the eye of the storm

Just a few homely touches we've managed so far!

So much to do, so little time

We moved in!  It's been almost 2 weeks since my last confe....blog and there is SO much to do.  Piles of boxes everywhere, and not really anywhere to unpack them to yet.  I can't find anything and even making a cup of tea takes half an hour by the time I wash a cup, fill the kettle, empty the teapot etc.

We also decided to rip out the kitchen floor and replace it with yellow tongue chipboard.  It was very patchy and uneven, with a 3 cm height difference from the centre to the walls and there was an old hearth at one end.  Of course things didn't go to plan!  When the floor came off we found the joists were 600 mm apart.  The rest of the house, int and ext walls all had 450 centres, so I assumed the floor did as well. We had to add more joists to stop the boards from bouncing.

And now we have a kitchen installed.  Electrician here monday and plumber wednesday, then it will be fully functional, YAY!!!

Thanks to Jim (red shirt) for giving us his old kitchen, appliances and all.

you've come a long way baby

It's been a huge and extremely busy week, Sorry for not posting anything for a week.  I've also misplaced my camera! The pics are from last week.

We moved in on Monday, it was hard work and only just got out of the flat, with 2 minutes to spare before the real estate agent came to inspect it.  The house is a disaster zone, a million boxes and no idea where anything is.  I had grand ideas of how to organise myself for the move, but in the end I was just chucking anything into boxes to get it all done.  So now we have a horrendous mess to sort out.  We have the rest of our lives, I AM NEVER MOVING AGAIN! YAY!!!

Gem loves her new room, and despite everything has settled in pretty well.  All Ted needs is a boob and a bed and he's happy.

Thanks to all the great guys who pulled out all the stops to get us in here by the due date.  Peter the sparky, Tony the plumber, Ken the plasterer and Deano, Piers, Rhys and JB.

At the last minute we decided to hang the expense and sand the floor boards.  It was a big push and very hard work for the 2 bolokes who took it on,  but I'm so glad.  We did a water based poly, which meant we could re-coat within an hour.  They're perfect, rustic but no splinters and easy to clean.  You can still see daylight through them in a few places, but a bit of no more gaps in brown and easy fixed.

Will put up new pics as soon as I find my camera.  

So far all the walls are undercoated and the ceilings painted white.  The wonders of an airless spray gun! After masking the bits you don't want painted, it only takes 10 minutes to do a whole room in undercoat. It dries almost immediately, then onto the ceiling.  It will probably take us another five years before all the top coats are done by brush and roller!

Just remember, someone always has to clean up the mess!!

I've run out of cheesy song titles

Almost There!!

We've been back and forth trying to work out what to do about the floors.  Do we sand them, paint them, rip them up and replace with chipboard and carpet?  After firmly deciding on one then another, we've finally and hopefully decided to hang the expense and sand them.  They are just too nice to cover!

keep on truckin'

All done!  All walls and ceilings are now clad with plasterboard and every window is in.  The plastering is coming along, though slowly.  The cornice is up in the hallway and only 5 rooms to go!  Not sure that we'll make the friday deadline for moving in!!!  The plumber came today and fitted out the outside bathroom and  plumbed in the new (old but clean) bath.  Tomorrow Slade is donning the disposable overalls and face mask to remove the small amount of asbestos that we know is cladding the exterior of the old laundry.  Also tomorrow the electricians come back to hook up all the power points and light fittings.

Tomorrow we go offline at the flat, it will be a couple of days before we're on at the house, so Adios for now xxx

living on the ceiling

The ceilings are going in!  No 1's room is complete and as of this afternoon, the hallway, our bedroom and the dining all have ceilings too.  There was a scary moment with the panel lifter we hired from K-K-Kennards- it was holding aloft a 5.4m sheet of 13mm plasterbaord, with one guy standing underneath winding the handle when the handle broke off and the whole thing came crashing down.  We were incredibly lucky that no one was hurt.  If our guy had had his head in a slightly different position, he would have been very seriously injured.

In happier times - before the accident.

No. 1's room with ceiling

We found a fabulous plasterer in the local paper, lots of experience, very fast and about half the price of anyone else.  Would love to pass on his number to anyone who might need one.  On that note, also found a great plumber and electrician - fast, RELIABLE and not too expensive.

Hopefully we'll have some cornices in by Monday!

stairway to heaven

I forgot to photograph the back deathtrap - oops, I mean stairs before they were mostly demolished. Though only 4 of them,  tread - 160 mm - riser - 160 mm! - they were too small to put your feet on normally and too shallow to be anything but a trip hazard.  On the day we planned to replace them, Slade, though delicate and fleet of foot, went straight through them.

Of course, the minute they were out No. 1 found a hundred reasons why she had to go in and out of the doorway.

New old stairs, thanks to David and Jim.  Recycled from Jim's basement and saved from David's firewood pile.