A sad day

Today was a sad day indeed, it appears I need to put my hand in my pocket and replace my 7 year old laptop.

I returned last week with footage from my family holiday in Finland, at first I thought it was the software that I use as it's free 1080p. I had sound but no picture, I tried it in Windows Media Player and I still had the same issue.

I googled the fault and found I need a codec to allow me to view the video footage, I tried 4 different ways but in the end I went to Microsoft store and paid for the 79p codec and I could now watch the footage. But no I had the issue where when I pressed play it took forever to load and when playing it kept freezing and skipping.

I spoke to my friend, he felt the cpu and the graphics card were struggling to keep up, He told me to start up the xbox game bar ad look. I found the gpu at around 75% and the cpu 90 and above as well as the ram at 70%

He said adding ram to the laptop may help ease the issue, but when editing and processing video footage it will take an age to do, but we could not upgrade the graphics card or the cpu, so I could try more ram but I may be wasting my money 

At this time, all I can rely on is the person that knows about computers, so I guess it's time to look at replacing the computer.

What to do I like a laptop as it folds away and is portable, the issue with it is there isn't much you can do to upgrade it, so it's not very future-proof. My other issue is now with my children growing up they have some homework on the computer as it is now, so I need to start planning further down the line.

Bay window stains

 From earlier on this year we had a leak from the gutter which we got repaired as soon as possible, but the water was leaking directly over the bay window and in turn was leaking up through the moulded seam and leaked into the roof and stained the sealing of it. 

I let it dry out and painted a few times with bright white emulsion, but the stain kept returning, so I felt it was time to seal it for good 

From Toolstation 

So after the 1st coat and 2 hrs do dry, I can confirm the stain seems to have been covered, and no visible sign has returned fingers crossed 

The paint says it can be painted over with any paint, we will see when i get some more emulsion 

Painting the walls

 While the scaffolding is still up I decided it's an idea to get the front wall painted around the top window and area I won't be able to do while on a ladder, so while it stopped raining it was time to give it a coat of magnolia paint.

I went and got a tub of exterior masonry paint and brushes, got out a wire brush to clean off the loose paint and dirt and started to paint the upper wall, it looks better with the cracks in the cement and the older paint covered over.

You can't see it so well in the picture from last night, but it's looking a lot better this morning in a normal light, ill try and take one if it stops raining 

New Doors and windows

 

Today the company came and installed the new door and windows in the front of the house, the door frame was very insecure, and I was worried the bricks would fall out and injure someone let alone the frame not being very secure, the bay windows let more cold air in round the frames even though I tried to re-seal, but it wasn't much better.

When the old dark wood effect doors and frames were fitted it looked dark in the hall, with the white frames it makes the hallway feel a lot brighter than it was and much nicer.

what do you think?

still lots to get done but we are a step closer to making the house our home!

 

Home Security cameras

 I feel in this day and age you need to do all you can to protect your home as much as you can, from the day we moved in to our house I wanted a security camera, I also wanted one that was wireless that I didn't need to run cables all over the house to power them and to a unit to record the footage, all the wireless types I could find were a cloud storage type of deal and quite expensive.

My friend recently told me about a system I had never head of when I was looking called Eufy, so I looked into them and their capabilities, and they seemed to be what I wanted and a little more, but  for the price I felt still expensive.

A few weeks ago Amazon had an offer on for two cameras and the base about £150.00p, so I decided to buy it. On paper, they sound good

• 16gb memory in the hub
• 1080p camera resolution
• up to 180 days of charge from the camera 
• human recognition
• zone setup 
• easy setup
• app based set up and usage

to set the camera up it was quite easy, you need a smartphone and the app the link below may help you if you get this kit, but I did find it all quite easy 

When the package arrived it arrived as above all you needed was a 5 mm drill bit and drill and a Philips screwdriver to fix the cameras to the wall, it even came with templates to drill the holes for the camera mounts.

The setup of the app and the base and cameras was quite painless and the updating of the firmware on the items was all painless 

The cameras came with approximately 3/4% charge in them according to the app, so I charged one fully and the other I left with its original charge. I will see how they last when in use and update you as it goes.

Fuggly fire starters

 OK I'm a big fan of recycling and repurposing things rather than throwing away and this is a tiny way to reuse things that would otherwise end up in a bin and go unused.

We use these for the log burner and for lighting the BBQ in better weather, and they burn for about 4 minutes, and they work brilliantly. 

I doubt they will be any cheaper than the firelighters you find in the shops, but I think it's better to reuse than to throw it in the bin.

What is in them?

• The base of an old cardboard egg box
• Tumble dryer lint/fluff from when you clean the filter 
• Wax from leftover candles you no longer use 

All you do is cover the area with something non-porous or absorbent as melted wax will mark/stain things,  fill the egg cups to the top with the lint melt the wax however you feel safe and pour the melted wax over the lint and leave the wax to cool then split the cups apart and store for use. 

Note: wax melts around 60 degrees Celsius and can still burn (find a safe way to pour the wax) 

Log store

Time to start making a store to keep the logs dry and out the way, I collected some pallets people were getting rid of and cut them down to suit the space I have to put it.

All the wood I had was reused pallet material and nothing else 

once it was built I painted it with fence paint (cuprinol ducks back silver cops)

it now needs an apex roof to fit to it but for today that's it done 

 

log burner day

Well today the team returned and finished off the fireplace and fitted the log burner I'm over the moon it looks like something rather than a cold draughty mess it once was.

Log burner installed onto the log box to looks brilliant not long until its finished.

about two hours after the fire was brought in to the house it was installed and tested, I would highly recommend the corby fire designs team as the house was left clean and tidy both times they carried out the work.

 

More damp proofing

 While we were waiting for the return of the company to return and carry out the last stage of the installation, I decided to carry out some damp proofing of the chimney area as the walls either side suffered with damp I felt it a good idea to seal it while there was time.

With all the damp injection cream in it needed time to absorb into the cement before the fire place install in a week 

Out with the old

 When we purchased the house the old gas fire was unsafe to use and was condemned by the plumber and removed for us, we took our time to decide on what to fill the hole with as it was still an open chimney letting cold in through it.

The wife and I wanted a fire, in the hole but one that is as safe as possible withg children in the house, there are many designs out there, we were unsure what to have, so we had people out to quote, and we decided to go look at a showroom to see what some of these fires look like and the costs involved.

In the end we chose a log burner as wood is a renewable source and log burners are more efficient and economical than a gas fire as well as the chimney being sealed up when not in use, the team from corby fire designs start on Monday with a two-week gap between to allow the work to dry out a bit before the installation of the hearth and log burner.

Sprung a leak

Ok yesterday we found a tiny weep from the bathroom radiator so I thought I'd invest in a new one as the plumber had to disturb the old one.

I found a towel radiator for the central heating system that I can fit a heater element to it and it's on offer at the moment.

It a chrome 1200x500 mm radiator to hopefully warm the room and dry the towels

I think it was a good price for it, on offer it was £39.97p from Toolstation

I will see over time how well the radiator lasts but for now it looks very nice.

I also need to get the electrics heater element wired up and see he that goes as it's a smallish 250watt unit

Why fit an electric element to a central heating system you ask? Well the towels won't dry if the heating system isn't on or warm them on a cold day if the heating hasn't switched on.

I also purchased this from Toolstation