Archive for June, 2010

Day 1

First major job of the day was to remove the remaining tiles from the main wall. This although menial was vital to the overall project.  All in all I would estimate individually the tiles that I removed that day ran into the 000’s each tile needed three delicate hits with the end of the hammer, two for the tile and one for my thumb, or it felt that way . Once the tiles had been removed we would be able to get the old suite out and replace it with my nice shinny new Bathshop321.com vanity unit and suite.

This again took longer than expected and I finally finished the day at about 19.00 that evening, I can honestly say, I have sat on planes for hours on end on my way to holidays, I have sat outside the pub in the scorching sun waiting for my friend to finish their beers before getting a round in, but never has an ice cold lager tasted so so nice,

The final job of the day once the tiles had been removed was to strip the remaining netting from the tiles off the wall; this was simple enough and didn’t take long. I then mixed some plaster, again a small bag costs about £5.00 but is often an essential item when performing such tasks as removing tiles as you will always get some tiles that bring lumps of plaster off with them.

This plaster work needed to be done on the Saturday as it needed a few days to dry through sufficiently to enable me to tile on top of it.

The first major job of the day was to remove all the old tiles. These tiles were tiled ontop of other tiles thus meaning they were incredibly difficult to remove.

Around the top of the toilet came away with ease, they did remove half the plaster on the wall with them but they came away in clumps of 5+ tiles. I found the best way to remove these tiles was to use a good heavy flat head screw driver, this enable you to tap it in directly behind the tile and lever it away from the wall.

Don’t get me wrong this is a long and laborious task, best suited for those with a long attention span or those with helpers.  As you can see from the pictures below, removal of the first set of tiles was completed within the day, so around 5 hrs …

Moving onto the opposing wall the tiles became a little more  annoying, Mosaic tiles when removed from the wall fall off individually by the way, this as you would expect adds around a day to your plans, and results in a few more rubble sacks than expected being filled. In fairness though it does give a smoother finish than pulling the tiles off in bulk, you do have a netting residue left attached to the wall though which is a total pain to remove. I gave up at about 22.00 that evening as my neighbours although understanding wouldn’t appreciate the banging and swearing everytime I hit my thumb with the hammer.

How many times have you been invited up to “the 22nd floor”, the hallowed halls of the board of directors or partners in the firm? Not often?
Well, I can safely report that you are not missing much, except for a spectacular view across the city, a private washroom and coffee on the hob all day. Oh yes, and the executive desk.

A desk made of Mahogany or some such hardwood, polished to perfection giving one the ability to count nasal hair. Sweeping in size and stature and covering about the same acreage as a small Caribbean island; truly awesome in stature. Forget the fact that a pine desk from the furniture showroom down town would do the business just as well.

Why do chiefs of commerce need such a large desk? Is it to house his own private army in readiness for the next corporate takeover, or is there a stash of illicit booze reminiscent of Al Capone tucked away inside? Is it an extension of their large personality or ego?

Whatever the reason, one has to wonder why these behemoths are needed. Not like us wage slaves down in the bowels of the building, sweating away at a small desk, no bigger than a small occasional table, and barely enough drawer space to keep the lunch time sandwiches in, or indeed, no space for the illicit bottle of booze.
Perhaps these huge desks are used to host major international sporting events, or double up as aircraft carriers in the event of hostilities. Certainly, it is not beyond the realms of possibility that an F1-11 fighter jet could land on the top, get refueled and take off again before the boss comes back from his corporate washroom the size of Lake Michigan.

Desks tend to be an extension of ones personality, cluttered and busy, or tidy and efficient, what ever your style; you will probably what the person who sits at that desk looks like. Whatever the type of desk level of tidiness or not, it is a working space, not always in use, but always ready for action.
Which brings me back to the big chief’s desk? There is almost always nothing on it, except a phone, and maybe a coffee cup.
This leads me to the question I have always wanted to ask the man on the “22nd floor”.

Why do you actually need such a big desk, and what do you actually do?

The 4 Day Challenge

As many of you may have read over that past few weeks, I had agreed to take on the mammoth task of gutting my old bathroom and replacing it with a shiny new suite from Bathshop321.com. This was to be done in 4 days whilst my wife was cruising the Italian Rivera…. so let us begin!  

The day had arrived, I had been planning this for so long yet the thought of actually starting scared me. I had dropped my wife at the airport as planned. She had rung and confirmed she was in departures so I knew she was jetting out that day. On my way home I had stopped to get the tiles and few last minute bits and bobs.

As you can see from the pictures the bathroom was in need of a major overhaul, don’t get me wrong it wasn’t dirty it just needed a bit of T.L.C (I don’t mean the 90’s girl band)

One of the team who for surprise purposes cannot be mentioned at this stage is going to attempt a changing rooms style transformation of his current bathroom suite.  Our mystery employee has purchased everything he needs to transform his old dreary bathroom into a bathroom that kings would be proud of.  With such a huge selection of bathroom suites available at Bathshop321 he really was spoilt for choice(sorry couldn’t help myself)

The only catch is that his better half knows nothing about it.  He is going to attempt to completely rip out his old bathroom, wall tiles and al,l and completely transform it, all within four days.  Originally this task was going to be done all on his lonesome until it was pointed out to him that he would struggle to get the new bath upstairs on his own.  As a result we have all voted and we are allowing him the help of one close friend.

We are all hoping he completes this mammoth task on time.  To make things even more difficult than they already are he also has to document every bit of it for our blog.  Watch this space as our mystery employee will be blogging all about his challenge in the very near future.

Bathshop321 continues to drive itself forward and is happy to announce that yet again we have broken all records with regards to company turnover.  Without mentioning exactly what we have done we can report that every month since we started we have broken all previous months records.

We want to take this opportunity to thank all our staff for working so hard as without their commitment we wouldn’t be where we are today.  Our Bathroom Suites continue to fly off our shelves so be sure to keep an eye out on the website and our blog for our exciting special offers.