Happy New Year friends,

I hope you all had a good one! Thank you for all the well wishes last week. We're all feeling back to normal and sprightly once again and I've made some decent progress on the DIY front this week.

💡 Kitchen Lighting

With the carpet up in the nursery-to-be, now is the time to install spotlights in the kitchen below so the first job is to take up the floorboards.

This was easier than in the studio as the bedroom is in the original part of the house and I guess there was no tongue and groove in the 1920s so it was a fairly simple task using the pallet buster (love this thing!) to lever up the planks. The only tricky part was doing it in-between the kiddo's nap times.

I removed the nails and replaced the boards loosely ready for Steve to work his electrical magic. I've fallen through a floor before (to waist height, not all the way through) so I've learnt my lesson, always replace them!

Before I fasten the floor again I intend to put acoustic wool insulation between the joists. It's cheap enough so I figure I may as well. I didn't do this for the other bedroom (the pendant light in the living room below is supplemented by accent lighting so no spotlights and therefore no removal of floorboards above) and it's been fine with a good soundproof carpet underlay, even with the TV on downstairs. If you are having bare floorboards or laminate/hardwood upstairs then acoustic insulation is a good idea I think.

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I remember when I started figuring out how to build my garden room being really confused why a 2x4 timber wasn't actually 2"x 4". Well as you can see they did used to be before they became planed and regularised.

🪝 Garden Tool Organisation

We had some record breaking warm temperatures over new year so I took advantage and tackled one of my winter tasks - sorting out the garden tools that I've removed from the shed. For this I devoted the first third of the garage and endeavoured to get as much off the floor as I could.

The shelves were from inside the house, the black timber were the garage's old fascias and the OSB was left over from my garden room roof sub-deck. This harks back to the tug of war of clutter vs frugality I've written about previously. On this occasion keeping that clutter came out trumps. In fact the only thing I bought for this project were these rather nifty hooks.

I like these little projects which don't need to be too precise and you use what you have to hand. It's impractical to plan where each and every tool will go so you just have to start and items tend to find their place as you go along.

Many of the smaller tools used to hang from the potting bench I made but as I've yet to find a cover to fit it they were getting rusty.

In truth, a lot of my tools are on the rusty side so when I get around to sorting through my DIY tools, I intend to give both sets a clean and sharpen. I'm not sure of the best way to do this so suggestions are welcome 🙏.

There are a few things left to sort out on the garage (in due course): the doors and windows need attention as does the water butt situation but the next associated task is to knock down the old shed. However, the corrugated roof looks very suspicious. It could be fibre cement but may well be asbestos (indicated by the dimpling on the right of the photo below) so I need to buy a testing kit before going to town on it.

🪚 Gardening

At the back of the garden the laurel was getting a little on the tall side. Left alone it will grow to a medium sized tree so I topped it which should be good for a year or two before it gets out of hand again.

On the left side the silver birch leans over the neighbour's garden in search of light but I'm hoping that now the leylandii have gone it will grow towards our side a bit more.

It had a large dead branch so I cut that off and cut it into some firewood sized pieces using my Titan chainsaw. This regularly comes up for offer for £35. It can't handle large tree trunks but it's a good piece of kit for dealing with thick branches or fitting the Xmas tree into the garden recycling; worth picking up - just remember to buy chain oil too. Oh, and don't cut so near the earth like me, that's an easy way to dull the chain.

🖥️ Desk Upgrade

Back inside, I made another little upgrade to my office space with this cheap and cheerful desk mat I requested for Christmas. Previously I was finding the mouse would sometimes skip on the wooden surface and writing on paper left indentations. Both problems are now solved, plus it matches the wall colour.

Abi will be coming off maternity leave soon and we haven't come up with a good location for her to work so I think we'll be doubling up in here meaning the sofa has to go. She has a desk for the moment but I'm thinking of making one long one from an oak kitchen worktop...and then get a pair of noise cancelling ear/headphones. Recommendations welcome!

👋

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