25.06.06 Paint Stripping

Two hours it took me, 2 whole hours to do this much! We will be sending them to be professionally stripped. Thank goodness!
All the re-wiring has been completed. Rob has started on the gas central heating, laying the pipes. The scaffolding should be arriving in 2 weeks time.
Rob's been busy researching most things for the house. It has worked out that I deal with the wedding and Rob deals with the house. So far its worked out well.

The Ensuite

Rob has fixed the wood into position for the ensuite. How posh are we going to be! Its been measured to within an inch of its life taking into consideration where the wardrobes and other furniture will go. Its a long time before we see the finished product though.

June 06

There's general chaos at our new home. Rob has been busy re wiring the electric sockets, lighting and smoke alarms. The first picture is the top floor. Note my attempts at seeing whether removing the paint of the staircase would be a good idea. Rob decided it would be better to have a new one. Hoorah! The second picture is on the second floor.

20.06.06 The Courtyard

How white do the walls look! It looks fabulous now and all it needs is some pots and hanging baskets. We have the brackets but I dont think we will put the hanging baskets up until next year. Even the concrete looks better, but it has been covered in 2 ceilings worth of dust etc and then washed down. Im so pleased with my courtyard! I even got a free suntan to go with it!
Edited to add an additional photo to keep my Dad happy! Is this better Dad?!

19.06.06 The Courtyard

To be honest, the courtyard had also seen better days. It took me ages to scrape off all the old paint with a scraper and a blokes tool which made my fingers tingle! Thankfully it was a day when it rained so I got lots of breaks!

18.06.06 Hoorah!

We had our home assessed to see whether it was uninhabitable or not. The council say its not habitable. Hoorah! Its not often in ones life that you can get excited about your home not being habitable, but today is the day! We dont have to pay council tax until we move in. That can be up to a year. Sometimes it really doesnt seem like our home. There's still a huge amount to do and I dont feel as though I can properly call it home and believe that its ours until we do move in.
We've had quotes for scaffolding and they should come and put it up in 3 weeks time. The gas central heating man has been and is getting married in 2 weeks time so that will give us time to buy the radiators and boiler before he gets back off honeymoon. Once the scaffolding is up for a month we can paint the whole of the outside with protective paint and mend the wooden detailing where the old windows used to be on the side of the house. We can also sort out the roof and guttering.
It seems like we are finally moving again. Well, this time in 3-4 weeks we will be!

08.06.06 The Kitchen Appliances

Today we picked up a fridge freezer and gas upright oven. They are second hand but we didnt see any point in buying new appliances when hopefully, we will be purchasing brand new ones that will be in keeping with our idea of the perfect kitchen. We will make do with them for a while and at £40 for both, we couldnt grumble too much! I will be glad not to cook on the cooker that is in the house at present. I find that if I touch it I end up covered in grease. I dread to think what would happen if we tried to cook food in it!

02.06.06 The Garden and Re-wiring

I strimmed the lawn and tidied up the garden. ok, so its maybe not going to win the Chelsea Flower Show this year, but hey, it looks a whole lot better than before. In the garden we found a gas pipe which had been closed off and an air brick that was full of soil. So thats obviously why the living room wall is wet. We assume, maybe wrongly that the floor was probably wooden in 1815, hence the air bricks.
Rob has been cutting out the plaster for the re-wiring and lighting. From this picture you should be able to see the internal valley better. Its on the left hand side. We have a roofer too who is going to come back to us in a few days time with a quote. Lets hope he actually does!
The lady from the Council has also been to visit the property and has stated that she shall recommend to the panel that it is not habitable at present. So we dont have to pay 2 lots of council tax. Yipee!

30.05.06 In General

Rob's taken up all the carpet and underlay on the stairs. It looks so much better and it should be easier to sweep now. I've removed all the wallpaper in the last bedroom and the polysterene backing in the walk in wardrobe. I've also removed the last bits of wallpaper, including the wonderful seagull wallpaper in the bathroom. The best bit was removing all the tiles in the bathroom. But I found that the plaster behind some of the tiles was like sand and just crumbled straight into the bath. Rob now has to re-plaster the bathroom and stair part and there's more lathe underneath it.A gas central heating man came today and he gave us some advice. he's a friend of the family. He sealed off the radiators. Some technical bloke stuff. This means that Rob can now remove all the radiators. He's going to put us in touch with a man who may be able to do the work for us.The roofer is as illusive as ever. He should have visited us today.