old window with no paint

Paint preparation anyone?

Every paint manufacturer recommends that prior to applying new paint you thoroughly prepare the old paintwork by cleaning and then sanding to provide a ‘key’. But most people seem to think you don’t need to bother too much with paint preparation anymore. Especially as it’s hard work (to do properly), tedious, boring and not very glamourous, especially when compared to the lovely feeling of sliding on that fresh paint. The problem with skimping on preparation is that your great looking finish just won’t last. Paint preparation is all about adhesion and without …

old window needs restoration

Upcycling a hundred year old window… into a balcony greenhouse!

Part 1: Take one very old window… I saw a picture of this window after trawling the local “stuff for sale” website and immediately saw a project which would turn it into a great little hot-house for our patio or balcony. Many older windows here in Norway are double glazed but not how you imagine them to be. Windows were made with the normal outside set of glazing panes and then another set were added to the interior (called ‘secondary glazing’ in the UK). This was often done years afterwards …

led in wine bottle blue

LED Lamp Out of a Wine Bottle

Make This Cool LED Lamp by Drilling a Single Hole. Easily make this cool lamp with a wine bottle and a set of cheap AA battery powered LED string lights. Go find yourself a nice wine bottle from your collection in the garage, (if you need to drink the wine first, it’s best to wait until the following day before making the lamp lol!) Any shape or colour works really, the more exotic and colourful the better. Soak and scrape off any labels etc. Gather together your drill and a …

Snippets from the book…

Since I am getting close to finishing the book it’s time to start sharing some of it… let me know what you think in the comments…… Always be finishing something… Allocate the right amount of time for each job to ensure a steady stream of successes. For example, if you only have 30 minutes one day, choose to do something that takes 30 minutes to finish. Don’t get 30 minutes into a job that’s going to take 4 hours to finish. That’s inefficient because when you come back to it …

Ikea Billy bookcase upgrade…using books!

Phew! Managed to get out of pinterest.com! Like lots of other folks I’ve been spending far too much time there, but when there’s so much stuff to look at it’s hard not to! Pinterest works for me because the human brain can scan images far quicker than long lists of text excerpts, hence being a huge fan of Google images too. Anyway, after being suitably inspired and wanting a project that would free up some valuable bookshelf space. I decided to use up some of the old ‘trashy’ paperbacks I …

DIY Patent application in the UK…

With some trepidation I opened a letter from the UK Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO) yesterday. I say trepidation because the last two letters I received from them requested mind bendingly difficult requests for re-wording of my patent claims (the sentences that ‘claim’ novelty etc). But this letter felt different, it was thinner and had a stiff cardboard in it. Oh oh, I thought, cardboard can mean only one thing…….a certificate of some kind and surely they don’t issue them for rejections! The letter announced, without preamble or mention of our …

Flip over saw goes to the mountains…

Back when the sun was shining we got the chance of a stay in a proper log cabin up in the Hemsedal mountains in central Norway. In exchange for all the fresh air we could manage, some pretty nice food and of course wine, we set about replacing a very worn out kitchen, opening up the walls a little in the process. It was a real joint effort with the four of us all contributing something different to the mix. Melding together to get everything done in a small space …