DIY Project Diary – Week 8

We really should have bought a bench saw.  Having cut 3 MDF sheets we’ve realised that doing it with a circular saw just doesn’t work properly because the MDF is only 6mm thick and 2.4m long! I got bored with cutting all these strips and wasting more material – I just wanted a builder’s merchant to do it for me. We’ve called around and eventually found a company nearby who would do it for a small fee, if we bought the material from them. I calculated that we needed another three sheets – at least. We needed to cover all walls, head board, cabinets, the lids of the boxes, the eaves around the window..

I was right. When the material arrived it certainly speeded up the work (except panelling the eaves) but we ran out of MDF. So we had to utilise the previously cut bendy strips which needed a bit of careful planning and arrangement.

The panelling is finally finished – we have to sort out the lighting & flooring, then build the bed-base & cabinets. Hopefully this will be quicker because we’re sooo behind!!! We’re still sleeping on the floor ( in the room next door) and my back has started to hurt. Our DIY project is quite a strain on our bodies, but  I’m sure that my backache is the result of sleeping on the floor.
 

Anyway, given that I always have to be a step ahead, I’ve started to think about the final decoration – colours, textures and other finishes. I’ve invested in a paint-spray machine, as I want the finish of our new bedroom to be even and flawless – no brush marks. It’s arriving this week. I’m not certain about the colour of the final coat, but it will have to be off-white to make the room appear bigger.

We’ve opened the plastic packaging around floorboards to let them acclimatize and noticed that many of them were faulty. We had to take them back to bloody B&Q. It took such a long time to exchange them – in fact half a day was wasted on this task. I get so irritated when these things happen! Why do they package faulty floorboards – don’t they have quality control to check products before they get displayed in a store??? And why does it take so long to deal with customer complaints and the return of goods? These companies make a fortune out of us DIYers, why can’t they provide a proper service???
 

Anyway, this week’s agenda is to finish the wood-working in the bedroom and start painting it by the weekend. We’ll be building the basic structures out of plywood, MDF and timber. I don’t want too much MDF in the room – after all, I’ll have to sleep in there and there are health concerns. Apparently, because MDF (Medium Density Fibreboard) is manufactured from, in effect, sawdust and glue, it’s full of toxic chemicals which can be emitted in the form of potentially harmful fumes. Something to consider for everyone when using MDF!!!