Jerry's renovation blog

[Jerry_Atrick]

Thanks for asking.

 

The floors are proving to be quite a challenge. The builder had to do otehr work he had promised customers, so, my partner, who is very creative took over. Prooblem is the floors are quite old and have a lot of imperfections. So, she has been working on it for about a three weekksm trying to get it into shape. It should be finished this week ready for the top coat of clear satin oil.

 

Decorators are in fixing the gympsum based plaster, painting and stuff. They are doing a great job.

 

Another builder starts next week and will be doing work in the basement..

 

Things are moving...

 

Lime plasterer can't start until Feb.

 

Speaking to an agent this weekend.

 

about 1/3 of the windows are installed.

 

 

Edited December 13, 2024 by Jerry_Atrick

[nomadpete]

Thanks for the update. I was starting to worry about the growing pressure on you. Especially at this time of year. Tis a big project. On top of having a Starmer in the country.

 

[Jerry_Atrick]

No worries.,. I am too old these days to get too worried, Many more other things to worry about. I realised you were probably not talking about the floor I was talking about. The floor in the vestibule that I started sanding is still only partially sanded. I was using a belt sander in the end, but the carbon pad melted so I am waiting for another two. My new orbital sander has gone through enough discs that the velcro on the pad has worn through and am waiting for a replacement. 

 

The floor I was talking about above is here. The shiuny bit on teh left hand side has the satin oil applied.. the rught hand side and the foreground is to have it applied, but more filling required:

 

[nomadpete]

It looks better with the patina rather than having  gleaming perfection of a brand new floor. More in keeping with the character of the building.

[Jerry_Atrick]

Well, time for an update. More of the floor above has been done (on the other side of the room). My partner is fastidious about filling the gaps in the flkoor boards (because anything that gets between them shows up like a sore thumb against the dark stain). The welcome side effect is the room is a lot warmer now.

 

A lot of the new windows have been fitted.. Long post:

 

Upstairs Dunny window as it was:

and for some reason, don't have an outside shot of it.

 

Upstairs Dunny new window:

(Hmm No outside version)

 

Upstairs Shower Room Window as it was (note, the area around the sill was previously tiled - this was taken while work needed to be completed).

(Again, for some reason, no outside version)

 

New upstairs shower room

 

Upstairs Main Bathroom that was

(the top one)

 

Upstairs bathroom that is:

 

Upstairs single bedroom as was:

No Outside Shot for some reason

 

Upstairs Single Bedroom Now

 

Upstairs - First Larget Bedroom as it was

 

As it is

 

Middle Large Bedroom as it was

 

 

Middle Large Bedroom as is

(the top one - the bottom one is the formal dining room...)

 

Main Bedroom as was

 

As is:

 

2nd smaller bedroom as was

 Don't have an outside one for some reason

 

As is:

 

Formal Dining Room as it was

 

And now as it is:

(Bottom one)

 

 

 

And here are the ones to go, apart from the kitchen door replacement and the new bifolds which will replace the formal living room windows in the Bat,

 

This is for this kitchen/diner window:

 

The three verticles replace three of these on the flank wall of the kitcheN:

 

The panes to the left of these are for the kitchen/diner window above, I think.

 

The below, I can't get rid of, for some reason...  But labelled

 

Formal dining room - new

Basemint windos -to be painted and taking the bars down to the concrete.

Basement window to the boiler room. Original - can't touch them - just a slight restore to be done.

Study window to be replaced by another window maker who specialises in curved windows. You don't want to know how much that is costing me.

Kitchen door - to be replaced with wood (it is PVC, as are a few of the others)

First of the larger bedrroms

Dining room again.

The bay window to the formal living room. Will be replaced with bi-fold doors to the garden.

Inside of the Bay with an undecorated xmas tree.

Inside of the study window. Used to be the private chapel room for the rector.

PVC informal dining room - kitchen diner to be replaced from the inside.

Study again

Kitchen door from the inside.

Kitchen door again from the inside showing the gap tha we will be remediating with the new doors. It is PVC. New one will be wood.

Edited December 31, 2024 by Jerry_Atrick

[nomadpete]

Warning!

 

Expect Wille to arrive soon with his truck - to take away all that post renovation timber.

 

He cannot resist!

[nomadpete]

Very impressive progress Jerry.

 

 

[facthunter]

Didn't they have a FIRE in London once? When you return, stay away from fire Prone areas. That can be a bit hard to do. in Australia.  (Including Tassie).  Nev

[Jerry_Atrick]

4 hours ago, nomadpete said:

Very impressive progress Jerry.

 

 

Slower than I want.. but hadn't originally planned to do the windows 

[onetrack]

I'm amazed at how you get anything to dry in your current weather. At least, in our climate, we can still have days in Winter where it's warm enough to dry. However, I can remember several bitterly cold cloudy days in past late Junes, where I had a struggle getting paint to dry.

 

Edited Wednesday at 12:40 AM by onetrack

[facthunter]

I gave up watching Paint dry. Too much excitement compared to TV. Anyhow I now have a new keyboard and all the letters are BIG and visible. Surprising how different it feels to the Microsoft one. This is a cheap China thing.. 

   In the burg where I live the Shy Cancel would probably make that RENO Impossible.  Nev

[facthunter]

Talking of painting, jerry, what happened to that plane you were getting painted?  You don't HAVE to reply.   Nev

Edited Wednesday at 03:57 AM by facthunter
more content.

[facthunter]

I had to get that extra comma in. because I don't wish to see Jerry painted. Nev

[Jerry_Atrick]

7 hours ago, facthunter said:

Talking of painting, jerry, what happened to that plane you were getting painted?  You don't HAVE to reply.   Nev

I can't remember the exact dates, but I think it went in on something like the August or October before COVID lockdown for what should have been a month, but apparently there were some issues with the build quality and someone used a lot of bog on the skin, so they cut things out and reparied them, but at this stage other work was backing up. It came out of the shop I think in March 2020, literally 2 days before lockdown.

 

Thanks to a government tax change and a slow down in the work I was doing at the time, coupled with a long lockdown, I had all but shut my consultancy down as figured I wouldn't be working in London anymore. As the aircraft was based at Blackbushe, in Eastern Hampshire, I figured that keeping ownership of the share was not practical. Also, I was looking for work in Aus,, because thanks to the banking royal commission, the work I was doing at the time was starting to see demand in Aus. However, in the end, family would prevent me from moving on it.

 

To give an idea of the distance from my place to the airport the Shareoplane is based (Blackbushe: EGLK):

But one Saturday I took my son for a flight, the drive was three hours (I hadn't been able to fly from London and base it at my closer airport in Dunkeswell for the weekend).

 

In late 2020, a friend of another shareholder was asking if anyone wanted to sell their share. I didn't want to, however, with little money coming in and them wanting to update an already advanced avionics set (the shareholders were serious buffs with one having over 10,000 PPL hours and most having a share in a twin as well). With little money coming in and the prospect of having to hand over £8K in a cash call for the avionics upgrade, as well as the fact this syndicate didn;t charge an add on per hour flying to generate a maintenance fund, reluctantly, I sold the share.

 

However, I did make about 2K on the purchase price, which covered the call for the paint and most of the monthly subs I was not able to fly it. But, emotionally, I do regret it even though, at the time, it was the right thing to do financially, Of course, having come out the other side in OK, but not as good shape, I do now regret it.

 

But, it has meant I have been able to push through the refurb, despite us not estimating the windows in the original plans, and that adding the cost of a decent early 80s Piper Warrior to the cost of the refurb. And while the shareoplane was a TB20, there is a tidy TB21 for sale in Aus at the moment, that if it doesn't sell, will look at when I get there, and if I can nab it, will syndicate out to three or four others. In the mean time, as I suspected, the new member would be turfed out, and he was. They invited me to buy his share back, but I wasn't really in a position to, so for a while, paid a bit extra on the monthly and hourly rate - which was about the commercial rate for hiring a clapped out spam can Warrior, and flew it until a new syndicate member bought in.

 

It is a darned good aircraft though.. Can not understand why the (I think they are referred to as) Bermudan series of aircraft didn't have more commercial success, at least in Europe.

 

The aircraft is here: https://www.flightradar24.com/data/aircraft/n20tb

 

In lieu of a TB series  (have also flown the TB10 - equivalent of an Archer, I guess, but soooo much better), maybe a Commander 114, or a PA32 (Lance II probably).. Mooney's cabins are too small in the rear as I tend to take pax (never share costs though) and so use (not need) more load carrying capability than most LSAs have. Otherwise, for Aus, would definitely go LSA.

 

 

 

 

Edited Wednesday at 11:28 AM by Jerry_Atrick

[facthunter]

Paint jobs can turn out much more work than anticipated. Poor repaints can hide a lot of flaws. I prefer an "original" even IF the colours are somewhat out of style. There's nothing like the smell of a NEW plane. I've experienced a couple of Club ones. and the odd Airline one.. My Citabria didn't have a mark on it. and looked a picture anywhere. Done original Sunburst  RED and WHITE as from the factory.. Cheaper thana Jabiru.. . Nev