The Plex data SSD died and I had wanted to build a new server for a while. I was originally going to go for an Epyc processor, but it wouldn't have been new, with no warranty. After some research I decided on an AMD Ryzen 9 5950X 16 Core 32 Thread CPU with a MSI MAG B550 TOMAHAWK MAX motherboard, an 850W MSI MAG A850GL power supply, 128GB Corsair DDR4 Vengeance LPX of RAM, a few WD SSDs, a 4GB PNY NVIDIA RTX A400 graphics card, a Hauppauge WinTV-quadHD PCIe TV card and a be quiet! Pure Loop 120mm AIO Cooler. I got it all setup on my bench first and once I had got Plex installed I removed the old hardware from the case and added in the new hardware. It took another few days of configuration to get everything installed on it. It is now back in the rack. The machine is super quick, Ethan and I have a Minecraft server running on there so we can play together which is great.
I have been running out of space to store my bigger Lego models and my new Brickheadz, so we added 3 14 inch by 1.8m shelves to the back wall, fixed from behind so they are floating which gives me enough room for all my large models. We then fitted a few more shelves on the wall next to the desk.
Today we put up the Christmas tree, decorations and the outside lights, I also decorated the Lego tree for my office.
Ethan wanted to have a go at streaming, so I took one of my old office monitors, ordered a long HDMI cable and a wall mount. Ethan and I fitted it this morning, setup OBS on the machine and then gave it a test by streaming Rocket League.
Today we got the office finished. We got the screens mounted, all of the cables connected, the smart lights added to Wi-Fi and I also added back in my Lego and chair.
Dad and I started by taking the desk tops off and putting them outside. We then stripped all of the wallpaper off and then I sanded down all of the walls to remove any imperfections. Dad then painted the ceiling white while I sanded down the desk tops outside. We then papered the room, put up the shelf and started to put everything back in so that we could get the monitor board mounted on the wall. At the end of the day we got the new light switch added and then the lights mounted.
Now all the items have been arriving for my office update, I moved my old monitors and microphone into Rachels office. I will be using this until my office update is complete. Rachel and I both have Microsoft Surfaces, so we can both connect easily using the Surface Dock.
I have been ordering some new parts so that I can redo my office. I have ordered a Canon EOS RP with a 18-45mm lens to use as a webcam, a 4k USB video card to power the 3rd screen, 3 x Dell S2722QC 27-inch 4K monitors, a Shure SM7B microphone and a Shure MVX2U audio interface and some smart plugs, screen to replace the light switch and some cables.
Our fence and gate had gone rotten, so we got rid of the old ones and then built a new one using feather edge boards which were fixed to both sides as I like the look better.
We put up the tree this afternoon. We put the Christmas music and the fire to get us in the Christmas mood. We decided to put the tree in a different place this year and it works a lot better. After the tree was up we watched Home Alone.
To finish the kitchen off we decided to change out all of the white sockets and replace them with some brushed gold ones to match the taps. We struggled to find all of the different types we needed in the same colour and style, but we ended up getting Eurolite ones with white inserts. They didnt take us that long to wire up and they look great.
I added 2 Tuya RGBCCT LED strip lights to the top of the cupboards in the kitchen and utility room, this gives a nice slow to the room when they are on for late in the evening when we dont want the full lights on. I also added 2 lights under the units in the utility room, controlled by a Tuya smart switch.
I have wanted a boil tap for a while, as they are really convenient. When planning for the new kitchen I made sure we could fit one in and today I got it all fitted and plumbed in. Its not really quick to make a tea in-between meetings.
Today we got our Gemini Worktops, Calacatta Grand Imperial quartz worktops fitted. We went for a matching upstand and also a waterfall end panel. It turned out really great and makes the room look really bright.
Dad came round this morning and helped fit some new wallpaper in the kitchen. The gold on the white background looks great with the flooring.
We are going to be having new worktops, so we needed to removed the old worktops, get all of the tiles removed, get the walls plastered and then get it painted. We did this over a few evenings and now it is all ready.
The new carpets were fitted today, they look and feel amazing. Really pleased with the stripe on the stairs carpet and looks great with the new flooring.
We are going to be having new carpets fitted, so we needed to clear all of the rooms of furniture , carpets and underlay. It was hard work getting everything out of the rooms into the garage but we managed it in an evening.
I was running out of room for storing my Brickheadz and Technic Lego vehicles, so I fitted some more shelves in the loft. The vehicles look great on display.
We have wanted to change the flooring in downstairs for a while and we finally decided to get an engineered distressed oak floor from UK Flooring Direct. The boards at 1.9m long and have a great texture to them. They are also not lacquered, they are waxed so they dont have a shiny surface. I pulled up all of the old carpet, underlay and flooring and then Dad and I started by laying down the gold underlay before fitting the new flooring. We glued all of the joints and tried to line them all up with a 3 board pattern. We did in the kitchen, utility room, toilet, under the stairs and then the hallway. It really brightens up the rooms and it looks amazing.
As I have been using the gym there was a few things that I was missing, so I ordered them and installed them to the equipment. This will now enable me to do more exercises with the equipment I have.
Dad and I had been talking about getting back to the gym for a while but given our different schedules we were finding it hard to decide on what gym to go and also the cost per month. In the end we decided to spend the money we would on a gym membership and get one at home. After looking around for quite a while we went for a Mirafit M100 Power Rack, Olympic Barbell and Plates, Mirafit Home Gym Bench, Hex Dumbbells Set and Mirafit Cable System with some accessories. It all arrived on a big pallet and Dad came over that evening and we assembled it all. The quality is great and im really enjoying being back at the gym.
Ethan has music on while he is in the bath and we thought it would be cool to have some disco lights and speakers in there so I had a look at options and settled on a Aurpass Audio 4inch screen that replaces the light switch which has a 25watt 2 channel amplifier built in. I then got 2 Moes GU10 RGB LED lights for the ceiling and a Moes 1 channel smart switch module to control the fan. For speakers I went with some ceiling mounted ones from Herdo, they are 4inch and 2 way. The screen runs Android so I installed Plex which works great. The lights and switch are controlled by the Tuya app. Once I had got it all wired up it works great, the sound from the speakers is really good and the lights work in time with the music.
I had my Dad over for the day to get some DIY jobs out of the way. We started off by painting the stairs and landing, touching up any glossing at the same time. We then fitted some new doors in the loft to give access to the storage part, as the old doors we hard to get out and were also not insulated. The new ones work really well. We then added some shelves for the Lego Brickheadz so they can be on display. We finished off the day by replacing all of the outdoor light bulbs with the same LED ones so they all give off the same colour and then added a light to the outside which will light up the tree.
After converting the loft, all of the things that were stored in the loft were just on top of the insulation. We have some space in the loft that is 2.5m by 2m which is raised off the insulation, so we framed it out and boarded it. We then put down some boards and added carpet on the top so that boxes could be pushed along. All of the items fit nicely in the space with everything now off the insulation.
As i had the day off i decided to get my Magic Mirror and Unifi Doorbell fitted. I started off by making a whole where i wanted the power to come out and then used my cable rods to make a path to the power outlet and then pulled some power cable through ready for connection later. I then drilled a hole through the wall to the outside to run the power for the doorbell. I mounted the doorbell on the outside and the bracket for the mirror on the inside. I switched off the power and then wired up the power cable to the back of the mirror. I switched on the power and the doorbell and the mirror turned on, as i had already configured the mirror and doorbell they just worked. Im really pleased with how the mirror turned out and it is really useful for seeing what is on the cameras and what meetings i have that day.
Our slabs in the back garden have got really dirty, so this morning Ethan and I decided to get the jet wash out and give them a good clean, once the back was done we went round the front and cleaned them too.
I have been having some back pain and my office chair was getting old and most of the padding was gone. I set out to find myself a new office chair that was the right height, looked nice and was ergonomic. After lots of looking i settled on a white leather chair made by Kulik System called the Imperial. After a few months of waiting for it to be made a shipped, it arrived was easy to put together and is great to sit on.
When we are in the loft we dont want the main lights on but it would be nice to have some form of lighting, so i decided to go for some Meross LED lights, i ordered 2 sets, 1 for each side of the room so they can be controlled independently. Once fitted they look amazing, the Lego side looking the best with having the desk glowing. For playing online games i got a new HD webcam and also a Razer Seiren X microphone in white which i mounted to the ceiling and with it being white it blends in quite well.
I have made some more progress on the mirror, i updated the software, then tidied and fixed the cables. I then trialed the mirror in place and it looks really good.
We put up our Christmas Trees up today, we put the snow covered tree in the garage and the pine covered tree in the lounge, but then used the decorations for the other trees. It turned out really nice and has made the house feel very festive.
After adding the ambilights into the loft i had wanted them in my office, so i ordered a 4m version. I had to take the monitors off the wall, so that i could mount the controller and hide all of the wires. Once i got the software installed the lights worked and they look amazing. I have been playing with different backgrounds to give my office some nice mood lighting.
Last time we had a power cut the UPS i had gave up. I got a Tripp Lite 1500 VA as a replacement and it was really easy to fit only taking 10 mins. I connected the USB to my server and now the UPS shows up as a battery in windows so i can set the server to shutdown if the battery gets to low.
I have had 2 Nest thermostats since December last year and I have finally got round to getting them installed. I was going to have ago myself, but after seeing the spaghetti wiring that is in the airing cupboard i decided to get a professional to fit them. He got them fitted within a few hours and adding them to the app was easy. I like the option to have the time show when walking near them.
I have made some progress on the Magic Mirror. I have updated to the 8Gb Pi 4 model that i have attached a cooling fan to. I have then got a slimline 240v to USB-C converter to power the Pi. I got a new power supply for the monitor which is inline and not on the plug, i then combined all this with a Meross smart switch. I made these changes so that i could just have 1 cable coming out of the mirror for power and everything else is self contained behind the mirror. I now need to setup the Magic Mirror software on the new Pi and test out the video streaming.
I have always liked the ambilights on the Philips TVs and was looking into alternatives. I found some individually addressable RGB light strips that when combined with the AmbiBox software would take an average of the colour and change the LED to be that colour. I added the strip which had 116 LEDs on to the back of the TV and the results are amazing, it make everything really immersive. You have to set games to be borderless windowed and then the colours can be worked out. The lights refresh at 25FPS and look amazing.
The PiHole in the house was just sat in the server cabinet and plugged into the wall, when the power went off i have a UPS on the internet and the Wifi but the PiHole goes down and i cant use the internet anyway. I decided to upgrade the Pi to an 8Gb Pi 4 model and add POE so that it could be powered by the switch which is connected to the UPS. I got a nice rackmount to make the installation a lot cleaner. It didnt take long to install and worked straight the way.
After having the media PC in the loft for a few months, Ethan and I have been playing on it more and more. We wanted to play newer games and at high quality. I ordered a Zotac GTX 3060 Ti, another 16Gb of Vengeance Pro RAM, a TUF Gaming Aio cooler and a 2Tb NVMe SSD for storing the games on. I installed it all in the case trying to neaten up the cables as i went. I booted the machine up and noticed a difference straight the way, Ethan wanted to test out Rocket League, so i loaded up up, cranked up the graphics settings and it looks great.
We havent got a doorbell on our house, so if were were going to get one it had to have a camera in it. I went for the Unifi Doorbell as this will integrate nicely into my current setup and the feed will constantly be recorded. The next thing i need to do is figure out wiring it all up as there is currently no wiring.
I thought it would be good to have a shoe rack as we were just chucking the shoes in a pile in the garage. I had some oak left over from when i added the worktops to the garage. Dad made me the shoe rack with some painted ply and then we fixed it to the wall with some anchor bolts.
I needed some extra storage and i looked at putting that in the garage, but i had some left over wood and decided that i add the extra storage to the shed. The wood i used was a bit overkill for what i needed but i do like the chunky look. It took less than 2 hours to build it all and fits everything i needed with some space to spare.
Rachel has been working hard on the garden, buying and planting pots and arranging them in nice displays. Ethan and I have mowed the lawn and dug a big hole for a tree to be planted. I added some hanging baskets to the back which have grass and ivy in them. Its looking really nice out there now.
I was down to GB left on the server, so it was time to get the new hard disks in. I installed the new 5 drive bay, put the 4 new 12TB hard disks inside it, added the hardware RAID card in and then when i came to power it up the power supply wasnt large enough to power 9 hard disks, so i had to bring a 2nd power supply in to power the new disks. I used robocopy to migrate all of the files from the old software RAID to the new hardware RAID, which worked really well. Once that was done i updated all of the shares and symlinks before shutting the server down, removing all of the old hard drives and adding in a new SSD just for Plex metadata. I now have 37TB of useable space when the drives are in RAID5. While i had the server out i also removed some old cables and drives from the rack to tidy it up before putting the server back in the rack.
The loft hatch needed a trim round it on the outside as it looked a bit of a mess, we cut some skirting board down into architrave and nailed it round the hatch. My Dad made a cover to go inside the loft to stop anyone falling down when people are in the loft. There is a bar clip to hold the cover to the wall so that the ladder can still be used eaily.
I started early this morning to make sure i could get as many jobs done as i could. I started off before 8am by cutting the hedges, i use garden shears so i didnt make too much noise. After clearing up all of the leaves i moved onto cutting up all of the left over wood to fit into my log burner, i used the table saw for this as i could set the size i was cutting and then just push the wood through. When all the wood was cut i cleared out the log store and then restacked it with all the new wood. Once the garage was clear, i hovered it and mopped it to get rid of all the dirt that had built up. I finished off the day by mowing the front and back lawns.
I got Ethan and I an Xbox controller each, installed Steam and Launchbox on the Media PC to act as a frontend to all of my games. I have setup the Media PC to use the optical out into the amplifier and configured it to use DTS for 5.1 gaming. I tried it out with Portal 2 and it sounds great.
Rachel got Ethan and I some gifts for the Lego side of the loft, some storage boxes and 2 shelves.
Dad and I had a goal to get the loft complete today. I started off by giving the walls a 2nd coat of paint, while Dad started building the shelves and desk. I then moved over to wiring up and fitting the speakers, TV and subwoofer before moving onto getting power into the loft. We framed the feature wall, shelf area and amp rack with wood to tie it all together which turned out great. We then fitted the gripper rods, laid the underlay and finally fitted the carpet. The finishing touch was to put in the stools for the desk and the beanbag seats for the TV space. The loft turned out even better than i thought it was going to!
I had left the bottom of the walls and the bottom of the trusses when painting, so i masking taped off the wood and then with a brush painted all of the bare plaster and wood. While i had some paint left over i also gave another coat of paint to all of the trusses.
Ethan helped me in the loft today painting all of the walls. He had his own paint tray, roller and brush and got to work. I had a big roller and got most of the walls and ceiling. After getting the walls painted, i decided to paint all of the trusses, as being wood they stood out to much and i wanted them to blend in with the walls and not be a feature.
Initially we were going to just paint the plasterboards, but after fitting them and seeing the potential to how good the room could be if done properly, we decided to plaster the room. We mixed a bag of plaster at a time, got it onto the walls and then troweled it up, the 1st bag was ok, but as the room started to heat up and the sections we were plastering were getting more complicated the plaster went off quicker which made it really had to trowel up. When we got to the cupboard the plaster was going off as we were putting it on, so we had to get it as smooth as we could. It turned out quite well considering we are not plasters, this is only the 2nd time i have done plastering.
During lunch and after work i went into the loft added all of the anglebead to the corners and laid scrim over each joint, to bridge gaps and help the plaster would adhere.
Dad and I plasterboarded the loft today. It started with having to fold all of the 8x4 plasterboards in half, carrying them from the drive up the stairs and lifting them into the loft. I then started on the walls and Dad started on the ceiling. We had to build a stud wall next to the loft hatch which would have the light switch in it and also separate the space into 2.
I needed a loft ladder so we could get into the loft easily, but i didnt want a cold metal one as they can be quite painful on the feet and also i dont like how they protrude into the loft. I decided to go for a 3 section wooden ladder that is contained within the hatch itself. We had to make the opening a lot longer, but after that fitting was quite easy. After cutting the bottom of the ladder off we got it to the right angle to make walking up easy.
After a few weeks of waiting the 28 plasterboards finally arrived. I have covered them over to make sure they dont get wet until the weekend when i can fit them.
I wired in all of the downlighters today. They were really easy to do, you had to strip a bit of the cable sleeve and then push the cable into a connector block which locks it in place. The actual light can be removed when we board the ceiling and then connected again when we have cut the hole out.
As i am going to be using the old Media PC in the loft to watch films and play on games, i thought i had better update the hardware. I got a AMD Ryzen 5, 6 core, 12 thread CPU on a ROG Strix B450-F motherboard, a Samsung 970 Evo NVME drive, 16GB Corsair Vengeance RAM and a new fully modular EVGA power supply. I needed a keyboard so i got a Microsoft all in one wireless keyboard. I have reused the graphics cards i had and the modular cabling helped keeping the case clean inside. I installed Windows 10 and found a version of the iMon software to get the front screen working.
I got some new parts for my server as i have nearly ran out of disk space and also to get Plex working better. I have a 1Tb Samsung 870 Evo as the Plex metadata and DB drive, then 4 x Western Digital 12Tb WD Gold drives, which I am combining with a Highpoint hardware RAID card in RAID 5, which should leave me with 36Tb of useable storage. I also got an extra 8Gb of RAM and a hotswap drive bay for the 4 drives. I also got replacement fans for all of the ones in the case to increase airflow.
Before we board the loft i wanted to make sure the network cables that were in the loft were working so i wired up the AP, enabled POE on the port and then adopted the AP. I then did the same with the switch. Now the TV, PC and anything else i need have gigabit LAN.
I wired up all of the plugs into a ring, ready to get it connected into the upstairs ring main. I ran all of the speaker, optical, network, HDMI and aerial cables from the AV rack to where they needed to go and then wired them up to the AV amplifier.
To fit the subwoofer box and the AV rack, i had to raise the floor up to the same level as the room as they were designed to fit flush with the wood trim, once that was dine the boxes were securely fixed into place and the insulation cut round them. The 2 access panels were also fitted and finally the TV mount was fixed to the feature wall.
I needed a way to get into the outer parts of the loft where everything is going to be stored, but also didnt want the draft to get through. After lots of thinking and planning, ended up building a removeable panel inside a frame which is going to be covered in insulation at the back. The hole which acts as a handle is covered with a Fire Door sign which stops the draft.
I wanted some nice small speakers for the loft, but still wanted them to sound good. I looked at buying new but didnt want to pay too much given it was going in the loft. I found a nice set of Boston Acoustics Soundware XS 5.1 speakers on eBay and after testing them I am really pleased with how they sound and they are nice and small.
I got a new Unifi Wifi 6 AP as well as a Unifi G3 Instant Camera for the garage. I ran a CAT6 cable behind the wall from the network switch into the loft and then drilled a hole where i wanted to mount the AP. It was easy to adopt once i had enabled POE on the port. I already had a USB extension cable going into the loft, so i just connected the camera to that and mounted it to the ceiling and the Unifi Protect software detected it and then it was easy to adopt. The quality is really good and i like the 2 way talking feature.
I am going to be using my old AV amplifier and Media PC in the loft to provide music and entertainment. I needed to house all of the equipment so i built an AV rack out of the left over wood and made some nice think shelves out of 2x8 for the amp and pc to sit on. I also built a box for the subwoofer which i plan to buy. Once i built them i realised that the AV rack is too heavy to lift, so i had to take it apart to get it into the loft.
I got a delivery of new carpet today, enough to do the room in a nice light grey colour, the new loft ladder arrived as well which when fitted comes with a new hatch and will increase the size of the opening.
There was a gap around the edge of the room where the boards ended but the walls hadnt started yet, I decided to run boards of 6x2 around the outside to cover the gap, but also act as a skirting board which the carpet can go up to. I then used all of the spare wood i had, 4x3 and 7x2 to create a feature wall, alternating between the smaller and larger wood. Standing back looking at the wall and the perimeter it really looks great, better than i had thought it would.
I have spent most of my lunch breaks in the loft making slow progress on insulating the 2 ends. I framed and then insulated the feature wall, then because i am going to be adding lots of planks to the wall, i wanted more places to fix them, i decided that i would batten the wall with a center to center of 300mm, once this was done i insulated in between the battens. For the shelf end i built a similar framework and insulated the wall, there was some gaps and beams running through, so i used fire proof foam fill to close all of the gaps.
I managed to spend a lot of time in the loft today. I added noggins to the bottom of the walls and then insulated the rest of the gap
I finished adding noggins to the wall and then carried up a lot more insulation up. I insulated the rest of the wall panels. Its really starting to come together as a room now, its also a lot warmer in the loft now.
I started adding noggins to the wall supports, ready for when we add the MDF. I started adding some insulation to the walls.
Today i spent a few hours in the loft. I extended the rest of the rafters and then insulated the rest of them.
The paving slabs have been getting really dirty over the winter and so today i borrowed a jet wash off my Dad. Ethan and I started off with the back garden and after they came up so clean, we decided that we would clean the front slabs as well. Ethan loved having a go with the jet wash, the slab cleaner attachment makes it a lot easier to clean as you dont get soaked. When that was done Rachel asked me to clean the stone sills and then the roof on the bay window, they both came out great.
I got a big delivery of Rockwall insulation this week, so today i got half of the packs into the loft and then started extending the depth of the rafters so that i could add insulation between and not have it come into contact with the roof membrane. I used lath to extend the rafters depth. I managed to get half of the rafters insulated and half of the ceiling insulated.
The grass had been getting really long and I have been waiting for a nice day to cut it. Today was nice, so Ethan and I cut the front and the back, while Rachel did some weeding. I was worried that i wouldnt be able to finish it all as i had no spare fuel only what was left inside the mower.
I had a few hours this morning so i decided to work on the loft and added all of the collar ties. This give us space to add lights and also to add insulation which wont come into contact with the roof membrane. I measured the 2 ends and also the middle one and then ran a string line between them all and used a level to make sure everything was straight. I tried 2 sheets of insulation in the roof to see how it fit and i think its going to work well.
We got started on the loft today. We started off by ripping down some larger wood into 3x2. Once we had enough, we carried the wood into the loft and started raising the floor by 3". We raised the floor so that the insulation didnt have to be squashed. Once the floor was raised we carried up the 18mm chipboard and laid them the opposite way to the ceiling joists to give it more strength. We got the floor fully boarded just before lunch. After lunch we started working on the supports to hold the wall panels up and once they were all cut and fixed into place we started thinking about where we wanted to add the collar ties to act as the ceiling.
The building site were about to skip more wood and insulation, so i got this dropped off at my house, which is going to be great for the Lego room. I also planned out what i wanted one of the walls to look like.
I got a message that there was more wood available so I headed over to pick some more up. This time there was lots of planks on huge pallets which i took apart and then stacked in the back of my car.
I have plans for a new project at home. Ethan is really into Lego and said he would like a room to store it all, we dont have the room in the house, but we do have the loft which is empty. Dad had said that there was some wood that was going to be chucked in the skip, so i took the UP and loaded up as much as i could. The wood is nice and was pallets for transporting machinery.
Our front gate swelled up to the point where it wouldnt even open. My Dad made me a new gate, when he dropped it off Ethan and I took it into the shed and sanded it down ready for painting with varnish so that it withstands the weather. By the time we got to hanging the gate it was dark, but using a big light we managed to hang the gate and it closes great.
We wanted to make the garage seem a bit more christmassy, so Rachel and Ethan put my old Christmas tree up and also added some lights, so that if people did some over to drop presents off we could have them in the garage and they wouldnt get too cold or rained on.
Our washing machine failed and we had to get a new one, this is our 3rd washing machine in 5 years. This time we went for the cheapest one that was integrated and could be delivered next day. Its made by Logik and so far is really quiet and does the job.
Today i put a coat of wood primer on the frame. After it had dried i could really see that i needs a good sanding before another coat of primer.
I got the mirror back from Dad today and trial fitted it on the wall to see how its fits, where the power outlet will go and if the light switch will be ok. Its going to fit great by the looks of it
Dad sanded the frame and jointed it all today and it is looking great.
I went over to my Dads tonight to start building the mirror. I decided to use 4inch x 4inch fence post to build it out of, so that i could cut it down to size. We started by measuring everything and then used the bench saw to cut a rebate in for where the mirror goes. Once we had cut everything, we made sure everything was going to fit.
With my day off i decided to get a few jobs done around the house. In the morning i tackled painting the bathroom as when we got the house it was painted cream and we have always wanted it white. I made sure i masked everything off, painted around the edges and then rollered the walls. Once i had cleared everything up and made sure that i hadnt missed any of the wall, i finally got around to fixing the curtain pole which had been slowly pulling out of the wall with the weight of the curtains. I got some really long screws and brown raw-plugs to fix the brackets and it is now nice and level.
It has been a few months since anything has been done on the Magic Mirror project, due to the fact that i was looking for a monitor for a good price. I managed to get a 24inch LG monitor, which i first tried in place to see what it would look like, then tried different pieces of wood to see what depth of wood i needed to cover all the monitors, wires and plugs. I then took the monitor apart so it was just a bare monitor.
I have had some slabs which i cut in half for a while to go down the side of the log store, but hadnt got round to laying them. Dad got me some ready mixed mortar from work, so even though it was raining i got out into the garden and laid the slabs, i waited until the next day to haunch up the sides of the slabs as they were to wet to step on after laying them.
After getting the Lego pen pot for my birthday, i needed to get some stationery to put in it. I got a 30cm buildable ruler, 3 coloured gel pens and a mechanical pencil. The pen pot is not very big so these filled it nicely.
Winter is coming and i wanted to make sure we have the garden in order in case i cant work on the garden, so today Ethan and I cut the hedges on the front, I did the cutting and Ethan cleaned up. I dont want the bushes getting too big, so trying to keep them at the same height. We then did some weeding and mowed the front and back lawn.
We had to remove the old log store when we fixed the fence last weekend, so today we built a new one. I reused the old sides which were made from 6x2, we then cut a wall plate and a beam for the rafters to hang off, we leveled everything off and then cut all of the rafters, added some Tyvek felt before adding the lath. I had some spare tiles and some old tiles from last time, so we tiled the roof, making sure to overlap the fixing holes so there is no leeks. We finished off my flashbanding between the fence and the tiles and then adding some black guttering. Really pleased with how it turns out and we managed to fill it with burnable wood.
Our fence at the side of our house was new when we bought the house and it has gone rotten already. I tried to get in touch with Morris Homes, but they havent done anything about it. I bought 8 4 foot concrete posts which Dad and I have now dug down next to each wooden post and using post-crete have fixed them in place, these concrete posts have then been bolted to the wooden posts. The fence is solid again, we have also straightened it up as much as we can.
When getting something out of the shed i accidentally knocked over a tub of varnish which was meant for the wooden garden items. I didnt want to waste it, so Ethan and I varnished the floor of the shed. It came out really well and looks really nice. Not something i wanted to varnish, but it was better than wasting it.
Rachel wanted an extra plant box for the back garden and after we removed the old fence and gate, we had some spare wood. So Ethan and I decided to reuse the wood and create the plant box. Ethan did really well, hammering in all of the nails and i did the cutting. Hopefully we can get some plants for it now.
The posts in our side fence and gate have gone rotten, originally we were going to just replace the posts, but after Dad built us a new gate on the front, Rachel asked him to build us a fence and gate in the same style. He has built it over the past few weeks and this morning he came over and we remove the old one and fitted the new one. It looks really good and Rachel is really happy with it.
I had been looking for a Wifi light switch for a while, i did look at the bulbs, but having a controller in each bulb is ok, until the bulb breaks and then it costs a lot more to replace a single bulb, where as having the controller in the switch keeps the cost of the bulbs down. The switch is very deep and the backbox in my wall was not deep enough to fit the switch. I got a deep backbox and then chopped out the wall so that the box would fit. Once i had done that, wiring up the switch was easy. I downloaded the app and then setup the switch really quickly, it works really well and is responsive.
Rachel has been getting some accessories bit by bit for the house and as there was quite a few bits to do I got the pictures and hearts hung on the wall. Rachel got some plants and pots which added some life to the shed.
I have been having issues with my broadband for a while, i pay for 60mb, but i have never seen that much, at the start of lockdown i was getting about 30mb which was ok, but the past few weeks it has gotten worse with some days only getting 4mb, which isnt great when you need to be on video call. I phone EE and then sent out a BT engineer. He tested the wiring in the house and the street and then checked the connection in the cabinet. When he left i was up to 57mb which is a huge improvement.
I can see the hedges from my office window and they were in need of cutting, so today Ethan and I cut them. I did the cutting by hand with shears and then Ethan picked all of the cuttings up and put them in the wheelie bin.
Rachel has started using her office more and so we thought it was about time that we make it a bit more homely in there, so Rachel ordered some photo frames and then some nice photos of us all to put in them. Ethan and I put them up on the wall while Rachel was reorganising the room.
I had wanted to create a Magic Mirror for a long time and as we are in lockdown i thought it would be good to show Rachel when i am in meetings, also showing the weather and who is at the door is nice too. I setup a Raspberry Pi with the Magic Mirror software, configured the calendars, weather and camera feeds and then got it looking how i would like. I then took a photo of where i wanted to put the mirror and mocked it up on the computer to get the right size screen.
After building the mud kitchen for Ethan and him playing with it for a while we realised that he couldnt quite reach the utensils that were hanging up, so today Ethan and I built a step in the same design as the mud kitchen itself. It was built from some 3 inch by 3 inch timber and then some wood i had in the log store. It only raises him up 4 inches but it is enough.
When i decided on the equipment for the video conferencing setup, i made sure that i measured everything and got mounts, arms and extendable poles so that when i wasnt using it all, everything would fit behind the monitors and you wouldnt be able to see anything. After using it for a few days, everything fits just like i wanted behind the monitors with the exception of the camera which is on a quick release mount so i do have to remove the camera before folding away the mount.
When joining videos calls in the morning and at the end of the day there isnt enough light in front of me, so i look dark on the camera. I looking into lots of different solutions and in the end i settle for 2 Neewer T120 LED lights, which i have plugged into the mains with a 12v adapter. The 2 adapters are then connected to a Meross smart plug, so that i can turn on the lights from the app on my phone as i dont want to have them on all day. I rewired behind the monitors so that all sockets had their own supply, so i can have the main sockets powered all the time. I made some brackets to hold up the lights out of wood and then Ethan and I painted them white, so they blend in with the backboard. Having tried it out on a call they work really well.
As we park the Mokka in the garage every day, 1 of the tiles right at the front of the garage cracked and then over time it fell apart and i have been meaning to replace it for a while. Ethan and I had to find a replacement tile first as i couldnt remember where i had stored them, we found 1 in the end and started to smash the rest of the tile up. I got to use my new chisel bits for my SDS drill, it got all of the old adhesive off the concrete floor. This time i bedded the tile on silicone to see if it would help and the grouted the gaps around the edge. Ethan was a great help smashing the old tile and then using the sponge to take away any excess grout. Later that evening Rachel parked the car in the garage and the tile didnt even move.
I had been looking at new keyboards for use with my work laptop as i have been using the keyboard for my laptop and it is a pain un-pairing and pairing when i want to switch laptops. I was originally going to get the Microsoft Surface Keyboard, but then i seen the slightly older Microsoft Modern Keyboard with Touch ID. The modern keyboard has rechargeable battery built in and also has a fingerprint scanner built in, so i dont have to keep typing in my password. I was used to a really small keyboard so it took a bit of getting used to, but now i really enjoy typing on it.
Our front gate had gone funny and some of the wood was going rotten, so my Dad offered to build us a new gate. He dropped it off this morning and this afternoon Ethan and I went out to fit it. It didnt take long to fit and it fits great. Rachel had bought a heart to match the one on the front door, so we fitted that to.
The webcam i have had for the last 8 years has started playing up with the sound not working, so i was looking at getting a new webcam when i seen that Canon released some beta drivers that let you use a Digital SLR as a webcam. I have a Canon 70D that i dont use very often so after trying that on a tripod it worked great, but it doesnt do sound. I had a look at reviews on different microphones and as i was only using it for conferencing, i went for the Yanmai SF-777. I got a mount for the camera and the microphone so that i could still keep the clean floating look. The camera is powered from a USB adapter so i dont need to keep changing the batteries. Using it on calls is great, the image quality is great with my lens set to 24mm and the sound from the microphone is great and being a condenser microphone i dont get a lot of background noise.
Over the bank holiday weekend Rachel, Ethan and I ticked off some jobs outside of the house. Ethan and I re laid the slabs at the front of the house as they had all sunk where the ground has moved. We all then cut the hedges on the front as they were starting to look a bit wild. We also mowed the lawn in the back garden and Rachel did all the borders.
I started off by adding sides and then a backing to the base. I then used another old scaffold board to make a back board. I used some 4x1 to make some shelves and then started on the door for the oven. It is made out of 2 inch think wood, so wont easily get broken. We ordered the biggest dog bowl we could for a sink and i cut that out. Rachel had a chalk board which we attached and then i order a utensils rack which i have fixed to the backboard. It was great seeing Ethan enjoying it after we put so much effort in.
Ethan asked me to make him a mud kitchen for the garden and initially i was going to ask my Dad to build it for us, but i thought it would be something that Ethan and I could do together. Dad dropped off any spare wood he had and i gathered all of the spare wood i had and Ethan and I set about building the framework. The top is made from an old scaffold board we had. Ethan was a great help and he sanded all of the wood. At the end of the weekend i had a framework which was all screwed together ready for part 2.
Ethan watched a TV show where they had a bird house and were watching all of the birds come into the garden and he decided he wanted one. We looked at buying one, but thought it would be nice to build one. We gathered all of the wood that we had laying about and set about building a bird house. I did a little sketch on a bit of wood and then went for it. Ethan helped me all day and we ended up build something that is solid and looks cool. I finished it off with a 4 inch stand and 2 roof tiles we had left over, nothing but the best for the birds.
Whenever i want to do some work in the office with another device i cant because i havent got any spare plug sockets that are not under my desk.I removed all of the monitors and then wired up a double socket with 2 USB ports on the backing board, this way it is still accessible but hidden away so you wouldnt know its there. I also got a hotrod technic lego model for the office which looks good.
After our Legoland trip, i took a liking to the Lego keyring holder and also the Lego picture frame. I have the key holder on the wall which is great to know where all the keys are and then i have the picture frame in my office.
I added another smart device to the house today. Its a Meross smart garage door opener. It was really easy to wire up, just connecting to the same wires as the button and then it just needed power. The setup was easy using the app on the phone. It lets me open and close the garage door from the app, but also lets me know when the door has been opened, closed and when it has been left open for over 15 mins.
The bin store had started to leak and wasnt easy to get into, so after speaking to my Dad we thought it would be a good idea to put a small pitch roof on it. While we were doing that we decided to get some extra tiles and replace the roof on the seat we had built with tiles so that in the future that wouldnt become an issue. We got some tiles which were a close match to the tiles on the house and they have both come out really well. Whilst working on the garden i fixed some of the wiring issues with the garden lights.
I have been upgrading the house with a few IoT devices. Firstly we got a smart meter fitted, which i have now mounted in the garage. There was then an update tot eh Unifi software, which gives the ability for devices to have icons, which makes the interface look a lot better. I then got some smart devices from the brand Meross. I got 6 plugs, 2 light switches and 2 inline adapters. I have them wired up to my outdoor lights, office equipment, lounge and bedroom lamps and also the office amplifier in the garage, so that everything can be remotely switched off and on.
Our smoke alarms in the house keep going off for no reason and also have some warnings flashing, but we dont have the manuals for them and i cant find them online anywhere. To be on the safe side we decided to replace them, we were going to go for some more standard ones, but i have always liked the looked of the Nest Protect ones, so i decided to get 2 of them. They were easy to install and configure and took less than 10mins each.
I have been running the Unifi software for the wifi and cameras on my server, which works ok, but recording the 4 cameras was putting a lot of strain on the hard disks. A while a go Ubiquiti released the new cloud key, but the rack mount was always out of stock. I managed to get one off eBay and today i got it installed and configured. The new cloudkey has a 1tb hard disk that is used to record the cameras so that takes the load from my server. Overall its a great product, but i do think that the rack mount was slightly expensive for what it is.
The server died again! This time is was due to the SSD just not being detected by the server. I tried the drive in other machines and i couldnt get it working. I decided to get a new SSD and went for a 250gb drive, while i was reinstalling the OS i decided to upgrade from 2012 server and go to 2019 server. I purchased a licence and then downloaded the ISO. The install was super fast and when i plugged in the RAID to my surprise it appeared as an un-adopted RAID, i clicked adopt and within a few days it was back up and running.
We had wanted a dishwasher since buying the house. We finally managed to buy one and it is great. We did have to move the washing machine to the other side as the door on the dishwasher wouldnt be able to open all the way otherwise. We went for a Hoover HDI1LO38B-80.
When we bought the house we asked them to fit an induction hob, but they insisted on fitted a gas hob. We have lived with it since then, but we decided to upgrade and get an induction hob. It looks a lot cleaner in the kitchen and gets things to boil so quickly. It was really easy to install as we went for the 13amp version and there is a plug socket under the hob. We went for the Neff T36FB41X0G.
After we wallpapered the 1 wall in the lounge and were happy with it, today Dad and I tackled wall papering the whole of the dining room. It took us a few hours to do, but we are really pleased with how it turned out, makes the room feel a lot more cosey.
With the other 2 remaining monitors i decided to convert the spare / junk room into an office for Rachel. I got given a computer and i got the rest of the furniture from Ikea, so as to not spend to much on it. I painted the room white and then built all of the furniture, finishing off with wiring up the PC. I also setup Rachels sewing / embroidery machine up so she can use that when needed.
I had a spare monitor from when i got new monitors in my office, so i bought a cheap wall mount monitor bracket and put one of the monitors on the wall. I then had a spare Raspberry Pi, which i installed Raspbian on which automatically starts on boot, Chromium and displays the Unifi dashboard and the live view of the security cameras. I then have a script that tabs between the windows every few mins.
After over 3 years of having the wallpaper we finally got round to putting the wallpaper on the wall. We had been putting off wallpapering until we had bricked up the door between the lounge and the dinning room. We had also bought some paint at the same time, so i painted the lounge first, before wallpapering. We were not sure that we would still like the paper after that long, but it looks lovely.
Ethan was growing out of his bed, so we decided to get him new furniture for his bedroom. We decided on the buttons set from Barker and Stonehouse. We got him a new bed, wardrobe, bedside table, 3 drawer chest and a desk. The colour is lovely. To finish off the boat theme we got him some new bed sheets with boats on.
I finally got round to painting the wall we had plastered, this is so we can now paper it, as wallpaper sticks better to a painted wall than a freshly plastered wall.
Within the space of 2 weeks i have had 2 drives break in the server. The first time i put a spare drive in and accidentally deleted the whole RAID... I spent a week running recovery software and backing everything up to an 8TB external drive. I finally got everything installed and working after 3 weeks and then another disk broke. I am currently without a server as i dont have any spare drives, so going to be sending the 2 broken disks back to get replacements as they had a 5 year warranty.
Since Rachel and I got the house we had wanted to brick up the double doors between the lounge and the dining room, as we have a sofa right upto the doors so we never used them. Well finally Dad and I managed to take the doors and frame out and block the door up.
Every year we get a tech budget of £500 to spend on things to improve our experiance at work. I have had my monitors for quite a few years now so i thought it was time to upgrade. I managed to get 2 of the Dell P2418D 2560x1440 monitors with my tech budget and then i bought another one myself, for a total of 3. Installing them was as easy as unscrewing the old ones and then putting the new ones in place. Both the work Mac and my Surface power the 3 of them fine.
Since we bought the house we imagined having lights on the tree outside our house, so this year we bought some and tonight Dad and I put them up. They are connected to the same power that runs the outside lights, so when they come on so do the tree lights.
Last night we had our first proper dump of snow, the street and the garden were all white and was still snowing when we woke up.
11 years ago my car was featured in 2 magazines and today i finally got the pages framed and up in the garage. We made the frames 8 years ago when i got my first house, but we never finished them. It is great to finally have them up on the wall.
I had ran power for a power socket on the front and the corner of the house looked a bit dark, so i ordered another ground light and fitted it inside some wood in the corner, there was already armored cable running by the light so we just tapped into that. I also got a digital timer switch which controls the lights so i dont have to walk to the shed and garage to switch them all on.
I had my parents over tonight and we tried out the fire pit and the BBQ for the 1st time. The firepit worked well giving off a lot of heat.
After we got the patio furniture, we thought it would be nice to have some shade over the seat, so we brought a cantilever parasol, in grey to match the sofas.
The soil we have in the garden is not great, so i decided to get some compost to mix in with the top soil ready for planting. I needed 20 bags, which is nearly 1 tonn of compost. The local garden center had a good deal on it in bags, so i took the Corsa and managed to get 10 bags in per trip. The car was sat down at the back quite a bit but it was fine.
Dad and I built a brick BBQ today, i made a little shelf at the bottom out of some left over wood. We also pulled down the old log store and built a new one with some beefy sides and a tiled roof to match the shed.
We finally got to switch the front lights on this evening and they look great.
I laid blocks on the front to frame the slabs and then fitted 4 lights. We ran the power from the shed so that when the back lights come on so do the front ones.
Tonight i tried the garden lights and they look great, they give off a lovely glow in the garden.
We started work on the bin store today, started with building a frame that surrounded the bins and then worked on paneling it. We then built some doors on the front in the same log lap material that is on the shed. We then finished by adding some flaps to the top so you can access the bins.
Dad and I worked on building a seat for the garden, we have seen a few we liked at garden centers so we just created our own. It has 4 inch posts with decking as the seat, which lifts up to have storage under it. It has a roof on it to keep the sun off.
Today Dad and I wired up all of the lights in the back garden, there was 6 lights sunk into the ground and then 8 little LEDs, 1 in each of the sleepers. We fitted LED GU10 bulbs in each of them so we can easily replace the bulbs. Once we had done all that we barrowed round the slate.
Today we laid the rest of the blocks along the patio and bin store, bedding them on concrete.
Dad and I worked on the back garden again today, we started off by pulling up all the slabs in the back and then while Dad was filling it with type 1 to create a good base, i was digging channels from the shed to put in the 5 runs of armored cable that will be going to each of the sets of lights. Once the cables were in the right place we wackered the type 1, put some sand down and laid the slabs.
Today we worked on planning the block border, to make sure that we get around the whole garden and have enough blocks. Once it was planned out we dug it all out. We then dug out where the bin store is going to go. We finished off by putting some type 1 down where the seat is going to be going.
Dad and I started the back garden today. We started off by marking out the 3m circle. We then dug the grass off and then covered it in type 1 which got wackered down to make a good base. We then dug holes for the 8 sleepers and then concreted them into the ground making sure the tops were level and they were upright. We then sanded the circle and laid the blocks around the edge and in the center. We finished off the day by cutting some of the blocks around the firepit.
All of the materials for the back garden project arrived today, containing blocks, sand, slate, sleepers and a skip.
Now the weather is a bit dryer, i got some sand for the sand pit, we put down a membrane first and then added 10 bags of child safe sand on top. Dad and I then built a lid out of some feather-edge boarding.
Dad and I made some picture frames 8 years ago to hold the pictures of the Corsa when it was featured in the 2 magazines, but we had never got round to putting them up. So finally we fixed them to the garage wall either side of the TV. I havent got the pictures in there yet, but its nice to finally have them up.
I got some more down lighters for the side of the garage as it gets really dark down there in the evening, we wired them in with the front and back down lights, so they all come on at the same time.
Rachel had her old TV still at her parents, she had bought it just before we moved in together, so it is still a good TV. I had got a cheap wall mount bracket, so Dad and I mounted it to the wall in the spare room. We also fitted a USB socket next to where Rachel sleeps so she can have her phone charging as well as the lamp and baby monitor on.
Dad came over today to help get the shed finished. We started off by getting the mold of the inside of the shed after we constructed it when it was wet. We then fitted black guttering which matched in with the houses around it. We then got the power connected so we now have lights in there. I had got an oiled filled radiator, so we got that mounted and wired in, so we could get the shed dried out. I had 2 spare down lights left over from doing the garage so we fitted them on the outside and it looks great at night. After fitting it with a sign that Ethan got me and letting it dry out a bit, we painted it with some oil based stain block paint.
Dad and I did some more on the shed today. We created some shelfs out of the remaining wood, we built a dividing wall out of 9 inc by 3 inc timber, which makes it look really good and will be solid. We then put all of the tools back in the shed. We built a bike rack and a rack to hold the tools. We then cut up all of the remaining wood into bits that will fit in my log burner. We finished the day off by building a temp log store to keep all the wood dry.
I cleared out the shed today and painted the ceiling white to match the walls. It is only the 1st coat and is going to need a few more. I then fitted a soap and towel dispenser in the garage above the sink.
I spent another day on the shed. Dad finished off the soffit boarding and fitting the lock on the door. I then cleared out the shed and gave it a coat of white paint.
Dad and I did more work on the shed today. We ran an armored cable from the garage to the shed, we then ran an armored trunking from the garage and put a network cable through it. We fitted some computer trunking and then a light. When Dad left for the day i fitting some skirting board and architrave around the door.
Its the 1st of December, so tonight Rachel and I put the tree up. We moved it this year to have it in the corner, so Ethan cant get at it, but it looks lovely.
The log lap was supposed to arrive last week, so we could fit it over the week, but it only got delivered today. Dad and I worked in the dark to get the boarding on the front and the side of the shed. The log lap really finishes it off though and with how many layers the shed is made up of, it should be well protected inside.
Dad finished off the roof on the shed, adding the ridge, using a dry ridge system so in keeping with the houses on the estate. I built a decking at the front of the shed, from 3" thick wood. We then Framed all of the panels, with wood that we cut down.
I got over a cubic meter of bark delivered in the week, so we started the day by putting a breathable membrane down, so that the water can soak through the bark but wont rot it. We then moved on to insulating the shed and putting the roof tiles on. I went for tiles to match the ones on the house, so it doesnt look too out of place. Once Dad had left, i barrowed the bark from the front to the back to fill the area around the swing set.
Dad and I worked on the garden today, digging in wood to create a frame around the swing set, so that we can fill it with bark. Digging was hard work, it was supposed to be top soil, but it was full of boulders.
Dad came round this morning and glossed all of the wood work in the garage. He also cleaned all of the kit from it into the shed.
Dad and I finally got round to hanging the wallpaper that we had before we moved into the new house. So a year and a half. We started with the spare room, which has duck egg blue flowers, we then moved on to the master bedroom and finally finished off with the kitchen. I wasnt sure on the kitchen paper, but now it is up it looks great.
My parents have got Ethan a swing and slide set for his 1st Birthday. Dad and I thought it would be nice to have it all ready for then, so today we assembled it. It all arrived in a small box and we did wonder if there was going to be enough parts, but there was. It looks really good and we cant wait to put him on it.
Dad and I worked on the shed this morning, it was raining badly, but we managed to put a sheet of ply on the roof and work inside the shed. We built the roof, covered it in ply and then put ply on the external walls. We built an overhang at the front as a feature. We then used some of the left over wood to create the floor, the wood is 8 inch wide by 2.5 inch think, so its not going anywhere.
I need somewhere to store all my tools, bike, etc, so I decided that i would build a shed in the back garden. I didnt want to just buy one of the cheap flimsy sheds, i wanted something that would last. Dad and I started working on the shed today. It is 8 foot by 8 foot, it is raised off the ground so it should last longer. We spent about 3 hours on it today and we got most of the structure up.
Now i have the sink fitted in the garage, i thought it was time to stain the worktops to stop them from getting water damaged. I used Rustins Danish Oil, which really brings out the grain in the wood.
Dad came over today and we finished off lots of bits and bobs that we had left. We plumbed up the tap for the sink in the garage, it has hot and cold running water, we then plumbed in the waste. We then put an outside tap and fixed the hose to the wall. We also fitted a radiator, to keep it warm in the winter. After we did this, i had broke a few of the slate tiles at the front, so i smashed them up, before laying some new ones. We then siliconed the front where the old ones broke to try and stop this happening again
Dad and I started work on the front garden today, we built a feather edge fence first, then built a gate to match. We then dug the bushes up and moved them up to the new fence to leave a gap level with the front door. We then built a wide gate at the front, initially we had a curved top, but it looked odd, so we cut it off and made it straight. We then slabbed from the front door to the pavement using the same slabs which go to the drive. At night Rachel got a twig heart from a garden center and we fixed that to the gate which really finishes it off.
My hard disks in the server were getting old and starting to make a clicking noise, so i decided to get some new ones. I wanted the 8TB drives, but they were too expensive, so i went for 4 x 4TB WD Reds and then an extra 4TB WD Red drive for the Ubiquiti cameras.
Dad and I decorated Ethans room today, we have put up Ethans Harlequin Sail Away wallpaper on every wall. It looks really good and goes well with the furniture we had.
I got my new Ubiquiti Unifi Security Gateway Pro today, this will finish off my rack mount setup, allowing me to really manage the connections in and out of my network.
I finally got round to getting an office chair, i went for a white leather one and it fits great. I got a light and a lamp for the room to finish it off.
Dad and I spent the bank holiday working on my office. We started by cutting all of the oak worktops around the cupboards. We then wallpapered all of the walls with some tree paper from Next. We then fitted a board to the wall with hidden lights in them and finally put the 3 24inch screens on the wall.
Dad and I fitted the oak worktops and up stands in the garage today and then finished it off by adding the plinth, everything is now wired up and working too.
I took the office from my last house with me and now the garage is done i can get on with getting an office back, so today Dad and I used the old units to build a new office. We managed to get the desk part built and also a cupboard behind where i am going to sit. I have ordered some worktops to go on top which should arrive soon.
Today i worked on wiring up the garage now everywhere is painted. I got all of the PIs wired up and then moved on to the patch panel, wiring up the 5 TV, 6 PIs, 4 Office, 4 Cameras, 2 WiFi, Server, Amp, Internet CAT6 cables going into the 24 port switch and then 10 CAT6 cables for the HDMI over CAT6. Once everything was wired up i setup the wireless and the cameras.The cameras look great, in the day and at night.
Today Dad and I fitted the skirting board, fitted the TV on the wall and painted the ceiling. We then put battens on the garage door, added a layer of hard board and then painted it white. i had made the room look a lot brighter and with the insulation in the garage door it will be warmer too.
Tonight i put a first coat of paint on the garage walls now they have had time to dry. It makes it a lot brighter in there with the walls white. I need to paint the tops and the bottoms but as its drying it doesnt look like it will need any more coats.
Tonight Dad and I grouted the floor in the garage, we mixed a bag at a time and then got as much as we could in the gaps, then used a sponge to get rid of all the excess. Sealing the floor before helped as it came off the tiles easily.
After the floor in the garage had dried i sealed the floor, i used a painting roller which made it a lot easier.
Now that the garage has been plastered, Dad and I laid the grey natural slate floor. I am using 60cm x 30cm tiles in a brick bond. We managed to get them laid in a morning and then i cleaned each one with a sponge to remove any adhesive.
Tonight i worked on mounting the 5 Raspberry Pi 2s and 1 Raspberry Pi 1. I am using HDMI over CAT6 converters to get the content to the TVs over the house. I am going to run Plex on them all. I also got the network and audio connections on the wall wired up.
Dad and I decided that we would have a go at plastering the garage. We managed to get the garage plastered in an evening and used 4 bags of plaster. We are quite pleased with how it turned out, there are a few bits we might need to fill but we can sort that.
Tonight i put together the AV Rack. Inside there is the Denon AVR-X2200W AV amp and 3 x Skytec SPL-300 2 channel amplifiers to power the garage, office and sewing room ceiling speakers.
Tonight i put together the network and server rack. Inside there is a 2U UPS, 4U server case, which for now will have the contents of my old server, a 2U shelf with 5 raspberry pi 2s and 1 raspberry pi 1 and then 5 HDMI over CAT6 senders, a 1U Ubiquiti UniFi 24 port switch with all 24 ports having PoE. The power adapter is fixed to the back so that the front stays clean.
Dad and I worked on insulating and boarding the garage tonight. I had ordered some 50mm celotex boards to insulate the walls. We then plasterboarded over the top. I silicon sealed the gaps in the garage door and then insulated that too.
Dad and I spent the weekend in the garage working on the house. We fitted some down lighters in the garage as the 1 light was not enough. We then fitted an electric garage door, which was quite easy to fit. We then fitted lights in the soffit board, 4 on the front and then 4 on the back, they were wired up to a switch in the garage. We also fitted the 4 security cameras, 2 on the front and 2 on the back.
Back in May when we reserved the house, i wanted to get a log burner for the lounge as the house has a real chimney. After looking around we found the Firecraft Verve Fireplace was what we wanted, now after 8 months of waiting Evans Fireplace Centre came to fit it today and we are really please, it looks great in the lounge.
Dad and I had some time to work on the house today. We started running all of the cables through the house to all the rooms, so I can have a LAN connection in each room as well as a CAT6 over HDMI. We got quite a few cables ran, wiring up the speakers in the office and the lounge. We also managed to get some of the metal studding up in the garage.
To make the house a bit more private, Dad and I put up a feather edged fence on the left and the right of the house going all the way to the pavement. We managed to get it done in a day, but we got a bit wet in the process.
Once we got the house, i started ordering some new electrical items for the house and today most of them arrived. I have a new amp Denon AVR-X2200W for the lounge, a new sub Monitor Audio Radius 380 and 2 sealed ceiling speakers Monitor Audio CP-CT150 for each office, TV bracket, aerial and lots of cables.
Our new bed arrived today, we ordered it 3 months ago, but as it took so long to get the house we didnt get it delivered. Cant wait for a good sleep on it, going to enjoy having the TV come out of the end.
We finally got the house! After 2 sales fell through in the chain, it was 3rd time lucky and it all went through. I picked up the keys at 2 and manage to get everything out of the old house into the garage of the new house. We cant believe it after 7 months of waiting it is finally ours.
Rachel and I nipped in and had a look at the house on the way home from signing all of the paperwork at the solicitors. They have grasses the front and back and added some bushes. Its all looking really nice now.
We went to look at the new house and they have made some good progress, we were able to get inside and have a good look round.
After 2 days and 5 viewings, the house sold today. We are really pleased that it sold so quickly!
The townhouse has gone up for sale today, we already have a viewing booked in for tonight.
Rachel and I reserved a new house in Littlethorpe today, its called the The Willington. Its not built yet, but hopefully it should be done by the middle of August.
Rachel and I bought a 2nd tree this year, we have gone for colours to match out kitchen and dining room for the baubles. We have got 960 lights on the tree and it is really bright. It starting to look a lot like Christmas now both trees are up.
Rachel has been buying some items to make the house more homely, we got a bit canvas of us on our wedding day, pictures, clocks and cushions for the lounge. We finally have curtains in the dining room, we managed to get the ones we wanted from Laura Ashley. Rachel got a nice pouf, rug and cushions for the dining room to.
Rachel and I had a Christmas dinner and then put our tree up tongiht. We bought a new bauble from Paris and then got 300 LED lights. The tree looks great and its got me really looking forward to Christmas.
Rachel and I got some new paint and paper from Laura Ashley for the dinning room and the hall stairs and landing. Dad and I painted all of the rooms 1st and then we did all of the papering. It has turned out really well. Rachel also got some accessories for the kitchen in a nice duck egg blue which goes really well.
I got given a lawn mower, so this morning i mowed the lawn. The mower had the option to add stripes to the lawn which i thought might look cool, so i tried it, i didnt get them as straight as i would have liked but i will do better next time.
I got a USB to VGA adapter, so i could have the 3 screens working, i got a huge picture of New York and got it to span across the 3 screens.
I have been saving to fit my office out and have been looking round for the best place to get everything from. In the end i went with Ikea and ordered the cupboards and doors from the Besta range and then the tops and plinth from the kitchen range. I had also decided that i was going to have 3 24 inch widescreen monitors, i went for the Benq VW2430H, they are white to go with the office furniture. Dad and I fitted it all within a day, we had to cut a lot of the units up to make them fit, but it looks great now it is all done. We papered one of the walls with a New York wallpaper, which cam in 8 sheets but looks good. We finished it off with a blind with 65mm slats.
After 12 weeks of waiting my new sofa from Harveys for the dining room arrived. It was supposed to have been here yesterday between 9 and 12 but it never showed up, so today at 7am there was a knock on the door and they had arrived to deliver the sofa. The sofa looks great, just what i wanted for the room. The guys who delivered it, didnt bother taking their boots off and walked all over the floor, then when putting it into place they didnt lift it up and have scratched the floor. Happy with the sofa but not happy with the service.
My new wardrobes and bedside tables turned up from B&Q. They are walnut carcasses, with shiny black doors. Dad assembled them and then got them into the right place. We couldnt get a desk in the same style, so I bought a 3 draw pack and just didnt put the draws in, luckily the inside of them were the same. I am really pleased with how the room looks.
Dad and I fitted my new TV today, it is a Samsung 55 inch LED (UE55D6300). We got a flush mount bracket from Screwfix which gets the TV really close to the wall. I tested it out with a few 1080 films and the picture is great!
Rachel and I put the Christmas Tree up tonight. I had got some new lights and a few new ball balls. The tree is really full now, dont think i will be able to fit any more on next year. The tree looks good but smaller than it used to in my old lounge.
Rachel and I moved into the new house today. We havent got enough storage space atm, so we are sharing a double wardrobe. We got some cards and flowers which was nice. In the day Dad and I fitted a mirror in the bathroom and in the on-suite, then we put the TV on the wall in the bedroom. Rachel made a cushion for the lounge which goes really nice with the paper.
Dad and I worked on the house again today. We planted some plants and covered them with bark. We then added bushes to the top of the garden and then we put slabs going along side the garage and then along the back.
I ordered a new bed from MonsterBeds which arrived today. It is a black leather king size bed with a memory foam mattress. We got it all assembled and then put the new quilt, bedsheets and throw on. It looks lovely and really goes with the rest of the room.
Dad and I were back at the house today for the morning. We painted the master bedroom in a nice shade of grey which was from Next, we then hung the wallpaper, which is dark grey with a list of famous cities, after that we put the curtains up. We then put the TV up on the wall in the dining room after chopping the cables into the wall for a wireless look. We then spent an hour cleaning all of the rooms and giving the place a good hover.
Dad and I went to the house today to get a few more jobs done. We started off by wallpapering the lounge with a nice green, brown and cream paper, the paper was not good to hang at all, we wasted a whole roll on bits ripping, but when we had finally got it all hung it does look lovely. We then papered bedroom 2 in a french style cream paper, it looks great with the matching bed sheets. We then assembled the wardrobe, draws and cut down a desk to fit in the room. Dad worked on building a cupboard in the downstairs toilet which came out really well. While he was doing that i put the accessories in the upstairs bathroom.
I ordered some Monitor Audio CPC Bronze ceiling mounted speakers for the lounge on Thursday and they arrived on Friday from ceiling-speakers.co.uk. Dad and I fitted them, making sure we didnt hit any joists, the speakers have pivoting tweeters so after fitting them i angled the tweeters towards the center seat on the sofa. The grills were then fitted and they blend in really well. The speakers sounds really good, i put a few songs through them off my iPod and was really impressed with the quality. Dad had made me a bespoke cabinet to hold amp and computers in the lounge and he had to get that up to the lounge. It is 1.8m wide and the top is 50mm of MDF, so it was really heavy, after scraping the wall a few times we managed to get it in to the lounge and it looks amazing, he did such a great job. We also got the light fitted in the lounge, got the sofa, bed and table all in the house.
The V4 Flooring Eiger E125 Rustic Lacquered Oak had arrived in the week, so after some weathering time, Dad and I fitted the flooring in the hallway, lounge and dining room. The flooring was really easy to put down and looks amazing. The boards were random lengths and colour, but once they were down seem to blend in really well.
The grass finally got fitted today, they had leveled all the ground off the week before but never fitted the grass.
My carpets got fitted today, they look really good. I had Lifestyle Floors Cheltenham Stripe on the stairs, Lifestyle Floors Burbage Twist in the master bedroom, Topaz Mushroom in the office, Venus Saxony in the lounge and an in stock Colour Bank carpet in an off cream colour They did a great job fitting the stairs carpet. Going to need to hover them a few times to get rid of all the fluff.
Dad and I worked at the house this weekend. On Saturday we tiled the on-suite and main bathrooms and then put up blinds in both bathrooms. On Sunday we grouted both bathrooms, put a blind up in one of the bedrooms and then put all of the curtain poles up. We then cleaned and hovered the whole house ready for the carpets to be fitted.
Dad and I went to the house over the weekend to run all of the cables in the Lounge. We have ran 5 runs of speaker cable, sub, RCA, HDMI, VGA, Component, coaxial & Optical cables from 1 side of the room to the other, the speaker cable is ran through the ceiling and the other cables are ran under the floor. We also ran network cables down to the office. Before we left on Saturday we put top soil over the garden to get everything flat ready for it to be turfed.
Dad and I went to the house today to level off the garden. It slopes upwards from the house to the back of the garden which is ok, but it also slopes down towards the garage and this is quite a big drop. We built a dwarf wall along side the garage wall with a damp proof membrane in-between it. We then dug the soil from the top of the garden to raise the sides up so that the garden was level across. In removing the soil from the top of the garden we also made that be less steep.
I moved out of my Coachhouse today, it was odd seeing the house totally empty. It has been a nice 5 years in the house but its time to move on wards and upwards.
I finally got the keys to my new house, 6 weeks after putting a deposit down on it and then having to sort so much paperwork. It took 2 van loads to get all my stuff from my old house to my new house. I am really excited to get the house decorated, have my carpets fitted and then get my furniture in.
Dad and I cleared everything from the house. We then plastered up all of the holes left behind from the TVs, wiring, shelves, etc. When that was all dry we then painted the walls. Before we left we hovered and cleaned everywhere. We have now fitted all of the contents of my old house into a garage.
Went to the new house as they had an open day and were doing tours round the show home. They have leveled off the garden and fitted the garage doors.
I have been looking at new houses for a while and i have found a really nice house, after they gave me a part exchange value on my house, i decided to put down a deposit on the new house in Kibworth.
I got a full length mirror and a doule wardrobe as mine is full. I have put them in my office and they look really good. Dad and I also put some pictures up on the wall.
My server has been running out of space for a while and it is also 7 years old, so i decided it was about time that i bought myself a new one. I went for a quad core i5 processor, with 8GB of Corsair RAM, 8TB of Samsung Hardisks and a 40GB Corsair SSD. I had to cut all of the old harddisk and cd drives out of the Thermaltake DH-101 case. I then mounted 2 Silverstone hard disk bays into the case. I replaced all of the fans in the machine as it was too loud before. Everything was wired up and all the cables were cable tied out of the way. The machine started 1st time, the hard disks were setup in Raid5 and then Windows Server 2008 was installed on to the SSD. The machine is soo quiet and with the SSD runs really quick. I now need to transfer 3TB of data from my old server to the new 1, which is going to take 3 days.
It has been snowing for a few days and i thought my house looked pretty so i took a photo of it.
I was walking round Wilkinson and seen this bed lining and it was a good price so i bought it. Looks really good on the bed. While i was there i got some new bathroom accessories as mine are useless.
Well its that time of the year again. My parents came over and helped me put the Christmas Tree up. It looks even better than last year with the new additions.
I managed to get some Linea bed sheets for a good price in the sale. I didnt have any curtains or a fitted sheet so i got them from Asda. I think the new sheet is lovely.
Dad and I slabbed a path to my back door today. We had the slabs for a while, but we had not got time to put them down. We dug the grass out and then layed the slabs, they came out really well and we just had enough.
I got the media center put together today and got vista installed on it. Getting all the bits to fit in the case was a nightmare, there was cables everywhere that i had to cable tie out the way. I nearly ran out of slots as the 2 graphics cards are duel height. When i was installing Vista i kept getting a blue screen just as it logged into windows. After removing all of the cards and putting them back in again i managed to get it into windows. It seems to be fine now. I have the Media Center running HDMI into my amp, watched a dvd on it to test it out and the sound is amazing. The touch screen on the front of the case is really good and lets you control the mouse, keyboard and menus on a dvd, etc.
All of the parts turned up for my Media Center today. I have got a duel core AMD processor, 4gb Ram, 200gb Hd, 512mb Nvidia 9600, 256mb Nvidia 8600, DVD, HDDVD, Blueray Drive, PVR TV Card and Windows Vista 64bit.
Dad came over tonight and we build the shelves in the cupboard which will hold the Amps and Computers. He made such a great job and they are really strong. We ran all the wires so they couldnt be seen and i think it looks really good.
Last night and today Paul came over and helped me build the speaker boxes that go over the lights in the roof. We managered to get them all complete last night. This afternoon we go all the cables in to go from the tv into the cupboard, it was a nightmare trying to get the v back on the wall after adding all the extra cables. We wired all the speakers up and even mounted a center speaker behind the tv. We tried it all out by watching the matrix and it sounded amazing.
Today i recieved alot of my parts for my home cinema. I got a case for my media center which has a 7inch touch screen LCD in the front, i got a matching case for my server, but without the screen. I got a Samsung AV-R720 av amp to power my speakers and take a HDMI input. I have got lots of cables to connect them all together. 15m HDMI, 15m Optical, 15m RCA, 2m HDMI and 1m RCA.
I got a new dining room table today. Its solid oak with 4 brown leather chairs. I think it goes well with the rest of the house and it will be nice to eat dinner at the table for a change.
I have been thinking about getting a Wii for a while, they are so much fun and i thought would be really good over Chritmas for some family fun. I went town yesterday and got 1 with Mario Galaxy, Mario and Sonic Olympics, Brain Trainer and another Wii Remote.
My Parents came round tonight and we put the tree up. It looks really nice. The theme is brown and natural.
I went to B&Q to get a Christmas tre today, i got one with pine cones and berrys on it. I have gone for a brown theme. Going to get a few more Baubles next week then put the tree up the week after.
I am running out of space on my server, so i thought i would add more. I got 2 x 500gb SATA harddisks which i am going to run in Raid 0 to make 1tb. I also got some speakers for my office so i can have some music on while i work.
I thought i better get a second set of bed sheets, but i couldnt get 1 to match my red ones, so i got this black set from Asda.
I finaly moved in today. I moved all my clothes in and went for a big shop at Asda to get all my essentials. I am writing this from my new house!
I went to the house today to finish some last bits off. I plumbed up a hose pipe and also fitted a clothes line. My Grandma bought me a Microwave and also a blender.
I am now on the Internet at home... My Black BT Homehub arrived today and i went straight round at night to install and set it up. I have also set up the wireless printing.
I finally got my new fridge delivered today, it is quite big but really nice. The delivery people did dirty my stairs carpet though and they are now going to have to get it cleaned.
Today my Brown Leather office chair arrived aswell as a new 22inch Samsung Widescreen. The screen matches the other TVs in my house. The Chair is really nice to sit on and i got it at a good price.
After 12 weeks of waiting my new sofa and foot stool have finaly arrived. I was really worried that it wouldnt fit, but it is smaller than i thought. I really love it, it really suits the style of the house.
I wanted to get a nice home phone and while looking in Argos i found 2 BT phones at a very good price. My Grandma was very kind and bought them for me.
I got myself 2 leather bedside lamps from M&S today, then went to Staples and got a wireless printer with a free wirless keyboard and mouse for a very good price.
Dad and I went to the house today to finish things off. We painted all fo the skirting board and fitted the door on the cupboard. We made a gate for the side of the house so i can keep my bins behind it.
Dad and I went to the house today to tidy up the garage and then primer the skirting board ready for glossing. I tiled the floor in the garage toilet and then we grouted. We mowed the lawn and it was getting rather long. I wanted some speakers in the garage so i could have music on while i was cleaning my car, etc. So we built a shelf above the garage door that houses a sub and 2 speaker.
I had the day off work today as the carpets were getting fitted. While that was getting done i unpacked all of the kitchen items. It only took the carpet fitters 2hours to fit it all. Once they had gone i got on with assembling my bed and furniture in the bedroom and the office. I put all the curtains up and made the bed.
Last nite Dad, Grandma, Mark and I went to get the house ready for the carpets getting fitted. We cleaned the whole of the upstairs aswell as putting the skirting board in the garage. We fitted a new light, new sink and a TV in the garage. We also tested the TV in the bathroom :)
This weekend Dad, Mark and I sealed the slate floors, fitted the underlay and hung the mirror in the bathroom.
Tonight Dad, Mark and I layed the slate tiles in the Bathroom, Kitchen and Garage. The Garage looks really good, we were a bit worried as they were all different thickness, but once they were spread over a wide area it just looked right.
I ordered my new floor tiles on Monday and they arrived today. My uncle picked them up in his van and took them to my house. They are thick slate tiles. I ordered 330 of them.
Dad and I went and painted my garage and toilet. We painted the walls magnolia and the ceiling white. We sanded and painted the holes we had filled yesterday aswell. We also fitted the LCDs to the wall in the lounge and the bedroom.
My Uncle came round to plaster my garage and downstaires toilet for me today. My dad got me a new washine machine so we fitted that aswell. We filled all the holes we had made in the walls for the cables.
My new Samsung R88 Tvs turned up today. I got them at a great price after searching on the internet. I also have the two wall mount brackets for them. I have a 40inch one for the lounge and a 26inch one for my bedroom. I also cleaned out the garage.
Today Mark, My Dad and I worked on getting the back door cut out and plaster boarding the garage. The door was cut out and looks really good, we have the whole garage plasterboarded aswell as the cupboard and the toilet. I got the some more of the cables in and tidied them up in the loft.
Tonight Dad and I started to run the VGA and RCA cables to the TVs. We ran them all up into the loft where the booster boxes are going to be kept. We also fitted the toilet downstairs.
Today i recieved the 2nd lot of components for the multi room media center. I have got 4 lots of 20m VGA cables and 1 10m VGA Cable. I also have a 4 way VGA booster.
I have got the 1st lot of components so that i can have Media Center running in all the rooms in the house. I have got 5 lots of 20m RCA cables for sound, a RCA 4way booster box, a Digital Tv card, Windows Vista with Media Center and a new graphics card. There should be more arriving soon.
Finally the grass has been fitted in my house, it looks good and makes the back garden look alot bigger, it needs to be watered alot so i need to sort that out very soon.
Dad and I went and worked on the house last nite, we got the new downlighters fitted and wired up, they make the rooms look soo much better. There were 20 of them to fit in total. We fitted the curtain poles and also started the plumming and stud work in the downstairs toilet.
Today i went to collect the keys to MY House! Yes thats right i own a house. I have been saving very hard for the last year and it has all paid off. I have brought a 2 bedroom detatched coach house, it has a garden and a garage. I am going to do a few things to it before i move it, but i am sooo happy.
Today my Dad, Mark and I went and snagged the house, so they any things that need doing are done by the time i moved in. Overall the quality of the house is amazing, just a few bits that need sorting.
I have signed all the legal documents for my house today, i just have to do a bank transfer of the money and then on the 31st i will be getting the keys to my 1st house!!
After going to look at a house on Monday i put in an offer and it has been excepted, so i hacve now been and reserved the house. I now have to sort out the morguage, really really excited now.
