I'm Done Moaning !

hypno06

Aha - woman with a sealant gun......dangerous times :rotfl:

A bit of practice and you will be fine - by about the 4th time........:D

chevalier

Well done keep up the motivation, keep posting and i am sure it will help you keep on the straight and narrow
cheers
robjak

Lewby

Hi DC. Well done you for being brave enough to attempt silicon sealant! It is definately an art ....... I am seriously contemplating tiling my own kitchen!!! How hard can it be?? I did have a go at plastering over a hole in the wall once and it was so much more difficult than my Dad had made it look .... I thought it was like icing a cake ....NOT! Beware OBNW ... hole filling is a skill!

Decorating is definately one of those dilemas you face when on this DFW journey. I'm now in the mindset of throwing all spare money at cc's but my kitchen and lounge are in dire need of decoration. Do I live with it for 3 years til I'm debt free or compromise by having a go at doing it on the cheap myself??

The interest on your cc with HFC is horrendous! I assume you have looked at moving it onto a cheaper card. You could always call HFC and get it moved into a short term loan with a much lower APR? It's so painful to pay that much interest ... OH's MBNA card was mearly as bad. The interest was more than the minimum repayment - how bad is that. Luckily I've been able to shift it to Barclaycard LOB 6.9%. It is so nice when your debt goes into the next thousand pound barrier. I was able to enter one of mine last night as £6,994 and it felt really good... how sad am I!

Hope you have a good day and keep posting. I'm impressed that I have made it to over halfway through Jan and am still on here. It's a good start!

Lewby xx

Different_Corner

Lewby
Confession time, this time last year I moved £2000 of the dreaded HFC balance to a 0% card. All well and good, as past credit history was poor. Had been very good with payments on all fronts up until last month when I managed to get myself 2 defaults, one on HFC for late payment - the christmas closure delayed my online banking, and one on barclaycard for underpayment, by £10.

Silly stupid mistakes that will cost me more in the long run. I know I won't get accepted for anything for a while now. But that was last year, been vigilant so far this year !

Tiling your kitchen ? My word I will be impressed, whoever tiled my bathroom must have been experienced in crazy paving !

hypno06

I tiled my kitchen - and I surprised myself with the pretty good results (my head is getting bigger as I type!).

I am no good at polyfilling and plastering though......I draw the line there!

It is almost 6 years since I decorated this house, so this year it is getting a freshen up......I am going to keep my eyes out for cheapish paint and bits and pieces in the various "closing down" sales. It seems harsh to be bagging bargains from other people's misfortune, but that is the way it will be.......

I need to find cheap cloakroom and en-suite suites, and this could end up costing a fortune if I am not careful so I will be searching for ex-display etc. I also need new windows this year - we have said this every year since we moved in, but they really are in danger of falling out now......

........It is going to be an expensive year......but none of it will be going on the plastic, I will be saving up/doing scratchcards/ebay etc for all of it.

:eek:

moo2moo

The sealant dilema - first clean off all your lumpy sealant and take it right back to a corner. Then you need a lollypop stick, a plant spray bottle, washing up liquid and lots of kitchen towel. Apply sealant in a reasonably thick continuous line along the edge that you are trying to seal (not a huge problem if you need to stop and re-angle to get round the awkward bits) pushing the nozzle into the corner. Spray over the sealant using the plant spray bottle with soapy water (hence the washing up liquid). This stops the sealant sticking to anything that it isn't already attached to. Armed with a lollypop stick start at one end and drag the lollystick gently over the surface of the sealant, cleaning the excess off on the kitchen roll. This should give you a reasonably smooth finish. Spray again and go over the whole length very very gently and continuously from end to end to give you a finish like the pros.

The leaky shower attachment - I really doubt this has completely died. Its more likely that the rubber seal has gone with age. Borrow a very strong neighbour / friend/ relative and get them to undo it or aquire a large pipe wrench / mole grips or the like to give you a bit of leverage (suggest you do this before re-sealing the bath!). It should undo. Then take the offending item to a plumbing supply merchant (NOT B&Q!) and get a replacement washer and a roll of PTFE tape (should set you back around £1 in total). Wrap around the threads with PTFE tape. Then add a bit more. You can never have too much PTFE tape! It stops the water seeping up the screw thread. Insert replacement washer and reattach to tap assembly. Tighten up and keep your fingers crossed! Obviously I'm assuming that the shower attachement is a part of the tap unit!

Different_Corner

Hypno
I've seen bathroom suites offered on Freecycle. But you are right to cash in on those closing down deals.
Windows - had ours replaced when we moved in, local company, charged a third of what the big hard sell companies quoted. But the silicone seals round the edges need replacing, hence my need to get to grips with the sealant gun. This house has damp tendencies so once I've mastered it I'm going to invest in a dehumidifier.
I am impressed with all this tiling that goes on though.

Different_Corner

moo2moo
Thanks for that, it seems I did a messy but effective job,the tap base and the edge of the bath have in inch of space between them. manoevering between them with the shower hose (which I can't unscrew) in the way is the problem. It seems to be doing the job though, until I get the taps /shower replaced.

Lemon_Tree

i've also tiled, in the bathroom and the kitchen and they look ok and have stayed up. though the bathroom ones are now not on the wall cos we've got a wonderful new bathroom now.
if you're sealing around the bath don't forget to fill it with water so that it drops like it would if someone was taking a bath.

Different_Corner

I'm so disorganised ! Is any wonder I'm in such a financial quagmire ?
I've just completed my tax return and it was a waste of a whole morning just because I don't 'put things back' and procrastinate. Can't shout at the kids anymore, they are surely just mimicking me !
Faffing around looking for this that and the other, even having to go to the lengths of finding an old hard drive and getting info off that.
I know I'm 'done moaning' but really told myself off today, determind to sort these piles of junk this week.