DIY with function over finesse!!

[CitroJim]

That's better I'm sure SWMBO would not have been amused if that lot had fallen on top of her car!

[mickthemaverick]

Sometimes things work out well. Since I did the last oil change on a friend's car using my oil sucker, I have kept meaning to clean it out because I ran out of time on the day. This morning I was woken by SWMBO looking very concerned. The washing machine had stopped mid-cycle and flashed up fault code F05. I threw on my tracksuit and came down to investigate. The code referred to a blockage in the waste pipe which told me almost certainly that the issue would be a whitening sheet stuck in the filter, it has happened before!! On this occasion the drum was still full so I really didn't want to just take out the filter at the bottom!!

I turned off the power, releasing the door and then headed for the garage. You will have worked out the rest by now, using the oil sucker I emptied the drum through the front door and then had only a pint or so in the filter/drain area to get out with the filter. That was the usual towel on the floor and goforit job. I actually had to use a surprising amount of force to unscrew the filter due to the thread having been infiltrated by the corner of the culprits:

The blocking sheets

I also found the still clean sheet pressed against the wall of the drum which told me that SWMBO is not unfolding them properly when loading the machine which may contribute to their ability to get into the drainage system!! Also of course it means she has not been getting the full surface area exposed to the water and hence they may not have been as effective as they should. Necessary advice was passed on and accepted gracefully

Back to the reason for this post, as a result of that job I no longer have to undertake the cleaning job which was outstanding:

Cleaned with washing machine precision and ready to go!

Result!

[Paul-R]

Double result surely?

[mickthemaverick]

Double result surely?

Possibly even treble if you include the graceful acceptance of the advice about the malpractice

[CitroJim]

Superb

[mickthemaverick]

Another tale of my misadventures with hardly any pictures due to me forgetting to take any!!

Over the last few months we have noticed the hot water tap in the bathroom could not be turned on full as the water soon ran cold. We have been coping by using a restricted opening to maintain the heat until I got some reasonable weather to investigate in case I had to have the boiler turned off for longer than planned!! I was pretty certain that the problem was the Domestic Hot Water (DHW) heat exchanger so I got a replacement in before attacking the job.

Having turned off gas, electric and water supplies I opened the boiler to examine the exchanger. Removing it revealed lumps of carbon like crud in the hot side of the exchanger blocking 75% of the pipe area. I decided to install the new one rather than try to clean it because obviously something inside had decayed in its 13 year life to produce the crud. Having completed that I called my gas safe engineer, a former worker for me, who came to do the annual full house gas service and check the boiler before I put it back in service.

He arrived and proceeded to check everything while I watched the snooker!

After a while he came to tell me that there was a CO leak from the flue which appeared to be the 'through the wall' pipe corroded so I immediately said we'll replace it. A trip to A10 Boiler Spares in Cheshunt followed to collect a new flue:

The new flue

We swapped out the entire flue to remove that problem:

The new flue connection

The new flue outlet

Having finished with the boiler my man then serviced the gas hob and gas fire as well as checking flow rates and pressures throughout our system. The gas fire flue, the original chimney, has excellent draught and all was pronounced fully fit for purpose!!

After completion I went upstairs to test the new hot flow and I was delighted to find, as expected, the hot tap on full remained hot and filled the bath in a few minutes as opposed to the 10-15 it had been taking. SWMBO even found she had to add cold last night for the first time in months!!
However that exercise highlighted another issue in that the bath was not draining properly!!

I have a spiral rodding tool which I used to remove clumps of hair and then overnight gave it a treatment of Green Gobbler which I have found to be effective for the basin and sink. It has worked well and I can now declare the bath fully functional again!!

[MattBLancs]

Today dawned with nothing at all on the to do list...

Sorry I have read this three times but I just don't understand it, is it some sort of hypothetical construct !?

[MattBLancs]

...that exercise highlighted another issue in that the bath was not draining properly!!

Ahhh, yes that's reminded me I need to do the old de-hair-clumping job on our bath too. Another in the To Do!

[mickthemaverick]

Today dawned with nothing at all on the to do list...

Sorry I have read this three times but I just don't understand it, is it some sort of hypothetical construct !?

Good point Matt, It has been some time since I mentioned the 'To do' list. We have a pad on the kitchen notice board which SWMBO jots down things that she has noticed and when I look at it I deal with them. It's called my 'To do' list which is the one I was referring to ignorantly assuming everyone knows about it!!

[Stickyfinger]

...that exercise highlighted another issue in that the bath was not draining properly!!

Ahhh, yes that's reminded me I need to do the old de-hair-clumping job on our bath too. Another in the To Do!

Known as a "Sink Mouse"

[mickthemaverick]

Up until now I don't think I have mentioned a saga that has been unwinding for a few weeks!! So here's my chance to bore you all completely!!

At the end of March I spotted a decent quality Pan and Tilt camera in an auction. I know they retail in the £50-70 bracket and it had a £15 bid on it. I threw a £17 bid on and lo and behold I won it!!:

MTMO - the purchase invoice

The camera arrived with a couple of other lots I had won and I set about configuring it. As ever with auctions you always buy blind with no comeback and sometimes you win and sometimes you don't - it's part of the fun!!

On this occasion the other two lots, the primary reason for me bidding in this sale, both were perfect so my total expenditure of £52 was well rewarded with those combined RRPs of £140ish so when I discovered the camera was faulty I was not unduly concerned.

However since it was a new item I decided to contact the manufacturer, TP-LINK, to see where it stood regarding warranty as I had bought it at auction!! Surprise surprise!!:

MTMO - the return instruction

So I parcelled it up and sent it back. 5 days later this arrived:

The camera box

The camera box reverse side

The reason I wanted another camera was to see if I could confirm my theory that our foxes were gaining access to our garden over the garage roof and down our waterfall. Our existing cameras tend to indicate that from the directions of their arrivals and departures but I wanted proof.

So the next issue was where would be the best place to mount my new cheapie to cover that area?

The frontage

I decided that the best place would be on the top corner of our neighbour's garage circled in yellow in the picture above.

So last night, having cleared it with our neighbour, I installed the camera and checked out the available views:

Camera installed

View of garden

View of roof

View of cars

View of drives

All looks good so this morning I had a look to see what I had captured:

Fox

Worth checking out my videos I thought:





So proof for SWMBO who simply didn't believe me!! (Now you know why I did it )

Edit for spelling misdemeanour!!

[CitroJim]

Excellent!

[mickthemaverick]

Excellent!

Thanks Jim, but I'm not sure which of the last two stories you are referring to?

[MattBLancs]

Today dawned with nothing at all on the to do list...

Sorry I have read this three times but I just don't understand it, is it some sort of hypothetical construct !?

Good point Matt, It has been some time since I mentioned the 'To do' list. We have a pad on the kitchen notice board which SWMBO jots down things that she has noticed and when I look at it I deal with them. It's called my 'To do' list which is the one I was referring to ignorantly assuming everyone knows about it!!

Ah, no, you mis judged my confusion! It was the alien concept of a To Do with "Nothing at all on it"

Observe, exhibit A, B, C, D ....

[MattBLancs]

You'll notice the Blue 308 SW, the 2.0 Coupe (which currently has no engine fitted), the green 306 at present have not yet been upgraded to the state of "Having their own To Do"