Hey friends,

This week I moved on to the next stage working towards the landing which involved going back over our bedroom and fixing a few mistakes.

↪️ Reversing a door

The first item on my list was reversing the hinge side of the door. When I renovated our bedroom I thought that the door swinging into the room wouldn't be an issue but it irks me just enough to do something about it.

I filled in where the hinges were on one side with wood filler and chiselled out new ones on the other.

A spot of paint and it was done. The problem of course is that the light switch is behind the door and I need it on the other side.

💡 Moving the switch

So you'll know from the title what I chose to do but I'll take you through the options I considered.

Option 1.

Take a new cable from the junction box in the loft to the new light switch location. This would involve chasing a new channel down from the ceiling.

I've missed two good opportunities to do this. The first was when I renovating the room when the dust wouldn't have been an issue and the second was when I was doing the bathroom as there was a pre-cut chase for the light switch I removed right on the opposite side of where I want the switch. I could have just drilled through and drilled/bolstered out for a back box - not too dusty. Silly eh?

I don't have a wall chaser tool but Steve does. I don't remember it being dusty when used in conjunction with his Festool vacuum but he says it is. Here's a shot of us doing this previously.

I'd go for a 3 Core+E cable like I did in the boy's bedroom for a potential smart switch in future. If I could snap my fingers and it be done this is the option I would prefer but I don't want to deal with the dust or the re-filling of the chase with plaster.

Option 2.

Smart bulbs. The easiest option. We have an Amazon Echo in this room to control the smart bulbs in our bedside table lamps so the easiest thing to do would be to stick in smart GU10s in the down-lighters. Having tried a couple of alternatives I've come to the conclusion that Philips Hue are the best. They're pricey though and I'd also need to have a bridge for when the internet is down and their smart button or dimmer switch. Too costly.

Option 3.

A kinetic switch. Unlike the Philips Hue switches this works using the kinetic energy from pressing the switch to send a radio signal to a receiver in the lighting circuit so there's no battery to replace ever and I can use normal, and cheaper, GU10s.

You can find these switches and receivers on Amazon for very little money but the only brand I've heard of is Quinetic, the market leaders, so I bought their switch and for the receiver I opted for dimmable and thought it would be cool for it to work with our Echo so I went with the pricier wifi enabled one.

As a high level overview I took out the cable to the existing switch from the junction box and moved the cable to the downlights into the loop so it's always powered. Then I cut that cable and wired in the receiver. You then press the button on the receiver, click the switch and they're paired. I then stuck the switch to the wall with the supplied 3M adhesive tape. The range between switch and receiver is up to 30m indoors and 80m outdoors so it's suited for practically every circumstance.

As for the existing switch, I've left it in place, along with the cable and put a blanking plate on it. I don't think it will bother me but I can fill it in at a later date if it does.

The Quinetic switch is pretty good. The click noise when you press it is a bit annoying and I don't particularly like the pressing and holding to get it to dim or brighten the lights but that's why I got the wifi enabled receiver so I can ask Alexa to do that. There is a bit of a delay (a couple of seconds max) between pressing the button and the lights coming on and off but that's okay. I'd definitely have preferred Option 1 but I want to feel like I'm moving forwards with the house rather than spending too much time going back over rooms I've already done and it was a cheap enough and low hassle solution.

Besides not having to chase switches, there are some really good use cases for these kinetic switches. For instance, if you want to turn a 1 way switch into 2 way you can replace your existing switch with a Quinetic one (wiring it in), then sync a second to it and stick it anywhere you like - the other end of the hall, on your bedside table, wherever. No receiver required. In fact I think you can have up to 10 switches. Another example would be if you wanted to have a switch inside a bathroom. No cable, no problem.

🖌️ Patching

My next job was to touch up the walls. I'm not sure how it's happened but they'd become grubby in places, probably when the boy was in our room- the scribble is likely from when he'd borrowed Abi's eyeliner.

A reader told me he periodically goes round his house with a spray bottle of sugar soap and a lint free cloth so that's what I did. It worked well and got most off but I had to repaint some sections. Fortunately the paint is new enough that painting over doesn't create different coloured patches.

Next I tackled a mistake I last talked about when I was doing the skirting in the boy's bedroom which is that in our bedroom I didn't paint the caulk. The problem is dust sticks to it, even when dry, and you can't vacuum it up.

To remedy I wiped the skirting clean with a damp cloth and painted the caulked bit on top. It will still get dusty of course but it won't stick.

👔 Wardrobe malfunction

The final mistake I had to rectify was these wardrobe doors. Because I added MDF strips to give them a shaker style look these two doors can't open at the same time. I thought it wouldn't bother me - just close one to open the other - but it does.

So I moved my wardrobe away from Abi's and glued two of the leftover MDF strips to the side and painted the front edge to match.

Now spaced slightly further apart, they both open fully at the same time. Winning.

🔒 Tool Security

In other news, a reader very sensibly recommended I obscure the windows in the door where my tool collection is. I used the same frosted film I used on the bathroom window. Works well.

I've also got a Ring sensor on this door and if you have a nice set of tools, definitely think about protecting them. It's another reason I slightly went off the workshop idea - they're always going to be safer in the house than at the bottom of the garden.

👋

Our bluebells are out in force though I recently learnt that there are two species present in the UK - our native bluebell which is threatened and the invasive spanish bluebell which hybridises with our native ones. I've got some native ones at the back of the garden but most appear to be hybrids. Maybe I should get rid? It's hard because they're arguably more impressive than our native kind.

Hit "reply" if you've got any comments on this week's newsletter – otherwise I'll see you next time. Have an epic week :)

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