30.10.09 The Kitchen

We are having a baby! I am 17 weeks pregnant and so we decided that we really did need to finish the house off before the little one arrived. I've had an endowment policy for 10 years that hasn't made any money so I decided to take all the money out. We have been busy researching as usual, for the best kitchen and appliances for the best price. Well Rob has, I've been busy researching for the best baby items at the best price!

We started taking the plaster off the chimney breast hoping that there would be lovely 200 year old bricks behind it, there aren't! In fact they couldn't be worse and there's no wonder that it has 3" of plaster on it in some parts. The soot covers the kitchen quite nicely!We've given up with that idea now and will tile it all!

Rob has made a lighting oblong feature on the ceiling, well it wouldn't really be our kitchen without a million lights, some PIR and some on switches, some big and some little!

The water and gas pipes have been boarded up and Rob's Dad has been filling all the gaps today ready to sand tomorrow.

The kitchen has arrived from Wren and we now have all the boxes in the living room and hallway. The picture shows some of the cabinets, but definitely not all of them.

We have also ordered an American fridge freezer, range cooker and dishwasher from Jual Domestics which should be with us soon.

We are also having a new double glazed window and door.

A moses basket arrived today too!

It's all very exciting, apart from living in a complete pig sty for probably the next 2 weeks! At least that means there's no point in hoovering or dusting for the next few weeks either, as the dust and sawdust seems to be making its way around the whole house! I think the cats help with that though!

07.07.2009 The Middle Bedroom

Another room finished! Only 3 years after we bought the house! I've just finished touching up and painting the chimney breast today. I think that it finishes the room off.

My Mum will be very pleased as apparantly this is her room should she wish to stay! We just need the flat screen TV to put into the cabinet. The middle part swivels around so that you can watch it on the settee (that we also need to buy) on the other side of the room. Pure luxury! I think Rob's done a fabulous job of the cabinet and wardrobe.

30.06.09 The Middle Bedroom

We had a slight drama after we came back from our holidays in May. The upstairs ensuite shower had leaked through the floor and onto the ceiling in the middle bedroom. Rob had disconnected the shower and the ceiling had dried out enough for me to be able to sand, fill and paint over the stains.

Also, when we re-tiled the roof we did not replace the leading in the internal valley. When the rains came so did the leaks, so we have now painted the lead with a special lead sealer. But unfortunately, the damage to the paintwork in both the top floor bedrooms was already done. On top of that the tap in the en suite also leaked but a new tap has resolved that.

We decided that with the current economic climate that our money which was in an ISA was doing absolutely nothing. So we have decided to use some of it to finish another room off. It's more of a motivational tool to feel good about the house again as we had become stagnant and absolutely nothing had happened with the house renovation for quite some time.

So on Saturday we bought a new King size bed for our bedroom and a carpet for the middle bedroom. I have also been busy buying new bedding and curtains for both our bedroom and the middle bedroom. The carpet and new bed arrive tomorrow, so we shall be having a re-jiggle around of furniture. I have next week off work to re-decorate both the top floor bedrooms and ensuite. All the chimney breasts will be painted to inject a little colour into the brown house! It will be a new house! I can't wait!

04.03.09 The Middle Bedroom

We've had a busy few weeks. Rob finished making the wardrobe a few weeks ago and stained it today. Rob has lowered his big cabinet but he was still doing this as I was taking pictures before it got dark.

I have painted the ceiling and walls and have started glossing the skirting boards. The lights have gone up and it's starting to look like a bedroom. The room should hopefully be finished tomorrow.

04.03.09 The Garden

Rob removed the railings and gate last weekend from the top of the wall. I weeded last weekend and painted the wall this weekend. I think the garden looks so much better. I think pruning is in order for next weekend.

26.11.08 The Middle Bedroom

We have a little bit of money now and have decided to make a start on the middle bedroom. This is Rob's mighty erection! It's taken quite a bit of sawing, fixing, routing and probably a bit of cursing too.
It shall stand in the middle of the room to divide the bedroom area and the small living area. It will turn the other way so that the cupboards face the living area. I have to paint the bedroom and then stain and varnish the room divider. It will probably be ready after Christmas as Phil the carpet man is busy laying carpets before Christmas.

26.11.08 The Bathroom

We were getting a bit worried about the amount of water that goes all over the tiled floor. The grout was looking past it's best too. I dug it all out and re grouted it about two weeks ago while I was on holiday. We ordered a proper shower screen and Rob fitted it last Thursday. He was so excited he fitted it the same day as it came!

The other picture is to shown that I have real plants that live in the bathroom. These have been in for over a year and I haven't killed them yet. I'm sure they survive on neglect! Notice the lovely new grout.

24.05.08 The Front Garden

Here is the finished front garden! We managed to get the rest of the plants today and finished it off. Maybe in three years it will look like it's supposed to. But you get the general idea.

18.05.08 The Front Garden

Whilst we have been renovating, we had acquired lots of old copper piping and scrap metal. Rob weighed this in yesterday and got £250 from it. This has bought the plants for the front garden. I can't believe how expensive the plants are and in this shot alone is £76 worth! We have only completed this corner section as the garden centre did not have all the box hedging that we required.

The garden is starting to transform and whilst it will be about 3 years before it has properly developed, I think it is beginning to look great.

The courtyard where all the scrap metal was has been swept and Rob has hung the hanging baskets up. The pots that the plants from the front garden are in are now dotted around. Rob has also put up the outdoor clock that I bought him for our first wedding anniversary. It's not worthy of a picture, but it does look better.

11.05.08 The Front Garden

We have spent all weekend breaking up the slate into varying sizes. The slate needed to be broken with a hammer, sieved for the bigger pieces and then sieved again for the smaller pieces. It's been a dusty and quite boring job. However, now that it is all in place, I think that it looks lovely.

We have started digging the soil up and getting rid of the big stones in readiness for planting which will hopefully be next week.

I have also scraped the post at the end of the garden and have re-painted it black.

05.05.08 The Front Garden

Rob's been busy today. I haven't been able to do much until the brickwork is complete. The basic structure is there now and Rob's still busy in the garden pointing. If you have a look at the far end, the weed suppressor is in place. We have started to place the old slate that came off the roof to see what it will look like. We think it looks great!

04.05.08 The Front Garden

The garden starts it's transformation.

Can you tell what it is yet?!

03.05.08 The Front Garden

Our garden looked a bit like this when we began to hack it to pieces last Thursday. Rob got the urge to do something and then attacked the pathway last weekend. He cemented the pathway and added a row of bricks down the side of the path and then it rained!. He then started taking up the lawn and I finished it yesterday. We have since moved wheel barrow loads of soil to the back garden. Our neighbour Fred on the way back from his allotment, decided to help. I have never known anyone of his age with such energy and he puts us to shame and doesn't allow us little breaks!

We have a plan. I could tell you about it, but then it wouldn't be as exciting as seeing it develop slowly over the weeks. Or maybe faster if Fred is involved!

09.04.08 Planning

The web site hasn't been updated in such a long time. My apologies! However, we need money to do house renovations. The cottage has been up for sale since the end of September 2007, but with the housing market as it is, nothing is moving, including our house.





But, we haven't been completely slack and we did put a request into the local planning department to see if we required planning permission to alter the outbuildings into a kitchen, utility room and downstairs toilet, with an ajoining conservatory roof and doors from the house to the outbuildings. We don't! so that's a bit of good news.

I can't remember if I ever posted pictures of the outbuildings fully. I know that I posted the newly decorated toilet and the original 200 year old sink. So I shall now, to refresh my memory and to refresh my Mum and Dad's computer home page! That's if I remember how to do it!

The toilet will be a toilet, but you will enter from the other end.

The old wash house chimney will have to come down to allow us to go through to the other room. We shall probably do things with the metal work within it, to keep it in the house and make a feature of it.

The courtyard on the right hand side will possibly have a conservatory roof, but we have been know to change our minds!

The picture with the plant pots in it, poor picture, will be the main kitchen and the small window in the last picture will be opened up, to make a bigger one.

We shall keep the pan tiles the same, but add velux windows for light.

You can see the horse trough through the plant pot picture, which shall be storage space or a utility room, if I have my way! It depends on what happens to the toilet.

The main walkthrough at the moment will be bricked up, so that the middle area is enclosed with a small seating area and plant pots.

We need to sit down and draw plans. So one day, this will all change and our what is now kitchen, will be a dining room. We still need to do the stairs, gardens and middle bedroom.

11.10.07 The Back Bedroom

Rob had decided that the yellow was a little bright, so we should tone this bedroom down slightly. I've never been one to say no to having a paint brush in my hand, so I set off to work. It is in keeping with the rest of the house in the fact that it is now brown! It does make the room brighter, so I've had to sew blackout curtains onto the curtains.

23.09.07 The Garden

All the trees have been cut down and removed apart from the pear tree which has been pruned significantly.

We haven't done a deal of work on the garden as we started painting the cottage ready to sell it. It may be a little late in the year to be completing the garden now.

We will wait until the cottage has been sold and use the money to finish off the garden and start making the outbuildings into the kitchen, utility and bathroom. We still need to finish the middle room and stairs, but we shall build a garage first at the bottom end of the garden and place all the things from the middle bedroom in there. Hopefully, this time next year the house will be complete. I shall remind myself that I said that!

06.09.07 The Hallway

I decided to finish off the hallway. It seemed such a shame to have a grand old house and then the first thing that you saw when you walked in was bare woodwork and walls.

It's just in need of some pictures and I'm thinking, an ornate mirror.

29.07.07 The Garden

At the beginning of today we had piles of branches. Yesterday we bought a shredder which turned out to be useless really and then we tried a bonfire which gave off far too much smoke. So today we cut all the branches down so that we could get them into bags and had several trips to the tip. Even our next door but one neighbour helped along with Mac.

The pear tree has been cut to a more manageable height which is a good thing as most of the branches were so brittle, we could break them with our hands.

The damson tree has to be cut down next and the plum tree tidied up a bit. That leaves the holly tree which we're still debating about. It would be a shame to cut down all the height of the garden. When we have a sunny day we will try and cut the rest of the hedge down at the bottom of the garden.

24.07.07 The Garden

The Buddleia was a little bit over grown and didn't really fit into the whole plan of the garden. Not that we have a particular plan for the whole garden, but for this bit we do. So yesterday it came down.

Last night and today I have been lopping all the bigger branches into firewood. I can't wait to get my hands on a chainsaw!! to cut all the bigger branches into logs.

I think that after being inside because of the rain it makes a nice change to be outside and I've actually enjoyed myself when I didn't think I would.

We also spoke to the neighbours and they are happy for us to chop the rest of the overgrown hedge down at the bottom even onto the other side of the wall.

22.07.07 The Garden

Well, we had a long rest and decided that we ought to tackle the garden!

We would have liked to have started before today but the rain stopped play....for a very long time!

It's been quite an enjoyable day. I am at my best when I am dismantling things! It's just put them back together that I'm not too fond of!

Well, the first bit of the garden wall has been revealed and now all we have to do is wonder how we get a huge amount of branches and leaves to the tip! They won't all fit in the green bin!