I’m not an expert myself but used to manage a music shop where compilations like this one used to sell well:

Northern Soul – The Collection https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00F6A9050/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_Q.wiyb6GVDCS8

It’s not expensive, has good reviews on Amazon and would be a decent start. As far as I can remember most of the Northern Soul compilations were pretty decent value for money like that one.

FWIW my last lease car needed a new gearbox, a fancy 6sp one in the first year. It was done under warranty but I saw the bill and it was £3k. So £4K for a power steering issue just seems bonkers.

If you want to have a reliable car why don’t you know how to check the basics in an engine? Power steering fluid reservoir isn’t exactly hard to find. If you don’t know basics like that you should take the time to find out, even if you don’t intend on doing work yourself, as it’ll help you figure out if garages are trying to fleece you for, let’s say, picking a random example out of thin air, £4K worth of work which probably mostly doesn’t need to be done? ;)

It can be quite simple to swap radiators, it could be a nightmare.

With a double radiator the valves site further out from the wall. You might be able to reconnect them to the existing tails but it’s likely some fettling will be required.

The biggest issue will be that the new double radiators, if they are the same width and height will produce much more heat than your current ones. So you might be fitting a huge radiator when you don’t need to.

Radiators aren’t that expensive new so personally I would get the correct size of rad for the room calculated and have it fitted properly with a new quality TRV. If you’re paying a plumber he will be happier fitting new components and it’ll look better too.

10% to charity, then the rest would finish our house renovation off, pay off most of the mortgage leaving around £20k left to pay off, which would be very much ok with me!

BTW, if it was me I would try to route the central heating drain tap differently – in my last house the plumber who installed the heating routed it into a drain pipe so I could just turn a lever and the whole system drained straight into the foul waste. It was BRILLIANT as you didn’t need to mess about with hose pipes and buckets whenever you needed to change a rad or renew the inhibitor.

You need a 15mm equal tee, just like the white ones you can already see coming off from the vertical pipes. They look like JG speedfit ones IMHO – get them from Screwfix.

You’ll need some copper pipe OR plastic pipe (but you need to put inserts in the ends before connecting plastic pipe) coming from those isolation valves (which incidentally appear to be missing their locknuts and olives). On the cold pipe put an equal tee on so you have a feed for the washer. You’ll need a washer valve ideally which will go on the end of the pipe coming from the tee so you can screw your washer hose onto.

The pipes going to the sink – you will need to buy 2 bib taps (outdoor style taps) and 2 90 degree wall plate elbows to screw them into. You then take your pipe up to them and install normally with a compression fitting. Don’t forget to PTFE the bib tap threads so it seals into the wall plate.

Taps: http://www.screwfix.com/p/outside-tap-with-hose-union-15mm-x-mm/41948?_requestid=322153

Wall plate: http://www.screwfix.com/p/p803wpcp-2-wall-plate-elbow-x/87929?_requestid=322884

Equal tee: http://www.screwfix.com/p/jg-speedfit-pem0215wp-equal-tee-white-15-x-15-x-15mm/50422?_requestid=323359

Pipe: http://www.screwfix.com/p/wednesbury-copper-pipe-15mm-x-3m/98683?_requestid=323767

Washing machine valve: http://www.screwfix.com/p/washing-machine-valve-without-check-valve-15mm-x/51231?_requestid=325406

Elbows – might need these to route pipe around corners, would need for copper as well as plastic pipe really: http://www.screwfix.com/p/jg-speedfit-pem0315w-elbow-white-15mm-10-pack/57953?_requestid=327110

Pipe clips to fix pipe to wall: http://www.screwfix.com/p/talon-15mm-talon-hinge-clip-white-20-pack/65456?_requestid=326384

I have mande up my mind and just 10 minutes ago instructed the main dealer to fix the car.

Theres a dealer somewhere where the staff are high fiving themselves now as a simple repair job a normal garage (with knowledgeable mechanics, not parts changers) they are now earning £4k for…..

I used to ride trials back in the day when you used the same bike for downhill, XC, trials and going to the shops. :)

I’d go for a cheap 26″ wheel bike like a DMR Sidekick or Trailstar (old ones) or similar. They can do a bit more than strict trials riding, maybe some jump practice and gives you the ability to ride a reasonable distance without feeling you’re riding a clown bike.

I’ve got one of the first 100 ever (Mk1) Trailstars with a BMX BB and slot dropouts, keep meaning to build it up properly since I had it restored and redecalled.

I’m not tiling it myself as I’m getting a pro into do that, I just need a smooth level surface for them to work on. Does that make a difference?

Hope this makes sense

The red is where I need to infill to bring it up to the same level as everything else. If I remove the old adhesive I’ll have to bring the level back up again anyway.

If I removed the adhesive I’d have to build it back up about 2cm.

Blazin-saddles – is this what you’re suggesting?

http://www.screwfix.com/p/mapei-floor-wall-tile-adhesive-grey-20kg/4367d

“I don’t have to address your comments. If someone parks too close to my car and I ding theirs, it’s their problem.”

Are you really serious about that? Really? REALLY??

You damage a stationary object because you don’t give a crap about anyone else’s stuff and it’s THEIR fault?

I really hope this is a troll.

@captainsasquatch You damage my work lease car and just walk away you better hope I don’t see you. I have to pay for any excessive damage to my work lease car AND any insurance claim/damage has to be declared to my private car insurance too, so ups the price of that as well.

I cannot abide with the selfish ignorant attitude of people like you, you need to get a grip on yourself and think about other people instead of yourself.

My wife and I saved for ages to buy our first car and someone we knew opened their door into it and dented it. I pointed out what they had done and said we’d only just got it (it was a few years old but in mint condition) and they just walked away after saying “well it isn’t new is it?” (They had a newer car). They were actually quite pleasant normally but this just astonished me.

I don’t normally mind fireworks but it’s mental in Huddersfield right now. If someone said we were being carpet bombed I wouldn’t be surprised.

Probably the perfect storm, 5th falling on a Saturday and nice dry weather too.

Feel sorry for all the scared pets.

BTW if I put a level on the wall the top of the cement adhesive is level with the painted area above. Or within a mm or two anyway.

All boilers have a connection for a thermostat in them, it’s usually very easy to find once you unscrew the control panel. Find the instructions on the internet, its only 2 wires to connect. A wireless thermostat would still need the receiver connecting into these connections anyway.

I have a relative who was on a couple of years ago. She had a decent business already so wasn’t a complete muppet like most of them. She was glad to be voted out early on as she hated the whole experience

It is considered sensible to bring your kids up in the US with some gun training. You can buy kids guns and teach them how to respect it and have good safety knowledge, obviously how to shoot them too. Seems quite sensible to me.

I am really wanting to make a trail from the back garden over the wall at the end of the garden and into the woods round he back of the house. But everyone says having somewhere to cook and wash is more important…. bah. ;)

Bear – that’s what I always understood.

wrightyson – we had hundreds of bricks from taking the wall down between the dining room and kitchen – why buy wood or blocks brand new and throw more bricks in the skip? Best recycling!

It’s only £6 for the title deeds and plan (£3 each) and will take seconds to obtain online.

Thought long and hard about it to be honest. It wasn’t deep enough to put an appliance in it, so it would have stuck out a fair bit and we would have to have a bodge of cupboards around it. I would have had to raise the lintel too. Other option was to remove completely but that would have been very costly due to previous changes above the fireplace and even if we had done that we would have only gained 40cm of worktop either side of the kitchen as you see it in the photos.

Had the discussion with my builder and sparky and family and friends and no-one could come up with a solution that worked any better which wasn’t very expensive.

We are only having wall cupboards in the wall facing the window, going to keep it nice and open along the window wall.

So eventually the first fix electric was done in the kitchen (done by me but supervised by electrician), then a friend came round and helped me plasterboard the HORRENDOUS walls which were all over the shop.

Looking a little better but slightly like a CSI murder scene.

While I had a skip I thought I would remove both of the awful fireplaces downstairs. Thankfully there was a lintel in place above both of them but it was AMAZING how much rubble came out of such a small thing. I honestly don’t know how it all got in there and if I hadn’t have pulled it out myself I would not have believed it.

Lounge

Dining room

Old doorway being bricked up.

This was a low point, my mate pictured here helping me thank goodness as this part nearly broke me, spending 14hrs a day doing hard labour in the kitchen.

The biggest problem, and one I would use as a warning to others, is that when you’re ripping a place apart you finish the day every day with a house that looks worse than when you started which is really disheartening. I at least made sure everything was cleared and tidied and swept up each day even if it was going to get mucky again. Don’t underestimate how hard this bit can be on your outlook about a project.

This is when things started to get expensive. Before the plumber came I uncovered loads more plumbing issues which meant I wasn’t sure about tackling as much myself. I decided to get the plumber to do all the work which meant 3 days removing ALL existing pipework pretty much and replacing it all with Hep2o pipe in a much better planned way. He also plumber in all the rads which I now realise would have been beyond me in all honesty. He did it all in a short period which may have taken me weeks. Most of his bill was parts too which I still would have had to buy.

The electrician was there at the same time and I found that I’d need a new consumer unit to match current regs. I wanted sockets in the workshop and one outside as well as the new ring for the kitchen with all the bells and whistles that go along with that.

My builder was good though and we eventually had this delivered….

So we could do this….

So I made a plan. Fail to plan, plan to fail eh? ;)

I would install all new rads and remove all the old lead pipe. I needed a plumber in to move a gas pipe anyway but if I did the rest it’d be cheaper. I’ve done central heating changes of rads before.

Electrics – need more sockets in every room, so I would chisel out for those and install back boxes ready for electrician

Repair some roof tiles

Replace windows and doors.

Biggest job was the removal of the wall between the dining room and kitchen, the one with the rad on in the pics above. I wasn’t prepared for how hard this would be. First of all to prepare for the kitchen going in I had to remove all the black lime plaster from the kitchen, remove the ceiling and the rads attached to the wall to be removed. It took most of a day to remove the existing kitchen with a friend as it was installed almost as part of the building, with wedges into the brickwork to screw the unit sections into.

Also the cost was mounting. To get permission from the leaseholder I had to pay £400, £300 for structural calcs and £200 for building control. So £900 in and nothing had changed yet!

TR – this is 2 months ago, getting up to date soon.

Hammy – they were all behind the doors!!

Anyway, the real reason we can’t move in is this kitchen, which I honestly think some sort of horror film was set it.

It looked like it was from the 50’s, with made to measure units, but not decorated since. Looked like some chip pans fires had happened or worse. Polystyrene ceiling, all brown and stained, everything filthy and stinking.

Of course we had the “oh we will just knock through and put a new kitchen”.

Oh yes we smiled. We dreamed, we thought no problem.

Not smiling now. :/

In my experience rads away from the windows create a warm half near the rad and cold round the window, even with decent glazing.

Bathroom not too bad but still needs replacing.

Back of house looks over woods, it’s really nice.

Bedrooms ok in general, again need more sockets and rads moving and decorating and front rooms need new windows.

Lounge. Not bad, needs new window, more than 2 sockets, and a radiator in the right place under the window.

And this awful fireplace removing.

At least the plastering is ok.

Dining room. Pretty much the same as the lounge!

So you’d put your own interests before that of the greater community?

No. I have my principles that I stick to. I am happy to have discussions about working conditions and pay etc but I will not withdraw my labour. I don’t have any hatred towards people who strike, that’s their choice, it’s up to them. However too often people on the other side don’t have any respect for other people’s opinions and principles and in the miners situation chose to physically attack the people who didn’t agree with them, intimidate their families and wreck their houses. That is disgusting behaviour.