The beginning of the beginning

I finally tried out the wall!  And I saw that it was good.  I can be confident it is also very well future proofed as I can't actually string together a route in my weakened state. But I did enjoy it at least.

I also have a heater on a timer set up so the wall will be a nice temperature for my arrival after work, just as soon as we fix the electrics. And a stereo - this room is badass.

Today I weighed even more that earlier in the week, despite eating salads and trying this new Intermittent Fasting thing (watch this: Eat, Fast and Live Longer - Horizon ).  It really hasn't been very hard so far.

You will only ever see me climb sans t-shirt on my own wall in my own home, never in public. Enjoy.

An all time record?

I seem to weigh 78.4kgs.  This is not good.  But I did run yesterday and gym today (managing another record of four pull-ups (sets of, I could have easily done more...)).  Anyway, at least it has begun.

An old man's rant

Since buying the house, we have spent a lot (or to put it another way, everything) on kitting it out.  What has struck me about the world of home wares and furnishings is the number of orders that companies have stuffed up in one way or another.  The current tally is below, and excluding the £400ish bed, the mistakes have cost the companies a total of £340 directly, plus expenses like admin and more postage.  I know these a big companies are shipping an awful lot compared to buying climbing gear – but I don’t think I have ever had a climbing or cycling order botched like this.  And you would think big companies work to even tighter margins where efficiency is critical.

Virgin - faulty phone line - £6 refund

Made - damaged shelves - £100 credit

Made - damaged desk - £120 credit

Made - missed delivery - £45 postage refund

Achica - wrong colour coffee machine - £15 refund

Achica - colour bled on bath mat - £9 refund

Fab - damaged picture – awaiting reply

Furniture Village - damaged bed – replacement

Pixmania – dented toaster - £45 refund

Some random cable shop – wrong HDMI cables – replacement

Anyway, despite my moaning, I am pretty glad most of these occurred as its worked in our favour (just as soon as Made get some decent lamps in stock!).

Well, that warrants a replacement

If you squint, it looks a little like 'titanium grey'

This came very well packaged, yet still...

The Epic Post of Wall

This may be a bit boring if you don't have an interest in climbing walls, or DIY, or structural engineering (I'd like to think) or squirrels...

Testing the roof

...looks solid....

The materials arrive

Replacing the insulation between the joists

Lazy man's kickboard

Going for approx a 40 degree overhang

Seems to be strong enough

Support for shelving

Anchors for the pull-up bar

The ply

POWER TOOLS (thanks Lee!)

James was recruited to drill 807 holes

...and then hammer in the t-nuts

Sir Roger Banister, our audacious squirrel

The first of my home-made holds

We even have a crack machine

A splash of colour

The matting - thanks to the new south London wall 'The White Spider' who gave me this gratis

We found him under our floorboards so cleaned him up and promoted him to the role of SOS

A late addition - another board for SOSs, inc. socket protection

The finished article

All in all, about six or seven full days works.  I am quite chuffed.