04.11.06 The Front Garden

A magic garden fairy called Beryl came along one day and cleared the front garden. It looks fabulous and it looked so much better before the leaves arrived.

03.11.06 Plastering

A little bit more plastering has been done.
The first picture shows that the stairs have been plastered from the 3rd-2nd floor. The next picture is of the middle floor bedroom or my Mum's room as she calls it! We are waiting for it to dry out and then we can paint it.

27.10.06 The Top Floor

It's plastered! and we've started painting! I've painted the ceiling which looks fab, but it needs sanding down again in places. My other half is a perfectionist, but I know what he means, it's just a bit gutting when he says that things need changing. I get so excited that the need to paint and move in overcomes my perfectionist tendencies. The edges between the ceiling and wall do need a bit of sanding down. It's just a pain when I've painted my heart out and painstakingly covered the edges and blips of the last time it was sanded down!

27.10.06 The Bathroom

Rob's fitted all the wood into the bathroom, it's changes since the last pics. It's taking shape and sometimes even I struggle to understand his vision. But it's taking shape despite the niggle about the bath. It wasn't right, but now its fixed. It's much lower than before and I'm glad that Rob is a perfectionist in the same way that I am.
The bathroom looks so much better now it's being boxed in and I can really see the shape of it coming to plan that Rob had in his head, but I couldn't visualise it. I'm a woman!

27.10.06 The Cellar

The sewerage drains blocked on the S evern Trent water side, which they un blocked on Friday.
The sewerage water seeped underground and came in through the side of the house (we know the weak spots now!) It came in half way down the steps into the cellar.
Thankfully the bricks at the bottom mean't that all the sewerage water seeped through and left silt.
Apparantly because I owned wellingtons it was my job to get up all the silt.
The last picture is 2 bottles of Dettol being poured in which we would hope killed the bacteria. It smelt a whole lot better than before. So with wellingtons on and borrowed N HS gloves I set off scraping up silt. I do think that most of it was just sand as we live on now what was a river bed. But it's almost gone. I jet washed the cellar down tonight knowing that in the morning the water will eventually disappear. It may take a few days but I know that it will be the cleanest, most hygenic cellar in Bawtry!

15.10.06 The Bathroom

Apparantly the shower was built on the 5th August 1991 by Nigel Tomlinson a local builder. It was finally demolished on the 15th October 2006! It took ages to demolish with saws, a hammer, crow bar and brute strength! It involved two trips to the skip.

The bath has been put into place and the wood work is going into the bathroom this week. Rob's been very busy and is fixing a small forest into the bathroom!

The plastering continues and so far the top floor bedrooms have been completely plastered.

14.10.06 Plastering

Our home is beginning to take shape now that Pete has started plastering. He has started plastering on the top floor. The picture with the window is the back bedroom and the next picture has the ensuite plastered. How exciting!

11.10.06 The Hallway

I quite enjoyed ripping up the hallway laminate flooring and old vinyl tiles. We were hoping for some lovely old floor tiles underneath, but unfortunately we got concrete.

11.10.06 Removal Of The Scaffolding

The before and after pictures following the removal of the scaffolding.
Hopefully you will be able to see what we've done!

The door has been painted white to match the rest of the terrace. I think it looks better.

10.10.06 Plaster Board

The whole ceiling has now been insulated on the top floor and has been plaster boarded. As you can see the en suite in the bedroom is up and plaster boarded. The two square shapes will house lights to illuminate the en suite as well as the bedroom.

Tomorrow, Pete will start plastering. Woo Hoo!
When all the plaster has been put on we can second fit the electrics and plumbing. It's finally starting to come together. I can't wait to start decorating....I'm so excited!

30.09.06 The Wedding!

Today we got married. It was the most fantastic day ever and I'd like to do it every day! The ceremony was lovely, the food yummy and the party even better! The sun shone and my grin lasted all day!

We hope to live happily ever after in our new home!.....which will hopefully be before our first wedding anniversary!

We took a whole week off and let everyone do the same, (aren't we generous!) while we went off to Prague for a few days.

22.09.06The Front Garden

A big skip came today and took all the front garden rubbish away and all the rubbish from the house. Today we look quite clean and tidyish!

21.09.06 In General

A plumber finally came into our home last weekend. Rob's made the wooden wall ready for the walk in shower. The three squares will become four as the plumber placed the pipes right up the other side, which should have had three squares on the left side to make it symmetrical. However, the right side will now be lit up with small lights behind frosted glass panels, which I think will look fabulous. However, all good plans need tweaking and I've found what I type on here doesn't always go to plan in the end. So watch this space! See we have a radiator on the third floor back bedroom!
Pete couldn't hold the excitement in any longer and has started insulating the roof and floor boarding. Bless him! This room was beautiful and bright when we saw it the first time and now the plaster board is going back up it looks like the old room we loved.
I think our house is finally turning into a home. Only 9 days before our wedding and I thought that it should all be finished by now. But that was my idea back in May, which seems ages ago now and I hadn't banked on contractors being so lackadaisical.
It's been an expensive month and the thousands pour out of the bank account so quickly. Hopefully, next month will be ploddy so far as money goes. All the most expensive stuff is out of the way, but then again, with house renovations something that you could have never of dreamed of, comes up to bite you on the nose!
But I'm looking forward and I know Rob is, to our wedding and the honeymoon away from the stresses that are wedding planning and house renovations. We shall come back all refreshed and raring to go again.
Somehow, I still can't imagine this house to be my home just yet.

17.09.06 The Outside

All rendered and beautifully painted. We are now working our way around the window frames. The bottom and top false windows have been fixed, not that you can see the top as the scaffolding has been brought down to paint the top window frames.
I've started work on the front door to get it in keeping with the other three houses. The front door was black but it looked out of place. The frame has been undercoated.

12.09.06 The Roof

The roof is complete! Our first big challenge is over and done and beautiful! The last of the ridge tiles and the leading were put on at the weekend.
It was late tonight when I took the pictures. I will try to get daylight ones. But I only remembered that I'd brought the camera after painting 3 windows and the front door this evening.

12.09.06 The Wooden Mock Windows

The mock windows have been made and are all ready to be put up. They were made of treated timber and skirting board wood covered with undercoat and bitumen paint.
The whole of the house has been rendered and painted now. We are just in the process of painting the windows. Our home is beginning to take shape again and look like the home we fell in love with. Only this time its water tight!

05.09.06 The Front Garden

Well I suppose things have to get worse before they get better.
I think we need a skip!

05.09.06 Rendering.

The side of the house has now been rendered. Pete has begun to paint the front of the house. He has done one coat but it will need a second. It looks so much better already.

05.09.06 The Fence

We are once again separated and divided. The men who worked for next door have done a great job. There's still so much to do in our garden but this is not a priority at present. Kew Gardens weren't landscaped in a day!

01.09.06 Ramblings

Good news. Earlier last month I couldn't decide whether we had plum trees or damson trees. We do in fact have both and they taste gorgeous! The pears from the tree leave a little bit to be desired though. The pear tree may have to be replaced with a cherry tree.