Diy 2017

The Farce Awakens!

last job of 2016 was the telly's speakers:
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no, it's not now perfect. it's clearer, but the levels adjustment is all geared to...feck knows. i've tried earphones and that seems like the sound levels are more evened, but still a bit muffled.
diabolical, really.

between then and yesterday, apart from the colds and the abcess which left me mostly housebound and a fight with a dog which left me kneebitten (yeah, that's my life) and catsitting for a neighbour, i've done nowt.
with yesterday came this year's first job, the kitchen tap:
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the levers are facing outwards in the off position. i don't know if that's how they're supposed to be, but it suits mum and me for both our aches.
the tap is WRAS approved and British Standards compliant; a must after last year's farce.
of course, it came with a problem: too short hoses!!!
i checked online for longer ones and they do them, but not at our local stores they don't :wallbash:
after trying a few of them, i ended up at a plumb trade shop and the lass in there sorted me out with the copper pipe and connectors. she was much more helpful than those dweebs at Plumbase, especially as my mind went blank with the effects of illness when trying to figure out what i needed to lengthen the pipes under the sink.
big :thumbsup: for women in plumbing ('women in plumbing' i said, not women's plumbing).

There isn't anything in my house that I've plumbed that didn't first leak after I was done....sigh. Eventually I get it or I call a plumber. My pipes are old and brittle and I'm almost afraid to look at them. If you frown at them, they'll leak out of spite.

dogboy said:

...My pipes are old and brittle and I'm almost afraid to look at them. If you frown at them, they'll leak out of spite.

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My pipes leak on their own but if someone frowns at me enough I might leak out of fright

I did some DIY on the gates and thankfully got them opening and closing again... houses are so much work

Argent said:

... houses are so much work

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and daunting, if it's your first time at the type of work involved.
my dad used to a bit in construction, in the olden days, so he was sort of okay at it, but severly limited by what tools and materials were available when he was working on our house(s). that's a big part of why i end up re-doing what he did and, although annoying to see the shoddiness, i often have to remind myself that he didn't have much choice.
and while the internet makes things much easier to get hold of, there's often still a stumbling block of trade-specific terminology.

speaking of t'internet: i got myself some o' those fancy noise cancelling headphones from Amazon (on special and i had a gift card), mainly to deal with the telly. while being wireless, they also have an audio line-in, except that the supplied cable was only a metre long. my old headphones, now long degraded, came with a 3 metre cable, so i had to cobble together a longer length using that and the jack of some spare phone earphones.
works fine and is much better, except for the only new-and-worth-watching film which was shown over xmas, Capt. America: The Winter Soldier. the sounds levels on that film are just stupid; i was going from 100 (full volume) for dialogue, to 30 for music and sound fx. and it's still as bad with the new headphones, so it's not all the telly's fault.

as you may know, we, here at ADISC, have long empowered enablement with a drive to enable empowerment of those who may less advantaged. to that end, ADISC has already enabled wheelchair access for the deaf and subtitles for the blind, and now the latest addition to the cause is Systeme Ade, a one-handed system for fixing a diaper in place (i can hear the one-handed applause, now):

(and just so that i don't get too carried away with myself, youtube wouldn't let me upload the demonstrative vids; you'll have to make do with vidcaps)










key to this set-up is the Clingon, available from various sellers (inc. Amazon) and from the makers:
http://www.clingons.co.uk/
i got mine from a local manufacturer [of other stuff] for less than a quid each, with correspondingly different prices for the large and mini clingons.

the first picture shows the large clingon in use and i would think that this size would be the best for those who have limited strength and dexterity; unlike the mini clingon, the large uses a ratchet arm to hold itself in place. the mini is a bit fiddly to fit and release and also wouldn't suit cloth diapers as it doesn't open wide enough.
the first picture is also 'first go' of the gizmos and method and worked 'straight out of the box'. that said, i did end up having to reach, with my bad arm, for the strayed side as it fell backwards aided by the weight of the clingon and bungee ball. use of a pull-through, just to get set-up and positioned, would help for true one-handed fitting.

if you can't see in the first picture, the bungee balls are threaded through the eyelets of the clingons with the balls on the outer (away from the body); fastening is then a case of pulling one bungee through the loop of the other, then reversing the pulling stroke to double back on itself and finally slipping the loop over it's own ball.

with the mini clingon, as seen in the third picture and with the white bungee cord, the principle is the same, but i've snipped the original loop of the bungee ball, to give a cord with a ball at one end, i've then made a loop at the end of the cord for slipping over the ball (this also means that the clingons and cord are effectively one).
the reason is that the mini clingons are smaller and don't take a double thickness of cord too well; you could always try a thinner cord (3 or 4mm).

some vidcaps of fastening and releasing:

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on Amazon, there's a wide array of bungee cords and fittings, of colours and sizes, and there are also cord-grips, but i'd shy away from the sprung ones and go for the geared ones, if that's your fancy. i've kept my set-up simple and cheap.
there are also some different types of 're-useable eylets', but they need screwing on.
any questions, just ask (but, bear in mind that i'm still experimenting).