Guess what this is!

The Garage has a new but temporary feature.  There is also now a pile of French oak planks in the lounge.

No pictures of the room though as I think I need to hold back for an "after" photo now as Phil has done a serious amount of decorating this week.

Only one disaster so far - one wall in the cloakroom rejected emulsion, blistering as Phil rollered it on - really weird so who knows what had been painted on it before? He's trying a smoothing thick paint/filler product - see if that fixes it....

Farewell to mustard - and to gold coloured scrolls

3 days of getting up to greet the plasterers, 3 packets of biscuits and the lovely mustard walls are no more.  They were impressively tidy too.
The only downsides are that we've realised that fitting the wall lights is going to be a bit more complicated than we anticipated (short cables) & the switch for the lobby light isn't working so are resorting to getting an electrician back in.
We made a start on the decorating this weekend.  Phil used some interesting concrete-mix-in-a-bag stuff to tidy up the floor of the fireplace ready for tiling, stripped & re-varnished one of the handrails (and the light pull in the cloakroom).  I started on de-golding the railings, painting all of them black - pleased that we got that job finished on Saturday.
Looking better already I think....

(Finally) Ready to Plaster

Most of our stuff is stowed in the conservatory & we've temporarily turned the guest room into a mini-lounge because the mammoth plastering project starts on Monday - about 6 months later than we originally thought!

Delays have included illness, a heatwave making wallpaper stripping seem like a daft idea, availability of trades, trying to find the flooring and hearth that meet at least a couple of responsible sourcing criteria, discovering that every Hetas installer seemed to have a different view about what we could or couldn't do....

Having said that, it's been good to spend a bit more time working out what we want and more time living in the room.
It's a big project as it's our lounge, dining area and hallway - and has 3 trades involved - plasterer, carpenter & Hetas installer.  And a little bit for a plumber to do - plus vast amounts of painting for me & Phil.

We have decided against retaining the lovely mustard shade on the walls - although I was pleased to see it used inside Mottisfont Abbey, complete with a trope d'oeil marble paint effect.

The banisters will be staying though - haven't got the budget to change 'em so hoping that a bit of black metal paint will suffice for now.

Path to the field, a new wall, a new tap and so much more (kind of)

The field at the back of our house is co-owned by us & 11 other households and its purpose is to not be built on.  This is looking increasingly important now that plans are afoot to build on other lovely green fields along our road!  Visitors may remember rather arduous access to it though that involved nettles & brambles.  I've now worked out how to mow a path - which involves flinging our longest extension cable over the hedge and following a few exciting mowings & trims, it is now possible to access the field uninjured.

Probably shouldn't have been wearing shorts though as my legs are still tingling from the nettle stings.

This winter, part of our garden slipped closer to the field as a combination of endless rain & timber rot caused a mini landslip.  This has now been rectified by a bricklayer who's built us a rather smart looking wall.  Phil & fabulous father-in-law reseeded & the new lawn looks remarkably verdant now.  I have ideas about adding a plum tree in the autumn.
When (if?!) funds allow, we'll get all of the remaining (and fast rotting) retaining timbers replaced in the same way.  

Phil loved our greenhouse at our old house, but I think that the garage is performing the function of man-space that most blokes use sheds for.  We use the conservatory for over-wintering plants now so there's less need for the normal plant protection functions of a full greenhouse - but we wanted a bit more growing space.  I got a wooden growhouse in a sample sale at work for ridiculously little cash.  Getting it home was a nightmare that involved strapping it to Phil's car's roof bars and driving very very carefully.  It then sat in the garage for a year, acting as a bike stand and potato store.


But Phil has now stained it & installed it - no mean feat as it wasn't exactly well made!
And he now has tomatoes, leeks and other seedlings in there.

And finally, Phil has replaced our leaking outside tap with one that so far, it is drip free.  I just need to fix some pipe insulation around it now....

But all of this is distraction as I really should be focusing on removing the wallpaper - I find it so hard to motivate myself to do inside work when the sun is shining!

Warming up the lounge

The window guys were back this week replacing 1 of the lounge's draughty aluminium patio doors - that we'd never been inclined to open & nor had the previous owners - with a normal window.  Very pleased - since I took this picture, the front's been plaster boarded & Husband has taken a pair of scissors to the revolting curtains!

We were less happy with the replacement of the 2nd draughty aluminium patio door - the one connecting to the conservatory.  Doors themselves are fine (uninspiring but functional uPVC) & it's OK on the inside, but there's a 5cm gap on the outside full of foam.   Husband followed up this with a long conversation with a building control colleague about FENSA and an equally long phone call to the glazing company. 

The gap is all to do with a bodge when the original doors were put in - they were not on the plinth of the house but on a separate bit of wood.  Bodged at the top as well - there's an RSJ right along the top edge of the doors.  This also meant that the doors were bridging - which goes some way to explaining the arctic conditions in the living room.

This meant that when the new doors were placed on the plinth, they fitted snugly withe the RSJ bit of wall but were lower than the outside edge - hence the gap.

The glazing guys are coming back to cover the gap with some trim (there was a communication issue about these) and the building control colleague has ressured us that we are unlikely to get any issues with thermal efficiency.  And they will look fine!

Hoping that there'll be a good solution for recycling uPVC developed by the time the windows reach the end of their life...

Home is where....

Following a tip off from my colleague Sarah, Phil got me this print for Christmas!