Archive for category diy
new garden fence
Now this weekend, whilst still recovering, I get quick bursts of DIY done.
Today the fence and sowing grass, as we decided to have no veggies this year.
Sunday Column (24)
Posted by Volker in Sunday Column, diy, house, personal on 09/08/2009
This week was dominated by my thoughts on customer service and me getting increasingly annoyed with Vodafone. However, it came to a good end on Friday when my new Blackberry Bold arrived. 
I am very happy with the device, but had to completely reinstall the system on Saturday already just because some applications didn’t seem to run on it. Shame. And, the same happened again on Sunday. I am thinking of a certain application causing it and will try to eliminate that before I might have to send the device back 
Hope not. However, at the time of writing I have tried to re-install the software twice unsuccessfully and will soon give up. I guess it is a device fault – shame but nothing I can change. I will call Vodafone tomorrow and get a replacement one, whilst I go back my beloved Nokia 6300 for another few days.
The Bold’s Wi-Fi function is great, surfing at home is just so much easier! Only drawback, and of course I knew that, is that you don’t get many applications for Blackberry. Particularly if you cannot download the “application loader” or “Blackberry Maps” because your device does not have the requirements needed. How can that happen if it is a brand new phone? As you see, I am still playing with it, and I keep you posted!
On Monday I met with my old work colleague for a few pints and had a proper catch up. Good to see that he is enjoying his new job and things are going well for him. On Wednesday I met a current work colleague and we went to have a nice whiskey and a catch up. So this week turned out to be quite social.
Thursday was a mad dash to Tai Chi after work and after visiting the BBC worldwide studies, trying myself as a TV presenter 
Friday was a mad dash to a nice massage, realising that the muscles around my knee are so tight and hence I have the pain in my knee. Nevertheless I signed up for a 5 kilometer run with work in September. But after the DIY this weekend, I will have to cancel that.
The highlight of the week was my wife decorating the living room. Not only was it great to watch her doing it 
– whilst I was babysitting – but more so we realised that we have nice floorboards underneath the carpet. That means I don’t have to put down laminate flooring, or we don’t have to get someone in to do it either. It saves us a few pennies and hassle. Means, if things work out, we can have a wooden floor in a few weeks already. We will publish pictures shortly.
I have a new theme on my blog too, not sure if you noticed it I went back to a two column theme as this is much nicer and tidier and found. Let me know what you think.
That’s all for today. I believe it will be a busy week ahead, and one with me being connected on the go again….if the machine keeps running
Update in pictures
I thought I relax your eyes from reading about my life with some lovely pictures
Now, let me explain all of them a bit:
1) That is the first dead mouse our lovely kittens brought home.
2) You remember we are renovating. We managed to paint half the stairs today, so fingers crossed we finish them tomorrow.
3) Our strawberries and real Scottish Thistle.
4) I was writing about my veggies a couple times before, they are growing like mad now.
5) Back last summer we planted wine. It is coming along fine now. Along with the dill next to it and I can spot a ginger tail
6) and 7) is a view over our “end of garden fence” to show you what it looks like. Allotments in Beckenham.
My wife Jenny…..in front of our wee house and with a wee man inside her
9) This is our dining room. We finally turned it 90 degrees and removed the old dirty Ikea carpet we got for our old flat.
Sunday Column (6)
Posted by Volker in Sunday Column, diy, family, personal on 05/04/2009
Wow, wow, wow – I am about to fall asleep typing. What I have done all day? I tell you: 9 am start to the gym and then putting laminate down on the landing. Whilst it all went well, we now need to take part of one of the doors off for it all to fit.
Looking back over the week, I at least want to give you a quick update. The blossoms are coming out on all the trees in the street and garden. Spring is here and it is just nice. It is getting warmer and with the DIY, we are making this a really nice home for Colin Heinrich.
And, we finally got the cot up, a chest of drawers and things are taking shape. We are getting very exciting. We went to Ikea to get some bits and pieces.
To be honest, not too much else is happening. I am 3 weeks behind our laundry and ironing, had a business trip to Leeds, a nice massage yesterday and a great Saturday afternoon with 2 really good friends. A perfect life. The only thing I would like to complain about is the lack of time.
I would like to sit all night to write on an essay I started or put some more theories into PowerPoint to upload them on slideshare. I am not sure when I will have the time, but my inbox will eventually be empty again.
Guess that is all for tonight folks. Don’t call me, I will be on my couch, enjoying the 2nd part of the Matrix and a glass of vino.
Have a great week.
DIY – Renovating part 1
I think I mentioned it before. My wife is “nesting” and we are looking into turning our house into our home.
Part one was the hall. My wife painted and then started sanding the floor with a small sander she had. Not a good idea, took too long. So we hired a bigger one last weekend and I did the floors downstairs in the hall and she did the hand rail. Now, the cleaning of this fine dust was the worst thing!
Done and dusted (literally) now and we live with a hall that needs varnishing still and a carped down the middle of the stairs which still needs painting.
Upstairs we aim for laminate flooring for
a) the landing where you get laminate looking like real wood, and
b) the bathroom. There are clever solutions out there now where laminate looks like ceramic floors.
So I am quite impressed of what we can do and now I am eager to get it done. My wife plans to do some of the painting and varnishing as I am not patient enough to do a good job. However, I will try my luck with the laminate upstairs. If it goes well… who knows, I might be doing the living room soon.
Here are some pictures.
-
- after removing the carpet
-
- sanded floorboards
Sunday Column (2)
Posted by Volker in Sunday Column, diy, personal on 07/03/2009
Here we go again, my 2nd column. A week into March already and it has been a busy week.
Work is very busy and I try to not spend too much time there. Not because I don’t like it but because I need to unwind and have a life too. Guess it comes down to work life balance.
However, I am off with work to Oslo next week, for our first non-UK based International Search Summit. Very exciting!
My first 5 weeks of Tai Chi are over as well. And I absolutely love it. Shame I cannot go next week, but the course continuous for at least another 5 weeks, probably forever. I really enjoy it.
What else is happening? I planted another raspberry and a blackberry bush in the garden. Also cut the grass, got rid of some fungus growing on our wall and put some fertiliser on the grass. So the garden is ready for my veggies. I planted the seeds in little pots, so hopefully they will come out nicely soon.
Jen is nesting and decided to decorate the hall. I ended up sanding the floor in the entrance area and we removed the carpet there and on the stairs. Now we got dust all over the house – I guess the reason why I hate DIY is because of all the dirt and I am very particular in what is being done and how it is done. So I am never really satisfied with what I have done. If that makes sense
I guess these are the main news from our end. Would love to hear from people what they are up to. Just this week I connected with someone I went to High School with in the US, about 15 years ago. Time flies and you seem to lose touch with so many people you once liked. Shame, isn’t it?
Last night we went out to a friend’s 30th birthday party. Hardly made it in time running late with the sanding. But it was good to be out and have a few Paulaner Hefeweizen and catch up with some great people. Good chat about the industry and developments too. Very interesting.
Today we really just chilled. After trying to rid the living room from some dust – a nightmare. But the hall is done. Still the painting and stairs etc. to do, but the dirty, dusty stuff is done.
Am on the road a lot next week, so might be quieter than usual in the blog. Speak soon,
Volker
German Engineering – or how to potty train a cat
Our cats are now almost 6 months. Gretel has been sterilized and therefore, they are outside quite a lot. However, they still have not been going outside to the loo.
It was definitely going to be too much, so on Saturday I decided to take the litter tray outside. When the cats went to their usual place in the house looking for the tray, we carried them outside. And, they both did their poo outside. Yippee!
Wow, what a progress.
Now, I was worried that it might rain. So I used my imagination and engineering skills (if you didn’t know, I have a mechanical engineering degree ) to build a poo tent. My wife gave me some practical hints too. Maybe not quite a portaloo but surely something all other cats will envy our cats for, don’t you think. Let’s just hope the wind does not pick up.
German Engineering I guess, hehe.
Btw, have you seen the new matrix style Volkswagen Ad on TV?
Hedgehog house
Everyone was laughing when I put a hedgehog house, self build out of bricks, into my garden. I had one ever since I was a boy. Often they were inhabited by mice instead of hedgehogs, however they are easy to make with a few bricks.
Now, what I did not know: You can buy them too, see this shop.
For everyone else, who likes DIY, check out the British Hedgehog Society.
-
You are currently browsing the archives for the diy category.
LinkedIn
Volker’s Blurb- Bigger family 26/07/2010Now it’s official. We are expecting another Ballueder early February. Volker Bookmark It Hide Sites $$('div.d2217').each( function(e) { e.visualEffect('slide_up',{duration:0.5}) }); Related posts:Our family is growing – update 1 Saturday Blurb 2008 review Related posts:Our family is growing – update 1 Saturday Blurb 2008 review […]
- Sunday Column (74) 25/07/2010As of the last two weeks, our wee family has been on holidays. Hence I am not sure where to start. Maybe with a family picture taken in Skye: We took our XC90 from London up to Scotland on a few hundred, or more over 2,000 miles stretch. Whilst it took almost 2 hours to [...] Related posts:Sunday Column (34) Sunday Column (52) Sunday Column (33) […]
- Sunday Column (73) – communication on Facebook? 18/07/2010Now, this week there is so much to talk about that I save it for next week. However, there is something I thought I write about, and that is social media. Again, you might think. My wife ALWAYS makes a point of telling me anything that is going on with Colin prior to putting it [...] Related posts:complex life Sunday Column (72) Sunday Column (33) […]
- Sunday Column (72) 11/07/2010Nothing like….a week where you get lots of things done. This week clearly was one of them. After we finally moved into our new office, we managed to sort out all or most of the admin staff that needed sorted. Insurance, server, registrations…. Now being settled, we can work “just as normal” and continue to [...] Related posts:Sunday Column (64) Sunday Column […]
- AudienceScience and the Wunderloo deal :-) 07/07/2010Sorry, I love the guys from Audiencescience and I don’t think too badly about them doing a great deal by acquiring Wunderloop. But this newsletter deserves the “misspelling of the year” award, don’t you think? Bookmark It Hide Sites $$('div.d2174').each( function(e) { e.visualEffect('slide_up',{duration:0.5}) }); Related posts:Don’t menti […]
- Bigger family 26/07/2010
Recent Comments