Master ensuite

What a difference a bit of tiling makes! From a hole in the wall space a possible shower room emerges like a phoenix from the ashes.

We decided to go for some mad mosaic limestone floor tiles a bit like the pavement tiles you see in places like Portugal. It looked good in the show room. Anyway, here they are in our bathroom.

Painting Issues

So we had a debate about the colour of our house.  D wanted "African Daisy blue" supported only by a random passer by; everyone else (including all the builders) went for "Swansdown green". So here is the result.  Do colour charts lie? 

 

In close up you can see the difference in colour between the  white frames and features and the Swansdown pebbledash, but it's less obvious from afar.  The result is all right (and all white in my opinion without a lisp!) so is there a case for changing to something more striking? Even at £52 a pot, as Tim the exasperated builder reminds us!  I think so!!!!  Who wants to fade into the background?  dt

Crack Den Design

 

Hopefully neighbours are tolerating our new crack den look as the front of the house gets blasted off ready for painting.  The criminal underclass chic continues inside with this understated wires and crumbling wall ensemble.

6 Only in Porto, Portugal

After much deliberation about whether to go on holiday with so much going on at home, we decided to bite the bullet and book the flight to Portugal.

Our first destination was Porto. We spent our first three nights at 6Only, a fabulous old town house lovingly refurbished by Mariana and Pedro.

This house shows how modern interior design can help maintain the integrity of the old features of a house if thought out properly. Mariana and Pedro have created secondary internal walls to take all the service functions to minimise the damage to the existing walls and ceilings, thereby creating quite a unique feature inside these rather grand old rooms with their beautiful floor to ceiling windows and intricate plaster work ceilings to bring this hotel bang up to date.

It was so lovely to stay here. The welcome and the hospitality given to us by our hosts were second to none. We would definitely recommend this place to anyone who visits Porto. We had a truly wonderful time here in a friendly, clean, dust free environment.

Ensuite is coming along

It might not look it but we now have wiring, plumbing and plasterboard! We are just waiting for the tiler.

Floor insulation

Garry cutting the insulation boards to fit tight between the joists.

The boys getting down to work

Insulation under the floor boards go down - we are using 70mm of insulation, we could have gone for a thicker board but Tim thinks this would do unless I pay him lots more money!

Any Bodies Under Here?

Not now!  The front room floor proves to be convex because of previous bad workmanship which happily can now be rectified. The floorboards are stripped off and the joists will be reset with insulation in between.  Now how much did you say basement extensions cost?  £££s

Destruction Continues Apace!

Doorways widened, chimneys disappearing ... keep your dust masks on!  Tim assures us that the house will remain standing ... 

And when the dust has settled ... space!

Stripping the bedroom walls

What surprises we find under all that wood panelling! Wall paper dating back to the Victorian era possibly? that must be something from the 50's and geometric 70's.Who knows. Let us know if you can identify the period.

Stud walls going up

Well - what more can I say!

Ensuite Bathroom

We are now putting an ensuite bathroom  between two existing bedrooms.  Here is the wall in the process of disappearing ...

It's pretty dusty in here!

Actually shall we stop here? I rather like the big bedroom!

Outside Painting

 

Despite summer wind and rain, a brave and agile man called "Kola" has now painted the outside of the house on the first floor.

Old vs New

How the back of the house has changed since March as seen from the top of our shed!

Fire places are out!

Taking out fire places was a very dusty operation but it had to be done.
We want to put in a woodburning stove in the front room. In the back room, we are keeping the space open for storage.
We found various interesting items lost inside these fire places including a bottle of O-Cedar Polish for cleaning and polishing hardwood floors, furniture, pianos, automobiles, carriages and mops!

Windows At Last

Danish made, Vrogum double glazed sash windows finally arrived on a juggernaut from Denmark last week and are now being fitted throughout the house by the marvellous Paul. Suddenly there's a lot more light in this place! And quite a bit of dodgy previous building revealed.

Sunflex sliding doors

Finally, we are getting the doors we wanted installed! It's taken nearly 9 weeks for them to arrive but they are finally here.

Front rooms

The second stage of our renovation started at the beginning of a long weekend towards the end of July. We began by stripping the wall paper in the front two rooms. We have decided to do these rooms ourselves for cost reasons and to see what we can achieve by doing it ourselves. It might be a total mistake but if you don't try you never know.

The wallpaper was relatively easy to take off in the back room and the plaster work seemed quite good. It was a different story in the front room and we realised quite quickly that this room would need a total re plaster as the walls were in a state.

Kitchen

Finally, I have a working kitchen after weeks of delay with the cupboard supplier. It's still not completed by the work top is now in and I have a kitchen I can use.

Sinks and bathrooms revisted

I have changed my bathroom sinks twice now! First time, it was the wrong kind of sink and the second time, it was the cloakroom sink that had to go back because it was far too large for the size of the room.

The sink now sits on top of a piece of wood I was given by a kind 86 year old man who had been in the lumber trade for over 70 years! I had it polished and varnished and it looks quite cool with the bowl and tall tap.

My supplier - Potter Perrin of Streatham have been marvellous. I have been able to swap things around and exchange things without too much hassle and always with a friendly smile!