Girls' bedrooms nearly done ...

Not quite done in time for Hannah's birthday last week, but very nearly there.  The girls helped lay their wooden flooring, which made the job much quicker.  (Adrian is off work all this half-term week and making great progress with all sorts of jobs.)

 

Adrian re-painted Hannah's room after deciding it was just a little bit too pale.  He used a narrower brush second time in order to have more stripes, ending up with a deeper blue.  Very pretty.

This is the huge pile of skirting board and architraving waiting to be painted and fitted.  First batch ...

And, we are relieved to have FINALLY chosen and ordered our kitchen - a very lengthy and complicated process (DIY-Kitchens).  Here below are the sample doors we narrowed it down to. 

No-one will be surprised to hear we've gone for the sage, combined with some oak cupboards too.  Should hopefully be with us mid-June, all ready-built for Adrian to fit.  Exciting! Now for the flooring, cooker, fridge/freezer, sink, work-top, pendant light and microwave to be chosen - the decisions never end ...

 

 Finally, Dobby & Pickle's latest favourite snooze spots in the awning ...

 

 

Beautiful Staircase Built - no more ladders!

Adrian is secretly really proud of his beautiful 'floating' staircase construction.  Obviously it still needs balustrades and a bannister, but we no longer need to climb the ladder - hooray!

 The corner steps are each constructed using four oak boards biscuit jointed together.

We have finally ordered our hallway lampshades - four hanging in a line.  Here, Adrian is trying to help me visualise the scale using Emma's netballs!

Hannah's bedroom paint effect

After many weeks deliberating how to achieve the desired effect, Hannah has finally managed to paint her room in a beautiful blended sky colour.  The method?  Three of us each with a big wide brush painting the whole room a horizontal stripe at a time, adding a miniscule amount of dipped mixer stick of blue each stripe, blending as we went ... very subtle.

 Another heartening sight is the pretty flowers growing out of our front garden rubble ...

Spring has definitely sprung ...

And on to our next challenge ... how on earth to install the internal window (delivered this week, and entailing a mad dash around the neighbours - in the pouring rain - enlisting help with the unloading - cheers Martin!) ...

 



Mind the Gap

Work on the staircase continues ... slowly ...

Delivery Workout

Today's been good for flexing my muscles:

1. I transferred back from the Rectory all of our 'Car Boot Sale' pile of boxes ready for a nearby charity table-top sale tomorrow morning.

2. I helped unload - in the rain - the delivery of 14 (heavy) oak doors (delayed from yesterday when the lorry was too big so they had to come back today in a smaller one).  These doors are all 'unfinished' so will need waxing before we can hang them.

3. I helped unload the huge delivery of oak planks (three days early, but I wasn't going to complain!), in varying lengths and thicknesses, for the completion of the staircase.

Adrian gets back from three days in Vienna at midnight tonight ... bet he's glad he's got a whole weekend's worth of material to work with!!!

Staircase construction

I am finding this staircase construction fascinating (although admittedly hard to visualise).  Adrian has made up the whole design, and cut up all the pieces of wood.  I'm very trusting, aren't I?  He tells me it's all sound Physics!  Thanks to our friend Tim who came to assist with the first stages of putting it all together at the weekend.

Now we await delivery of all the oak steps and risers next week, pre-cut and appropriately aged/dried.  I can see why staircases are so expensive to buy!  In the meantime, it's back to the ladder for all trips to the bathroom ...

First room finished - family bathroom

After a slight delay with the wrong delivery of glass blocks, Adrian has finally been able to complete the family bathroom, of which he is justifiably very proud!

The shower cubicle was built of completely separate parts, incorporating the glass column to get more light in to the dark corner.  The door was quite a challenge, figuring out how to attach it to the wall and the glass, but after careful drilling, it was achieved.

All of us have each enjoyed our first shower in the new house ... a real milestone in the whole project!  Next, the stairs ...

May 2015 - start of month 10

This post is for all the people who ask, "Haven't you moved in yet?" ...

Adrian is the sort of person who does one job at a time, and does it thoroughly.  My next post will show the first completed room ... worth waiting for!