In just twelve weeks we have finished the demolition, plasterboarded, replaced windows, plastered, painted, installed the kitchen, thrown the old one in the skip with a whoop of delight, installed the downstairs loo, tiled the utility room, remodelled the fireplace, hung a few things on the walls and laid 40m2 of parquet effect Karndean flooring.
That is, of course, the royal "we". Husband has done the vast majority of the work with a little help from family, a great plasterer and a fantastic flooring man. I mainly looked on from a safe distance whilst trying to keep two small boys out of danger.
We have yet to do the woodwork (skirting, door frames and doors) and we're a bit lacking in furniture until that is done so photos of the finished product are not yet available, but for now here are some of the nicer finishing touches (including a peek at that fabulous floor).
This was the fireplace the day we moved in. There was something of the Flintstones about the original design and as for the carpet, well, words fail me.
And here it is now! There will eventually be a multi-fuel stove installed when funds permit, so for now it's still a huge improvement on the original. It's tiled with tumbled Chinese slate. I am planning to paint a narrow border in metallic gold around the opening but we're keeping it simple with no surround or mantlepiece. The mirror was found on ebay, the HUGE world map is from Ikea.
A few years ago my Dad gave me a carrier bag of cookery booklets. Amongst the rubbish (think the Woman's Own diet plan from 1989) were half a dozen great vintage finds, dating from (I think) the 1930s to 1950s. The contents were not hugely useful, with almost every recipe starting with, "take a large block of lard..." but they were too beautiful to put away so - thanks to six Ikea Ribba frames, a roll of sellotape and some of the kids' craft paper they will now grace the wall above the dining area.
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