Kitchen repairs, choosing colours and more work on the basement

There’s been a problem in the kitchen.  Some initial work was done some time ago in this room and colours tested but since then it has left it in a semi-fuctional state while other bigger problems are dealt with.

But there’s been a problem. Some plasterboard that was used to line the gap in the fireplace where the oven now fits,  has buckled and bowed in quite a worrying fashion. It’s been checked out and it’s nothing dangerous, the plasterboard just wasn’t given room to move as it dried and settled. It looked really worrying though.

So the solution was to take off all the tiles and plasterboard and the area has now been rendered and will (probably) be painted rather than tiled again. Here is it with some damp spots where the render is being sealed.

The rest of this room is looking kind of OK. There’s a small desk in here now, and even some flowers when I don’t find the general building dust too depressing to bother.

Not much more can be done to this room at the moment as all the floorboards will need to come up again to put the electrics in the basement which is still largely untouched. In fact if anything the basement looks a bit worse. It needs damp treatment (quotes are happening at the moment) and therefore some paneling that was probably just put in to hide the problem had to come off.

Hmm lovely.

So on a more positive note the entrance hall has been taking a step forward. Again the floor is still untouched because the boards will need to come up, but the current plan is that this will be  Farrow and Ball Strong White which is the same as the bathroom and bedrooms.

And on the walls just on this level, Farrow and Ball Cinder Rose (the same colour as the kitchen shelves).

Just painting this hall and adding in this radiator cover has made quite a big change because when you walk in it doesn’t immediately say “building site” anymore, it doesn’t say “finished home either” but it’s much nicer.

Cinder Rose is quite a strong colour, but even so I wanted a strong colour for the two doors in this hall that really contrasts, whilst the door frames and skirting will be Strong White like the floor.

I got a few samples including some of the new colours from (it’s my favourite) Farrow and Ball.

And I’ve gone for the most punchy, Arsenic.

So far a very mixed response…

And finally some random objects I have been collecting.

A beetle paperweight.

Some regal tins.

A biscuit to hold biscuits.

And some birds, standing guard in the bathroom that I bought in a market in Cape Town.

Photography project part two

I’ve posted about some photography I have been asked to do for an online shop that specialises in traditional home and garden products on here before. Some of the first pictures I took are here.

Since then I have been working through some more.

There’s quite a range of products to do but I’ve quite enjoyed setting up the shots and adjusting them as I go, working out what works.

And here are some of them.

Starting work on the basement and other bits and bobs

We have finally started work on our rather depressing basement. The bathroom in what we refer to as the outhouse is the main initial focus. We are trying to sort out the entrance to the room from what will be a living room.

The plan for the basement is that it will be a semi-separate flat that we can choose to rent out (and cover some of the renovation costs) or take back as use a guest space should we need it. It has its own front door underneath the main front door and it needs a lot of work, more than anywhere else in the house. But we are starting with the bathroom and I think you can see why….

I kind of wish we could keep this wallpaper.

Wall…

Ceiling…

It’s only a small space and so we’re struggling with how the layout in there will work. We have a lot of planning and decision-making to do downstairs and that will probably slow our progress as we find it easier to do a bit, take a look, think it over and then press on. But we will get there in the end.

Oh and we had to buy a shed to put all the DIY stuff we have been storing in the basement in. We’re going to paint it to look a bit like a beach hut.

Inside more wallpaper stripping has taken place in the trickier to reach areas around the top landing. This is in preparation for plastering the worst sections which we have already done on the first and ground floor. Soon we’ll need to agree on colours and flooring for the hall and stairs. But not just yet.

In the main bathroom, which is currently my favourite room in the house, I am still trying to decide on whether we should have wallpaper or leave it plain. If we do have wallpaper it will be just on one wall.

I got my selection of samples out and had a look at them in the space.

We quite like this one. But it’s not really right for a bathroom I think although it’s quite fun. It is by Lewis and Wood.

The we have this paper which I have talked about loads already on here. It’s by Timorous Beasties. I have decided against however as it is on a cream background and I want to keep the rest of the walls white now (final decision) and I think that will look ill-considered. But I will try to use it elsewhere in the house because it is cool.

I like this one too but it’s also a no for the same reasons as above. It’s from Zoffany.

And so that leaves this as my current favourite. It’s a bit lurid, but I like it and it’s from wallpaper direct and pleasingly is one of the cheaper one.

Oh and because the bathroom is the most finished I am able t do nice things like buy flowers to go in there without it being pointless and lost amongst rubble as they would be elsewhere.

 

Photography Project

Recently I got a surprising email. An online mail order shop specialising in traditional home and garden products emailed me. They said they had stumbled on my blog and would I be interested in working on a project with them. The plan was / is that they send me items for sale on the site and I photograph them in our home to act as lifestyle shots on the site.

I am not a professional photographer and I am also living in  half-finished home so I was a bit unsure but I thought the idea sounded fun and was keen to give it a go. Plus they are happy for me to work at my own pace (presumably within reason).

And so I took delivery of the first batch of items and I am probably a quarter of the way through. I got a few more items than I had bargained for straight away including some things for the garden it’s just been too bleak to think about starting with. But I have taken a few shots here and a couple in my friend’s house when I ran out of reasonably finished rooms. I have begun with some of the smaller and I therefore hoped easier items.

Here are a selection.

I still have quite a few things to go. So once I have a batch together I will post some more.

An update in three parts

In recent weeks we have made a bit of progress.

First up is the plaster in the hall and on the first landing. It’s been done and dried, so we can now decide on colours.

This part was a particularly bad spot and we’ve had it simply redone for now. But I’d still like to replace some corbels at some point soon.

And now we need to finish stripping all the paper from this tricky section on the top floor. I’m a bit afraid of this bit as we’ll need to use ladders on the stairs. Not keen.

Then next is the basement. We’re due to start work down here shortly as at present it’s still totally untouched. We have a totally unusable bathroom down there which we will reinstate. And so in readiness it has been cleared of all the junk it has accumulated in the (what must be) decades since it was last functioning.

As you can see it’s in a sorry state.

And from one bathroom to another.

The one upstairs one is almost done.

We were going to do the floor in black and white tiles, but we decided that tiles were too cold and lino too horrible and we couldn’t find anything affordable in-between. So instead we painted the boards the same colour as the floors in the bedrooms. And actually I now think we should use this colour more elsewhere and have greater consistency in the flooring. I used to think it was a bit unimaginative to paint everything white (or in this case Farrow and Ball Strong White) but now I wonder if it isn’t a good idea and allows you to be more daring with wall colours and still feel like all the rooms and house are connected. Anyway one to think over as going with white floors in the front hall and kitchen might be a bit much – not sure.

This piece of furniture next to the sink is a new addition. We picked it up for next to nothing in a dodgy looking local shop.

The clothes airer is still going strong and proving to be really useful.

I am not certain about the colours of the walls. At the moment they are just white and I quite like it. But I did have my heart set on using some wallpaper and colour in this room. Ideally this paper from Timorous Beasties.

But the one thing we have decided not to touch is the paint on the door. I like it just the way it is.

This room was actually subdivided into two rooms when we moved in, a thin kitchen and a thin bathroom. We took out the partition wall and made it one room again.

The pictures from that stage are here.

Totally plastered and a collection of random images

A new year and we’re back on track with the house. Starting with a big plastering project.

We’ve decided to get the front hall and the top three floors of stairs done. Some sections need to be totally replaced as the plaster is shot, some bits are full of holes and some sections just need simple skimming to touch up what is already there.

But to be ready for the plasterer we had to get all the wallpaper stripped so it was easy for him to start work.

Holes roughly filled.

Some places are quite hard to reach…

Unfortunately we didn’t leave enough time and some late night work was required.

In the front hall the arch has been sadly ruined. We need to look for some corbels to fit beneath this which are as in keeping as we can mange to give this a bit of detail and interest back.

And so we’re all set and work started today. Once done we’re onto choosing a colour scheme. We’re hoping that tidying the hall and stairs up will make the house look less like a building site and more like a home that needs a bit of work. It’s a subtle but important difference…

Next up a selection of scrapbook shots, images I have collected. In some cases I want to keep them as reminders for the house and some I just like.

In no particular order.

A lampshade made out of a bucket.

A chair with cutlery printed onto it.

A matching row of lights (I’ve always wanted this for the kitchen).

Some great floor tiles.

Plants growing in old tins.

And finally a kitchen display in Anthropologie.

Some Christmas sparkle

Whilst we have a house which isn’t even halfway finished we’ve still tried to give it a bit of seasonal cheer. Even if in some cases it’s a bit depressing….

But some of the other rooms are not so dismal. The sitting room being an almost completely finished room is looking quite festive and is the room we have chosen to put our tree up in. I’ve invested in a few new decorations. Here are a couple of my favourites from Anthropologie.

And some I made myself last year from salt dough. I’m actually surprised they’ve lasted so well. Kirstie did something similar on her show, here are some instructions she has helpfully provided. They are very very easy to make and I like the slightly haphazard look.

And on the mantlepiece….

And downstairs I haven’t done too much with, but tried to make it a little festive. These lights came with the house and are not my thing but are in my view greatly improved by being nicely obscured.

And I have also picked up a few more new bits and bobs from the local profusion of pound/discount shops – it is possible to spot some good things if you can try to screen out all the surrounding rubbish. Here are a couple of the better ones.

Some glittery deer. Very kitsch but then so is Christmas in general.

And some little trees which I think I will use as table decorations.

And finally we’ve got our first wreath for the front door. A front door we’ve actually painted, added new numbers too and bought a knocker for (for a while we had no doorbell and no knocker and therefore no way of knowing if anyone was waiting to come in). Here it is before, although in this one we have already added a new outdoor light.

And here’s the new door knocker we bought up close.

And a very seasonal shot from the weekend with some timely and photogenic snow. The paint we have used is Farrow and Ball Down Pipe and we’re also planning to use this on the windows as well – when we get around to it.

 

A slightly improved bathroom

It’s all been very quiet on house projects recently. We have both been very distracted with work projects and so nothing much has happened.

But we have made a few small improvements to the bathroom although it’s far from complete. The room has been fully plastered now and so we’ve just painted it all white for the time being. Which makes quite a big difference, feels like less of a building site.

We’ve also finally been able to install the towel heater we bought ages ago and given how cold it is at the moment it is a welcome improvement.

The light is all dappled in this shot because I have also bought a lace curtain to go over the bottom section of the window which has put an end to the live shows we’ve been giving the neighbours. It’s an old-fashioned choice but it means you still get a glimpse of the garden and some crucial privacy.

It’s from John Lewis.

I have invested in some new towels. Half our old ones seem to have disappeared in the move and the ones we had left kept getting used for blocking up leaks and generally ruined. The new ones are mainly from Anthropologie and we’re keeping them in this cupboard we bought before the move and have been storing in the basement until now.

I fancy painting it, but we’ll hold off until we decide on flooring, wallpaper and any other colours we might have in this room.

And lastly we have finally bought and installed the clothes airer. It’s currently directly over the bath. It’s a little intrusive as it’s in front of the light from the window but I much prefer it to having clothes on floor standing versions everywhere.

Things still be done are quite extensive:

• Sort the skirting board
• Panelling behind the bath
• Choose and install flooring (which depressingly probably means we’ll have to take up the bath, sink etc)
• Fit the lights (all bought and ready to go)
• New taps for the sink and bath
• Decide whether to strip the existing door or keep as is

And lots of other stuff I am probably forgetting.

We’ve sprung a leak

This past week should have been one to enjoy our newly spruced up sitting room. The carpet arrived giving a cosy if a little bland feel making our plan to have rugs (or one large rug singular) in the room more urgent. We’ve also been able to unpack one of the many boxes downstairs and retrieve cushions, pictures and general knick knacks that are nice to have around.

We’ve also got a new sofa to replace the one taken out in the ceiling collapse. This one is a sofa bed and is from (as usual at the moment) Ikea. We bought it with this rather Grandma friendly print and a spare plain white version we can switch it to if we fancy it.

But then disaster struck. We were sitting in the kitchen and Klaus noticed this – and we don’t mean the horrible textured wallpaper.

He’d also been going on about a loss of pressure in the boiler  (we have very exciting chats) and consequently was suspicious about a leak. And so he investigated upstairs lifting our newly fitted carpet. We could just about make out some water when we peered through the boards. Drat.

After lifting the boards we found that one of the screws had indeed gone straight through the pipe and we had a slow leak.

Well slow until we removed the screw.

We had to urgently drain the system.

Then drain the water trapped in the ceiling.

We managed to get just cold water back on as this was a pipe connected to the boiler. That was a real set back as we were back to living here without hot water or heating. But in the end it was only for 24 hours as the hole was fixed the next day and the carpet went back down surprising well.

Which means this sitting room is back in action. I had a few more additions as well. A neat little calendar block which whilst new we picked up from Debden Antiques.

Plus some new lamps which I bought in the Peckham branch of Poundstretcher (not a pound shop they just make your pound go further). It does take some imagination to get things in Poundstretcher but they normally have some nice pieces amongst the less attractive which I often see for sale elsewhere at twice the price. These lamps including the shade with £15 each, which is very good. Well I think so anyway.

Last buy was some fabric, also picked up in Peckham. I’m planning to make some cushion covers and maybe cover some chair seats with it.

It looks a bit lurid now but I think it will mix in well.

Bathroom designs

The bathroom has been a bit static recently. We had the wall taken down in the room early on which previously made it both a bathroom and kitchen. Weird. Then we installed a new bath, sink, shower, loo and washing machine which has gone into a little utility cupboard in the corner of the room. And to be honest we’ve quickly got used to it at this functional stage.

But this week we have had our plasterer back and so that means we can start thinking about painting the walls and what we’re going to do with the room.

I saw this picture in a magazine, Living Etc I think and liked it (it started my recent pink obsession).

Why they keep a suitcase under the sink I don’t know. But ignore that.

So I was thinking maybe lots of white with a fresh green and bright pink.

I’ve posted here before about this Toile paper by Timorous Beasties.

I love how it seems to be one thing but is in fact another and it could be my green. But it’s cream background isn’t quite right and it’s £100. Maybe for somewhere else.

Recently I picked up a copy of House and Garden and saw this paper by Original Little Bird and I think its £35 a roll so much cheaper. A sample is coming my way.

The bath is in the center of the room and that does mean we need to think of a way of giving some privacy from the window.

We hate frosted windows and so I’m thinking of getting a super old-fashioned lace curtain.

And we need to think about how we’re going to dry clothes on dull winter days. We have decided to get an overhead airer which we’ll position somewhere above the bath so you can relax and look up at your knickers drying.

Finally flooring. I really really want black and white tiles. Klaus wants carpet. We’ll see how that pans out.

But in the meantime we need to get the walls finished, plastered, painted and go from there. I’ll be interested to see how closely we stick to these initial plans.