NEW VACUUM!

As explained when talking about the bathroom, I thought my new vacuum was having problems or blowing the fuse. As it turned out to be the socket, I suddenly wondered - perhaps that was what had been wrong with the old vacuum - perhaps I had not needed to buy a new one after all!

Testing it, the old white upright vac did indeed work - OOPSIES!

I am glad that adventure happened though - as I had planned to buy a floor-runner vac ever since arrival. I don't like the upright type, finding them too bulky and heavy and difficult to use. A floor-runner is much easier and what I have used for circa 20 years while in Aussie. I can get into corners, under chairs and tables, and carry it around in one hand while using it with the other. I do not regret the purchase.

However, it does mean that we have 3 unused vacs littering the house -

as well as my nice new one (new one on left) 

The little red one works - but creates a lot of dust and is difficult to clean. The big white one puffs out dust as it goes and won't access corners or under furniture without moving things. The yellow THING does not do anyTHING more than make a funny noise, if that.

Plans are to toss out the yellow one, dispose somehow of the red one, and clean up and sell the white one - after all, I do have 3-4 unused bags for that and it does still work properly - if you like big chunky uprights.... any offers?

THE BATHROOM SAGA – new flooring 7

The linoleum required gluing down. This was obvious when noting it shifted slightly each and every day. I purchased two tubes of extra strong glue and managed to warn my son not to go into the bathroom for 2-3 hours. Luckily, he had decided to pushbike ride to Hazelmere and back, taking several hours, anyways.

This difficult task was done by firstly placing the lino in perfect position and then lifting a corner to move a 1/4 into the air at a time. I covered the hole-ridden vinyl linoleum below in squidges of glue and relaid the new linoleum on top of the gum. Luckily, this and a quick pat down sufficed. I am now ready to chop a chunk up for the windowsill and then move on with what is left over to the next place - the toilet.

This is going to be much more difficult. Currently there are pieces of carpet over newspaper over floorboards. Therefore, if I try to glue linoleum down, it will be directly onto the dusty floorboards below....

This is the end of the bathroom saga - for now!

THE BATHROOM SAGA – new flooring 6

The final cleaning began and ended on my father's 88^th birthday. I then unrolled part of the lino and marked it off at 70, 50, 50 – to make 170cm. I had to place the roll on my bed to have enough room to cut straight – as on the floor it rolled up or bumped into walls.

 

Snipping along the red line between markings either side, left me with a large piece of linoleum to cover the bathroom floor and underneath father's commode. Snipping this into the two pieces required, I merely had to remove everything from the bathroom and begin to lay the lino.

It seemed to be an almost perfect fit – except that at the door it would not go under the furry brush bit father had fixed to the door. I had therefore to trim the edge by the door and it therefore looks a little ragged. Otherwise, the lino fitted fine. The only other snipping needed was a small inlet for two nails that stuck up by the bath and trimming down one side where the width of the room varied between 117 and 118cm. I then measured and snipped the other piece to perfection and laid it down to make an unwalled en suite in dad's bedsit.

 

There is enough over to tackle the toilet, and from the looks of the roll, make several door mats or a roll of lino for the floor in the pink n white room! It seems to be much larger than the 2mx260m piece that I ordered...

THE BATHROOM SAGA – new flooring 5

On Friday, two days after the lino was delivered, I got tools from the shed and began to scrape old wallpaper from the wall which had been enclosed in the closet. I figured that even if it looked ugly, it needed to be done before cleaning up.

It took me 3 shifts of around 10-15 minutes each. I was not being lazy, but once again, my father's meals got in the way. First I had to heat up a pair of crumpets and deliver them to him – and later on remove the empty plate and tray...

I began to wipe over the wall, pipes, ledge, floor, and undersink – only to find the next hindrance. The white paint was flaking off and the mucky gunk behind the pipes was too much for one cloth. Having a sinus headache building up, I decided to postpone in order to tackle a thorough cleaning Saturday.

THE BATHROOM SAGA – new flooring 4

The lino arrived at 2-30pm on the day it should, and despite being told it would need to be carried in from the kerbside, it was delivered to the door. It was fairly heavy but more bulky than weighty.

I managed to drag it into the hallway while I finished doing whatever I was doing – and then proceeded to lever it upstairs. This was a case of balancing the roll upwards on one foot to swing it from floor to stairs, and then 'kicking' it up one stair at a time whilst heave-ho-ing it with my arms. At the top, I twisted it onto the upper hallway and slid it against the wall – to be ignored until needed. I had to do a few more jobs first...

THE BATHROOM SAGA – new flooring 3

I called the electrician in September when the power outted for a third time – while I was NOT using the vacuum or socket. He assured me that it was OK to leave the wires uncovered, that they were only for earthing/grounding and it wouldn't matter. I could therefore proceed.

The next two things to happen were the ripping out of the bathroom closet and the arrival of the enormous roll of lino. To rip out the closet, I selected what I thought to be appropriate tools from the shed and oiled and dried them overnight. In the morning, I began!

Firstly, I wrenched off the door – that was easy enough as it was only hanging on by three tiny rusty hinges. I removed the door and began on the side to the left. This was also pretty easy and came off in a single piece with minor leverage. I then took a lunch break – not because I am a lazy old sod but because Dad needed to eat his lunch even if I could wait for my own.

 

Later on, I returned and managed to remove the rest of the white wooden construction that must have been there for a few decades. In fact, I cannot recall as far back as my childhood, but I believe it was there before I left for Australia in 1988...

THE BATHROOM SAGA – new flooring 2

After emptying out a lot of junk – including an old wall cabinet, mouldy cloth, wire brush, piece of wood and a broken mirror that were dumped and a tooth mug, bucket, jar of adhesive and a bedpan that were kept - on dad's orders, the closet was more or less empty. A lot of dirt, dead spiders and dust remained – along with one problem. There were some yellow-green electrical wires joining some of the water pipes...

 

With the lino due in just under a week, I was wondering about how to keep the wire water-free in a bathroom without a closet. I could hardly rip the old closet out until the wires had been seen to – did they need waterproof tape or a major wooden structure...?

I managed to find out that they were 99% surely used for earthing – aka grounding. This did not really tell me if they could be waterproof-taped or needed further covering – so I hoped that doing some vacuuming would solve my problem. (The last two times I had vacced upstairs using the central wall socket, the electricity had blown – if it happened a third time, I got to call an electrician.)

In the meantime, I had a new living inhabitant move in.

THE BATHROOM SAGA – new flooring 1

In September, I managed to persuade my father to let me purchase new linoleum sheeting for the bathroom floor. There are small holes on the current lino, which was rapidly wearing out. I had wanted to buy some for a while, but had no excuse, seeing as my father who owns the property never uses the upstairs rooms now. Here is a photo of how the bathroom used to look, before the new shower and lino...(before me!)

I explained my idea of ripping out the bathroom closet under the sink and laying new linoleum across the entire floor – and he agreed it would be OK. I then searched online for lino. This is where the problems began. Firstly, at under £8 PSM, you would think 2x3m would be £8x6 -aka £50 max – wrong! Firstly, they add tax – and THEN charge £45 for delivery! I searched several sites, but this was the best product, at a reasonable price – except for that damn delivery charge!

The next problem came when I went to empty the bathroom closet....