Wondering what to do, and another wedding cushion

Now that we have called time on the renovating (and again I say, phew!!) we find ourselves at a bit of a loss as to know what to do next.  It's an odd feeling, having had work stretching ahead for what seems to have been such a long time - six months in all - to now not have anything immediate and pressing lined up.  We've put a few bits and pieces away (paintbrushes, cleaning cloths, dust sheets and so on) and had a bit of a mooch around (if it would stop raining so heavily and persistently we could actually get outside) but really we seem to be in a 'what do we do now?' sort of state.  It's a bit weird.  Having sought out a simpler lifestyle, we allowed it to become rather more complicated, and I think we just need to take some time to find our way back again.

Ideas to start with

From the back

When all else fails, I've always found chocolate and sewing - either, or, or both, preferably - seem to help in these situations.  So I have sewed (and eaten chocolate) and have finished the wedding cushion with a day to spare.  It's going to be a little awkward to take on the train and Underground along with the other bags but no doubt we'll manage somehow.

Changing the subject completely.  All the little dark blobs in the photo above are birds.  Almost everyday, from our back doorstep, we see the flock in this tree, chattering incessantly.  I want to discover what sort of tree it is (my knowledge of trees is poorly lacking) and also identify the birds that use it as a roost.  I may ask N if he can get a closer shot using the more powerful zoom on his camera.  

Converted, finally

Before . . . 

. . . and after. 

 The garage conversion is finished and more or less furnished.  I must remember to refer to the new space as the guest room for that is what it will be and it is good to now have a 'proper' bedroom for visitors to stay in.  When we first looked at the property, the estate agent showing us around said the garage was 'crying out to be converted', and although it was not at the top of our list of things to do, it was a project to think over for the future.  We ended up doing the work sooner than we had originally anticipated but in the end that probably wasn't such a bad thing - if we had put it off, I think there was a chance it might not have got done at all.  We feel that it may be a selling point for the future, and presents more options for using the rooms available.  The fact that N was able to labour for our builder helped to keep the cost down; we think we have kept a firm grip on the budget.  There are one or two finishing touches we will probably add to make it feel a little more homely but for now we can safely close the door on this project.

Furniture as follows:
 - second-hand bed-frame, mattress bought new last year
 - wardrobe and chair we already had
 - chest of drawers is older than I am (!), made by my father at night school, or so I recall being told many years ago.  This piece of furniture has been in every house I have lived in, and the drawer fronts have changed colour accordingly.  (Lilac doesn't really go with anything else in the room and I may need to get the paintbrush out again.)  
 - bedding kept when the children moved out over 10 years ago.
 - quilt originally made by my son when he was about 8!
 - meter cupboards as previously mentioned; an unwanted bathroom cupboard, and the other made by N from offcuts in the shed.
 - curtains courtesy of Save the Children charity shop.

We will eventually get a double-bed but in the meantime the single will suffice.

It is a relief to have this completed and to see an end to the renovation.  How people who work full-time, or have a young family (or both!) manage this kind of long-term project - well, I have much admiration for them.  All I can say is that N and I are glad there's no more to do!

However, there is still the garden . . . .

Dust and a broken camera

I've had every intention of writing a post each day this week but it just hasn't happened.  There just doesn't seem to be quite enough hours in the day at present; it's a bit chaotic.

So, a quick round-up.

The plumber began his work on Tuesday, demolishing the remains of the bathroom and pulling up the floor - this seems to be a recurring theme with our workmen!  Lots of noisy tools and lots of dust again - also a recurring theme ;)  I will try not to keep on about the dust too much, suffice to say there has been a great deal of it!

We've had the bathroom fittings delivered, along with the tiles, and we've finalised the design for the kitchen.  There are tools in every room except the little bedroom which I put out of bounds to everyone.  We have been to the tip with more rubble, old chipboard flooring, tiles and wallpaper.  We move boxes from one room to another trying to create space to work in. 

Today the heating engineers returned to fit the radiators.  They look beautiful (the radiators, that it ;) ) and we are very pleased indeed that we decided to get them replaced along with the boiler installation.  

We have tackled some of the coving.  We soon realised we needed the proper mitre block and coving saw to do the job properly.  And it took us ages to get to grips with the correct angles for the corners; we ended up with lots of rejected pieces.  However, we persevered and completed the little bedroom, and it looks really good.  N has carried on coving when he has been able to, space permitting, and has made good progress in the hallway.  I think he's cracked the angle issue now.

I've been determined to continue painting the little bedroom, the one I banned everyone else from.  The ceiling and coving have been done, and the woodwork has all been given a first topcoat of satin finish but still needs a second coat.

In between all the other work that is going on in the house, sometimes it is only possible to do odd jobs around the place; sanding the skirting boards, stripping a bit more wallpaper in the kitchen, and taking some of the old kitchen cupboards to pieces.  It's a bit frustrating, not having a free run at one job but we keep reminding ourselves that all these jobs need doing, and each one is a step closer to finishing.

 There's a lack of photos in this post due to the fact that sadly my little digital camera developed a technical fault Tuesday which has proved terminal *sigh*.  I have resorted to my mobile and N's rather flashier camera, and until I work out how to download those photos, it will just have to be 'words-only' for a while.

We did have another visit from Harry the Hedgehog this afternoon, having a mooch on the back lawn.  He's very sweet and allows us to take his photo before disappearing under the fence.

Slower, and aching

Huge excitement yesterday when I spotted a green woodpecker on the lawn, feasting on the ants

N and I are running out of steam.  We ache and we're tired.  We've slowed down because we can't keep up the pace.  I've said it before, we're not quite as young as we thought we were!

Old pipework

Gripper rod is viscous stuff, it needs to be levered up and handled with great care!

However, the heating engineers have done sterling work today and the new boiler and all the associated pipework (there's lots of shiny pipes under the floorboards now) looks lovely.  We've been trying to work around them, doing odd jobs (more wallpaper stripped; cracks plastered; skirting board sanded; walls washed), but every room looks like a building site - not really surprising, I suppose.  The first day we had the house, we found an old dustpan and brush that had been left behind, and they have been used on a daily basis to sweep up the mess we keep creating.  They probably feature in many photographs.

One of the holes that has appeared  over the past couple of days - this was where the old gas fire has been removed

And here's the remnants of the wallpaper behind the fire, a green 'willow pattern'

We had a bit of a shock yesterday when the plumber announced he was able to start work on the bathroom early next week.  That's great (we had thought we might have to wait for several weeks) but at present we don't actually have a bathroom to install =:o   After a mild panic attack (another one) we were out first thing this morning to try to rectify this predicament.  We wondered about sourcing everything on the internet, but after a very helpful hour in town we are hopeful that it can all be ordered locally and delivered on time.

Tomorrow we have a shopping list of required hardware, and a 'to do' list of things we would like to achieve.  It's a short list.  We are being realistic.

And we ache.

Progress

Very exciting today - the central heating engineers arrived to fit the new boiler.  It was really encouraging, after two weeks of demolition, to see something new going in.  Never mind that there are holes in the walls and holes in the floor, this is progress :)

Old boiler with cover removed

Shiny new boiler!

N and I did our best to work around the lads, doing lots of odd jobs as we saw them.  Carpet gripper prised up from floorboards, cleaning wallpaper off from behind radiators (they have all been taken off while work is underway), investigating the compost bin, and a spot of birdwatching.  I'm trying to keep a photographic record of the 'transformation' so I have to be alert to what's happening in different rooms.  In years to come it will be interesting to remind ourselves of how the place looked before we began work, and the stages along the way.

Stripping back the layers

We seem to be knee-high in wallpaper every day at the new house.  Every room is papered and it all has to come off.  We are using the tried and tested method - rip off the top pattered layer and wet the backing paper to scrape it off.  It's messy and time-consuming and occasionally we have a little discussion about hiring a steam-stripper but inevitably return to the original method.

So far we have stripped two bedrooms and are halfway through the hallway.  We are getting there, slowly but surely.  In the process we are revealing previous painting schemes (to date; pale green, candy pink - that has to go! - and white), along with an interesting assortment of cracks, which were a little alarming to begin with.  Thankfully we have had a builder look at them and he assures us none of them are anything to worry about so we are gradually filling them in.  Now I know why people choose to dry-line walls, or paper them - it hides the cracks!

A little time and effort with the heat-gun and sandpaper has removed all the chipped paint, and the window sill is back to bare wood.

Yesterday we also sanded skirting board and window sills in the little room, measured up for coving (quite a lot of that needed!), had a visit from the kitchen designer, took down some wall cupboards in the kitchen which will be ideal as storage/bookcases, and discussed bathroom ideas with a plumber.

We can definitely find a use for these

Today was an out and about day, checking out bathroom designs again, booking a visit from the carpet fitters, picking up odd DIY items, calling in at the window fitters to discuss handles, and another trip to the tip.  Then back to the house where I started on the hallway wallpaper, while N finally managed to cut the grass in the back garden with the new lawn-mower.  He set the blades to the highest setting and even though the grass is still actually quite long, it does look so much better than before.  We have both agreed that the lawn, such as it is, will have to be a long-term project to bring it back to a reasonable condition but in the meantime, simply mowing it on a regular basis will help that process.

The first cut!

This evening I set some time aside to make up a new household file with all the relevant paperwork we are amassing for the new property.  We had numerous scraps of paper with important measurements and jottings on, and they needed to be together in one easily accessible place.  Quotes, estimates, business cards, plans, meter readings - they're all there in the file.  A little bit of organisation - I'm a happy bunny :-)

Back home, we've not seen our little bluetit family for a few days and we think that the chick(s) must have fledged and the parents moved on.  I guess once the chicks have left, there's no reason to stay on at the nest-box.  We will have to start a new list of 'birds in the garden' at the new property.

I'm beginning to be aware that the wedding is not so many weeks away now, and I still don't have a dress to wear.  I have the material, and the idea, just not enough time at present to make it.  I am going to have to get a move on with this or I shall be turning up in my boiler-suit!

Fetching, isn't it  =:o

The first weekend

We have a lot of work to do in our new house.  Lots and lots of work.  If I stop too long to think about it, I get just a little daunted by the task ahead of us.  And I don't think I shall be making a list of all the jobs and projects to be done because it would just be too long.  In short: a new kitchen, new bathroom, new central heating boiler - all of these will be installed by local tradesmen, although N and I will be doing all the preparation.  The house requires decorating throughout - new flooring, painting/wallpapering, curtains, etc, which we will be responsible for.  We would like to convert the integral garage into a workroom and utility/storage area, but that is dependent on the budget we have set aside.

Then there is the garden.  Gosh, there really is a lot to do.

We peeled back one carpet, to find another carpet underneath!  Both had to go.

So we didn't waste any time.  Within an hour of walking into the house on Friday - and having sorted through all the keys, trying to work out which key was for which door - we had set to work taking up all the carpets.  Unfortunately, the backing had perished on several of them and it disintegrated into fine black dust as we pulled the carpet up.  It was just like soot and got everywhere; thankfully we had taken the precaution of wearing dust masks but it was still quite unpleasant.  Some of the carpets were fixed to the floorboard with staples, so all those had to be prised out as well.  By the time we had swept up the worst of the mess it was late afternoon, and we loaded the car with carpets and took them to the local tip for disposal.  

This is what was left behind after we took up the hall carpet - all that black dust is the backing that perished.

Yesterday we awoke with an assortment of aches!  Another full day of work - I was busy with the vacuum, getting rid of all the dust that had settled from the previous day, whilst N carefully removed some mirror wall tiles in the hall and bedroom.  We had been concerned that they might all be stuck on with grout or plaster and therefore be extremely difficult to remove without breaking so it was a relief to find they were held in place with sticky foam pads which proved much easier to deal with.  I took all the curtains and rails down - my thrifty mindset is wondering if the fabric might be useful for something else, but it all needs washing and then storing, so I'm wavering slightly.  We then tackled the bathroom, pulling up the carpet (up the side of the bath, too) and removing the medicine cupboard, various plastic holders and rails.  The cupboard we will keep; cleaned up it can be used in the shed.  To finish off the day, we spent half an hour in the garden, just pulling up some of the huge weeds from the veg plot - we filled a dust sheet without any effort.

Grand-daughter No 1 told us she wanted to keep the buttercups in the veg plot because they were so pretty!

Today began with a trip to the tip with the remainder of the carpets, and a bit of shopping to collect some decorating items we had ordered.  Then back to the new house.  We started out today with a work plan.  We have come to the decision that we work best if we set ourselves a goal for each day.  Not a list of 20, or even 10, things to do; we are being sensible and making our goals realistic and achievable.  So today our target was to strip the wallpaper in the little bedroom, and have another session of weeding in the garden.  And that is what we did.  The wallpaper, of course, decided to come off in two layers, top and backing, and it took us till mid-afternoon to finish and clear up.  

The weather this weekend has been glorious, so it really wasn't a hardship to spend some time in the garden, weeding.  The soil seems quite sandy, but there are lots of worms which is always a good sign.  Unfortunately there are loads of ants' nests, too, which is not so good.  We need to be vigilant in dealing with them as we find them.  I'm afraid it's the old-fashioned 'boiling water' method, using an old kettle and water from the water-butt - needs must.  We filled another dust-sheet with weeds and there is still so much more to do.  We are just going with the attitude that every little bit helps.

Add caption

I think we quite quickly realised that we were going to have to pace ourselves.  It's physical work that needs to be done, and whilst we are perfectly capable of doing the work, we can't tackle it with quite the speed that we could 20 or 30 years ago - we came to that conclusion by the end of Friday!  Instead, we have the sense to stop for a breather if we need to, rather than push ourselves too far.  We want to be able to enjoy the work, not wear ourselves out in the process!

One day at a time, one job at a time.  We'll get there. 

Photos to follow.