I did such a good job on the clean up that I got given my full deposit back. Pretty much a world first. Mind you, I did need that money to pay for my wooden floor fitting.

We're Back

It's been 3 months since I last updated this thing. I always intended to keep this going, but as with most things I got behind and other things came along and before I knew it months had flown by. But I'm going to start updating this thing again now. Stay tuned...

Moving Day

Ok, so the day of the move came around, and despite only moving down the stairs, this has been a very hard move and a very long day. I guess the main reason is that I had done no prep work. I mean, before today I had done absolutely no prep work at all. No packing or anything. With hindsight, that might have made things a little easier! Anyway, due to having a lot to do, I didn't get to take as many photos as I would have liked. I guess I was just too busy carrying junk. But I got a few of the highlights...

The day started with having to go back to the builder's yard to get one more piece of skirting. Builder's yards are weird places. Just giant sheds full of stuff, with nobody about. Would be pretty easy to just roll in and steal stuff if you ask me. Anyway, this is how the skirting is stored:

And here's me with the lucky piece selected to come live with me:

Once that boring chore was out of the way, the next job was simply to move my stuff. The next two photos show the starting point. Doesn't actually look like I have much stuff in these shots:

before anything could be moved though, I had to prop open four self-closing doors. I chose 5kg plates, which worked nicely:

Anyway, back to moving... the only thing I really care about is the records, and I decided that moving these had to be job number one due to the location I planned on putting them in the new place. So I moved the sofa out of the way and this is the mountain that stared back at me:

Now, I have moved records before and it has been a real hassle. And I think that most people who own a lot of records would describe moving as a bit of a nightmare. But then again, most people don't store their LPs in icubes, which it all very easy, as Bez demonstrates:

And here's me doing exactly the same but without gloves:

Once downstairs, I decided to position them nicely across the room under the window, so they are out of the sunlight. It's kinda like building a wall. First one row:

And then another:

Unfortunately the room wasn't quite wide enough, so I had to build a second wall somewhere else:

Don't worry about the heater though - that's not staying. In fact, neither is the second wall of records. I plan to move them somewhere else later.

But back to the story. The next item was the sofa, which was a pain in the ass to manoeuvre down the stairs. So we stopped halfway down for a good old fashioned cup of tea:

After this time started to run out and we started to accelerate things, and I forgot to take photos. The worst job though was taking the wardrobe to bits. Here's some of the debris as we got started:

Then there was a much bigger gap with no photos. But one thing I had nearly forgotten was the stupidest and most pointless bunch of crap of all. The cupboard of cardboard. I guess every record collector has a stash of record mailers. But not many have a whole cupboard full.

At least it wasn't heavy. And until I figure out how much to keep and where to put it, I dumped it in the hallway of the new place. How attractive!

After Bez left I spent three and a half hours carrying all manner of small items down the stairs. I must have climbed & descended the stairs about 100 times today. And at the end, when everything had moved, this is the mess I had created. No longer a neat record room, but a room containing about 70% of my possessions:

Whereas my new living room currently contains pretty much nothing:

The kitchen looks like a bomb site:

And the bedroom needs some sorting out too:

Although I am happy to have the move pretty much complete, I also feel a little sad. I have lived in number 11 for just over three years, and I have enjoyed it. It feels a little sad to be leaving it behind, and also to see it looking so bare.

The funny thing is though, even though I have moved out, I have left one final item to move... my computer. This is because my phone line has moved to the new place, yet my internet line has not. So I am typing this sat at a desk in an empty room.

Once I move the computer I am likely to not have internet at home for two weeks. Maybe longer. And since I am one of the last people on earth to not have an iphone, I think I'm going to find it hard to cope. And my blogging may suffer. I guess I'll see how it goes. But for now, it's time to go to bed... in number 2. Good night.

Wooden Floor Day 4

First job of the day was for Paul to fix the trim to the door frames. After cutting them and sticking them, long sticks were needed to press them into place while the glue set.

While he did this, I went to Jewson (which is just over the train bridge, about three minutes walk away) to buy skirting boards.

On the way back there was some chick giving away Watermelon flavour Rubicon, which made me laugh. I asked if I could take her picture & she replied "Yes, of course!".

I then got on with painting the stupid cupboard, which took ages:

Whilst Paul got on with cutting & fitting the skirting boards.

To fix them in place he used glue and this compressed air nail gun type thing, which looks mean as hell:

he managed to finish the two bedrooms and the hallway, which leaves the living room for tomorrow. And once fitted, things finally looked neat & tidy:

I then went back upstairs & spent about two hours cleaning my oven, which was possibly more boring than painting, and definitely the worst job ever.

Tomorrow is a big day. The floor will finally be 100% complete (which unfortunately means that I have to pay for it!) and I have to start moving my junk into the new place. Man, I need some sleep...