Sinks and Seals

I dunno – you wait two weeks for a blog and then three come along at once.

Point one: cheap stuff. This has been a bargain week – two sinks, two toilets, a washbasin and two sets of taps: all at knock down prices, which is the kind of prices we like.

It all started when I went to London for my birthday the week before last. While I was down that way, I went to the IKEA in Lakeside, Essex, where I found a very fine kitchen mixer tap for a tenner and two wooden loo seats for £2 each. This sparked a tour of the IKEA Bargain Corners of the Midlands and North, in the course of visiting family and friends.

The net result was two sinks, which I loaded into my car along with all the other paraphernalia I always carry on these trips. I was hoping that someone would say to me, “You’ve got everything but the kitchen sink in there” so I could put them straight.


This is an IKEA showroom picture. We bought one just like this - what I call a ceramic sink and my mum calls a pot sink - she doesn't like them!

Then last Friday, I was on my way back from work Mildenhall way and I drove past an Aldi, so I dropped in just in case, and they were selling toilets for £50 and washbasins for £40. So I came home and dragged Russell out to buy them, in case there were dozens of other people all clamouring for discount loos. Plus an added bonus mixer tap.


The next point on the agenda is the making of the house airtight, which I am sure I have mentioned before. Obsessed or what – but I thought you’d like to see some photos of it. It’s done through a combination of gunk, tape and membranes. The gunk is Orcon and I have put it, so far, between the ground floor panels to stop air coming into the insulation down there. I got the guys to put it in as they were assembling the floor – it went on like lines of bright green toothpaste. The wall panels are taped with bright blue tape where they come together. And a membrane goes around the outside of the first floor panel and is then taped to the inside face of the top of the ground floor panels and the bottom of the first floor panels.


Ground floor panels with Orcon



The top of the walls - the checked stuff is Pro Clima's Intello - it wraps right around the outside of the first floor beams, which sit on top of the ground floor walls. The blue stuff is the Tescon tape - both stretchy and very sticky.


The bottom of the wall. The black stuff is the damp proof membrane which wraps right around the outside of the ground floor panels.


Now the stairs are in I can leap up to the first floor with tools in hand to do up there. I still haven’t quite worked out how the roof will go but I’ll let you know as soon as I do. It's a lot more complicated up there what with the roof and all; and also I seem to have come down with a couple of unexpected frozen shoulders - R says I'm just showing off as most people settle for one - so that's going to be interesting.

It's another sunny Saturday morning and R has just laid the first forty bricks of the day, and I'm off to Norwich to get these blasted tile clips.