What D-I-Y projects are you planning whilst working from home?

[Jimk]

Old worktops? Hob electric? Shurely you can rig up a galley kitchen, it's going to be a while...

[Jimk]

Single oven? Plug & extension lead? What sort of hob (power)? What dust generating other work are you doing in there? How long to conclude?

Seems to me you need to prioritise, take a position on the project & manage your way short & medium term...

[Jimk]

Indeed.

New kitchens with or without major revisions are big projects for DIY at the best of times.

[jkn]

Like many I guess, being forced to work from home means that the daily timetable can change a bit. I am likely to work later in the evenings, leaving some time in the day to get a few round tuits done.

My list so far includes:

- painting white visibility edges on some garden steps (done)

- taking the net and poles down from the children's trampoline (done)

- levelling up the vegetable patch by cuttign down some flags and edging part of the slope (part done)

- getting pi-gole up and running on a recently-bought M93 tiny (done)

- thinking of a project to use the freed-up RPi on

- painting the playhouse

- fitting new windows to the playhouse

- creosoting the fence

- re-fastening one fence post

- replacing the kitchen radiator (replacement bought a while ago)

- fixing the kitchen window

- finishing backing up the pile of cassettes I want to archive

Any other suggestions?

J^n

[Chris Hogg]

So what have you planned for next week?

[Tricky Dicky]

Fit the kitchen residing in my garage only problem I need to get some timber from the timber yard and need some plaster and plasterboard from the builders merchants but do not know if they are remaining open. Anything else I will get delivered from Screwfix who have been shutting some branches and maybe all after a Boris?s announcement but are still delivering.

Richard

[Tricky Dicky]

Just checked Screwfix website, hardware shops are considered essential shops so branches will remain open for Click & Collect only but deliveries will be available once they reopen their website later today.

Richard

[Tricky Dicky]

Timber merchants closed for three weeks no deliveries either. The builders merchant depots closed but deliveries are still going on. Seems odd to have Hardware as essential but materials suppliers not.

Richard

[R D S]

But is leaving the house to get DIY supplies considered appropriate? I'd go with no.

I'm not frightened of this virus personally but I work with a guy who lives with his elderly grandparents, obviously he is concerned about the spread.

I know people who will not close their shops (not services I would describe as essential) and are open today.

My neighbours have had constant visitors throughout the day so far.

What I think about the virus and the reaction to it is of no significance, but yesterday's announcement was a response to people not behaving as they'd been advised and if they continue we will end up with a proper lockdown.

[T i m]

<snip>

OMV based NAS? I have a RPi2B here that has a 4TB USB drive and has been running OMV for probably over a year now and it seems to work reasonably well (as a straight NAS at least). It's also very low power and low noise, lower power consumption than a slimline Shuttle I have also running OMV and lower power and quieter than my Synology NAS (DS218j).

Back up your OMV NAS? ;-)

Cheers, T i m

[michael adams]

Everyday things like door locks or electrical plugs or even light bulbs might need to be replaced at the drop of a hat; whereas building work* can always be suspended even if it means people temporarily losing their jobs.

michael adams

*supplies for essential building work for hospitals etc. will presumably already have been prioritised

...

[jkn]

Thanks for the suggestion T i m, but I already have a NAS (HP Microserver). It runs vortexbox and Plex. FWIW I probably wouldn't trust the RPi for that, but a lot would depend on the power arrangements.

I have another RPi which allows me to FTP stuff off my olde Topfield PVR; it gets recoded and stored on the NAS for viewing in my 'copious free time' ;-o

J^n

[RJH]

You don't happen to know the rough power consumption?

I've just bought a 4TB portable drive (£77 - pretty much the cheapest way to but storage) and wouldn't mind tethering it to something NAS-like.

[T i m]

But this is why we always end up with such restrictions ... because of all those (typically a minority) who don't already realise what's right, wrong or socially acceptable. ;-(

If you don't listen to or watch the news, don't read a newspaper or get out much, it's quite possible you currently have no idea about Coronavirus, as was the case with an old guy who went to shake my mates hand a couple of days ago.

I guess because some of us have 'some' understanding of science and have played the Foxes and hares' experiment, we might figure out for ourselves what the risks might be and how to minimise them.

All those who quoted how many people die from gunshot or being knocked down by a car obviously don't understand the word 'pandemic'. ;-(

I wonder if they would be able to differentiate between one person stealing something and 'mass riots and looting'?

Cheers, T i m

p.s. I went into my local Screwfix the other day and one staff member nearly went as far to suggest it was all a conspiracy theory. I made a contactless payment, stayed at arms length and left the item on the side a few days till I needed it. ;-(

[R D S]

The second half of my kitchen was due this week from DIY-Kitchens.

I've just had a phone call, it's not being delivered for the foreseeable.

I'm totally crying!

[spuorgelgoog]

Make your own prosthetic leg :-)

Owain

[Steve Walker]

Except that work in progress may mean that other things can't be put in place, so someone could be without electricity, water or with their property insecure because they can't obtain materials to complete a job.

Luckily I bought plasterboard last week for our kitchen ceiling, but even when it is done, I need paper for the walls, new laminate flooring and new worktop before I can re-install the cupboards, oven and hob. Waiting too many weeks will drive us mad, as the house is a tip, with oven, cupboards and food in the living room and the hob in our bedroom and with five of us confined to the house now.

SteveW

[spuorgelgoog]

The problem is that if subcontractors withdraw from a site *voluntarily* they get hit by penalty clauses, which could put a lot of subcontracting firms out of business permanently.

Hence thousands of construction workers on the Tube.

The govt's usual vague guidelines have it the wrong way about. Repair work in people's houses should continue, where possible and necessary, especially as people are working from home, gyms are shut, etc so if your bathroom or kitchen is out of action you are now really stuck; but all site work should cease unless that would have an immediate adverse effect on national infrastructure or safety.

Owain

[#Paul]

Although presumably getting supplies needed to fix some sort of hazard or non-trival leak would be reasonable.

#Paul

[T i m]

Of the RPi and 4TB USB (Laptop) drive? From memory, around 7W but I'd need to check that on my power meter plug thing and if it was active or idle.

The Shuttle with SSD (In the Optical bay) and 2TB laptop drive was about 12W and the Synology around 17W I think.

Where was that from OOI please (PCW?) as I was thinking that my 4TB RPi 'experimental' NAS now contains quite a bit of stuff and I really ought to back it up. ;-) [1]

Cheers, T i m

[1] I built an OMV NAS on a slimline (passive cooled) 2TB Shuttle for our daughter and gave her a 2TB USB drive to go with it. Her W7 PC backs up to it once a day and she uses it for general NAS duties and plugs the external drive in every_so_often and it automatically initiates a backup. As soon as it stops flashing, she disconnects the drive. ;-)