Hey guys - sorry it's been a while. I've just been struggling with work and keeping everything in order with that, as well as a few personal problems - didn't mean to neglect you there. Well, I have to say that the economy seems to be stuttering. Work is getting even more scarce with the customers expecting unrealistic amounts of work for their money. Now, I know everyone is earning less and general things such as food are getting expensive all the more so as each day goes by, but I really can't deal with many more customers complaining that they should have got this or they should have got that for their money. If they don't want my service, they shouldn't hire me in the first place. I would almost be glad to not have the custom.

Anyway, rant over, and I'm still on my search for my perfect furniture - I haven't forgotten, certainly not. Despite the stress at work, slowly but surely the furniture is coming into place, the whole look of the place is slowly but surely becoming complete, and a lot of it is due to the free information I've gotten on the internet as to how exactly to do things. I will make a post about that later.

So, it's coming along well. More to come very soon.

John

Welcome to John's DIY Blog

I have just purchased a log house in the country, a quiet place called Llanharan http://webapps.rhondda-cynon-taf.gov.uk/heritagetrail/taff/llanharan/llanharan.htm , for quite a fair amount of money, and this blog will document my journey, the highs, the lows and all, of this new part of my life. I hope to post pictures of the final product once I am finished, but judging by the sheer size of this place, that won't be for a while yet. Do feel free to comment and I will get back to you as soon as possible.


So what do I want to improve with this house? Well, pretty much everything. In the interior at the very least. I want new tables, chairs, fixtures, ornaments, lamps, lights, covers, sofas - you name it - to be replaced, as they are quite old at the moment. A few I would say are antiques so they can be sold at a local antiques dealer before I get to the even more difficult task of buying new items to go in my house. It's going to be a difficult journey to do all on my own, so I hope this will be a nice little outlet for me and that at least a couple of you will accompany me on the way.


The ceilings are currently brown so I want to whitewash them all over completely, and I want to replace the radiators and adjust some of the drawers in the chests of drawers that I am not going to sell and replace (one of the few items that I am not going to sell, in fact). I am going to clear a lot of the trash that still remains about the house, and I am going to repair a lot of the walls myself. They are good quality in terms of sturdiness but they are marked in many places and not clear enough, so I will plaster over some places and then whitewash again. I am going to install wooden floorboards and using my previous plumbing experience get a new boiler and completely revamp the whole plumbing and water system in the house. I'm going to check the electricity and hopefully it will be good enough for my small home theater system and home stereo / sound system. For the living room I really want to get a good leather armchair or two, and a nice main sofa and some rocking chairs which would suit this place really nicely. The treat for me is when I get to buy the TV. Oh, and just before I forget, I will definitely have to change the windows to double glazing as they are looking really flimsy at the moment.

I just want to have this blog to be accountable of what I am doing so that I don't slack off and if home improvement is your thing, then by all means, follow my progress and comment if you want. I think that's it for now and I will let you know as soon as I do anything major.