LANSDOWNE REVISITED

In it for the long haul…

About ladylansdowne

A designer of stuff, lover of history, travel and shoes. In that order.

We must catch up more…

Posted on April 27, 2014 by ladylansdowne

Blogging has been erratic at best over the last couple of weeks, I guess we’ve been busy doing rather than recording. This post should bring us bang up to date, so here’s a quick checklist of our recent antics…are you sitting comfortably?

1. Hung the acorn birdhouse in the apple tree, god love Anthropologie, though it strangely feels a little less special now it’s in London.

2. Hung the doorbell at the tradesmen’s entrance.

3. Pondered buying these lights for the kitchen from Ebay. Any thoughts?!

Until I saw these today I was dead set on these prismatic shades from Artifact Lighting (beautiful products) but now I’m in two minds… Decisions, decisions!

4. Planted a LOT of herbs, we had these old sinks from our previous properties. The garden won’t get too much attention this year, so it’s slowly turning in to Pottsville…we need a little prettiness out there!

5. Bought a garden bench, currently proving popular for visitors to the kitchen.

6. Found more printing blocks in the garden, this time cottages and map elements.

7. Finished window frame, these show it from both sides, the arch cubby hole is now my favourite part of the house.

8. Rough plastered all downstairs walls, covering damp proof and rewire damage. Next stop skimming.

9. Replaced the bay window board. It was previously a nasty patterned Formica.

Who could resist this 70s floral effort?

It was a two-man job to replace it.

It’s now base-coated MDF. Much lighter and makes the best of the window. There are paw prints on the paintwork though… I wonder who did that?!

10. Spent another seven hours on the ceiling rose, can you even tell?! I’m on a mission to finish this next week.

11. Fitted the ceiling extractor fan above the hob. Quite pleased as it creates a bit more of a divide between kitchen and dining areas. I’ll like it even more when it works.

12. Searched, and searched, and searched some more for some bar stools, these are the current forerunners.

And with that, I conclude this week’s changes…see you next week!

Fireplace update…

Posted on April 26, 2014 by ladylansdowne

Some time ago we attacked the Library Fireplace , well, we (the Royal we) have been at it again. After Ronnie got a little hammer-happy it now looks like this…

The rest of it needs clearing this weekend, amazed that the arch hasn’t fallen down, but it’s in a sorry old state cosmetically. We found a dinky old gas pipe in the fireplace, so there must have been gas into the house at some point in it’s history, when we were digging we found a mangled old lead pipe which much have been the supply. I’ve also wondered what these little pipes were in the lounge…

After a bit of research it has been decided they are pipes for gas lighting which was commonplace amongst the middle classes until the 1930s, when they decided they’d had quite enough blackened ceilings (wonder if that is why there is SO much paint on our ceiling roses?!) and house fires.

(Image from http://www.Victorianadverts.com) I’d imagine the glass company owners that lived here in Victorian times had some stunning gasoliers, I wonder what more we’ll find out about the history of our home?

Easter Weekend

Posted on April 25, 2014 by ladylansdowne

Easter weekend has been lovely, plus, we’ve had some lovely eggs, doesn’t everyone get goose eggs for Easter?! .

I’ve spent about 10 hours atop the ladder chip chip chipping away at the lounge ceiling rose. This is it before I started…

I’m all for an easy life so I’ve tried a few suggestions to speed up the process, including copious amounts of steam and Peelaway, basically, I found these made a nasty job even nastier, and there’s little substitute for good ol’ elbow grease and a sharp scalpel.

This picture shows the 125 year old build up of distemper, paint and general gloop. This is how it’s looking this evening, still a long way to go, but looking much crisper. Only the rest of this one, and the one in the library to do, grr!

In other news, the carpenter turned up, six days late (what is it with these tradesmen?!) but he’s done a great job of fitting the stained glass window between the dining area and arch…

Needs finishing off tomorrow, but think it’s going to look amazing when lit at night, I was dead against that wall coming down, but it’s made a great little space, dare I say I was wrong!?

Like the carpenter, the gardener is also running late, he was coming to do some prep at 7pm last Thursday… Still no word, must be stuck in traffic…

Any Old Iron?

Posted on April 7, 2014 by ladylansdowne

Well and truely behind on the old blogging! Had a couple of ‘lost’ weekends. The first was spent in our hire van moving things here, there and everywhere. Firstly we collected the contents of my previous garden, which has been expertly cared for my my Aunt & Uncle over the last six months, thanks!

They also looked after a whole load of wood which we’ve been hanging onto for a few months as Ronnie assures me it will be transformed into decking, or raised beds, or a treehouse at some point in the future (actually, not a treehouse, that’s what I’d like it to be made into… But let’s face it, it’s never going to happen!)
While we had the hire van for the day, we took the opportunity to deposit some stuff at my parents house, in the time it took me to take their things to the door, one of their neighbours popped out and slung his tat in the back of the van thinking we were scrap collectors!! Cheeky blighters!! We then drove the ‘scrap’ van to collect a MASSIVE sheet of MDF which will become the new kitchen bay windowsill. More excitingly, we also picked up a Victorian shelf unit we’ve been offered by our friends June and Martin (June is our chief curtain maker… More about that in future updates!) They had it displaying all sorts in their deli, but even before that, it had started off life in a local public house.

This picture does it no justice at all, it’s currently parked in the hall – We’re hoping it will go on our kitchen wall. I also organised the kitchen storage and pantry at long last, I’ll post that later…who knew kitchen storage was such an issue?
Our second lost weekend was spent in Barcelona, a few days meandering round it’s beautiful streets in the sunshine was perfect. We came back with these additions to our luggage:

MORE Spanish ceramics (slight hoarder issues), random ingredients, overpriced salt we don’t need but just look at that beautiful little pot! Oh, and this silver ring made from an antique spoon handle. I love a bit of re-purposing.

Last but not least, we picked up this little framed tile effort from a bric-a-brac shop for a bargain 10 Euros. It commemorates the Gracia festival, which was where we stayed so it’s a perfect souvenir. Actually that wasn’t quite the last purchase as I also acquired a few shopping bags from Zara, but we won’t go into that hey!
Back to reality now, we came home yesterday to find the manky tree in the front garden is a flowering cherry, and very pretty it is too,

Summer is just around the corner! Back to the grindstone, Today was spent chipping the lino tiles from the kitchen floor, what a joy, tomorrow will be much the same.

And in case I ever finish the floor, Ronnie has issued me with an (extensive) do list, in priority order to keep me busy… Thanks for that.

Someone take me back to the beach!

This weeks news…

Posted on March 27, 2014 by ladylansdowne

So, three days later than anticipated and more white-van-man visits than we can count, we finally have gas AND the road has been reopened. The road closure was supposed to be for a few hours but extended to three days, principally it would seem, because the team were too disorganised to collect the huge collection of barriers, signs and cones that had amassed in front of the house. All rather embarrassing really, but the neighbours have been really quite understanding, publicly, at least.

Look at the state of this!
;

Today we’ve been on the lookout for kitchen floor tiles, I’m not impressed with the selection I’ve seen, all a bit ordinary. We have decided on a couple of things though, firstly we want ‘rough edge’ tiles, like these, but nicer:

And secondly we want to use some tumbled pebbles, like these, but cheaper!

We’ve had chippies in to quote on a few jobs we need doing in the kitchen to move things along, like fitting the cubby hole window, extractor hood and finishing off a little paneling here and there. Once he’s done, we can then have the hob and extractor wired. Finally for this week, we had the guy from the fireplace company come to do a survey… He seemed a little…shall we say ‘overwhelmed’, it’s strange how normal living ‘on site’ becomes and it’s only when visitors arrive with their little shocked faces that we remember the scale of it all! Anyway, in a nutshell the chimney breast in the library is likely to collapse, and behind the board blocking the fireplace in the lounge there is…dead pidgeon, ta da! We were told this on Thursday and he’s still there, Ronnie won’t touch it and I’m sure as hell not going to, it’s probably been there for 50 years, a few more weeks won’t hurt, right?.

Cooking on gas…Nearly!

Posted on March 23, 2014 by ladylansdowne

Today was spent digging a trench from the side gate to the road, what fun! This is in preparation for the gas line to be fitted, we’ve saved about £500 doing this, so as much as I moaned (and I really moaned) the saving was worth the effort. It was also quite nice to be out at the front of the house chatting to passers by, many of them are older folk who knew the previous occupants, they all want to know how we’re getting on and wish us well, which is super.

We’re slightly concerned that there doesn’t seem to have been any notification to our neighbours that the road will be closed, except a tiny sign on a lampost at the very end of the street, so there may be some drama this week!

I’ve also been on the case trying to mend the stool that the pesky electricians broke. Here is how it looked a few years ago when I first bought it…

After much stripping, waxing and upholstering it looked like this, shown in our last home…

And after the aforementioned electricians got at it, it looked like this…!

Not only has the poor old thing lost a leg and it’s mouldings, it’s having to lie on the vile carpet. After a bit of nailing, a lot of gluing and some serious clamping it was on it’s way back to health.

It’s now looking much better after a bit of filling, sanding and polishing, and will be going into the guest bedroom word of warning to friends and family that may stay in future….It might be wise not to sit on it for too long!

This weekend has finally seen an end to the hours, and hours, and hours of scraping and scrubbing of the exposed brick wall in the kitchen.

It looks a little patchy in this photo, it’s far from ‘perfect’ as each brick is different, but I’m super pleased with it, I can’t wait to get it sealed and hang my Thai mirror on it.;

A kitchen, a sofa and a robbery that wasn’t.

Posted on March 16, 2014 by ladylansdowne

Oops, missed a week. We’ve both been in the sick bay with a bug, so progress has been slow… We’re recovered now, so full steam ahead, phew!

We’ve been given this lovely little sofa after eagle-eyed June spotted a neighbour throwing it out… It’s now on my ever-growing list of things to up-cycle. Sweet, isn’t she?

Last Saturday Ronnie and I ventured into the village for some breakfast, when we returned the workmen mentioned Ronnie’s friend had been round to borrow his electrical saw from the shed, we’d not been expecting anyone so after a quick ring round, we decided that the saw had been stolen by an opportunist, which was pretty much what we deserved for leaving the shed open with valuables inside. Oh well.
The kitchen fitting is almost, very nearly complete. It took the fitter quite a lot longer than he anticipated but we’re really pleased with the results so far.

These pictures show where the two walls have come down, the first just behind the new breakfast bar, the second came off the yellow wall in the background. The stained glass window I bought will drop into that yellow wall one if these days!

The breakfast bar has achieved the divide we wanted between kitchen and dining areas, we still need to get the extraction hood fitted. I’m still upset I missed out on those old school stools on Ebay, they would have been perfect! The exposed brick wall can be seen in this picture too, sooooo many hours of scrubbing, but it’s looking good!

The oven and microwave sit just got the right of the hob.

The corner by the pantry has worked out ok, and now houses the fridge freezer and some cupboards, next weekend I plan to sort out the cupboard doors…new hardware, beading and a good few coats of paint. Dottie cat has been ‘helping’ in the kitchen by sitting in the box of handles, refusing to move.

Finally for this week, the ‘stolen’ saw was returned. A red faced couple knocked at the door and basically they’d arranged to borrow some tools from a friend of a friend and gone to the wrong house, they only realised when they returned it! All’s well that ends well, they bought us some wine and chocolate to apologise, and the saw made a lovely job of their new kitchen floor!

Comings and Goings at Lansdowne.

Posted on March 2, 2014 by ladylansdowne

This week has been one of comings and goings. Coming, most notably was our cheque from the sale of Ronnie’s house, and with almost as much excitement (from me) my three Ebay purchases from last weekend, goings were my little round table and the giant holly tree.
The garden looks a lot bigger without the tree, but also more ‘normal’, and I don’t like normal. You can now clearly see the original Victorian fence to the right of the garden, we’ll need to lose this to put up a new wood fence fairly soon which will be sad, but I think the days of a 3ft fence dividing neighbours are long gone, especially when you own a crazy cat, and them, and even crazier dog. I hope to be able to use the old fence to divide off a little vegetable plot at some point.

On Saturday I collected last weeks Ebay steals, I’m totally, and utterly in love with my window, I’ve looked at sooo many, but when I met this beauty, I knew it was the one for us. .

It’s going to look stunning when it eventually goes into the alcove. I also picked up the mirror which I can’t wait to hang, it will be opposite the French window so should make the area feel much more spacious than it actually is. The guy I bought it from had stuffed bats hanging from his hallway ceiling, so I expect the mirror is glad of a new home!

Finally on my little road trip, I collected the corner cupboard for the kitchen, it’s actually much nicer than I expected and I feel quite sad that it will most likely end up being repainted to match the units, I love the little lock and key.

The DPC has gone in this week, along with the base plaster. It’s good to see the back of most of the bricks and house feels a lot more finished than it did last week. Some bricks we didn’t want to see the back of though were the ones that form the library fireplace. It’s not especially pleasing to get home from a day at work to find that the bricks we painstakingly removed plaster from have been plastered over again! The DPC guys are coming back next week to correct their mistake and get the plaster off again, hopefully the chimney won’t fall down in the process.

I’ve got upholstery class next weekend, so I’ve been doing a little bit the dreaded chair to hopefully get it somewhere near finished in class. Progress on the exposed brick wall in the kitchen is a bit slow, it’s difficult when aiming for a rustic look to identify quite what ‘done’ looks like, it’s definitely NOT done yet though…homework for the week…I think. The kitchen fitter starts on Thursday, excited, much. We’ve been getting the last bits and bobs finished in preparation today, we cleaned up the areas where the two walls have come down and found the old quarry tiles a few inches below the current floor, I’m afraid that’s where they are going to stay as they are now covered over again ready for tiling.

We’ve also chosen our worktop, we’ve gone for the 40mm oak, it’s the middle one on this picture.

And finally, I (re)found this tea pot, we found it in the garden on moving day and rediscovered it in the depths of the last kitchen cupboard to go today. It’s quite sweet!

Hitting the wall…and other areas of the house.

Posted on February 23, 2014 by ladylansdowne

So, this weekends checklist:

1. Kitchen delivery – Check, what better to be doing at 7.02 on a Saturday morning.
2. Kitchen fitting quotation – Check (under budget!)
3. Ebay kitchen bar stool purchase – Fail (‘sniper’ app failed to snipe!)
4. Holly tree felling – Fail (gardener didn’t turn up, currently 37hrs late)
5. First plaster coat – Check
6. Kitchen wall renovation – Almost check (ran out of brick acid…and patience)
7. Ebay window purchase – What? It wasn’t on the list?! Erm… Check!
8. Ebay mirror purchase – Check (I’m a better Ebayer than the app!)
9. Scrap metal collection – Fail, apparently our local scrap dealers only work weekdays!
10. Coffee trunk listed on Ebay – Check (to pay for the window, obvs)
11. Ebay corner cupboard purchase – Check
12. Collect light bulbs from Post Office – Fail

Kitchen delivery: Ikea turned up on time to deliver the kitchen, slightly concerned by the minimal volume of the boxes – currently all stacked in the downstairs loo! Seems Ikea really are the masters of compact packing, or half the order is missing, we’ll find out soon enough.

Kitchen fitting: Looks like Miles will be our kitchen fitter of choice, likely to start a week on Saturday as we have another weekends snagging to do before they start.

Kitchen stools: I smugly trotted off shopping safe in the knowledge my super-duper new app would get my stools for the best possible price. Seems I should have stuck to the old method as someone else got these beauties for £15 each, raged!

Tree felling: The tree surgeon failed to show, maybe he fell out of a tree?! He did arrive earlier in the week to clear the garden though, not quite sure how he did it, but looks like there’s been some sort of apocalypse!

Plaster: Ronnie filled all the holes the electricians made, ready to be skimmed by the proper plasterer.

Kitchen wall: This is to be exposed brick, but was covered in a huge amount of mortar and plaster. I used brick acid to break down the mortar, washed it off and scrubbed with a wire brush for HOURS! Needs a few more hours work and then a coat of sealant, really pleased so far though.

(Accidental) window purchase: I accidentally bought this for the wall between the kitchen and alcove.

(Intended) mirror purchase: I’ve been after one of these mirrors for a while, usually about £195, I’ve picked up this one for £80, kerching!

Scrap metal: What sort of a scrap dealer does not work weekends?! They don’t make them like they used to. The scrap pile has grown further over the weekend and now includes the old fridge freezer. The lot should have gone when we get back from work.

Coffee trunk listing: I’m sad to let this one go, but although this house is twice the size of the cottage I bought the trunk for, it just won’t fit anywhere.

Corner cupboard purchase: Ikea strangely, only make wall corner cupboards in white, so I’ve been on the lookout for something I can paint to tie in. This is what I’ve bought…

This has already been ‘up-cycled’ (as the cool kids say) and I was intending to get something I could renovate myself, but this was a bargain and just needs painting in a slightly darker colour.

Light bulb collection: Getting dimable bulbs has been a nightmare, and an expensive one at that! Delivery was attempted while we were out, so I went to collect them from the Post Office, which, apparently closes at 11.53am, not 12.00. Oh well, we’ll wait until next week then, light is over-rated anyway.

Turning Point?

Posted on February 16, 2014 by ladylansdowne

The sun is shining today, just a little bit, but plaster dust is slightly more bearable when the doors and windows can be flung open without fear of freezing to death. I’ve spent the day stripping paint and paper from the hallway, I thought this job had been checked off, but alas, Ronnie today declared the job a fail and I was sent back to do it again. Humph. We’ve taken the skirting off in the hall to allow the D.P.C. guys access, it also meant I could finally check over the whole of the original floor, it’s all looking good with the exception of a couple of missing tiles by the doorway and a few gloopy, gluey patches where carpet has been stuck down in the past, it seems a million years since we got rumbled by the Estate Agent ripping up the carpet to see what was lay beneath the horrid carpet and found our fabulous floor.

The kitchen arrives on Saturday, so next week will be a flurry of last minute quotations for fitting. The remnants of the room divisions have been taken down at last, which really seems to have opened up the room. We’ve got a few little jobs left to do before the fitters arrive, such as ordering door furniture, cleaning up the exposed brick wall and trying to find a stained glass window we can use in the panel between the arch and the dining table, sourcing worktop, oh and a corner unit…quite a lot then really! Eek! I also want to improve the cupboard doors, I’m planning on adding beading and painting them to match the Ikea units.

I mentioned last week that the structural repair guys had managed to put the Helifix bars into the gable end without leaving a trace, it’s stopped raining long enough for me to take a picture today – Ta da!

Lastly, our other house is finally set to exchange, so we should actually have a budget very soon. Hurrah!

About ladylansdowne

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