DIY with function over finesse!!

[mickthemaverick]

Well I hunted high and low for the 2 x 2 But to no avail. However nestling in the corner of the loft were the disassembled parts of my old Hifi cabinet. So a little sawing, drilling and screwing and this is the result:

Strong enough to support 3 times the potential weight of a full tank!!

Another job finished!

[myglaren]

Have often considered capturing rainwater but the downcomer from my roof comes down into next door's garden. Awkward but not insurmountable but: the gutters are full of pigeon s**t, eggshells, feathers and nesting materials. The downcomer often gets clogged with it all too.

I hates pidjinns.

[Vic Evans]

Too much of a faff for me !
I like the French countryside 'bung a few barrels under the eaves & dip the water out with a bucket or watering can' method.
With 4 barrels we rarely run out of water but also have a mega powerful pump in our well with 50m of hose connected if all else fails.
Ain't life grand in the countryside where nobody cares what you do.

[mickthemaverick]

That's one hell of a bird bath on the left there Vic!

[Vic Evans]

That's one hell of a bird bath on the left there Vic!

It's an old pig boiler which was in the huge multi purpose 'kitchen' fireplace here.
I repurposed it into a planter by welding on legs & drilling drainage holes.
Lots of interesting things here when I bought the wreck as it was the local bar/shop/telephone as well as having the machines to seperate corn/ peas/beans etc which local smallholders brought here before they had their own.
The place has a great history & is well known.
I bought it for the building & land which is jointly hard to come by now when most similar properties have been broken up with land & houses sold of seperately.
The house was an empty shell by any modern standards with no bathroom & one WC & basin. I basically bought 3Ha of land with a house consisting of 4 walls & a dodgy roof.
I had to completely rebuild, replumb & rewire it to give 3 ensuite bedrooms which took a year to achieve with the help of a 'chippy' pal & advice of a few locals with the knowledge of stone built buildings.
These are after & before photos;

[mickthemaverick]

Quite a project there Vic, well done!!

[mickthemaverick]

One of my birthday presents was a 1000 piece jigsaw of a rather colourful composition. Last week I sat down and completed the puzzle, 2 and a half days of time used up, and then ordered a frame for it. I have now framed the picture and have set it as a security screen for my more expensive kit in the garage, (rapidly becoming a mancave, just need to convince SWMBO that she doesn't need a car anymore!!). I think it looks good, what say you?

My new security screen

[mickthemaverick]

Another issue came to my notice while fitting the security screen. The new racks I installed after the garage flood last year (link to that story not available but may get edited in at some point!) came with rather thin, 4mm I think, MDF shelves which I now see are not up to the job I am asking of them:

Not good!

A wobbly set

Pisa comes to mind

The basic problem is of course simple bowing of the shelves causing the topsy turvy arrangements on some of the shelves. So I have ordered a new set of 12mm hardwood ply shelves which should be here over the weekend and then I will be able to replace them one by one and probably get rid of more junk in the process. At the time of the flood rationalising wasn't on the cards as I was anxious to get the contents back into the garage as soon as possible but now, shelf by shelf, I can get rid of the various out of date tins and other accumulated rubbish along the way. Watch this space!