Painted downpipe

Just one more thing I got done this weekend...

Seeing as it was fine weather, I put a couple of coats of paint on the downpipe I had not finished last time I was painting the eaves. The wall behind is now a bit splattered, but I will overpaint that when I repaint the wall.

Not a huge amount of work, but that much less that I need to do to finish the house.

New bookshelves

I had some old, falling apart bookshelves against the back wall of the living room that I wanted to replace. I wanted shelves with glass doors to cut down the dust, but I was on a budget, so I couldn't get anything too fancy. My family had kindly given me some Ikea vouchers for my birthday, so I went with the Ikea Billy bookcase option.

First I dragged dad down to Ikea with the station wagon, and he helped me pick up the shelves. Then I assembled the shelves and drilled holes to fix them to the wall.

Once the shelves were attached to the wall, I put the doors on, then put the adjustable shelves in position.

It was all pretty straight forward, but a lot of work, especially putting the hinges onto the doors. I am happy with the result though.

Bathroom cabinet

Now that the bathroom is painted, I have been wanting a new mirror cabinet, to replace the old mirror I took down. I did a lot of looking around, and found that most of the bathroom supply shops didn't have anything I liked the look of. Then I stopped by Bunnings and found something I thought would work well. So I bought it. Now I just needed to install it!

I started by removing the doors, to make the cabinet as light and easy to work with as possible. The cabinet came with four fixing points, and I was a bit uncomfortable with that, as I wasn't confident that they would support the weight. So I added another hole in the middle of the top of the cabinet, using a power drill. I then held the cabinet up to the wall, worked out where I wanted it, then marked the top right hole.

How to drill a hole in a concrete wall:
1. Mark where you want the hole to go, using a sharp ended object, such as a small screw driver.

2. Use a nail punch and a hammer to put a small dent in the wall where you want the hole. The dent will guide the drill and make it less likely to slip.

3. *Wear a dust mask for this step. There will be lots of dust. * If the hole diameter needed is large, drill a small diameter pilot hole (using a masonry bit and a hammer drill). Then enlarge the hole using the correct diameter masonry bit (and drill). If the hole diameter needed is small, just use the right diameter drill bit to start with.

4. Use a small brush , with a handle diameter smaller than the hole (a cheap water colour brush works well), to clean the dust out of the hole. Use a cheap brush, because this will destroy the brush.

5. Use a vacuum cleaner to clean up all the loose dust.

6. Insert the wall plugs into the holes.

Next came drilling out the hole I had marked. Then I held the cabinet in place and put the first screw in loosly. Using a spirit level I held the cabinet level and used a small screwdriver to mark the locations of the remaining holes, including the extra hole I was adding.

I used the provided wall plugs, plus one extra, in the holes, then held the cabinet in place and screwed it onto the wall.

Next step was to wipe off all the dust, then reattach the doors.

Finally, I inserted the shelves. Job done!

New fence

I keep forgetting to blog about the new fence. So here it is, with the before, half way, and after shots.

They did a good job, I'm happy with it.