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So we are nearing the end of a very difficult joinery saga. We are now dealing with a fourth joinery. This last one, apart from being the most expensive, has on the whole been excellent to deal with, incredibly professional, and they even accept credit card. However, we have had an issue with an aspect of their installation. It relates to part of a giant bookcase (308cm tall and over 5m wide. The bookcase is made up of several columns and the final column has doors on it which were meant to be quite seamless, and include a concealed bureau style desk. Where the arrow is pointing on the photo, there was meant to be a 3mm gap (this is clearly labelled on the agreed final drawings) between the top door and the bottom door. The bottom door drops down to make a desk. But the gap has ended up being 8mm or 9mm thick. And as the edges of the desk are rounded off, this accentuates the black shadow behind (when it’s closed), and so it’s quite noticeable. It’s just quite a high contrast between the black shadow and the light coloured oak. There are a few other issues, but this is the only one which I think might be very expensive to fix. The grain pattern of the oak veneered doors is continuous as it’s been cut from one jumbo sheet of veneer (as specified in my drawing). So to fix it properly they would probably need to redo all 5 doors. A cheaper alternative, which I’m hoping is feasible, is to get them to redo the small door above the 8mm gap, and just make that door 5mm taller. The challenge will be to try and find some oak veneered that has a similar grain pattern so that they can edge match it to the shorter piece they would be replacing. The door which is 5mm too short is only 19cm tall, so a small proportion of the overall height of 305cm, so maybe a mismatched grain would be terrible for just that piece. But part of me thinks that this was an incredibly expensive bookcase, the most expensive thing in our whole house, and so I had pretty high expectations and worked on the drawings for MANY days and it has caused me some sleepless nights, so a bit disappointed. But also don’t want to fall out with these guys as they still have quite a bit of joinery to do for us and they have on the whole been really decent. @Big Jimbo I think you might be a joiner (?) so curious as to your thoughts on this sort of mistake, as well as everyone else‘s thoughts of course. SWMBO is also upset that four small brass hinges are visible above the short door, which neither of us were expecting.

@CloGanga, you also need a good family therapist or, worst case scenario, a good divorce lawyer. (Read my driveway story if you are confused.) But more seriously, given your driveway will be flat I don’t see an issue with gravel. If you go for the larger size stones (14mm to 20mm) they will be heavy enough that they shouldn’t move around much.

You know those awful stories about negligent surgeries when a surgeon removes the wrong limb/testicle/eye/breast… I wonder if there’s ever been a bulldozer that demolished the wrong house?! That one looked pretty good.

sorry, when you say "that's a low voltage switch" isn't that what I need, given I'm using a power supply that is 24v ? Or is there a difference between a power supply and a driver?

So I found the Hafele push to break switch, and it might just be perfect: https://www.sdslondon.co.uk/loox-led-door-contact-switch-12v-24v.html The only issue is that it says it is for use with the hafele Loox driver. But presumably my electrician can just cut off the loox connector at the end of the cable and wire the cable to a simple power supply like this: https://www.ledspace.co.uk/products/powerpro-15w-24v-led-power-supply?variant=2032926556170 I cannot switch to the Loox system for everything else because the channel for the LED strip has already been routered for the led profile sold by Ledspace.co.uk, but i really like the shape of the loox contact switch.

Thanks, much appreciated. No. Problem is that I specified the wardrobe already to have a routered out channel for a specific led strip, so I’m stuck with that now, and hadn’t appreciated the complexity of making push to break switches work well with double doors.

Not sure, wouldn’t it keep the light on after you close the cupboard?

I have a wardrobe, consisting of two 1m wide carcasses butted up against eachother so they are side by side, i.e. the wardrobe is 2m wide in total, and there are 4 x 497mm wide doors, two for each carcass. I need to make a provision for lighting these wardrobes from the inside. There is one 13A power socket available (located inside one of the two carcasses), but I could possibly also have a separate lighting circuit, as the area hasn't been plastered yet and the sparky may be able to work some magic. Is there a way of having 2 x 1m LED strips, one at the top of each carcass, so that if one opens either door of a carcass, the light comes on on that carcass only? I was going to use push to break switches, but not sure how the wiring would work to have the two carcasses lighted independently, and for each carcass light to come on regardless of which of its two doors is opened.

I need to stop wasting time washing paint off my fingers. What gloves do people recommend for painting? I want something breathable and cheap. And whilst we wait for the mods to weigh in on whether or not to add a gardening section, it would also be good to have recommendations for gardening gloves.

Access would have been a pain had the builder carried out my initial instructions, which was to make the planter in front of the bin as wide as possible to maximise space for the bamboo. But the builder persuaded me to have a little access room, so there is enough space for me to walk along side the bins all the way in to bin 3. Still have a planter that is about 40cm wide (and runs alongside all the bins) to fill with bamboo.

Thanks. Yes we are very happy. The slope is very gradual, so really feels so much safer and easier than the crazy 12 to 13.5 degree slope we had before. Bins look a bit ugly and prominent, but I am assured the planters around them are big enough to grow sufficient bamboo to cover them.

And the new bin storage (though we haven’t planted the bamboo to conceal the bins yet):

So about 10 days ago they finished the new driveway

You’d need to consult your SE I believe.

I’m not a lighting designer, but I did pay for some lighting design and have been generally happy with the results, bar 2 mistakes. I learned from these mistakes. Post your floor plan and what your objectives are for the space and we can all give you some ideas.

Property has already fallen quite a bit. Even if you listed yours for sale tomorrow, I doubt it will sell that quickly. Lots of uncertainty at the moment.

Yes, it’s made of steel and is solid.

Barber costs £14 to £28 quid, depending on what I have done. Last time he insisted on waxing my nasal hair and singeing my ear hair, but I didn’t like it, so he didn’t charge me for those. I’m going to purchase some cheap clippers and ask SWMBO to do it (my facial and head hair, not my ear or nose hair). Pilates costs vary, depending on whether you go for one-on-one by the hour or a 45 minute group session.

Well the snowboard i just shipped was almost 2m long, so I don't buy that excuse, given the longest length of trim I was going to purchase was 2m. It's just daylight robbery.

So I found a supplier that could supply 6 linear metres of trims, plus the connectors for just under £100. Was about to place the order when i say they wanted to charge £90 plus VAT for delivery! What the (expletive deleted) is wrong with this country. I estimate the parcel is less than 10kg. We just shipped an 8kg snowboard with parecelforce, including a pickup service from our house, where we charged £12.

Stays low on the floor

There is an aesthetic element to this upstand as it’s quite prominent, being a sedum roof over a low bike shed (about 1.2m high from the floor. I really like the look of the grufekit I posted, I just don’t like the price!

I have enough sedum modules leftover that I can cover a 2m2 bike shed (dimensions 1m by 2m). But I don’t have any aluminium profiles to make the upstanding along the perimeter, or the protection fleece that goes under the middle to filter out any soil particles from the drainage. Googling around I found this edge trim, but at this price it will cost me over £180 for the 6 linear metres of upstand I need. I found a 1m by 2m sheet of protection fleece, exactly the dimension I require, here but the delivery charge seems excessive. Can anyone recommend a cheaper supplier, particularly for the edge trim?

sorry to hear about your back. I have had problems with mine most of my adult life. I find staying as active at posible really helps. Sitting does not. Yes and no. For public sector contracts (eg PPE, absolutely this is a huge problem, Boris and Hancock should go to prison. But I work in a highly competitive sector of the private sector, so if my employer wants to spend ££££ winning and dining potential clients and introducers of work, what’s the problem? There are no bungs, certainly none that I’ve seen in the 20 years I’ve worked there. As for mates… yes there is still a degree of that, but more for getting employed (nepotism and parents’ networks still has an impact on getting your foot in the door) than for getting contracts. Ultimately, the client decides, so whilst having mates in the right place may help get an introduction, if you don’t perform adequately, the client will quickly fire you. Yes, but there are some sectors of the City where expertise and skill is a given, whichever provider you go with.

In my industry, networking on corporate credit cards is essential. It’s how we get most of our work. It’s not who you know, it’s who you saw last.