The Waiting Game

We are still awaiting the builders starting the next phase of works for the B&B. In the meantime we are getting on with some of the work we can do in other areas.

The kid's room

We were aiming to get Kid 1's room completed by the time she was six months, what with the chaos that having your first baby that deadline moved to her being a year.

We managed to fit the fireplace after much time spent finding the right tiles and we had decorated. We realised that in order to future proof her room for the inevitable day she will, no doubt, want to shut herself away from her parents and listen to her music too loudly, look at inappropriate stuff on the internet, use her hairdryer, create fire hazards by placing scarfs over her lamps 'for atmosphere' and recharge her phone/tablet/communication device that is not yet invented and may run on fresh air for all we know OR study by lamplight into the small hours (!!) then she might need some extra sockets. So another year passed and then we were going to get it finished before Kid 2 turned up so Kid 1 wouldn't feel evicted for the newest member. Kid 2 arrived and the electrics upgrade then became swallowed up in 'the B&B plan' and only now have the electrics been completed.

It seems that the closer you get to completing a project the longer it takes. Now the electrics are done all we need to do is redecorate the bits disrupted by the electrics, repaint the woodwork, order and fit the carpet and then furnish it but find an hour here or an hour there to do these things when you have a toddler and a baby is a tad challenging.

My most commonly used phrase at the moment seems to be 'I don't have the time...' and I am questionning if this is really the case. I could get up at 5am and have a least an hour before anyone else wakes up (this assumes that everyone stays asleep and there are not many hours when all my dependents achieve simultaneous sleep) and despite loving early mornings, something about the light at that time of day, that lovely light is going to be hard pressed to get me out of bed when I have been up until midnight with the boy and then awake again at 2 and 4am.

I could do it in the evenings but I am not at my greatest at that time plus the boy hasn't yet got to grips with bed time and sees evenings as a time to ramp up the rampant feeding. In fact, if feeding was an Olympic sport he would have a fair few medals to his name. Weekends are the only time t'husband and I can discuss the project or look at bathrooms/carpets/website briefs/building specs and then there is fitting in family time where we are not just dragging the kids around various builders merchants/home improvement warehouses. Arguably t'husband could do it while I mind the kids but he works all week and wants to spend his weekends with the kids or sleeping or watching the Tour de France/Grand Prix or seeing friends/family or visiting bike shops or fixing his bike (which he was doing until 2am last night - just saying) or organising bike races (there is a theme developing here) and although after writing that it seems that he does have time after all why would he want to be doing DIY instead of all those things?

Some might point out that I could be doing it rather than writing this blog but one of the prerequisites of feeding a small baby is to be sat down so I have plentiful time then (assuming I am not trying to simultaneously entertain a todder) to write the blog* (which I must do more now we are going to be using The Money Pit to earn actual money), set up a Facebook page, to research building materials, find and compare prices of baths/tiles, find a dresser on eBay but not so much time to paint walls or sand skirting boards. I have yet to perfect the art of feeding whilst doing manual labour but I am sure someone will tell me it is possible. 

Anyhoo, this is a round about a lengthy way to go about explaining why there are no 'after' photos of the Kid's new bedroom. You'll just have to wait for those!

*Saying that this blog has been written in numerous sessions over a number of weeks!

Fireplaces...

Livingetc

A fair few fireplaces were taken from Church View when it was repossessed so we are trying to put them back. I am now on the hunt to find something to fill the hole that remains in one of the spare bedrooms. Until we have that in place we can't really move on in here. Here (and t'husband take note should you be ebaying) are a few of my faves...

Also Livingetc

I also love the bowback chair above...

Seems with the exception of the last one, all we really need is a mantle, maybe a fire basket and a builder willing to take on the job.

Living Room - Fireplace project...

So one of the rooms that was least affected by the house being repossessed from the previous owner (for least affected perhaps read cheapest to get sorted) was the living room. Here it is prior to repossession and what it looked like when we moved it ......

So as you can see the first project was to put back the fireplace. Th'husband managed to put all that time that he spends surfing the net to good use and scored a fireplace for a great price on ebay. We didn't like the original tiles so replaced them and job's a good 'un. Here's a preview of the new tiles...

And here the fire is installed and plastered. Unfortunately, we couldn't wait until it was all finished to light it as we missed having a fire. Especially on those cold evenings.

Yes that is a bottle of yummy red wine next to it. Well we were celebrating the fire lighting. Not sure if the warm glow created was the achievement of having completed something, the heat from the fire or the rosiness caused by a few glass of warming red. Probaby a combination of all the above.

Oh and here it is after a few coats of paint in the light of day. Just now need to re-fix the picture rail and skirting boards and this project is done. Will post a final picture once joinery is all complete!

Hours taken: many if you count all the time it took to find the fireplace and the time it took our great friend Al to go and collect it. (I swear the address said Northants Al, I swear). But one day to install, sweep, fix chimney plus a few hours painting.