Home DIY, Art & Craft, making stuff

[stui magpie]

^

The old place in Toc was built around 1910. Double brick walls, inside and out, 14 foot pressed tin ceilings. Weather up here is more extreme than down south, after a week of 40+ or overnight minus 2, the house was either a kiln or a fridge.

Anyway, back up in Toc this week. Bought up a dining table I picked up for $20 from Thomastown Vinnies, and under desk 2 draw unit for $12 and a new BBQ.

Monday arvo after arriving got the table and drawers in place in the shed. Bedsit apartment complete. 2 drawer unit holds a toaster and kettle and some basic crockery, table holds a free microwave and a little tiny 2 door pantry.

Tuesday morning was hot, got the lawns mowed early then when the arse fell out of the sky and it pissed down I built the BBQ.

Cleaned all (most) of the tools and stuff out of the little bedroom so it's able to be used as a bedroom again and got everything into the shed.

Intended to get in 9 holes of Golf this arvo but too wet, so put all the cardboard and packing material from the BBQ, Toilet, Shower, Sink and other stuff into the toy trailer (6'x4') and took it to the tip.

Love the bush. I arrive at the entry office. Bloke greets me, "whadaya got today?"

Me: " packing material, cardboard, polystyrene, plastic.."

Him. " So you got a trailer load of shit. $20. Head up there and chuck it in those 2 containers. Don't get bogged"

[stui magpie]

As I said in another thread, Mum has had 2 falls recently and even though she wasn't hurt in the second one, she has a problem common to elderly people. Once they fall over, they can't get up. No enough upperbody or leg strength to get standing again.

I tried searching for mobility aids to help elderly people get themselves up but nothing that didn't require too much strength. So I decided to design and build one.

Took a few days to design the basic design in my head, but it was too complex for my limited tech drawing skills to be able to draw up a plan, so had to wing it.

The principle is, even the elderly have enough upper body strength to lift their bum a few inches off the ground, same principle as having to push down on the arm rests to get out of a chair.

So, with the design in my head, after I mowed the lawn this morning I started cutting some 70x35 pine and Merbau decking and laying it out on the big back yard table.

Rough explanation of the design is like a small ladder oe steps in front of a chair and I used a standard chair as the guide to the dimensions. A standard chair seat is around 40cm off the ground. If you can get your arse that high, you can then stand up with something to hang onto.

This thing has 3 steps before the final seat, at 10, 20 and 30cm off the ground. The first 2 are barely wide enough for an old persons arse, the last 2 wider. Principle is an old person falls over, if they can get to this thing and sit up on the floor, back their arse up to the bottom step and using the elevated hand grips, lift their arse onto the first step, then the second. The idea behind the lowest 2 being narrow is as they get their arse higher they can bring their feet in beside the lower 2 and start using legs to help upper body get to the next 2.

Once they get to the top level, it's the same as sitting in a chair, feet on the floor and hips and knees at 90 degree angles.

From there it's just a matter of standing up and walking out. To aid that I've got a couple of lengths of stainless steel shower curtain rod which I'll bend 9o degrees to make a hand rail so they can pull themselves up and walk out of the narrow channel their feet are in.

It ain't going to be pretty, but it should work. I got Mum to have a look at it when I had the pieces just sitting there, she's happy to give it a test run once her soreness from the last fall goes.

So it's partially assembled, got the grandson for the weekend so needed to get it at least part done otherwise when he knocks it all over after I tell him not to touch it I would have never got it back together again, even with the photos I took to help

So now when I tell him not to touch and he does and knocks pieces over, I can give him the "I told you not to touch" then using the photo put it back ready for assembly.

[Bruce Gonsalves]

Good stuff Stui.

We've had a few dramas of late. Asko washing machine packed up whilst missus was in Melbourne for a week. So my doing!! Front loader, door not closing, bit of bugger. Checked youtubes etc, sort of worked it out. Went online to Asko parts and ordered a door lock and a latch. Missus picked them up from Asko, brought them home. Pulled w/m to bits, [used a welding magnet to hold all the screws that were removed]. Parts installed, all screws re-installed and w/m working better than ever.

To have an Asko repairman come to our remote place is probably impossible. So saved 100's of dollars in the process and thinking most people would just replace the machine.

Next thing was after our power came back on after the storm, the water pipes were shuddering with air in them. Later that evening, we notice water dripping through the laundry ceiling. Anyhow, up into ceiling the following morning to cut out a rotten section of copper pipe that had developed a pin hole leak. and all was well again!!!

[stui magpie]

^
Nice work.

I've finished making the device, looks a bit rough as my carpentry skills aren't that great, but it should work. I put it on the floor in the back room and while mum watched, gave it a test run to show her how it works. She's a little off today so she's going to try it one day this week.

If Mum can use it to get up, I'm thinking of taking it to one of those 3D scanning places then pay someone to tidy up the lines on the plan. There's nothing like it on the market that I can see and with the focus on helping elderly people to stay at home as long as possible before moving into assisted care, there might just be a market for it.

[stui magpie]

Mum tested it today, it works.

She didn't know how to get on the floor without falling, so I got her to sit on it and work her way down to the floor, then back up to the top and stand up. No help from me, little effort from her. Pretty fkn happy with myself right now.

[stui magpie]

Put some tiles around the dunny and handbasin in the mansuite a week ago. Grouted them this morning. What a fkn arse of a mess.

Every time I've grouted, no problems. This time, the tiles I picked are textured, slightly rough, and getting the grout off the tiles was just not happening. I did the usual, wipe with a damp sponge and then wipe with a dry rag, but the stuff was sticking to the tiles like baby shit to a blanket and all I was doing was messing up the grout in the tile gaps, so I just left it.

Once the grout is fully dry and set in the gaps, I'm going to have to attack the tiles with a mix of warm water and vinegar and a scouring pad, then wash it all after with water so no vinegar gets into the tile gaps.

[Bruce Gonsalves]

Grouting is usually the easy part. Grout should be the consistency of toothpaste, using a rubber grouting tool to grout. Maybe your grout was too runny?

[stui magpie]

Grouting IS usually the easy bit. The grout was a premix in a tube, just like toothpaste.

Used the rubber grouting tool but where the smooth tiles you can just wipe off the excess no dramas, these textured things grab it.

[pietillidie]

[stui magpie]

The old lemon tree up in Toc is absolutely loaded, so bought a big back home along with a bunch of my Hybrid Finger Limes (they're a cross between the native red Centre Lime and traditional finger lime)

Went to the home brew shop this morning for a fermenting kit and ordered a Still on Amazon. Done my research, I'm gonna try to first brew some Lemon Wine, then distill it and make Lemon Brandy.

30l tank, should come out around 10-15% alcohol if I do it right, distill that I should get around 6l of around 50% alcohol brandy.

All I need to do then is grow my own tobacco and I'm covered.,

[think positive]

ooooh sounds interesting

[stui magpie]

Cranked the still up today, after near 5 hours got about 500ml of lemon moonshine. Tastes good, got a kick, 1 teaspoon sent mum into a coughing fit.

Should have got a lot more than that but this was the first effort and a good learning experience, I can identify 3 or 4 areas where I may have fvcked up along the trip, but I've got 2 more bags of lemons in the shed fridge and plenty more on the tree, see what happens next batch.

[stui magpie]

To use up some more of the lemons, thought I'd make some preserved lemons (Mum's suggestion) so found a recipe and made some today. While I was getting some more lemons out of the shed fridge for juicing, found a bunch of hybrid finger limes I bought home from Toc and forgot about. Bush up there is going gangbusters, covered in fruit, took another bag full to one of the pubs and gave them to the cook to see if he could use them.

Anyway, started thinking, can you make pickled finger limes? According to google, you can.

Downloaded a recipe book using native ingredients and got to work. 1 hour later, 2 jars of finger lime pickle in the fridge.

[stui magpie]

Had a busy few days up in Toc. Apart from mowing the lawns, I relocated a mature rose bush so I can renovate the back porch and finished ripping up the lino on the floor in the laundry/bathroom. The under floor is pine floorboards, over which they staple masonite sheets then glue the lino over that. You have to rip up the masonite, then go around on hands and knees pulling all the fkn staples out of the floor. The bloke who put down the underlay must have been paid by the staple. Everything else about the house build quality is shit.

So after getting all the fkn staples out, mixed up some Builders Bog to fix the areas of rotten floorboards, ran some silicon around the inside base of the shower (cos clearly water was getting out) and used expanding foam to fill the huge gap around the dunny pipe where it goes through the floor. It was at least an inch wide and the previous owner had stuffed steel wool soap pads into it to keep mice from getting in.

Next trip up I intend to sand back the boards and limewash them with an oil based limewash, then a few coats of oil based clear coat over that, then put some underlay and tiles around the dunny and the shower entry.

Then I've got to repair the door. The bottom is rotten, I should just replace it, but it has a door within the door. The glass part is hinged and opens up to let air in while the actual door is still closed. A new one like that costs a mint so i'm repairing it.

[stui magpie]

Bathroom in Toc almost finished.

Removed the buggered bottom (both sides) of the door and replaced with masonite. 3.2mm fits in perfect. Painted the inside and looks like a new one (if you have poor eyesight )

Single coat of limewash on the floor, just lightens it a little. Considered a 2nd coat but decided against it.

Built doors to go over the shelves on the outside of the shower, repainted the walls and 2 coats of oil based clear coat on the floor, plus laid some tiles in front of the shower.

Cut some underlay to fit around the toilet and marked out on the tiles how I need to cut them to try to do a good fit. Gunna use the Dremel with the diamond cutting head, hopefully it works well.

By the time it's finished, (next visit) the bathroom ain't going to be a million bucks, but it (hopefully) will have gone from $1.50 to $500.

Then comes the back porch.