Ceilings, Floors and Something For The Wall…

There’s been quite a lot going on this week, we finally have the central heating installation booked to commence a week tomorrow. In preparation we collected our beautiful school style radiator for our bedroom from Coventry Demolition. It’s amazing…Given the choice I’d have these everywhere, but Ronnie (aka the budget police) has put his foot down and we’ll be having ‘normal’ radiators throughout the rest of the house…boo!

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The main job this week has been replacing the kitchen ceiling after we took it down to run electrics and insulation through. This was a job we’d put off as we thought it would be a nightmare, in truth, it was fairly painless. The plasterer has finished phase one, and left his tower with us until we’re ready to complete the library & attic conversion, so that bit of kit came in handy, he also recommended getting some props, we’d thought these would make the job easier, but dismissed the idea expecting them to be really expensive, they are actually only around £20, so if they are never used again, we’ve had great value from them! First task was to mark, measure and cut the boards, inc. apertures for spot lights.

IMG_3650.JPG Once these were cut, they were manoeuvred into position by Dad and I, held by the props, while Ronnie tacked them to the joists.

IMG_3651.JPG We had to make a few additional cuts here and there, but the whole job only took a morning. Last job for now was to scrim tape the joints and put on some plaster. We need to repeat this a couple of times until we’re ready for mist coat.

IMG_3653.JPG Ta da! It’s made a huge difference and the room already feels brighter and warmer.
In the cloakroom and lobby, we’ve got the ceilings ready to take pipework during the forthcoming heating installation. I’ve spent this afternoon stuffing in more insulation to any gaps.

IMG_3657.JPG We’ve received the beautiful stone for our kitchen floor, it’s currently sitting outside, we were planning on having this fitted professionally, but as we (I) blew the budget on the stone, we’re thinking of fitting it ourselves. You’ll notice there are a few of the stones broken…we don’t talk about that, it wasn’t me is all I’m saying!

IMG_3656.JPGIn the lounge and hallway we’ve been beavering away working on the cracks in the ceiling and preparing the coving and plasterwork for painting, it’s looking good! More on that next week. Finally for this week I bought a gorgeous kiko frame which I’ve been trying to find for a while, strangely enough I found one on Ebay. Mine was from Indico-Wendy and I love it.

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Decisions, Decisions…

I’ve been looking at kitchen floor tiles for months. So much so, I’ve even begun to bore myself, let alone any of you poor readers! This week I finally ran out of patience, sick of websites, and sick of samples that look nothing like the images on said websites, we headed off down the motorway to the Cotswolds yesterday to see a supplier and get the decision made. Beswick Stone have a beautiful, stylish showroom…the type that makes you want to deal with them as they clearly ‘get it’. We went armed with wall tiles, worktop and cupboard door, and left with two large stone samples and all our questions answered. The two on our short list are below…any preferences?

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We also reached a decision of these patchwork style tiles for our splash back…

IMG_3559.JPG Back at the house today the plastering is continuing in the second bedroom, meanwhile, we gave the freshly plastered hallway it’s mist coat, amazing how much brighter it makes the place!

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Next up on our to do list are the following jobs:
1. Make kitchen blackboard.
2. Get final quotes on central heating installation, there’s a distinct autumnal feel on it’s way.
3. Fit ceiling in kitchen.
4. Finish filling ceilings.
5. Re-fit skirting boards after re plaster.
6. Finish stripping bedroom fireplace.
7. Source a fireplace for second bedroom.
8. Source a kitchen door.
I could go on, but I’ll stop there, I’m starting to panic.

This Week’s News…

We’ve been beavering away around the house, mainly whitewashing the fresh plaster and filling the ceiling cracks, neither of which make for thrilling blog posts. We’ve started to strip the bedroom fireplace, it was 50/50 whether we bothered or not, as it didn’t look as though stripping would change too much, other than obviously the colour, but after serious envy of this reveal by a fellow blogger, we went for it. Turns out there are masses of paint layers, and somewhere deep, under there is a super-detailed casting…it’s taking an age to restore it though!

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Plastering in the bedroom is done, hurrah! As the original plaster all came off the chimney breast we decided to leave it exposed for a while before we made a decision to re-plaster, after some deliberation, rubber gloves and brick acid it is.

IMG_3478.JPG I’ve also been starting to work though my ‘project list’, this weekend I’ve finished a guest bedroom chair which needed fixing, sanding and polishing…it somehow didn’t look quite special enough so I decided to add a Liberty print, not bad for £10!

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