So I’ve cheated and gone for the mechanical option

Work was quite interesting. As in I managed to get a reasonable gain in frame rate by changing very little. Which was quite a result. Then ended up fixing a few odd bugs. I’m now rather intrigued by a stalling problem with graphics synchronising with compute. One to investigate tomorrow. Walked Sasha, it is rather cold. Dug in the garage and found an SDS drill. Went to hire shop and ordered a tile remover chisel thing for it. It’s like six quid for a week. I’ll hopefully pick that up tomorrow and give it a blast in the evening. Went to Combat, that only had about six people in it. Think I’ll have an early night and read new book. I decided to do radiotelephony a bit later as I’ll get a lot more practise in as I go along, so studying human performance and limitations, it’s a small book, which says a lot about human performance and quite a lot about it’s limitations.

I think I’ve fallen in love with jointing compound

Started off this morning with an extra hour in bed, but still not long enough. Breakfast, coffee, Staverton. Now we had a hell of a wind today, so practised auto’s to full run on landing and towering take-offs. We got a couple of phone calls apparently as we were causing noise problems, “Please review your circuit profile”, as ATC said.

Drove back. Posted a quick video of the days activities and ate a couple of eggs. Picked up the dog shit. Then it was on to removing tiles. I did nine hours. I’ve got to about three quarters of the way across the bath. So probably about another twenty to go. But I’ve been sanding along the way and filling it all in with jointing compound. Which I’ve kinda fallen in love with. Goes on a piece of piss, easy to sand and sets like concrete.

Had a bath in the alternative bathroom, this confused Dillon.

Got a couple more plumbers to ring tomorrow who are interested in the job. Curry time.

I never knew that removing tiles could be so therapeutic

So started off this morning, oddly, tossing Jamie off. I think I was just in the mood to annoy him as he was off to work. Had breakfast, read the paper. Then got the chisels and lump hammer out. Started beating crap out of the bathroom tiles. Did that for an hour or so. Then Jamie came home, said he’d actually booked the day off and forgot as he planned on drinking the night before. My theory with him and alcohol therefore still holds true. Belted crap out of the rest of the tiles on that wall. Then went and picked up the solid marble tiles and some bonding compound. Also got some thick rigger gloves as I was getting pissed off shoving a chisel through my hand. Went into the mall.

Came back and sanded down that wall a bit, then started coating it with compound. That’s all done now, will probably need a couple of coats. Now moved into the other bathroom. Did the accounts, worked out that I’ve totally maxed out one of my cards. Had a shower, in spare bathroom.

Flying tomorrow, then yet more tile thumping. I’ve only got a couple of weekends to finish the whole job.

Got an idea for a new video as well, may give that a go tomorrow.

Yosemite it is then

So working on the joys of constant buffers, well there was a bug in it to be honest. Then another bit of fun with shadow buffers. I upgraded the iMac to Yosemite, which was fine, except Final Cut Pro X no longer worked. I’ve been running off various demo versions for almost a year now, so the time had finally come to open my iTunes account and shell out £200 on it. At least with Apple software it will install on as many machines as you want, so latest version is on the MacBook Air as well. Yosemite looks like you machine has been turned into a tablet of three year olds.

Lunchtime I did more paint stripping, then walked Sasha as Jamie was going out and it was his turn, so she had no chance. Went to the gym and did Pump, my wrist played up a bit, but did a session with Laverne afterwards and it was fine. Came back and did yet more paint stripping, ended up finishing it just before midnight. Added finings to wine. Jamie came home after about three cocktails, which for him is about three too many. I’ve finally sat down to eat at about 1AM. Still, fairly productive day.

Okay, so two and a half grand it is

Got up this morning to an email from new plumber and the existing one. The original one decided that £220 was a typing error and it should have been £120 and only £50 for tiling the side of the bath. I don’t care how bad a lier he is and his grammar and spelling are appalling, but at least he had the decency to modify the quote before blowing it completely and almost managed to save face at the same time. Second plumber called around mid-day, after a full break down of everything he texted me back a quote of £2,500. So were all about the same ballpark, this one though liked the sound of his own voice and obviously was a bit short of work as he dropped a hundred quid and said he would do rubbish clearance in about four minutes. So I’ll let number one stew for a bit.

I had a hell of a day with MSAA and clouds.I’m not going into it, it was shit.

Went for a run. It wasn’t long enough and it was too dark. Really need to work out a proper night route. Came back, had a shower. Then stabilised the other lot of wine. Gave it a good whirl with the drill to get the gas out. One more lot of finings to stir into that tomorrow, then its just waiting for it to clear. That one will be ready before the other one I think.

Applied a bit more paint stripper. I may do the tiles yet. Tried to organise flying for Saturday, doesn’t look likely at the moment.

Well the first taps arrived

Got up at 6:30 and took Dillon to daycare. Went back to bed. Got up late. Spent all day looking at clouds, no really I did. Rendering the bloody things, well to be more precise, speeding up the rendering of the bloody things. It’s a pain in the ass and very mind numbing. The basin tap has turned up.

Now my wrist has been hurting all day (the other one), so I went to Pump, but did it with rather light weights to stop irritating it. Came back, did a tad more work, then decided to do parts of the remaining bathroom paint with ‘cling-strip’ as I have shit loads of it left. It’s all gone a bit stodgy, but plastered it on anyway. Still got a bit more to do, but see how this bit goes. Covered it in cling film, waiting for it to drop off (the paint).

Then I got an email back from the plumber. Apparently I would only save £120 quid if I removed all the tiles and cleaned the walls up myself, but the under floor heating will cost £220 to install. This is under floor heating that only cost about £100 and requires one link to the mains. Laying it takes about five minutes. I think that’s far too steep. Plus we want the side of the bath tiled rather than using a panel. This currently takes the fitting to over two and a half grand, which to be honest, even if he’s the greatest bathroom fitter in the world is too expensive. Considering the only materials required are some plasterboard, grout and a bit of pipe. So I’ve gone back to mybuilder.com and myhammer.com and requested more quotes. It may get to the point where I rip it out myself and get a tiler in and stuff. It’s all rather annoying.

So one is ready for clearing

Can’t remember what I did at work, oh actually it was rather dull. Something to do with environment maps. It’s been very windy. Went out for a run at about five thirty, managed about eight miles. Had a shower. Did a but more work. Then took some wine gravity readings. One was ready, so added the stabiliser and gave it a stirring with the drill. Then added the finings and another stir. The other one is about 996, so I’m going to leave it a couple more days to see if it drops some more, it won’t harm. The other one takes around fourteen days to clear, so hopefully this one I can do the finings on Thursday and Friday, that one only takes about a week to clear, so probably ready for bottling next Thursday. The other one will be a week after. Then it’s on to the red and the other white, which I can’t even remember what it is now.

Haven’t heard back from plumber. I think I’ll cling-strip the rest of the paint, I can’t be assed to steam it.

So bathrooms are bloody expensive

So started off by finishing off what I was doing last week, that basically took all day. Walked Sasha. Got most bits finished then went to the gym and did Combat. Came back a did a few more bits. Looking at some parallel reduction stuff, which sounds more impressive than it actually is. Got the quote through from the plumber. It was a bit higher than I’d like, but it looks like he wants to remove all the walls and replace then, which is a hell of a job. I was contemplating removing all the tiles myself and making good the walls. But to be honest, I can’t really be assed. So I think I’ll just strip the rest of the paint off and fill in all the crap plaster, then it’s all his problem. Still have the ceiling to repaint, but if I get a good run on it on Sunday I should get the lot done. I can then move on to the lounge, although the entire decorating budget has now been used up. Still contemplating putting a TV in as well though….

Oh, I think the wine fermentation is complete. I’ll take a gravity reading tomorrow and then degas it all if its ready.

Welcome back DIY Sundays

So woke up at 9AM, couldn’t really get back to sleep. So printed out all my ‘evidence’ for ‘Bathstore’. Headed over there at 11AM. Started cruising at towel rails. Eventually got to the guy I saw yesterday. Said I was after a towel rail after taking his advice and that he’d got his figures wrong. He went through them and saw it was actually the web site that was wrong, but had no problem at all in honouring the figures. So basically for an extra sixty odd quid I got four hundred quids worth of towel rail. They made 0.3% mark up. Came home, put some paint stripper on the glass above the bathroom door then started working on digging in the alarm cable. I then noticed a major problem, none of the paint was really keyed into the plaster properly and it was coming off in handfuls. If you put a weighty tile on that it would just rip off and fall on the floor. So I decided just to steam the lot off and be done with. Eight hours later and three quarters of it is done. I’ve let the plumber know that I’m quite happy to take all the tiles off and make vaguely good the backing if it reduces time and cost. At least then I’ve kinda had some hand in it. Finished just before eight, then with an hour cleanup, in bath by nine. Now time to make a curry. I even went for a run, for a break! I worked hard today, but it’s very satisfying. Jamie wonders why we don’t have sex anymore, it’s because I’m knackered as I do everything, while he does nothing.

I bought a bathroom

Not sure what happened yesterday, it was probably very dull. Oh that was it, Jamie was home all day with Ebola, so annoyed the shit out of me. Did work. Went to the gym and did Pump with Trudie. No extra tonight as no Laverne. Watched the first one of the new series of ‘The Apprentice’. I do enjoy that. Went to bed in the spare room as the noise coming from ours was horrendous. Didn’t sleep well.

Woke up. Jamie was now on the couch, thankfully he’d now shut up and was asleep. Made breakfast for three and took the paper back to bed. Jamie joined me and managed to keep his respiratory system under control. I got up and measured all the bathroom walls. Shopping arrived. We then ventured out. First to Tesco to get a passport photo and a flu jab. Photo machine broke down and the pharmacy had just closed. Managed to get photo at Tesco photo lab. Booked in for flu jab. Went to pet shop and Argos, came back. Had flu jab. Then went to B&Q. Bought paint. Saw some floor tiles we liked. Went to bathstore. To cut a long story short, we bought a bath, sink and loo, together with all the other shit and wall tiles. I came to two grand, I could have saved ninety quid online, but the bloke was nice and I have the feeling that if anything was wrong I could just go back there and punch him. Time was getting on and the jewellers closed at 5PM. I was in Cabot Circus car park at four fifty. I ran right across town and made it to Parsons. There shutter door was already partway down. I dived under it, much to the surprise of the four women behind the till standing there with there handbags. They said they were closed, I looked at my watch. I still had fifty seconds. I was dripping in sweat, just said I’d come to pick up a repair. They somewhat relented now figuring out that I wasn’t about to rob them and managed to pick up my necklace. Drove up to Cribbs. Went in Topps Tiles. Bought four real stone marble tiles for the sink to go on. Need to pick up next week. Then went across to B&Q and bought the floor tiles.

Came back home. Walked the dogs. Then worked out bathstore would have been ninety quid cheaper online, but considering they have an ever changing sale on every three minutes anyway, it’s all a bit impossible to work out. Went through doors for the cupboard with Jamie. Did the accounts, sent off for a quote for the doors. Bought taps from Amazon. So the only things outstanding now are a towel rail, the shower and some blinds. And yes we did spent over four hundred quid on a bathroom cabinet (before all the various discounts), but it’s a really cool cabinet. You won’t get that off fucking QVC.