Install a BEKO Slimline Dishwasher.

BEKO Slimline Dishwasher

In order to install the dishwasher, I first had to source it. 
The couple are in their very late years and time is taking its toll. Vision is fading, and falls are frequent. They need something robust and simple. No huge array of flashing lights and tiny touch screen buttons, but SIMPLE buttons ON - OFF - WORK. It doesn't have to be any more complicated than that. At home Trish and I  have a Bosch Logixx automatic dishwasher. A fabulous machine with DOZENS and DOZENS of different programmes. We use ONE. We want the dishes clean that's all. We don't want to fly to the moon. It goes on standard wash come hell or high water. One programme. Talking to the vast majority of my customers who use dishwashers and washing machines, they do the same. 
But I digress...
I went to Langney Domestics (opposite the Salvation Army) and sourced a slimline model with 3 proper controls. On/Off  Stop/Start  Programme 1/2/3. No stupid screen in 10 different languages.
Langney Domestics is a family run electrical retailer celebrating over 40 years of trading. 
Ken helped find the right sort of dishwasher for somebody with fading sight. The dishwasher was in stock (as is almost everything they sell) and I was able to take it straight back to the customers house. The unit slotted into position and fitting it was simple It was soon up and running, and the lady was happy. She can now operate the dishwasher by touch when her eyesight deteriorates further.
If you'd like to email me on this or any other topic CLICK HERE

Light not working and electrical socket broken.

It always amazes me how many home made bodges last such a long time. 
I was asked to come to a house in Old Town to sort out a couple of problems for  a lady who'd been referred to me. Dismantle an old gate, fit a door bell, mend a light and replace a broken electrical socket. The small stuff that I enjoy doing. Gate ten minutes. Door bell ten minutes. Socket replacement ten minutes minutes. Light fitting --  now that was an entirely different ball game. 


Years ago, long  before the lady had lived there, the room had been "modernised" with a suspended ceiling with concealed light box. Paint had been applied many many times and any sign of entry to the light box was completely covered over.  After quite a while, more by luck than anything else, I managed to get the panel undone and the light .assembly' was exposed. 


Take at least three standard fluorescent tube lighting assemblies, dismantle them for no apparent good reason, and screw the component parts together on to a piece of wood. Madness or what?  I can only assume that the perpetrator had cannibalistic tendencies and had butchered two or three old fittings to make this 'new' contraption. It made absolutely no sense at all. I just wish I had taken a photo. Needless to say, I took the bodged light out and replaced it with a proper single unit. 
The bodge had lasted for decades until I came along and then it was gone. What should have been a simple five minute tube replacement turned into an hour of muttering and grunting. But at least now the lady is safer in her own home.


If you want to email me CLICK HERE

Putting up lights switching switches and recover dead websites and find websites that have moved.

Today was a "clean" day. I went out clean, I came back home clean. Trish was amazed. I spent most of the morning changing light switches from worn away brass to white, and normal two gang switches to dimmer switches. I was also asked to replace some pendant lights that had seen better days. It can take a surprising amount of time to make such minor changes. It was cold and wet outside,  and I didn't want to get cold and wet, and so I pottered around, getting the job done and just enjoyed doing the work.
When buying a dimmer switch always look at the rating - many are rated about 240W max. A lot of dimmer switches 'fail' after a short time, mainly because they are overloaded. If a chandelier has 8 bulbs @ 40w (and lots do) then just one chandelier will already be overloading the dimmer. If you have two chandeliers on one dimmer.... well you do the sums. All I'm saying is check the loading if you are about to install dimmer switches. If your looking for good over the counter advice checkout 'TLC Electrical Supppliers' in Eastbourne.

While I was changing switches, my client and I were chatting about loads of things, and he mentioned  in passing how he had a website made in memory of his mother with her full life story but had lost it all when the hosting service ended.
Nothing is totally lost once its been on the net.
This evening I relaxed by hunting for the website. I quickly found some of the old pages, (The ones that were supposedly lost) and with some more digging managed to find all of the pages that he had assumed were gone forever. I phoned him to tell him that his mum's memoires were not lost, and tomorrow I'll  give him a copy of the lot. What he does then is up to him.
Nothing is totally lost once it's been on the Net.
For some that's good news and for others that may be bad.

Computer Help, Leaky taps, Bathroom Heater

It's been a day of many talents today. One of the things I did was show a lady how to set up a blog. Easy when you know how, but daunting when she'd only just started using a computer in the last two months.. Basic computer lessons and home computer help is something I've been doing for quite a number of years. In a previous life (I've had so many!) I used to train people for a living. I don't have the educational qualifications to be a teacher, but many people tell me that I'm a very good trainer. I've found that if you concentrate on getting the basics, the fundamentals, right, the rest is a lot simpler. She was an avid traditional diarist, and wanted to start doing the same on her new computer. She'd tried a computer help forum  but only got more confused (Hey, that's happened to me too) Blog help was what she wanted, and so blog help is what she got.
After an hour she was flying solo, and so I was free to go on my way to the next call.

Which was - you guessed it - a leaky tap. Dripping taps are so annoying, and yet so easy to fix - most of the time. This one was not to be ignored. It wasn't dripping. It was pouring.
Imagine a Victorian mansion, sub-divided into flats. Over the years so many alterations have been made to the property that Stop Cocks are buried under many layers of remodelling. In other words - not to be found.
As the water pressure was so low I decided to do it "live". Open the taps in the flat to reduce the flow even further. Take the tap head off. Undo the barrel. Change the washer. Reverse the order. Hey Presto! Job done. WARNING! Don't do this unless you know what you're doing. Because it can go wrong. And then you need to know what to do next. Leaky pipes. Non flushing cisterns. Fitting bathroom heaters. Changing bannisters on the stairs, and helping people with Technology. It's all in a days work for the Eastbourne Handyman.

Here is a resource you may find useful if you have a good background knowledge of  using a computer. Some lessons get a bit to technical for the majority of users, but it's a very good place to start.

Fluorescent lighting

The last job of the week was to change a defective fluorescent light fitting.

Generally, if a fluorescent fitting gives up the ghost it's one of three things.

1. The tube
2.The starter
3.The transformer.
In this case it was the transformer.

The units are so cheap it hardly worth trying to get a replacement transformer, it's more cost effective to get a whole new unit. Fitting is simple. This one was on a landing in a block of flats.

The landing was pitch black and the fitting was12' up on the ceiling.
I had the good fortune to have the help of one of the residents - Robert.
Already past retirement age and just as active as ever.
He effectively became my 'mate'.
Holding the torch steady on the job and passing me the right tools up the ladder.
We had a long natter about God and the world, and found we shared a lot of similar ideas about things.
It made a very pleasant end to the week and we got the light working as well.

Robert

Many thanks for your help

Jim

Just to let you know

From January 2010 the new home page of "Jim'll Fix It Services" will be www.rwjsear.com.
As always, whatever you need I can help. If I can't help - I'll know someone who can!
Whether its property maintenance, or a computer problem that needs solving

give me a call on 07930 335 937.

Fuse box cupboard

Fuse boards always seem to be in the most awkward places. Too high up, too low down. In full view, or tucked away around a corner in some obscure hole. This time it was in a kitchen, high up on the ceiling, in full view. No wonder the lady wanted a cupboard around it. The cupboard was made to match the kitchen units. By the time I'd finished it looked a whole lot smarter than when I started. If you need a meter boxed in call me on 07930 335 937.

Just to let you know

From January 2010 the new home page of "Jim'll Fix It Services" will be www.rwjsear.com.
As always, whatever you need I can help. If I can't help - I'll know someone who can!
Whether its property maintenance, or a computer problem that needs solving

give me a call on 07930 335 937.

No need to buy a new vitrine!

I got a call from one of my favourite customers a week or two back. They had an electrical problem. They'd had a vitrine with lights for years. Then all of a sudden the lights stopped working. They changed bulbs (several times I believe) and still to no effect. They got two to work but the last one steadfastly refused to work. So they called me in. "I think we need a new vitrine" she said. "I've already been looking, but can't yet find one we like." "We've tried for hours to get it to work, but it won't"

So with a wobbly balancing act I climbed up on the arm of the sofa, to have a look see. Three lights, three cables. I tugged gently on cable one,and it stood firm. I tugged gently on cable two, and it too resisted. Tugging on cable three I nearly over wobblebalanced, and the end of the cable was dangling in mid air. Plug it back in the socket, and hey presto, the light works. The husband's eyes lit up. His wife said thank you, and smiled, and I couldn't help thinking that I had spoiled her fun for the following weekend. I'm sure she would have liked a new vitrine.

Just to let you know

From January 2010 the new home page of "Jim'll Fix It Services" will be www.rwjsear.com.
As always, whatever you need I can help. If I can't help - I'll know someone who can!
Whether its property maintenance, or a computer problem that needs solving

give me a call on 07930 335 937.

Electrics, plumbing, plastering, fitting an eastbourne kitchen

The kitchen has as expected taken up all of this week.
Oliver was off sick on Tuesday and so a delay started... by Thursday he and Abdul (his apprentice) had rewired the kitchen and corrected some horror scenarios in the consumer unit (fuse box). The best one being that when the main switch was turned off - the house was still live. Still all's well that ends well. The faults have been put right and the kitchen is now up to current regs. Oliver and Abdul finished 'first fix' on Wednesday. The owners then decided that they would like the kitchen walls skimmed prior to fitting the kitchen. This meant that Raf started plastering late on Wednesday evening and completed the task by just after 23:00.
By doing it like that Oliver was able to do 'second fix' and 'test and certify' by late Thursday afternoon. While all of this was happening I had sorted the rerouting of the plumbing so that it was all ready for the final connections when the kitchen was fitted... Friday morning we finally started fitting. By close of play today, Saturday, the clients now have a fully functioning kitchen. Monday will be a short day of small details and by the mid afternoon we will be on our way to the next job.

Rain stopped play

What a miserable week (weatherwise) last week was.

It rained, and rained, and rained, and then it rained some more. My plan had been to complete the basement porch. Someone must have heard about my plan, and smiled. Then that someone let it rain for forty days and forty nights... No, that was someone else, wasn't it? It just felt like forty days and nights.

What I did manage to do was catch up with other workloads.

I've changed several light fittings, renewed sockets, switches, and a cooker hood, replaced washers on literally dozens of taps, rehung a couple of doors, restored two of my customers computers to fully functioning former glory, replaced a hand rail, built some flatpack, custom built a kitchen cabinet to hide a boiler, hung some curtains, and wired up a door bell. The one thing I didn't do last week was stop and offer a lift to a young teenage girl standing at a lonely bus stop in the pouring rain.

Why not?

Prejudice and cowardice!

I'm a 55 year old man driving a builder's van.

She was about 11 - 16 (who can tell?) and drowning at the bus stop.

Driving along the road, I was approaching the bus stop and saw her standing there, trying to hide behind the bus stop pole for protection against the rain.

I started to slow down, intending to offer a her a lift.

The windscreen wipers were having difficulty keeping up with the rain.

In the same second as I started to slow down, I made the decision to continue on without stopping. I don't think she even noticed me or the van.

Twenty years ago I would have stopped.

Ten years ago I would have stopped.

Five years ago I would have stopped.

But last week I didn't.

As I prepared to slow down, my thoughts were purely selfish.
She'll think I'm some sort of pervert.

She'll be afraid.

She could accuse me of something afterwards and I will have no defence.

and many other scenarios filled me with disquiet.

I have found the whole thing strangely sad.

She will never know that it made me feel wretched.

What has happened that we have developed into a society where I, and people like me, don't do what comes naturally (to offer help), because we are afraid of what might never happen.
Am I getting older and wiser, or simply older and more afraid?

Hailsham and the Eastbourne Handyman

In a previous life - about 20 long years ago,

I was living in Germany, driving European Road Trains
(which make UK trucks look like Dinky toys)
from Germany to Morocco, Denmark to Tunisia, Sweden to Portugal, or any other combination of European and North African countries you might care to think about.

I used to drive thousands of miles a week.

I'd be at home for two, possibly three days a month, and I loved it.

I used to love to travel to new destinations.
It was like being on holiday, and getting well paid for it!

I had huge amount of fun.

But everything has a price tag.

It only cost me a good marriage and a lifetime of guilt!

Why am I telling you this?

Nowadays I virtually never work outside of Eastbourne!

Two main reasons

1. Absolutely no need

There is lots of work available on the doorstep in Eastbourne

2. Absolutely no desire

I can't think of one good reason to travel any sort of distance.

Having said all that, I now find myself going up to Hailsham (that's a huge journey of about 7-8 miles - ONE WAY!!!) on a regular basis.

It started when I got a phone call from a lady who had read this blog.

"I need some work done, can you help?" she asked.

"The answer's 'Yes, what's the address" I replied.

When she said "South Street" I already had a mental image of a road in Eastbourne.

"Hailsham" she said.

I was about to say "I don't operate outside of Eastbourne" (my normal reply), when she said "I've read your blog and I think it's great!"

What a sucker punch!

I'm no different to anybody else - I love having my vanity stroked!

I swear, any other reason would have failed - miserably.
But because I was flattered, I now find myself going up to Hailsham every week to do carpentry, plumbing, and electrics. The lady and her family are fabulous to work with, and I really enjoy going up there. They want a lot of work done, so expect a few posts from Hailsham over the coming months.

Whoever said flattery doesn't work is a fool!

Here's a list of things I do

I'm always being asked can you do this or can you do that
so here is a list in alaphbetical order of some of the things I can do

Add or remove shelving
Aviaries built
Bathroom accessories hung
Bird houses built
Blinds installed
Bookcases made to measure
Cat enclosures
Carpentry & Joinery
Ceiling fans installed
Central Heating*
Wardrobe organizers installed
Clothes Dryers
Decks and Decking
Dog Kennels
Doors hung, repaired, or adjusted
Dual Flush Toilets Installed
External Painting*
Fencing & Gates
Fireplaces installed
Fixtures installed or replaced
Flat Pack Kits Assembled
Garden Maintenance
General Repairs*
Glazing*
Hanging pictures and whiteboards
Hardware replaced
Hardwood floors
Install curtain poles
Install Fly screens
Install Hand rails
Internal Painting*
Landscaping & Gardening *
Light fixtures installed or repaired
Locks fitted
Mailboxes installed
Maintenance
Mirrors hung
New appliances installed
Outdoor grill/fireplaces
Painting & Decorating*
Pergolas
Pet Doors
Pet flaps
Picture hanging
Plumbing
Pressure Cleaning*
Renovation
Repair simple leaks
Replacement of Sash Cords
Roofing Repairs*
Rot repair
Shelving
Shower doors installed
Skylights*
Small repairs
Smoke Detectors
Staircases & Handrails
Storage sheds
Swing sets
Switches replaced
Toilets installed or replaced
Trim carpentry
Vent fans installed
Waste Disposals installed or repaired
Weather stripping
Window Shutters
Windows & Locks
Windows repaired

if you need help give me a call on 07930 335 937

If you have a property in Scotland...

If you, or someone you know, have property in Scotland, and need electrical work carried out, give Scott McLean of Stirling Electrical Services Ltd a call.
They're electricians you can rely on. Stirling Electrical are members of SELECT and CLE and the quality of their work has been verified.
Here are the full contact details.
STIRLING ELECTRICAL SERVICES LTD,
12 QUEEN STREET,
FALLIN,
STIRLINGSHIRE, FK7 7JG
Tel: 01786 813916
Fax: 01786 811447
Website: www.stirlingelectrical.co.uk
E-mail: info@stirlingelectrical.co.uk

Re-arrange the kitchen

One of the jobs I've done this week was to revamp a kitchen layout. The old units were still in good condition and after a little bit of thought were able to be re-arranged into a completely new layout. I had to cut down a larder unit that would otherwise have been surplus to requirements, and made a base unit from the carcass which now fits under a new worktop. Electrics needed to be re-routed and appliances placed into new positions. During the rebuild the place looked chaotic. Bits and pieces were lying around all over the place. Appliances were moved here there and everywhere. The whole thing only took half a day to complete, but even so, at the end I was absolutely 'nadgered'. Material costs were only£60, and now, the lady has a new kitchen! She's very pleased - and yes I do mean very pleased! It doesn't need to cost thousands to put a smile on a lady's lips.

Outside lights

This evening I had arranged to fit an outside light for a home owner.
The old unit had given up the ghost.
The homeowner was an electronics researcher, who in daily life gave presentations at conferences on electronics, but freely admitted that he preferred not to handle screwdrivers if he could possibly avoid them. It seemed somehow strange to fit a simple light for a research fellow in electronics, but I've done many strange things in my life, so one more mildly surreal thing simply didn't faze me.
In the course of conversation we did discover that we both had a healthy disdain for "designers" and their apparent lack of common sense. It takes just as long to design something well, as it does to design it poorly, so why do so many designers (and architects) design so poorly?
Is it malevolence, ignorance, or stupidity?
If you want to see what I consider a prime example of ghastly design go down to the corner of Whitley Road and St Philips Avenue. There you will see a large building (St Philip's Church of England church) that is "architect designed". How could anybody associate themselves with such a miserable confection - unless of course they wanted to become known for poor quality prison punishment block design? It is at best an eyesore - but I suspect it is probably feted throughout the designer community, as what can be readily achieved with the right level of complete disregard for one's own self respect.
Professionals!
I think not.

Well that's my rant for the day

Oh by the way. the light works now.

Kids, Jet Skis, Handrails, and Door Closers

Well after the last post, lets get back to the real world.
I had a nice light day today. Fit an electric shower, put up two handrails on a very steep stairwell, install an automatic door closer, and put up a couple of floodlights. All in a days work. The installation of the shower was almost a carbon copy of the last shower I put in yesterday. Same issue different house. Why?
My second call of the day was to a great lady who seemed to have similar ideas about kids as me. It's not the children who are to blame for poor schooling or discipline, it's the parents. The teachers have the responsibility for the kids for 40 hours a week max. Parents have them for 128 hours a week. I'm lousy at maths, but common sense tells me, simply by looking at the ratios of time, the fault MUST lie with the parents. Here's a quote I saw somewhere -- "What we do to kids now, they will do to society later". (Whoops, I'm on my soap box again. Sorry!) Where was I? Oh yes! Putting up lights. I had three sets of lights to put up, and was given three cups of tea -now that's what I call a GOOD ratio. I asked why she needed so much light and she said she needed it for her jet ski - ask a simple question, you'll get a simple answer.
A pig's ear handrail ( that's not a moan - it's called a pigs ear because in profile it resembles a pig's ear.) is a doddle to put up. The most difficult bit was manoeuvring a 4 metre long pole into a narrow stairwell at the end of a room filled with bone china, glasses, and other highly breakables. It only took about an hour to install them both, but now it has made going up and down a cellar stairwell much safer. I should be in line for a halo soon!!!!!!
The door closer finished off the week. This weekend we've got family over from France and I need to have a chat with my son in Germany. Oh yes, we're very EUropean in our household.
Can't get over the Jet Skis.

Have you ever put up ceiling lights?

Designers. How I would love to strangle a designer. Especially the ones that design light fittings.

I've just put up a Chandelier - it replaces what was there before. Have you ever tried standing on a platform with a part assembled light fitting in one hand, a screwdriver in the other, trying to get a ridiculously small screw into a badly machined hole on the side of a ceiling rose with your other hand. Wait a minute I hear you say I don't have three hands!.......... Now here's the rub. Neither do lamp designers. So why in the name of everything that is holy do they design such diabolical fittings. On a good day it can take 5 minutes to put up a lamp, but it can easily become half an hour, or even an hour... Once you've got it up, then the fun really begins.... dozens and dozens of tiny little dangly bits, need to be hung on hair like wire clips, threaded through virgin size holes. All this and then you've got to go out and get a specific type of light bulb which normal shops in the area don't stock !!!!!!!!!!!

It is my fervent hope that all designers everywhere heed this message, If you do not mend your ways, I will invoke a leather-winged demon of the night to tear itself, shrieking blood and fury, from the endless caverns of the nether world, to hurl itself into the darkness with a thirst for blood on its slavering fangs and it will search the very threads of time for the throbbing of your heartbeat. Just thought you'd want to know that. :)

The floor was sinking fast - rotten wallplate

I don't work on Saturdays, well, not normally. This weekend I've had to make an exception (I quite often make exceptions for lots of things). The workload is very healthy and I need to stay on top of the new work coming in. Norman the P & D, is doing all of the painting and decorating he can handle. Oliver the electrician is as busy as ever. Jeff the gas man sighs when I phone him with another customer. Graham the plasterer is on a huge job. And I'm running around doing the bits I like to do. Yes the workload is very healthy.

As much as possible I like to do the small "No job too small" stuff. I used to do the big stuff, but nowadays the body groans when I even think of heavy work, and so I now choose to do the small stuff. Wherever possible, then and there. Saturday was full of small stuff. I started off in Milfoil Drive. Bathroom doors are notorious for sticking. You can probably boil it down to a couple of factors. Humidity, and poor quality doors, badly hung. This one had all three! The low quality (superstore/cheap) knotty pine door had been poorly fitted and badly sealed.

The door didn't stand a chance.

(Where's my soapbox - it's time for a rant!)

You CANNOT - buy cheap - and get good.

Or as Confucius says

Cheap thing no good

Good thing no cheap

Please write it a hundred times.

Wooden doors are living, breathing things.

They expand and contract with humidity by a very surprising amount

If they are not protected by coats of of oil, varnish, or paint, they will warp - guaranteed.

Especially if they were cheap....

End of rant...

In the short term, I've solved the lady's problem by planing the door enough to stop it sticking, but not so much as to make the door too small when the humidity decreases.

There are a number of other small jobs that need to be tackled around the house, but they will have to wait until Thursday.

Having left Milfoil Drive, I headed down to my next call in Channel View Road. Here was a new small problem. The living room floor of this edwardian terrace house had sunk by two inches in the front corner. Visions of huge repair costs were floating in front of the lady's eyes.

I suspected that the wallplate that the floor joists sat on was rotten. We decided to lift a floorboard to see what the problem was. Lo and behold, the wallplate had disintegrated and left the floor joist (which was rotten at the end where it had sat on the plate) hanging in mid air held up only by the floorboards it was meant to support. The lady was thinking terms of hundreds of pounds. I told her it would be about twenty pounds in materials plus a bit of labour plus two cups of tea. We struck a deal, and I went off to get the materials. Within an hour the job was done, the floor back in place and safe to walk on. I was on my way, leaving yet another lady with a smile on her face!

The other two jobs of the day were electrical - replacing a broken socket and changing a light fitting. I was home for three and able to put my feet up for the weekend.

Doors Outside Lights, and Sovereign Harbour

Today I went to see a client that had been given some old doors. I have to admit when they told me on the phone I did stifle a groan. When I went around to see them (I always try to get to people the same day), I was close to groaning out loud. Mildewed bananas came to mind. The doors were literally black with fungus and had been poorly stored. They looked as if they had come off a skip, and I hoped they would be finding their way back there. and to add insult to injury, the "new"doors were the wrong size anyway, and so after a brief natter, we agreed that I should hang new doors. Boy, was I relieved. Now I have something to look forward to on Monday.

I like hanging doors. No, I take that back. I love hanging doors. It's my favourite thing to do. The trickier the better. If you fancy hanging a door yourself read this PDF from Gary Katz. He's American - and yes I know they do it differently over there - but he does come up with some neat answers to a few of the tricky bits. If you don't want to do it yourself call me 07930 335 937.

Having spent most of the day in Sovereign Harbour changing light and socket fittings, I managed to amuse myself, in the late afternoon, with clearing another load of gutters! After yesterday you would have thought I had had enough, but that's just the way this work is. For some reason different types of work always seems to comes in batches. Lets just hope that batch is finished.