The 30 amp cooker (a cautionary tale)

In all the many hours I spent scouring online reviews and technical specifications for cookers, as well as visiting actual real world appliance suppliers, it never once occurred to me to check the amperage required. More fool me.

I found a lovely Stoves cooker (DF600SIDOM, above) that seemed to fulfill my criteria of being energy efficient, attractive and dual fuel. It arrived, but then sat in my living room for several weeks, unpacked but unmoving, gathering dust. When it finally came time to install it, the builder noticed that it required 30 amp wiring. It seems that standard wiring into a home is 15 amp, and that was all I had. As you can imagine, plugging a 30 amp appliance into 15 amp wiring is bad news of the highest order. A phrase something like ‘burning out the wiring’ was used. Bad.

I had two choices. Either send back the cooker and try to find one which could work off the 15 amp ring main, or have a 30 amp cable wired all the way from the fuse box, over 10m away under floorboards which had only just been fixed down. I couldn’t bear to send back the cooker, and I was pretty sure I wouldn’t find an alternative I was as happy with. So I went for the latter option, and paid my builder/electrician a whole day’s rates to redo the wiring. The cooker suddenly seemed like less of a bargain, I can tell you.

There is a happy ending to this cautionary tale in that I am very pleased with the cooker, how it looks and how it works. However, don’t be like fixingitup – remember to check that your electrics can handle whatever you need to plug into them!

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Worktops; this isn’t the colour I ordered!

Don’t panic. Or rather, don’t panic like I did. It may not look like the wooden worktop you wanted, but everything is probably going to be OK. Read on…

I ordered my woodern worktops, along with the rest of my kitchen, from Benchmarx. Well, technically my builder did, as Benchmarx are trade only (this has advantages and disadvantages, as I’ll explain at some point). They have only one brochure, which has the following teeny weeny photo of the worktop I ordered, Acacia:

It looked to be exactly what I wanted. A fairly dark warm wood, without too much variation. It felt a bit of a risk going only on this tiny picture, but their prices were reasonable, cheaper than the B&Q equivalent by some way for example, and I could always send it back if unsuitable.

Well, I almost did send it back. The worktop that arrived was a lighter oaky colour, without any of the warmth from the photo and with what seemed like glaring variation between the individual blocks of wood. I called the builder: ‘this isn’t the colour I ordered, are you sure this is the right worktop?’. He assured me that it was definitely the right one and so, annoyed, I began to look into alternatives. I was convinced that Benchmarx had misrepresented the worktop in the photo.

Thankfully, before I went too far along this road, I spoke to a colleague who I knew had fitted a similar worktop (Iroko from Kitchen Worktops Direct, whom she highly recommended by the way) and was immediately reassured.

The key is in the Danish oil. Applying Danish oil to a wooden worktop is vital to protect it, but also has the affect of changing the colour, warming it up and darkening it considerably. Having seen the difference it made to my colleague’s worktop I decided to stick with the one I had, and I’m incredibly pleased that I did. As soon as I applied the Danish oil, and I used Liberon ‘Superior Danish Oil’, it made a huge difference. See below for before (left) and after (right) pictures of the color. I *love* it.

Here is a little taste of what it looks like installed (in my unfinished kitchen), against checked tiles and white cabinets.

Final tip: this acacia worktop is seriously hard. My builder had to buy a special (and pricey) router bit to get through it. The ones he usually used just couldn’t cut it, literally, only leaving burn marks on the wood. Apparently the guy who sold him the worktop said that kitchen installers often don’t like using this wood because it can be so hard to handle. I suspect it therefore requires a very skilled installer. For me, the result is worth it. And, with all the pain of installing it behind him, my builder did agree that it is a very fine worktop.

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The Home Buying Process

Will post more on my experience of buying a flat at some point, but just wanted to share a link I found particularly useful in the beginning when trying to understand how it all worked:

The Home Buying Process at The Motley Fool, a site I found useful for other tips and information along the way as well.

There are actually quite a lot of these online guides about, please feel free to recommend any others you found useful in the comments.

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DIY courses; Home Jane; your recommendations

I’m currently writing up a lengthy post on sanding floorboards, with pictures and everything, but in the meantime I wanted to share a recommendation.

Having always thought of myself as being rather good at DIY, I’ve recently come to realise that I was mostly just enthusiastic rather than genuinely skillful. Since I was moving into a new place which needed a lot of work, and was doing it on my own, I wanted to be able to do at least some of the smaller jobs myself. I also wanted to know enough to have meaningful conversations with builders, plumbers and so on, and hopefully avoid getting ripped off by unscrupulous cowboys.

When I saw that Home Jane were running a four week DIY course in SE1, then, I immediately signed up. Called ‘Tools for the Terrified’, it promised to be fairly hands on, and to cover woodworking, decorating, plumbing and wiring. Now, not being particularly terrified of tools, more just a bit inexperienced, I worried that it would be too basic or patronising. I was wrong.

I was wrong on a couple of counts. Firstly, it *was* fairly basic, but it just made me realise how much of the basics I didn’t actually know. I didn’t really know something as simple as the correct way to paint a wall, or how the plumbing system in a house works. I didn’t really know what I could or couldn’t legally do to the wiring in a house (as it turns out, there *isn’t* very much you are allowed to do), or how the electrics are normally set up.

I was also wrong because the workshop tutors and Home Jane team were great, very helpful, very clear, and always willing to answer questions. Not at all patronising. The class sizes are small, so you’ll need to get in there quick when they do run another one, though unfortunately there is no sign on their website that they have anything planned soon. Keep an eye on their news page, or send them an email if you want to find out more.

Still in the same borough, Southwark council also seem to be offering woodworking courses amongst other things, though I can’t vouch for them. Have you tried one of their courses?

For outside of London, a quick google search seems to bring up loads of different options. Could also search specifically for woodwork, plumbing or decorating. Have you tried any of these courses? Any other recommendations?

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F***ing it up

Firsttimebuyer.wordpress.com had already gone, but that basically sums me up. A first time buyer, blindly (blithely?) feeling my way into this brave new world of property, responsibility, building’s insurance, new kitchens, giant gaping holes in ceilings and pain.

It’s been the steepest of learning curves and, indeed, it continues to be. Whilst I write this first post, utilising the lovely BT line which cost me about £120 I wasn’t expecting to have to pay (lesson no. 52), I’m still living in about 40% flat, 60% building site. From here, sat on the bed, I can see right through to the living room due to the the missing bedroom door, and a missing internal window. If I lean all the way over I can wave at passersby through the front window. Hello passersby! This is what I look like on a lazy Sunday! Lucky them.

I have half a kitchen. On one side the tiles are nearly finished, the beautiful wooden worktop is oiled and ready to go, the oven functions, the fridge is full. On the other side, the nasty old worktop remains, the rest of the kitchen cabinets are stacked to the ceiling, the sink is flimsy stainless (ha!) steel and daily covered with mysterious slug trails. Lesson no. 41 – if at all possible, do the kitchen first, *before* you move in.

So, I’m still not sure if I’m fixing it up, or f***king it up. But either way, I’ve learnt an awful lot over the last few months. For me, I feel it’s important to be as informed as possible to be able to make any important decisions (which fridge, etc) or before starting a major task (sanding the floors, for example), and with the whole internet at my disposal that’s a LOT of information I’ve been gathering over the course of this project.

I’ve also had a excellent and friendly builder who’s been on hand to help, make suggestions I wouldn’t even have thought of and fix problems I hadn’t even noticed. I’ll be sharing everything I’ve learnt from this process, and am also hoping to develop and share a couple of tools I think will be handy.

I’m not an expert and this is only personal anecdote so please comment if you have personal experiences to add, or are a professional who’d like to correct any glaring errors.

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