(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!

Utility Room Done

It's been a while since I reported on a finished room as we ran out of cash a few months ago!  But we're ready to get going again - and so is the bank account - so here's the utility room.  

This was left unfinished after the kitchen - we'd had the ceiling plastered, but following a few issues with the contractor over the towel rail installation, we'd left it for a bit.  Phil sorted out the plastering touching up & wall prep needed, but we then decided to bring in Tony as the biggest update here is invisible.

The washing machine was vibrating so much that the room (and house!) shook.  Tony took up the floor completely, fitted additional beams and then put in new floor boards before underlay & the same tile effect laminate flooring we'd used in the main kitchen.

Under the washing machine, there's an anti vibration mat made from recycled rubber to help minimise spin cycle earthquakes.  And it's worked!  The washing machine is much quieter and the floor feels stable.

We were going to decorate ourselves but Tony was a little speedier than we anticipated, so bar some trim paint, even the painting was non DIY!  The advantage is that he did bits we may have been tempted to skip - like the wall behind the tumble drier.

It's a laminate worktop & splashback in here as it is where we intend to do anything too messy for the lovely beech kitchen worktop.  Phil's rather cleverly found & fitted an aluminium extruded bar to finish the top of the splashback.

The unit doors are gloss white like the kitchen but from a cheaper B&Q range - it's a utility room after all.

New hooks on a repainted board on the wall - we did that bit!

The walls are the same colour as the main kitchen.

We still need to put a better light bulb in - it's a very slow CFL and I'd rather have the instant light from an LED.

I'm also after a wall mounted airer.  In summer, the conservatory is a perfect drying space on rainy days, but no drying seems to happen in winter out there.  Our floor mounted airer fits in under the hooks here, but a wall mounted one will be a better use of space.

We bought a freestanding unit from IKEA for bags & cleaning cloths - as well as giving a home to bottles en route to recycling.

Nearly as exciting as the utility room is the kitchen bin situation.  I grabbed a pedal bin at a B&Q sample sale that's just waiting for a recycling sticker to help us remember which of the 2 bins is for which waste!

It can rain when there's a westerly now...

We weren't going to bother replacing the house's 3 remaining single glazed windows.  The dining room window looks into the conservatory - so not much weather to contend with.  Husband did a great job this summer with sander on a stick, followed by paint brush on a stick to extend the life of the bathroom window.
The first time we had heavy rain with a westerly wind, we decided we did need to replace the cloakroom window as it wasn't keeping the rain outside!
Replaced yesterday with a simple uPVC job.
Whilst it was being fitted, we established that the 2 roof panes that are misbehaving in the conservatory can potentially be fixed (1 leaks & 1 has condensation trapped inside) - and that I need to learn to love sliding doors for the living room as opposed to lovely timber bifolds.
Husband's been doing the decidedly unpleasant job today of hoovering up rodent poo from loft above the garage as an electrician might be coming along soon to add a much needed light fitting to the garage - we're coping with a lantern & a desk lamp at the moment.

Driveway

We've made 3 small changes to our front garden this year.

The only real floral brilliance we've had is this fabulously huge sunflower - grown up from a runt of a little plant I got in a giveaway at work!
It took forever to flower - but grew enormously during midsummer.  It's now got around to starting to open its flowers.
Sunflowers are a bit of a superfood as far as garden wildlife goes.  Pollinating insects enjoy the flowers and 
I'm planning to keep it where it is into the autumn so that birds will be able to enjoy the seeds.

A downside of a long drive is distance from the streetlights.  In our old house, I never had a problem finding the front door, but it's a different case here.

This fitting is solar with 2 LED lights with a PIR sensor.  It gains enough charge for the short amount of time we need it to work for.  Not having to mess about with connecting to the mains was a plus for Phil - but he spent some time getting the solar panel rigged up.

Mains LED light by the front door - again with a motion sensor.  It gives more than enough light for me to find the front door - and my keys in the depths of my handbag!

We've tweaked the PIR settings for both lights - but still needs some more refinement as the sunflower sets off the front door light in the wind!

Neither lights are security light washing in performance, but that's never been their role for us.