View from the hallway
View from the dining room
The doors and frame are in - love how they're looking. Ern has some concerns about the finish on the frame but generally we love them
Saturday 27 February 2010
Day 237 - Dining Room Doors
View from the hallway
View from the dining room
The doors and frame are in - love how they're looking. Ern has some concerns about the finish on the frame but generally we love them
Day 237 - Landscaping begins
This is part of the base for the rear landscaping
View from the back upstairs bedroom - this used to be our garden! The builder's shed has now gone
Earth moving at the front
The remains of the old concrete drive that will be part of the base for the new driveway
Wednesday 10 February 2010
Day 220 - The perils of nature
While working on the bay window roof and sorting out the guttering and drainage (which had always been terrible) the builder's discovered the downpipe was clogged with a mass of ivy roots.
The odd thing is we don't have any ivy in the front garden and haven't since I've owned the house (14 years!). There is a tiny piece in the bed under the kitchen window (where the drainpipe is) so we can only assume there used to be much more and it grew into the pipe then when the ivy was removed the mass in the pipe died off but didn't rot or break down.
The odd thing is we don't have any ivy in the front garden and haven't since I've owned the house (14 years!). There is a tiny piece in the bed under the kitchen window (where the drainpipe is) so we can only assume there used to be much more and it grew into the pipe then when the ivy was removed the mass in the pipe died off but didn't rot or break down.
Day 220 - The happy ending of the ensuite shower story
Back when we were tile shopping I mad the mistake of looking at and falling in love with this...
A curved shower stall with graduated mosaic tiles. It reminded me of the spa at Center Parcs where several of the experiences have curved tiled areas.
Of course it was way out of our budget. I knew we could never have a curved shower stall and I'd reluctantly resigned myself to just having a regular tiled ensuite.
But those graduated mosaic tiles kept haunting me.
So I spent an entire Sunday afternoon searching on the internet, mostly to cost it up and talk myself out of the idea.
First I was thinking that if we bought a selection of mosaic tile sheets and I put in a fair amount of effort to swap over individual tiles I could make a graduated effect. That may have been a crazy idea
But then I found this picture
And the text with it implied that it was made from sheets of graduated mosaic tiles - oooh, that could work.
So with a lot more digging I found the tile company OriginalStyle who sold boxes of 8 sheets of different mosaics which would create a graduated effect. And there was a local supplier in Woodley - result.
Called them on Monday - bad news, no display and no samples. Each box of tiles was £80, they'd do me a deal and sell me a box as a sample for £50.
£50 for a sample! Best not to think about if I didn't like it...
A week later the sample arrived - a box of 8 labelled sheets - we laid it out on the floor of the tile shop - it looked pretty good.
[I went for a different colour scheme than the picture I'd originally found because this included iridescent tiles like in the original inspiration]
Originally I'd thought to just do one wall in the graduated and the other 2 sides in something cheaper, but lovely man I live with said if I really wanted it, the extra cost wasn't too much and I should have it. How fabulous is he?!
So we ordered enough boxes to do the whole ensuite shower.
We'd now spent rather a lot of money on these tiles without much of an idea whether they'd actually look any good once they were up.
For me this was like one of those home shows with the big reveal and I'm not ashamed to say I actually got a bit choked up when I saw it...
The pictures don't really do them justice, they are just wonderful.
The idea was to have something OTT and fabulous that would make me smile everytime I stumbled bleary eyed into the shower of a morning - I think we succeeded.
A curved shower stall with graduated mosaic tiles. It reminded me of the spa at Center Parcs where several of the experiences have curved tiled areas.
Of course it was way out of our budget. I knew we could never have a curved shower stall and I'd reluctantly resigned myself to just having a regular tiled ensuite.
But those graduated mosaic tiles kept haunting me.
So I spent an entire Sunday afternoon searching on the internet, mostly to cost it up and talk myself out of the idea.
First I was thinking that if we bought a selection of mosaic tile sheets and I put in a fair amount of effort to swap over individual tiles I could make a graduated effect. That may have been a crazy idea
But then I found this picture
And the text with it implied that it was made from sheets of graduated mosaic tiles - oooh, that could work.
So with a lot more digging I found the tile company OriginalStyle who sold boxes of 8 sheets of different mosaics which would create a graduated effect. And there was a local supplier in Woodley - result.
Called them on Monday - bad news, no display and no samples. Each box of tiles was £80, they'd do me a deal and sell me a box as a sample for £50.
£50 for a sample! Best not to think about if I didn't like it...
A week later the sample arrived - a box of 8 labelled sheets - we laid it out on the floor of the tile shop - it looked pretty good.
[I went for a different colour scheme than the picture I'd originally found because this included iridescent tiles like in the original inspiration]
Originally I'd thought to just do one wall in the graduated and the other 2 sides in something cheaper, but lovely man I live with said if I really wanted it, the extra cost wasn't too much and I should have it. How fabulous is he?!
So we ordered enough boxes to do the whole ensuite shower.
We'd now spent rather a lot of money on these tiles without much of an idea whether they'd actually look any good once they were up.
For me this was like one of those home shows with the big reveal and I'm not ashamed to say I actually got a bit choked up when I saw it...
The pictures don't really do them justice, they are just wonderful.
The idea was to have something OTT and fabulous that would make me smile everytime I stumbled bleary eyed into the shower of a morning - I think we succeeded.
Day 220 - Loft ladder in action
I really shouldv'e done a video of this - but suffice to say it's fab. You still need a stick but it's very easy and the ladder falls down from the underside of the hatch towards you in a controlled fashion. And unfolds to this lovely wooden, easy to use ladder. Great!
Sunday 7 February 2010
Day 117 - Bathroom updates
Those expensive taps have been fitted
Bath fill and shower head (for cleaning/rinsing)
Basin tap
Shower (you can just see the remote shower starter on the left)
Bathroom is really coming together now...
Tap in the ensuite
Bath fill and shower head (for cleaning/rinsing)
Basin tap
Shower (you can just see the remote shower starter on the left)
Bathroom is really coming together now...
Tap in the ensuite
Day 217 - Radiators
All of the radiators are now in...
Hallway
Dining Room
Downstairs Loo
Utility room
Ensuite towel rail
Hallway
Dining Room
Downstairs Loo
Utility room
Ensuite towel rail
Day 217 - Doors!
The first of the doors are up...
This has made me very happy - it's funny how having doors up has done so much to make the house seem much more finished. And we're pleased with how the doors look. They're currently 'raw' oak - they will have a finish applied to protect them which will darken them a little but hopefully not too much.
This has made me very happy - it's funny how having doors up has done so much to make the house seem much more finished. And we're pleased with how the doors look. They're currently 'raw' oak - they will have a finish applied to protect them which will darken them a little but hopefully not too much.
Day 217 - Exterior update
Exterior plugs with a waterproof cover
Outside tap
Guttering and fascia finished
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