src/content/blog/year2025.mdx

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+- replaced office light
+- bought top bathroom replacement light (blob or tube)
+- testers lol
+- curtain poles argh 
+- fireplace
+- replaced top floor doorknobs
+- new garden door knob
+- herbs for kitchen because we couldn't keep up with the maintenance outside. Also couldn't keep up with the maintenance inside lol. Water wizards did not last long either
+- floorboards in lounge - fixed the really wobbly one and then got stuck on how best to do the gaps
+
+
+- wait until spare room is at least somewhat done
+
+
+### Spare room
+Painting
+- changed our mind on the wood colour
+- otherwise pretty straight forward. No spraying because reasons 
+Sockets
+- got expensive ones
+- the toggle is really satisfying
+- got a dimmer switch
+- had to dig out the back boxes to accommodate the deeper switches and sockets - flat front. Would we do this again??
+Radiators
+- nice use of the shop down the road but not a great customer experience
+- expensive plumber quote
+- pipes on the wonk
+- the first solder and flux we used were crap
+- big test pipe with a million joints on it
+Plumbing
+- diagrams as to why it's not a good idea to vertically wire wool a pipe
+Getting a new carpet?? At least saying we've ordered one
+
+
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+
+
+# Top floor bathroom
+
+While we previously said this room was done*, we cunningly didn't show the dodgy looking ceiling wires in our photos. This year, we can finally call this room actually done done! 
+
+We found it pretty difficult to find a light fitting we both liked. Nikki likes the more traditional and stylish options and Ozzy has (bad taste)/(a better joke). 
+
+Our shortlist was between 'Blob' and 'Tube'. 
+
+(Photos of blob and tube)
+
+Blob or tube? Blob? Or tube?? A tricky decision.
+
+What then followed was a philosophical debate as to whether all matter in the universe can be split into blob and tube. (Mention Chris Jones saying all colours are blue or brown?)
+
+We ended up going with blob.
+
+(Photos of room with blob)
+
+Done! 
+
+
+# Bits and bobs
+
+We also got some smaller jobs done. In no particular order with no particular fanfare: 
+
+We added a block to the floorboard in the lounge that had no support underneath.
+
+(Photo of floorboard block)
+
+We added a doorknob to the back door, and added some brass doorknobs to replace the plastic ones on the top floor.
+
+(Pictures of garden knob, plastic doorknobs and of new doorknobs)
+
+We got our lounge fireplace swept so we can have occasional fires on cold nights, on which we could toast marshmallows. We haven't had many yet as the weather has been very mild for this time of year. Also i misremembered marshmallows as being better than they are.
+
+(Picture of fire)
+
+To no one's surprise we have not kept up with the watering schedule for our balconet herb garden and they mega died over the summer while we were on holiday. (Lasted pretty well though, considering!) We got some herb pots for inside so we can just get new living herbs from the supermarket every time they die. We have yet to tidy the balconet planters.
+
+(Pictures of herb pots)
+
+# Curtain poles
+
+We have not had the best experience with attaching heavy things to our walls. No matter what we tried, the wall plugs would steadily be pulled out of the wall. We tried little plaster cloths, we tried matchsticks. It worked okayyy.
+
+But one day we realised our bedroom curtains weren't fully attached when they fell off the wall. Argh!
+
+We decamped to the spare room while we tried some heavier duty ways to affix the poles. We found a more hardcore filler, refilled the holes, waited like a week for it to cure, and reinstalled the curtains. Nearly! To make extra double sure they wouldn't fall off again we also added metal brackets to share the load among more wall plugs. Finally success. It doesn't look the nicest but at least it has not budged since. 
+
+Then we found out the spare room curtains were coming off the wall as well. We used the same heavy-duty filler with those and again, no budging since.
+
+# Spare Room
+
+Our main progress since our last update was to improve the spare room. When we moved in, our priority was to get it feeling more habitable as soon as we could. We steamed the wallpaper off and painted it contract white and said 'good enough for now', with the intention of decorating properly at a later date. 
+
+(Photos of room as was)
+
+What sped up our decision to redecorate was that the radiator stopped radiating, and we had guests booked to come over in the wintertime. The issue was that the TRV seized up and it wouldn't be possible to just replace these like for like. We took the opportunity to get a nice new radiator with a standard radiator tail as well.
+
+There's a nice smart-looking radiator shop just down the road from us, so we decided to go with them. Support local and all that. But when they quoted us £600 to plumb the new radiator in (radiator not included) we thought they were having a laugh and what's the worst that could happen if we did it ourselves.
+
+Did you know? Nikki and Ozzy are very optimistic about their plumbing skills
+
+Armed with new youtube expertise, we went to Screwfix to buy a big blowtorch. What followed was a lot of practice to solder pipe together without leaks. We had also remembered our tips from Simon as to how to solder pipe. In particular, why you don't vertically wire wool the pipe to clean the end in preparation for the solder. 
+
+(Diagram of why to not vertically wire wool a pipe)
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+We practised so much that we had to go back to Screwfix to get more pipe and couplings, and to get better flux and solder.
+
+(Picture of practising and pictures of the test pipe)
+
+Practice makes perfect! Or at the very least makes less terrible. 
+
+We also needed to bend the pipe to accommodate the slightly wider combined width of the radiator and new TRVs. We practised this too. The trick is to draw a line on the pipe bender so your second bend is the same angle as the first. It's also important to be sure you're bending in the same z axis.
+
+(Pipe bending)
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+Putting our practice to the test.
+(Soldering)
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+(Picture of the finished radiator)
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+Quids in.
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+As you can see, we also gave the room a new coat of paint. As it's a north facing bedroom, we are leaning into the cosy with a nice muted red-brown. 
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+(Pictures of half finished painting)
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+We also decided to switch out the switches and sockets for some new ones. We didn't want to go with the sockets we normally go for (cheap white Screwfix multipacks) as it wouldn't go, so Nikki decided to plump for some fancier ones. These are made by the same people as our 'invisible' kitchen island sockets, which, invisibility aside, are really very nice to use. The toggle light switch in particular is very fun to fiddle with.
+
+(Photos of switches)
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+The trouble with these fancier sockets and switches is that they require a deeper than standard backbox. Ozzy spent a lot of time hunched over the sockets with a chisel. Thanks Ozzy!! Would we do this again? Ozzy is less keen than Nikki, that's for sure.
+
+Last of all, we got our most favourite carpet shop back to replace our least favourite carpet. In preparation, we went around and nailed down all the squeakiest floorboards and did a final coat of paint around the bottom of the skirting.
+
+(Pictures of finished room)
+
+It's so soft to walk on.
+
+Done*.
+
+# Thoughts
+
+We were pretty pleased to finally have a nice plumbing experience in our house for once. 
+
+It's also really nice for us to have finally done a room ourselves to a higher standard. The nicest parts of our house are still the bits we got others in to do for us. 
+