It's all over!

Wooden Floors

And so here we are on the final stretch ... I think!  Wooden floors going down in the bedroom and hallway.

These are oak engineered semi-solid floors which give the flexibility of engineered laminate with the feel of real wood. It is  stained a bluish grey and will need to be sanded and oiled before it is ready.

Laying the floor, Swavek and Kuba need to cut into the skirting boards to slide the floorboards underneath and give space to allow for natural expansion and contraction due to changes in ambient temperature.

Moving Doors

Two down- stairs doors, to the kitchen & cellar have been moved & or replaced. Petro, a part-time consultant anaesthetist (apparently) and kiteboarder did the carpentry, including using an old door that I found in a skip in a nearby road for the new entrance into the cellar.  Great recycling!

More Painting

On the last lap now ... with painting of the front master bedroom, done much more expertly and speedily than we were doing it!

 

The new cupboards dissolve into white and a lick of paint makes the extended chimney disappear.  Some fancy wallpaper will adorn that wall.  We have used up some of the greyish paint left over in this room and did try to dilute it with white (spun in the machine at Travis Perkins), but am not sure the change in shade is discernible!  Soon, you never know, we might even have a finished house ... we might actually sleep in this room!

Staircase Renovation

I must admit I never thought refurbishing the staircase could make such a difference to the house.  The Vandals of the 1960 or 70s had torn out the spindles and boxed up the bannister with cheap hardboard.  But with the skills of Mick the carpenter to hand, we are trying to make it look as it might have done in the late 19th century.  Suddenly a lot more light is flooding the space.

One vandalism problem we are trying to sort is the newel cap which would originally have been like a squirrel's tail according to Mick.  This squirrel has been well and truly docked!