<![CDATA[DIY Diva - DIY Diva Blog]]>

<![CDATA[DIY Diva - DIY Diva Blog]]>Wed, 27 Feb 2013 17:03:09 +0000Weebly<![CDATA[I'm dreaming of a white... ]]>Sat, 18 Aug 2012 21:26:18 GMThttp://www.diydiva.biz/1/post/2012/08/im-dreaming-of-a-white.html Kitchen, dining room, living room, bedroom…. In fact 2 whole houses, white all the way through from floor to ceiling. I ended up seeing white in my dreams! In a way it’s really boring, but the cutting in between the ceilings and the walls is a doddle. And there’s no danger of mixing up which paint is for where.

You may at this point be thinking what a boring rubbish looking house, it actually looks fantastic with lovely deep brown carpets and colourful artwork. There was a massive window sill in the bay which I think was plastic, but a coat of undercoat and 3 of gloss left it looking like a mirror!

It was quite a relief to go and paint a bathroom something other than white- it was in fact a lovely mid green-blue. The only problem was the pipes- it may have been quicker to box them in than all the faffing it took to paint the pipes and the wall around and in between them.

Had a few little jobs in between the epic whitenesses- painting a front door and changing the letterbox, screwing up the back of a wardrobe, sorting a leaky loo, and replumbing a bath, among others.

The final part of one of the white houses was the garden wall which went from flaky, peeling, blistered horridness, to lovely smooth…

not white!!! It was peeling magnolia, and it became Country Cream (magnolia, really).

Bed time now- at the office tomorrow morning (I work in a call centre evenings and Saturdays to boost the savings) then off to put up a mirror and quote for laying flooring in a loft. Sounds fun!

I’ll sleep well after a lovely walk around Pagham harbour and a gorgeous meal at the Anchor- home made chicken curry for my other half, and vegetable and goat’s cheese tart for me. Unfortunately we had no room for pudding!

]]><![CDATA[Gosh...]]>Sun, 15 Jul 2012 21:18:22 GMThttp://www.diydiva.biz/1/post/2012/07/gosh1.html... long time no see. These silly working hours are good, but mean I have no time for writing about what I'm doing.

Lots of painting- I'd put pics of the house I've just been doing, but it's all white, everywhere, so not much point!

This is some doors in a kitchen that I painted recently. You can't see the colour of the walls too well, but it's a lovely golden yellow that lightens up the kitchen beautifully.

On the right is a wall I'm working on. In this pic I've stripped quite a bit of the left hand side, ready for masonry stabiliser and cream masonry paint. I'm a bit further along now, and despite rain that feels like being under a powershower, I've scraped the bubbly peeling paint (and the paint that looks good, but as soon as you show it a scraper more or less falls off) and I'm back to nearly bare brick. One section has already had a fungicide scrub and coat of stabiliser. It always makes me feel better about a job that's dragging when I get a brush out and actually put something ON, rather than just scraping stuff off.

Loads of work, but it can't be all work and no play. We've been out for a nice few shower dodging walks- the pic on the right is on the test valley trail, which we found. I have to explain- we drive out of town, then every time we get to a junction toss up right or left and see where we end up. On one such of these drives, we saw a few cars parked by a path and thought we'd take a look. Beautiful.

The ducks are today's expedition to the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust at Arundel. The pic isn't fab, but we think the ducklings were only a day or two old. They're so tiny and so cute. One other thing we noticed was that wherever they'd laid concrete, there were duck footprints all over it- obviously ducks can't read "keep off"!!!

]]><![CDATA[More piccies!!!]]>Fri, 09 Mar 2012 10:13:21 GMThttp://www.diydiva.biz/1/post/2012/03/more-piccies.htmlHello all. Few jobs done and dusted. Happy camper.
I worked on Sunday as a one off to fit someone in and because it meant I could take Wednesday off to go out!
It was a day full of drilling- mirrors, curtain poles, picture hooks and a banister rail.

I also finished a large bedroom, including removing a horrid splashback and tiling above the wash basin. I wasn't too sure about the colour when the client described it, nor when I started putting it on, but when I'd finished, I had to agree it looks good.

To finish off, yesterday I sorted out someone else's bad job: a boiler was changed and they left a complete mess. So I boxed in with some plasterboard, filled all around, and put a thinned coat of paint on. It looks much better already, and the householders were going to paint the kitchen anyway, so it'll look even better soon.

]]><![CDATA[Finally...]]>Sun, 26 Feb 2012 21:51:33 GMThttp://www.diydiva.biz/1/post/2012/02/finally.htmlA job that was easy, quick and went according to the textbook!
After cutting and laying slate tiles which were all different thicknesses, then painting the stairwell in a house that "breathes" (cracks appear and disappear daily), then my Mum's guttering which ended up needing a new downpipe rather than just refixing, I felt like I was due an easy straightforward job.

And here it was:

Old taps.

No taps

all cleaned up... (you never can get the limescale off, but as soon as the taps are off, easy as pie!

New taps!!!

and they look lovely! Once again the customer's choice was spot on.

We took a drive out into the New Forest again today, but I'm off to ebay this minute to buy an OS sheet of the forest because we had a very boring walk due to not wanting to stray off the paths! Back in the week!

]]><![CDATA[Busy, busy...]]>Tue, 21 Feb 2012 23:27:02 GMThttp://www.diydiva.biz/1/post/2012/02/busy-busy.htmlI have a new car! Well, new to me. It's a Peugeot 406 estate, with alloys, a 12 disc CD changer, and an enormous boot. I've just got the CD changer working this evening, and couldn't contain myself- I put 11 discs in, ad must have listened to snatches of at least 6!
It's silver, so I'm wondering whether to have my logo and details down the sides and across the back rather than the home printed posters I currently have.
Spent nearly 2 hours putting business cards through doors this morning, so hopefully the phone'll be ringing off the hook (!)

Best be off to bed just in case. Toodle pip!
]]><![CDATA[As promised...]]>Wed, 15 Feb 2012 23:01:59 GMThttp://www.diydiva.biz/1/post/2012/02/as-promised1.htmlan update. Unfortunately, no photo of the finished tiling. The light was too challenging for my phone camera, and the one half decent photo I got.... the slate tiles were damp from being wiped over, but only in patches, so it looks rubbish in the photo compared to fab in reality.

So, rather than leave you with no photo, here's one of where we went for a walk on Sunday.
We went to Burseldon car boot, then carried on into the New Forest, which was really cold, and frozen around the edges. There was a bit of snow too- a lovely novelty for us southerners!

There were loads of little birds out and about, too: robins, siskins, tree creepers, and we (well, my other half, I'm not that good) reckons we heard a nuthatch, but we couldn't see the little blighter to get a positive ID!

Off to bed, busy day painting tomorrow! Sleep well, all.

]]><![CDATA[gosh....]]>Tue, 14 Feb 2012 21:46:15 GMThttp://www.diydiva.biz/1/post/2012/02/gosh.htmlWow, it's been forever!

been soooooo busy I've not had time for updating.

Amongst other things,my car (Deawoo Nubira estate) died. Gearbox went, then the water pump went, so it's off to the scrapman on Friday.

In the search for another car I discovered that it's been far too long since I cycled anywhere, and that there are a lot of kind people out there willing to give you a lift when you need it.
And I'm now the proud owner of a Peugeot 406 estate, silver, alloys, CD changer.... and more importantly, a MASSIVE boot.

So, I've been wallpapering then painting a hall stairs and landing in Southsea, and I'm now painting a hall stairs and landing in Horndean. Hmmm, I see a pattern emerging!

This morning I've been tiling a fireplace. would have been nice and easy, but the tiles were slate, which needed cutting with an angle grinder. I need to pop back tomorrow evening and grout it, but so far it looks like this:

I'll post another one of it when it's finished. Also trimmed down one door and moved one up a bit to allow for new thresholds.

Will try to post a little more frequently.

Happy valentines day to you all. I'm off to have a bit of valentines cake!

]]><![CDATA[Happy New Year!]]>Sat, 31 Dec 2011 20:35:10 GMThttp://www.diydiva.biz/1/post/2011/12/happy-new-year.htmlHi all!

Hope you had a lovely Christmas, and are having a great New Year's Eve.

Here's to 2012, let's hope it's a good one. After all that's happened this year, next year's got to be good!

]]><![CDATA[Post Title.]]>Sat, 10 Dec 2011 23:06:55 GMThttp://www.diydiva.biz/1/post/2011/12/post-title-click-and-type-to-edit2.htmlMore work on the kitchen/ utility area/ shower room. It's a bit dark, but the wall the shower used to be on has gone, replaced by a lintel and securely bricked in. You can see through the opening down to the shower which there are a couple of pics of. The very loyal and observant of you may remember the wallpaper from the bathroom I posted about back in March. The client had seen said blog post and knew it would look fab when her son- who hadn't seen my blog- chose it. The black tile effect panelling in the shower itself looks like tiles, and goes really well. Black towels and mats will finish it off beautifully.

This is your new blog post. Click here and start typing, or drag in elements from the top bar.

Throughout the job I was "helped" by the two gorgeous alsatians who live there. At times they were a bit too helpful and had to be "persuaded" to keep their paws to themselves!

The older dog's name means bear, and this photo really illustrates why! He's all fur, and a great big fuzz of friendliness.

Then the last few days have been spent revamping a front room- striking wallpaper, and fresh paint all round have given it a real lift.

]]><![CDATA[Back again....]]>Fri, 25 Nov 2011 15:47:46 GMThttp://www.diydiva.biz/1/post/2011/11/back-again.htmlNot that I've been anywhere, really, just too busy to post.

Just hover over the images to see what I've been up to!

The front of the house before I got going on it!

The last week I've been painting the front of a friend's house. I don't normally do this high 'cause I don't have a ladder big enough, but they're neighbours of my mum's and she has a huge ladder, so up I went. Apparently mum has a piccie of me up on high- the temptation to speak to the teenage litterbugs passing by and then duck out of sight behind the top of the parapet was almost irresistible!

I've also been repainting a whole flat- which was empty between tenants. Lovely, no problem leaving paint wet, dustsheets or other gear around, or rollers drying in the kitchen sink. The carpets were being replaced too, so no problem if I dripped (paint, that is!).

The current job I'm in is ripping out a shower and sink, and moving a loo. This is in order to put a new shower in the corner, with a tinsy sink next to it, and the loo the other side. There'll be a stud wall across what used to be the shower room, with the new little, sorry compact shower room one side and part of the kitchen moved into the other. It's still a work in progress, but it'll look fab when it's done. The shower's finished, and I'll get a pic tomorrow.

On the left is where the new shower now is. In the middle is where the shower used to be. That wall's going to be knocked out so that this part of the conservatory becomes part of the kitchen. To the left of the pic under the light, you can just see the side of the window that's in the right hand picture. In the third pic it's viewed from the other side (from in the kitchen). That's coming out. Some of it will be bricked up to form a support for the lintel that'll need to go in where the wall's coming out. Don't want the ceiling falling in, do we? Makes a right mess!

I'll do my best to post progress reports.

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