Monday 20 August 2012

Kitchen of sorts and warmer

We kind of have a kitchen, a week later than I was led to believe. Still no work surfaces...


This is where the fridge, cooker and hob will go:


This is the island bench with ply bookshelves on either end:


This is the ply desk where I fantasise about clean, well-behaved children doing their homework....


The other major development has been the installation of ducted gas heating - a life changing investment that has taken the edge off getting up in the night to resettle Freddie or return Florence to her own bed. There is a vent in each room with a big return vent in the kitchen - cosy!


Ian has also finished rendering the fireplace, which now looks pretty impressive...


I think we are now a week and counting until the kitchen is finished, and it really can't come too soon. The temporary arrangement is really starting to get me down.


And we've still got so much unpacking to do - it's hard living in half building site, half storage centre.



 Anyway, at least some people are happy...

I'm so nice and warm!
So am I! 




Wednesday 1 August 2012

Waiting and freezing

The bad news: we still don't have a kitchen. The good news: cabinets are installed on Tuesday. The bad news: worktops will be another two weeks.

I have not enjoyed the last week very much. It has been bitterly cold, which is hard when your window insulation strips have not yet been fitted. There still seems so much to do on the house and I can't make any of that happen. In a fit of frustration, I tried to take some window bars off so I could paint the window in my tiny sewing room (actually it's a cupboard with a window) but even this seemingly small task involves industrial strength bolt cutters or hours with a hacksaw.

But enough moaning. There is sufficient progress to warrant a blog post and no kitchen means we can scoot indoors!


I'm sure this picture looks just the same as the previous one to you, but I know the ceiling has been replaced, the tiles grouted and the bathroom cleaned.


It will be nice to get back to bathing the children although Freddie is having super fun in the shower.


Rob's shed is finished, including roof.


The deck has a balustrade (which got horizontal bars today, but too dark to get a photo).


I opened up the fireplace in the sitting room to find this.


Hmmm. Nothing to get too excited about and in a godawful state to paint over. My lovely-but-expensive painter, Jonny Gloss (yes, really), will charge me an arm and a leg to strip all the bodged render off it, so I have decided to have it totally rendered. I'm not a big fan of painted brick and I think this will be a cheaper and smarter finish. Fortunately my neighbour, Ian, across the road is a renderer and a good Plymouth boy so he's doing it for a special price and the promise of a pasty once the kitchen is in.

I don't think I ever posted photos of the stirling work Jonny did on the front bedrooms. He returned the ceilings to their soaring glory.


And painted Flossie's bedroom wall a lovely shade of pink (Dulux Lily Legs).


He is back next weekend to paint the sitting room - apart from the worktops that should be the last thing to be done.

In the meantime, Rob has been busy in the garden. He has built the children the world's biggest sandpit. We can have the whole 4 year old population of Clovelly over for a play. It's gone down well with the Bean and the Bear.