What I would like to do, is live on a small holding, grow my own food and

[T00ts]

Not with me Toots.

When it comes to plastering I am the world's worse. So I just use plasterboard and hide the joins with gauze and cheap and cheerful prints

Perhaps the way forward is to practice on cakes first! 

[Borchester]

The builder that taught me to plaster (I mated for him for 3 months when he was doing up an old house of ours) almost choked when after his long explanation and demonstration I observed that it was just like icing a cake. 

Not with me Toots.

When it comes to plastering I am the world's worse. So I just use plasterboard and hide the joins with gauze and cheap and cheerful prints

[srb7677]

Still, it is nice to dream

Indeed. Mine would include buying my flat as a Plymouth  base, buying a detached house in a nice rural area with front and back garden and a garage, cleaner to do all the housework, gardener to cut the grass and take care of the gardening, a few million in the bank and no need to work anymore.

Never gonna happen without a big lottery win and I have more chance of being struck by lightning.

But assuming that never happens, I do like the idea of having an allotment when I retire so I can grow my own stuff when I have the spare time for it. 

[Barry]

The builder that taught me to plaster (I mated for him for 3 months when he was doing up an old house of ours) almost choked when after his long explanation and demonstration I observed that it was just like icing a cake. 

I've never plastered a wall from scratch but we had one alcove in Stourbridge which was in very poor condition and half the plaster came off with the wallpaper. It looked like a bombed out house in Afghanistan, so I loosened what was loose then bought a bag of plaster which is remarkably cheap. I made a half decent job with a brand new metal float from Wickes, but I have to say it dries quicker than I can get it on the wall, so I tend to do small mixes.

[Nick]

tobacco and brew my own beer.

Load of bollocks.My home brew tastes like gnat's pee, my home grown tobacco has taken the paint off walls and within a month my arse would have fallen off from sheer boredom.

Still, it is nice to dream

We've had most animals, including Pigs, for which you have to be registered as a smallholding and have a slap mark. The Pigs were a nightmare as they could headbutt a cement block wall down and escape, eating next doors veggies as a bonus. Chickens and Ducks were no problem, both quite soothing to have around.

[T00ts]

Don't mind anything except plastering.

The builder that taught me to plaster (I mated for him for 3 months when he was doing up an old house of ours) almost choked when after his long explanation and demonstration I observed that it was just like icing a cake.  

[Nick]

I detest plumbing,everything else I am happy to do.

Don't mind anything except plastering.

[T00ts]

My father-in-law was a good old school plumber. He showed me how to connect a copper pipe into a lead pipe and solder and wipe the joint.
I've never done one myself.
I hate plumbing. I do it whilst groaning, but I think I'm reasonably proficient. Why don't plumbers put in valves next to each tap, so you can turn off the supply and change the washers, rather than draining all the hot water to change a hot tap washer?

We live in a bungalow with a solid sub floor and there are definite alterations required in the bathroom. May well prove interesting. Ugh.

I won't be growing my own food, Borky. The soil is clay here and you are lucky if the bellbind grows, to be honest. So it's roses, shrubs, and keep putting wood chip and compost over the London clay.

I confess that I feel exactly the same and install them everywhere.

[cromwell]

My father-in-law was a good old school plumber. He showed me how to connect a copper pipe into a lead pipe and solder and wipe the joint.
I've never done one myself.
I hate plumbing. I do it whilst groaning, but I think I'm reasonably proficient. Why don't plumbers put in valves next to each tap, so you can turn off the supply and change the washers, rather than draining all the hot water to change a hot tap washer?

We live in a bungalow with a solid sub floor and there are definite alterations required in the bathroom. May well prove interesting. Ugh.

I won't be growing my own food, Borky. The soil is clay here and you are lucky if the bellbind grows, to be honest. So it's roses, shrubs, and keep putting wood chip and compost over the London clay.

 Ditto

[Borchester]

My father-in-law was a good old school plumber. He showed me how to connect a copper pipe into a lead pipe and solder and wipe the joint.
I've never done one myself.
I hate plumbing. I do it whilst groaning, but I think I'm reasonably proficient. Why don't plumbers put in valves next to each tap, so you can turn off the supply and change the washers, rather than draining all the hot water to change a hot tap washer?

We live in a bungalow with a solid sub floor and there are definite alterations required in the bathroom. May well prove interesting. Ugh.

I won't be growing my own food, Borky. The soil is clay here and you are lucky if the bellbind grows, to be honest. So it's roses, shrubs, and keep putting wood chip and compost over the London clay.

I am with you Barry. My father taught me how to stop leaks in lead pipes by sweating old style copper pennies onto them and using a paraffin lamp and wiping  the hot lead with a moleskin. I can do it, but when Joe Guest arrived with his push fit piping I thought that I had died and gone to heaven. The daft thing is that Herself wants all the plastic pipe in the kitchen replaced with copper. The whole thing will look like a public toilet, but no one is asking my opinion so that is that.

After 40 years the soil on my allotment is easy to dig, but getting out of my armchair is a bit of a challenge, so I grow everything in 30 litre tubs. The allotment provides most of our fruit and veg, but I would hate to rely on it. Gardening is fun, but it is nice to have Sainsbury's or Jack Cohen on call

[Barry]

My father-in-law was a good old school plumber. He showed me how to connect a copper pipe into a lead pipe and solder and wipe the joint.
I've never done one myself.
I hate plumbing. I do it whilst groaning, but I think I'm reasonably proficient. Why don't plumbers put in valves next to each tap, so you can turn off the supply and change the washers, rather than draining all the hot water to change a hot tap washer?

We live in a bungalow with a solid sub floor and there are definite alterations required in the bathroom. May well prove interesting. Ugh.

I won't be growing my own food, Borky. The soil is clay here and you are lucky if the bellbind grows, to be honest. So it's roses, shrubs, and keep putting wood chip and compost over the London clay.

[T00ts]

I detest plumbing,everything else I am happy to do.

So did my husband. I was fitting a new bathroom in our old house and he decided to 'help' having already admitted that every joint he ever did always leaked. I went through the process with him for solder joints (as they were then) and I had to redo every one that he tried. In the end he suggested that he would be more help if he was on the golf course. From then on he was just muscle when I needed it, but did a great job of the tiling!

[cromwell]

I have always wanted to build my own house. Not literally of course although I do like to get stuck in. The nearest I have ever got was redesigning and knocking seven bells out of this place. I had builders in for about a month but all the fitting out and finishing I did myself. This was the third kitchen I have fitted (I love plumbing) and in the end I let the professionals fit the bathroom but I had gutted it and skimmed the walls and levelled and tiled the floor.  Where the bath came out I was left with an 8" deep hole. The neighbours were fascinated when I got the cement mixer out. It was quite funny to suddenly get lots of interested guys stopping to chat.

I detest plumbing,everything else I am happy to do.

[T00ts]

tobacco and brew my own beer.

Load of bollocks.My home brew tastes like gnat's pee, my home grown tobacco has taken the paint off walls and within a month my arse would have fallen off from sheer boredom.

Still, it is nice to dream

I have always wanted to build my own house. Not literally of course although I do like to get stuck in. The nearest I have ever got was redesigning and knocking seven bells out of this place. I had builders in for about a month but all the fitting out and finishing I did myself. This was the third kitchen I have fitted (I love plumbing) and in the end I let the professionals fit the bathroom but I had gutted it and skimmed the walls and levelled and tiled the floor.  Where the bath came out I was left with an 8" deep hole. The neighbours were fascinated when I got the cement mixer out. It was quite funny to suddenly get lots of interested guys stopping to chat.

[Borchester]

tobacco and brew my own beer.

Load of bollocks.My home brew tastes like gnat's pee, my home grown tobacco has taken the paint off walls and within a month my arse would have fallen off from sheer boredom.

Still, it is nice to dream