Time for a catch-up..

So, new hot water cylinder is in place. looks as ugly as any functional equipment does although knowing it is working to provide that very thing i.e function brings it's own attraction and all the components look nice and shiny lol.

The good thing is that whilst I had to replace this cylinder very quickly I was able to bring forward by 1 year my plans to do this very thing as part of creating an en-suite. Where the old cylinder is now was going to be removed (the old bathroom is to the left) to create more space.

 By good fortune and nothing else the new cylinder just fits in the tall space which was a broom cupboard (I think) so all i had to do was clear up the odds and sods of blocks of wood. Sometime in the past someone has 'had a go' and home renovations and pretty much made a mess. There were chunks of wood nailed to other chunks of wood, which served no purpose except to (now) provide firewood! I feel a bit critical of saying such things, but really! So much extra work just to remove 'untidiness' and this applies to most areas in the house; I'm doing so much extra work just to reverse what doesn't make sense and it has the effect of demotivating me if I don't control it.

 Bigger cylinder and now mains pressure - was a bit grumpy about having to do all this as it re-introduced the feeling of a money pit opening up beneath my feet, you know: money just being spent and losing track. Then I had a shower and wow! Instead of shuffling around to get wet I get nailed to the wall. Any minute I expect the mixer to explode from the wall lol.

 Following on from my criticism of an unknown previous owner, the real leak wasn't due to the cylinder but how they had connected the inlet water supply to the base of the tank. Simple plumbing tape is wound around the thread of a pipe so that when screwed it provided a water-tight seal. And they hadn't used the right tape, so it gradually disintegrated. Either way the cylinder had to come out even to gain access to the leak..so..may as well absorb the cost by bringing forward future work

All done really well, thanks to a professional and clever plumber (who happens to be a mate). a special tray is under the new cylinder with a drain to divert any leaks in the future.I was and am lucky; the timbers in this house are old as in solid and high-quality and were used at a time when they were standard. To use such wood now-a-days would be hugely expensive and not necessarily possible to renewable policies. The floors are a local wood called Rimu and the frame timbers are I think Matai - all hard woods. Even though the water has been leaking for some time, none of the wood is damaged. These days MDF is used as even pine here is expensive for what is essentially an ordinary wood