Category Archives: House

Coving

Now the spare room’s plastered, it’s starting to look more like a room than a building site. 

Unfortunately, coving, one of my least favourite DIY tasks, took up most of my Sunday afternoon. 

I’m now sitting in the garden, listening to birds, with a well earned beer. 

Windows

Almost 13 years ago, when needing to have the dividing wall between the two back betrooms taken down and rebuilt, I glimpsed the potential of the rooms as a single room. 

The two identical windows made it obvious that the dividing wall wasn’t original to the house. 

And, now the wall is no more, the windows can be seen as they were intended. 

The plaster’s still drying in places, and there’s still a lot to do, but the result is better than I’d expected. 

It’s been the messiest job I’ve ever undertaken, complicated by the unusual angles in both rooms, due to old structural problems. 

Local

I was born in Sunderland. I grew up in County Durham, via New Zealand, but in 2004 I moved to Gateshead. It was a pretty random decision and it went tits up. 

I say tits up because I moved here with my (second ex) wife (to be at the time). It was never going to work out. And, of course, it didn’t. 

But it wasn’t all negative. The relationship might have died a horrible death, but at the end of the day I’m happy. There were a few agonising years, yes, but my time alone was something I needed to pull my head together. And I enjoyed it (once my head was sorted out).

And, after a while, I met my second in command. 

As You can see, she’s quite beautiful. 

I’m very happy with my second in command. In our little house (which we’ll quite possibly sell). 

And I’m very happy in Gateshead. We’ve both been accepted, even though I was born in Sunderland and my second in command likes football (Peterborough and Liverpool) and speaks with a funny accent. 

So, we’re now local. We’ve just been to see local blokes (from my local) play in the Academy in town. And they were damn good. 

A lot of people from our local pub (the Three Tuns) were there too, showing support. 

We were there because we’re local. We live in the Heed.

Walls (part I)

A day later than planned, I’ve plastered a wall. 

It’s the smallest wall, but I don’t like to be too ambitious as it’s a couple of years since I last plastered a wall. 

Not a bad result though. 

Screwdriver

This … 

… is my most favourite screwdriver. It’s not a ratchet driver, but does have four bits. 

The screwdriver’s old now, but it does pretty much everything. Because, rather than need a bag of tools, one of these makes a great back pocket implement. 

Ceiling (part V)

Well, it’s finally finished. 

The ceiling, that is. I’m aiming to plaster a wall tomorrow. 

The ceiling does have an unusual twist, but that’s the the result of old structural issues, rather than my plastering skills. 

The joins will need a light sand, but I’m happy with the outcome; it’s not too obvious that the ceiling was, for many, many years, two.