Effective Use of Paternity Leave

 So Tracy and the third-born kept me occupied. Can't have me relaxing, can we - goodness knows what mischief I'd get up to otherwise!

We went out to B&Q and spent a load more money and here's a quick summary of where that all went...

Living Room

The existing "big light" in the room had one out of 3 bulbs working in it. They were new bulbs so it wasn't a simple fix (no such thing in this house). We decided to buy a light that matched a lamp that we were bought as a house warming present.

So I took the old light off. The wiring was done a lot nicer than in the firstborn's room. The new light had a little bit of spare cable that needed dealing with though...

All came together quite smoothly in the end though.

Firstborn's Bedroom

Finally got round to most of the leftover tasks. Namely, fitting shelves, a light and a mirror. This meant drilling into my beautiful walls that I'd spent literally weeks fixing.

When drilling I found that sometimes the drill would drift and the drill bit wasn't particularly steady (due to using an adapter) but, nevertheless, I think the end result was good even if I had to use some slightly bigger wall plugs a couple of times.

With the shelves, my first instinct was to measure everything but in the end I made use of a random piece of countertop that came with the house; using it as a template and, when combined with my spirit level, a good way of finding straight lines.

I then forgot this successful approach when it came to the mirrors. As a result, I ended up drilling the first two holes slightly too close together. I should have trusted my instincts and just drilled a first hole, then line everything up in place to figure out where subsequent holes needed to be. So hiding behind the mirrors are the two dodgy holes that I measured out. Once I changed approach though, it went smoothly.

The cloud light went up really smoothly too.

Here's the end results:

Washing Machine

As with any house, a washing machine is a critical piece of equipment. With how fast a newborn regurgitates milk over everything (and everyone) any delay to being able to wash things quickly causes a mountain of washing to develop.

So when our Hotpoint washer started flashing 'F05' and not working anymore, we got quite concerned.

However, turns out that this is really common and relates to the water not being able to be pumped out. Usually due to a blocked filter.

So I opened up the filter (carefully catching the water still inside) and, sure enough, there was a blockage. No idea how it had got there but we had the second-born's fabric face mask and two of those plastic things that go in shirt collars to keep them straight. Not that we've washed any shirts.

I fastened it all back up and was able to drain the drum so I thought it was all done. I should have known it wouldn't be that simple. When we tried washing clothes again, the error message came back.

So I emptied it again, opened the filter and had a good forage around, especially in the pipes leading too/ from the pump chamber. I could feel something in the inlet pipe but couldn't get to it so I had to get the machine on its side and start dismantling things. Well I found a couple more things...

How?! How can all that get out of the drum of the washer?! 

So I put it all back together but the spring clip for the pipe was a pain. It was one of those clips that is probably very easy with the right tool but otherwise is near impossible. Not to be defeated I (eventually) cobbled together a device using metal wall plugs (for hollow walls) a metal bracket and some screws. This held the spring open so that I could use my hands to slide the pipe and clip into place. 

See Dad - that engineering degree wasn't a complete waste of time!

Anyway, it was sorted, and the washer has been running ever since (15 hours at time of writing) to catch up.

What a start to the year!

I also did some loft stuff but I'll write about that separately.