Hallo,
March already? What happened there? We are ¼ through the year already, which is unbelievable really, but I am loving the light mornings for my ride to work, and the significantly lighter evenings – which means only thing, it’s time to crack on with some DIY.
It’s just over 2 months since my last post – sorry about that. We have done some bits and bobs – but mostly doing planning work for the spare room. But lets start back on January 22nd, the day after my last post.
I left work early that day and went for lunch with Hannah, but when we arrived home we discovered our house was for sale!
Had we really made so much noise and mess the neighbours were trying to sell our house for us?? I checked with Hannah and she hadn’t tried to sell it so we assumed there must be a mistake. Hannah rang the estate agents (who sub contract the putting up of for sale signs – it’s a crazy world we live in) and they said they would sort it.
Sure enough a man in a van came and took it away. It then re appeared 2 days later just down the road at 5 Mount Road.
So that was a laugh!
The following day (I think) I grouted the tiles in the vestibule – another step forward to completion. Over the next week or so we pretty much finished the vestibule, put some coat hooks up and shifted some gear in for storage – shoe rack etc. We thought it would free up some useful space in the pantry – which it sort of has, but we’ve only used it for storing junk from the spare room while we do that room!
Hannah spent a Saturday afternoon doing a sterling job of covering the dining room chairs. The chairs were my grandma’s and we inherited them, they are good quality, but the red didn’t really ‘work’. So Hannah found some material which matched the curtains and recovered the seats with it - and now they look cool.
Since then we’ve had a few Wards come to stay and Ma and Pops Evans stayed for a weekend – the first stay in the house since we did it out. Very enjoyable. We also had a weekend away in Northumberland which was part of our Christmas present from Ma and Pops Ward. Brill.
In recent weeks however, our attention has turned to the spare room.
The first task was to clear out the junk! That involved selling the sideboard on ebay. We got a good price for it, but that was the same week as the boiler broke. So Bouk, a big Danish dude picked up the sideboard and left the cash, then the plumber came, fixed the boiler and took the cash. Easy come, easy go. We have hot water now though. (On a side note - I had a hunch it was a diaphragm on the domestic flow circuit but didn’t want to mess about in the boiler. I was right though, and it wasn’t hard to fix. Good to know for the future.)
Saturday just gone we finished emptying the spare room, putting a load of stuff in the pantry and under the bed, as well as dropping a lot off at the charity shop too. We’re really trying to take the opportunity to downsize our material possessions a little – after all, you can’t take it with you.
We spent the afternoon researching at B&Q. Man, stuff its expensive. We have nearly decided on the lights – as always these are tricky due to the low ceiling and beam, but I think we’re going with 2 circuits, one each side of the beam consisting of dimmable white spots. We think this will work well. In one corner of the room we’re going to but lots of shelving, and I think a pendant light is going to go there to make a kind of reading corner. Should be nice and cosy one hopes!
The other item we were pricing up was floorboards. In the morning we lifted a section of the carpet which then had hardboard nailed under it to even out the floor. It took some getting up but once pulled back it revealed the floorboards. We like the idea of having painted floorboards in the spare room. It will give it a nice cottage feel and look and will be quite minimal. We will paint them off white too which will maximise the light and illusion of space we hope! Unfortunately, yet predictably, the floorboards we pulled back were not in good condition.
So the back up plan is to lay new floorboards over the top – kind of like really thick laminate. We compared the price of doing this to laminate, and to laying new carpet, and surprisingly, the floorboard option worked out the cheapest. Remember these things are all relative though! Nothing is actually cheap.
So what’s next?
Well, this Saturday I’m going to strip the plaster off the walls in the spare room. This is a grim task but has to be done. The biggest concern is keeping the dust in the room and not leaking out in to the rest of the finished house! As part of this the door will be taped up so my access will be through the window, which means the pointy topped light above the back door is going to have to be moved!! The window is teeny tiny, so this could be a laugh on Saturday!
The process is going to be get the room sealed up as best as possible, leaving the carpet down and putting a tarp down to put as many layers as possible between the muck and the kitchen and getting the plaster off the walls as quick as possible. It is all mud and horse hair plaster with an thin skim which can be harder to get off than big chunks of gypsum! It will then be bagged up and taken out through the window and taken to the tip. The room will be cleaned as much as possible before unsealing the door.
I’m not sure how long this will take, but I’m aware stripping the varnish/wood stain off the beam is a very dirty job too, so maybe if I have time while everything is sealed I’ll get to have a bash at that too.
Next week I’ll be running cables for the lights and ring main and putting the back boxes on the wall etc.
Next Saturday Pops Ward is dropping off the trailer and mixer so then we will start getting some plaster on the walls.
All go, but we have moved the schedule forward a bit so it’s taken time pressure off the easter holidays and hopefully given me a little more time for writing up my MSc. I’m still hopeful of a leisurely 5 to 6 week turn around from now though. Should be pretty easy (famous last words) as the kitchen took 4 weeks. Relatively, there isn’t much to do.
Having said that, there are plans to re do the render on the front of the house too in the same period…
Despite the tasks in front of us, the mood in the camp is good – it’s exciting to be doing the last room – 1 year ahead of schedule too!
Cheerio for now. I’ll let you know how Saturday rolls.
Before
During
After
All Finished... you would think i would know how to rotate images wouldn't you??
In recent weeks however, our attention has turned to the spare room.
The first task was to clear out the junk! That involved selling the sideboard on ebay. We got a good price for it, but that was the same week as the boiler broke. So Bouk, a big Danish dude picked up the sideboard and left the cash, then the plumber came, fixed the boiler and took the cash. Easy come, easy go. We have hot water now though. (On a side note - I had a hunch it was a diaphragm on the domestic flow circuit but didn’t want to mess about in the boiler. I was right though, and it wasn’t hard to fix. Good to know for the future.)
It served us well through our first 4 years of marriage, but it was just too big!
Sad to see it go - I have hung on to a couple of games though...just in case....
We spent the afternoon researching at B&Q. Man, stuff its expensive. We have nearly decided on the lights – as always these are tricky due to the low ceiling and beam, but I think we’re going with 2 circuits, one each side of the beam consisting of dimmable white spots. We think this will work well. In one corner of the room we’re going to but lots of shelving, and I think a pendant light is going to go there to make a kind of reading corner. Should be nice and cosy one hopes!
The other item we were pricing up was floorboards. In the morning we lifted a section of the carpet which then had hardboard nailed under it to even out the floor. It took some getting up but once pulled back it revealed the floorboards. We like the idea of having painted floorboards in the spare room. It will give it a nice cottage feel and look and will be quite minimal. We will paint them off white too which will maximise the light and illusion of space we hope! Unfortunately, yet predictably, the floorboards we pulled back were not in good condition.
Looking good in my slouchy pants/pyjama top combo. Love a lazy saturday doing DIY!
So the back up plan is to lay new floorboards over the top – kind of like really thick laminate. We compared the price of doing this to laminate, and to laying new carpet, and surprisingly, the floorboard option worked out the cheapest. Remember these things are all relative though! Nothing is actually cheap.
So what’s next?
Well, this Saturday I’m going to strip the plaster off the walls in the spare room. This is a grim task but has to be done. The biggest concern is keeping the dust in the room and not leaking out in to the rest of the finished house! As part of this the door will be taped up so my access will be through the window, which means the pointy topped light above the back door is going to have to be moved!! The window is teeny tiny, so this could be a laugh on Saturday!
The process is going to be get the room sealed up as best as possible, leaving the carpet down and putting a tarp down to put as many layers as possible between the muck and the kitchen and getting the plaster off the walls as quick as possible. It is all mud and horse hair plaster with an thin skim which can be harder to get off than big chunks of gypsum! It will then be bagged up and taken out through the window and taken to the tip. The room will be cleaned as much as possible before unsealing the door.
I’m not sure how long this will take, but I’m aware stripping the varnish/wood stain off the beam is a very dirty job too, so maybe if I have time while everything is sealed I’ll get to have a bash at that too.
Next week I’ll be running cables for the lights and ring main and putting the back boxes on the wall etc.
Next Saturday Pops Ward is dropping off the trailer and mixer so then we will start getting some plaster on the walls.
All go, but we have moved the schedule forward a bit so it’s taken time pressure off the easter holidays and hopefully given me a little more time for writing up my MSc. I’m still hopeful of a leisurely 5 to 6 week turn around from now though. Should be pretty easy (famous last words) as the kitchen took 4 weeks. Relatively, there isn’t much to do.
Having said that, there are plans to re do the render on the front of the house too in the same period…
Despite the tasks in front of us, the mood in the camp is good – it’s exciting to be doing the last room – 1 year ahead of schedule too!
Cheerio for now. I’ll let you know how Saturday rolls.
Vestibule is one of the best words in the English language
ReplyDeleteCarry on...