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.

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...