Finally I'm getting to work here, its lovely to have a proper space to make my sheep even if it is still very muddly overall. It gives me hope that one day the flat will also be useable.
Tuesday, 11 March 2014
Getting totally papered!
Now that the electrics are finished we could finally get the paint and paper up in at least part of the shop. It was the maddest, brightest paper I could find and I love it, though the lime green needs to tone down a notch, B & Q were having issues with their paint mixing machine. The pale bright blue background is a wonderfully cheering colour and I've got paint that matches so I can carry the colour onto some of the other walls too.
Finally I'm getting to work here, its lovely to have a proper space to make my sheep even if it is still very muddly overall. It gives me hope that one day the flat will also be useable.
Finally I'm getting to work here, its lovely to have a proper space to make my sheep even if it is still very muddly overall. It gives me hope that one day the flat will also be useable.
Sunday, 2 March 2014
A wet day - the solution.
Sometimes when you have been expecting a day full of gentle Spring sunshine and twittering birdsong all you get is grey and wet and windy. Nothing for it but to curl up with good company and wait for things to get better! Never has that cushion been appreciated so much!
A change of plan
After asking both architect and plumber it seems that despite the ease with which property programmes on TV talk about popping in an ensuite, or swapping rooms around, my grand scheme of moving the loo from one end of the bathroom to the other and separating off a small back bedroom is just not viable even if I pay to have the soil pipe taken out through the wall as the roof of the downstairs bay window is just too close to the upstairs window.
Sigh, I will have to give up the dream of the extra rental income and get a nice sofa bed in the main front room and then give visitors the benefit of a comparatively huge bathroom. It will certainly make it a nicer guest suite for friends and family when they come to stay, and I can always go down there for a long hot soak since our bath here doesn't have a proper water supply, durr!
It is going to be a challenge to make a sensible layout as everything will be queued up along the outside wall. The loo can stay in exactly the same position!!! (though not the strange yellow one with the even stranger chrome loo seat). The bath will lie lengthwise where the sink is so I can get a shower fitted above it and I think the basin can go in front of the window if it is mounted into a cabinet rather than a pedestal to match in with the slightly lower window sill. The cabinet will also be useful in hiding the drain from the bath.
I just need to do something with the entirely blank planked wall opposite, someone suggested a sofa!
At least this option should work out cheaper than my original plan, fingers crossed!
The other bad news from the plumber, altogether a rather gloomy harbinger of doom, is that the old gas boiler is really beyond the pale and that as the overall heating system is old it should all be replaced, at 'only' three or four thousand pounds. Ha ha, or not! I think I am going to ditch all the gas, it doesn't even heat the hot water system at the moment, and get nice familiar night storage heaters. I know its not a cheap option to run but assuming it costs £100 extra a year in bills it would still take at least twenty years to repay the extra £2,000 installation cost, and who knows, one day I may afford solar panels! Even with this diddy renovation project there is seldom a dull day or a quick fix.
Sigh, I will have to give up the dream of the extra rental income and get a nice sofa bed in the main front room and then give visitors the benefit of a comparatively huge bathroom. It will certainly make it a nicer guest suite for friends and family when they come to stay, and I can always go down there for a long hot soak since our bath here doesn't have a proper water supply, durr!
It is going to be a challenge to make a sensible layout as everything will be queued up along the outside wall. The loo can stay in exactly the same position!!! (though not the strange yellow one with the even stranger chrome loo seat). The bath will lie lengthwise where the sink is so I can get a shower fitted above it and I think the basin can go in front of the window if it is mounted into a cabinet rather than a pedestal to match in with the slightly lower window sill. The cabinet will also be useful in hiding the drain from the bath.
I just need to do something with the entirely blank planked wall opposite, someone suggested a sofa!
At least this option should work out cheaper than my original plan, fingers crossed!
A symphony in primrose, with a future as water storage up at the allotment!
The other bad news from the plumber, altogether a rather gloomy harbinger of doom, is that the old gas boiler is really beyond the pale and that as the overall heating system is old it should all be replaced, at 'only' three or four thousand pounds. Ha ha, or not! I think I am going to ditch all the gas, it doesn't even heat the hot water system at the moment, and get nice familiar night storage heaters. I know its not a cheap option to run but assuming it costs £100 extra a year in bills it would still take at least twenty years to repay the extra £2,000 installation cost, and who knows, one day I may afford solar panels! Even with this diddy renovation project there is seldom a dull day or a quick fix.
The offending and offensive boiler!
Oh dear.
There's something nasty under the stairs. I pulled back a layer of grotty carpet and then some very old lino to find whole ecosystem of woodworm and the edges of the timbers could just be crumbled. It is bizarre as the rest of the floor boards seem in really quite good shape so I'm not sure if its just the original strip that ran along the damp, uphill wall, rotted out and then was replaces by these planks overlaid at right angles. When I poked about with my screwdriver the actual underfloor beam felt solid so hopefully its just that this has been kept soggy.
fingers crossed. On the plus side, behind the ply covering the surrounding wall is a really nice original tongue and grooved planked wall in just the smoky teal colour that I want to repaint it, spooky! Again the floor is double carpeted, synthetic dark blue laid over, well just really, snot coloured industrial quality carpet tiles, of a texture more suited to cleaning saucepans!
fingers crossed. On the plus side, behind the ply covering the surrounding wall is a really nice original tongue and grooved planked wall in just the smoky teal colour that I want to repaint it, spooky! Again the floor is double carpeted, synthetic dark blue laid over, well just really, snot coloured industrial quality carpet tiles, of a texture more suited to cleaning saucepans!
The windows arrive
Two wonderful window installers came yesterday, Big John and Little Dave, well I had to remember their names didn't I! They have made a start on the upstairs bay window. The outside of the frame is pretty rotten in many places but I hope that when it finally dries out I can replace some bits and fill other bits with epoxy resin. I know the window guys, for a price, would replace all the exterior with upvc but I love the style of the original. Also I will be able to paint it something other than endless white.
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