The Plastering

Wall on the facing right side - with blown and cracked plaster

Blown plaster

We're about to have the entire hallway painted and decorated but a slight hiccup occurred. Most of the walls in the hallway are either new or are able to be 'lined' with lining paper for a smooth finish ready for paint.

Earlier in the week our decorator gave us the news that he couldn't possibly do anything with this particular wall and the only way he could decorate further was if we had it replastered! 


The old plaster had 'blown' and it couldn't be fixed unless it was removed and replastered.  It's a very small wall and to give you an idea, this only cost £40.  But just as all the dust in the house has finally started settling, this had to be done.  Plastering isn't a clean job. Somehow, every time we've had anything plastered, the entire house seems to be covered in a veil of grey dust.  Anyway, it only took 2 and a half hours and now we have a freshly plastered wall ready for decoration.

Replastered wall

The Cupboard Under the Stairs

Cupboard under the stairs until this weekend

Empty cupboard with plastered walls and offensive floor 

I haven't mentioned this little space yet - it's been non-offensive so far.  Approx 8ft of storage.  

We've always wanted a 'cupboard under the stairs'.  Even in our flat, we called the boiler cupboard, the 'cupboard under the stairs'.  Since we've really had one, we've been denying this space exists or at least ignoring it needs some attention.  So far we've just piled boxes and brooms and boxes and more in here.  

I've been looking at this space for weeks wondering how it can be made into a usable space. 


Finally this weekend, I got my painting gear on and decided to decorate it - well, paint it very roughly to say the least.  It's not the neatest nor is it very pretty, but it's been cleaned up from a dusty little hole covered in rubble to a bright white storage cupboard.


The floor has been transformed from a crumbly concrete dust collector with a remnant of faux wood lino that I can proudly say I cut and shaped myself.

Utensils for the artist at work

Final touches will be made by Mr V and will include some shelves around the pipes and some hooks to hang brooms and the ironing board from.  


There you have it - one clean 'cupboard under the stairs.'

The Hallway - Decoration Commences

The decorator is coming back tomorrow to commence the hallway... This is going to be a big job.  Starting with lining the walls with paper for a smooth finish, painting with white emulsion and finishing with my chosen shades for the walls and skirting boards.  Watch this space for the outcome.

The Hallway - A quest for more paint colours

Little Green tester pots - my new favourite brand

The next job in the house is tackling the hallway; It's not a big hall but it covers a large space and the shades and colour tones need to be just right. The colours chosen will start as you walk in the front door, take you up the stairs and cover the entire landing upstairs too...

At the start we thought 'white washing' would do the job but as months have passed, we've decided that we need to warm up this idea.

A warm cream and beige was the initial thought.  I'd quite like to see a darker skirting board in the hall so we have a contrast to the bright white painted skirtings elsewhere in the house.  To avoid buying another 28 tester paint pots, I thought I'd seek advice from somewhere that really knows their stuff.  B+Q may be convenient with late opening hours but I didn't learn a thing about interiors on my search for the 'right' grey.

Inside Job is the interiors shop that seems to have everything from paints, to wallpapers, to fabrics, to light fittings to furniture and most importantly the proprietor, Jenny, has the patience!!

Set on finding a darker shade to go with Farrow and Ball's Pointing I was elated when I was introduced to a beyond gorgeous brand that does exactly what I am after.  Little Green offers a Colour Scales chart which shows all the neutral shades each in 4 tones - Pale, Mid, Deep and Dark.  

Little Green Colour Scales chart

I've been testing Clay, Rolling Fog and Slaked Lime and a decision is yet to be made but here are the tests so far...

The Lounge is developing

 

It's been very exciting this last week.  We took down our newspaper curtains thanks to the beautiful handy work of Mr V's mum.

We really struggled with which fabric to choose for our curtains - We were deliberating on whether to choose a very heavy floral pattern or a weighty velvet like the Victorian era.  Finally we decided on this fabric.  Heavy floral would have made the room look even smaller than it is.  With the stripes you see here, it makes the room look bigger and gives it the appearance of an even taller ceiling.  

These visuals are quite dark but I hope you can get the idea. 

Drawn

 

Flattened fabric to see the detail

Curtain pole end detail

Pinch pleat finish

The Kitchen - Fully Functioning

BEFORE

AFTER (nearly finished)

Last night we cooked our first meal in our house. 

Mr V made Thai Green Curry on our temporary cooker and it was perfect.  It won't be long before we have a real cooker but until then, this one is fine.  It has two hob rings and a mini oven.

Yesterday was also the day I 'put a wash on' in our new Washer Dryer.  Now we are cooking and doing laundry, it's really starting to feel like home.

The kitchen is very nearly there - we're still lacking a cooker, a dishwasher, a radiator and a fridge-freezer.  As these will be integrated, the cupboard doors are hiding the latter.   We don't have flooring but this will follow later.  What we do have is a fully functional kitchen with running hot and cold water, a worktop and cupboards full of our 'things' that have been sitting in boxes for nearly 4 months.

The kitchen view from the dining room

View from the sink - Larder and unit for the fridge-freezer

Larder in action

 

Washer dryer and enclosed boiler unit

One of my favourite parts of this kitchen is the sink - it's a basic butler sink but with a Brita filter tap.  This now means we don't need to buy mineral water or have a filter jug constantly in use.  Tea suddenly tastes different and a glass a water has a whole new meaning... (Mr V can't notice the difference.)

Another part of this kitchen that makes me smile is our granite worktops.  We were going to go with a wood work service but we were advised many times that it would be very hard to maintain and it stains easily. Granite is a natural stone that doesn't age and is hard wearing.   

Capitale Granite is where we chose our granite from.  I had no idea how many granite designs existed.  We chose a 'nero angola' design that is black with little flecks.  In addition to the worktop we had upstands and window sills to match and accompanying draining lines around the sink.  This will save us from having to tile the kitchen at a later date.

Granite sills and upstand

Draining board

 So here is the kitchen so far.  Dinner and breakfast has been very easy to make and we're looking forward to lots more happy meals.

Take at look at the kitchen journey to date:

Kitchen 1
Kitchen 2
Kitchen 3
Kitchen 4
Kitchen 5

The Bathroom - Final

BEFORE

AFTER

It gives me great pleasure to share these images with you.  The bathroom is finally COMPLETE.  We still need to put up the vanity cupboard, toilet roll holder and varnish the door but as far as the bathroom goes, it is DONE!!!


In total, this is what we've done:

Tiled the wet area and window seal
Plastered all the remaining wall space and painted white
Fitted a new bathroom suite and shower unit
Fitted replica Victorian floor tiles
Fitted waterproof spot lights
Installed a traditional towel rail 




Here's some more snaps to try and show the complete space:

The Kitchen - Taking shape

Looking back through old 'kitchen' posts, we've experienced some highs and some very low moments.  

Remembering the day we realised that the entire room was about to crumble, we have come a long way.  From rebuilding the entire space with new walls, a new ceiling, turning four rotten windows into two bright windows to closing up two doors to re-positioning an original back door.  I am delighted to say that today the kitchen has started to take proper shape.   Take a peek so far...

This will be the set of drawers

The space here will be, one day, filled with a range cooker and hood

Our butler sink!!

Bedroom 1 has had a slight tweak today

Having slept in the bedroom for a couple of weeks through bad weather, we've noticed that the radiator is heating the wrong side of the room.  We've also realised that despite a nice size room, we do not have a spare wall for future furniture purchases. (like a dresser or dressing table) 

The radiator had to be moved today.  To do this, all the radiators in the house were drained, floor boards were pulled up - and that's it really.  The only issue we have now is the radiator looks great between the windows, (although a new radiator may have looked even better) but we have a large square of very old wallpaper making an appearance in the old spot.

New radiator position

Behind the original radiator - pretty?!

The Lounge

After learning that there is an enormous amount of grey paint on the market, I decided to take a break from the house.  I was over grey!! This was until the decorator was ready to start painting our lounge.  Something occured to me.  The big pot of paint that I had mixed looked fabulous in the tester pot, but I hadn't tested the 5 litre pot on the real wall.

Dulux Dove was the chosen shade. This is what it looked like when I tested it on a patch of actual wall.

Dulux Dove mixed paint

Dove grey - is grey. Right? Well this looks lilac to me.  Despite wanting to use lilac as my accent in the grey room, I certainly didn't want lilac walls for this room.  Afterall, I hadn't tested 20+ shades of grey to end up with lilac.

There was one grey that I kept looking at but didn't try.  It had to be it - Farrow and Ball Pavilion Grey.

This is how we found the lounge and take a look at the journey so far...

Our decorator advised us to have the room lined with lining paper before it was painted - even with the lining paper, the lounge started to look better.  Before the grey was applied, we had the room coated with white emulsion so the lining paper didn't absorb the grey paint. 

Finally it was time to see the chosen GREY.  

Seeing the sharp white against the grey looked striking - so for now, we've decided to leave the white as our feature wall around the fireplace...

More lounge updates soon. Hope you like so far.