It's curtains....

This blog seems to be becoming a list of excuses rather than developments on the house. We had lovely guests to stay this weekend so we were playing host rather than interior designer / builder.

Our lovely guests (hi Aly and Jol) also brought us a fantastic house-warming gift - a vintage typewriter! I love it and it goes beautifully with the awesome phone t'husband bought for my birthday (photos to follow). When we eventually get round to sorting the office they will look lovely together on my desk and I am also envisaging a shelf of other vintage stuffs such as a camera, lots of books and perhaps a globe or two...

Image from Oh Happy Day

Anyway, although we were having too much fun drinking wine, walking, talking and eating curry to get much house stuff done. I did get round to replacing the temporary curtains with the longer term temporary curtains. Eventually I want something really thick and warm with a strong graphic pattern. Was thinking about these....

I really like the material, the background colour (I have a thing about grey at the moment) and the pattern but the pink is just that bit too pink. Wanted something more raspberry and something that won't cost me an entire months wages for one window! So it was a trip to Ikea to see what they had. The bedroom ones we were using were too neutral to really work in the room. The good thing about having a light house where everything is painted white is that I am being a bit braver with the colour choices. But I think I may have been a bit too brave....

Although I love the contrast between the white walls and the shock of raspberry, I sometimes think my living room now looks as though it could double as a bordello! Think I will leave them for the time being (especially after the time it took to hem and hang them - I am not gifted at such things) and because they look much more cheery than these....

Other projects included a cloakroom area.....

And some 'investigative' sanding on the stairs.....

So we now have a random semi-sanded panel that will probably remain this way until we can pay to get someone to decorate the stairs. T'husband has said he thinks it looks like a little bit of art. I keep thinking I may attempt to strip and decorate the stairs myself and then I remember I HATE sanding and I am not brilliant at glossing. No patience = lots of drips....so I am going to also keep thinking of this as a little bit of art too and reminding myself it's not about the finished thing but the process you go through to get there! But when we do get there I want stairs that look like this....
Or like this....

Stair images from Living etc

House schmouse...it's all about the bikes!

Image courtesy of Rick 'Retro' Milner

One of the reasons that we moved house was in order to allow t'husband to completely indulge his love of biking by having his own workshop. However, it seems that the biking love means the house is loved a little less currently due to our weekend committment to Brownbacks.

Now although I am want to grumble about Brownbacks when it takes time away from him doing 'man's' work around the house, I loved the first race as I mention here but as I am in some small way helping with the marketing and pr for the event it really pleases me when we get some coverage for the races. There is a really nice write up on Singletrack's website which you can read here, have a look at a few photos here or see more photos and a few more words on the event below...clcik to enlarge.

We have a weekend off the biking this weekend before the 2nd race on Monday 4 May. Get your entries in! Mum, I guess you don't fancy giving it a go??

And because the biking thing seems to not only punted the house into runner up for things to do at the weekends, you know behind biking, sleeping, entertaining and staring out our toes, here is some house loveliness to remind me (or really t'husband) that I want my house to be as lovely as this....one day!

Image from Domino (RIP) I think?

Baby Steps

Very little to report on the house after the weekend. Mainly as on Friday and Saturday we were a little preoccupied by this:


This....

And this.....

But mainly this....

Despite the lack of house action, we had a lovely time with the above, riding on trains, decorating the furniture with Pollock-style yoghurt art and becoming the target for a rather violent human coconut shy. Owww Denise! Stop throwing it so hard...I mean it...quit it....let the kids have a go....

Up very early on Sunday morning for the first Brownbacks race at Lee Quarry. T'husbands mate, Dave, was at the door soon after the sun came up and t'husband was in the shower (yes I know t'husband up early - amazing how he manages it when he wants to!) so I had to answer the door in a state that wasn't really suitable for guests. Dave was very kind though and rather than telling me that I looked as you'd expect at 6am on a Sunday said in his slight Brummie accent 'What's with the mismatched jammies?'. Jammies is now my new favourite name for my night attire....however, I think he is hardly one to comment when he spent the day looking like this...

Dave's on the right and someone described his get-up as a hip hop bin man. I shall now be mainly calling him the Notorious B.I.N. The above photo is for Jenny who has long suspected t'husband sometimes feels the need to wear a high-vis vest. In this instance he is not wearing it for pleasure or to ensure people listen to him. Look again....this time he means business...'official' business...

Anyway, it was a beautiful day and once I had got over the shock it was wonderful being up as I love the light at that time in the morning. So after a strong coffee, I headed off to meet the gang at Lee Quarry for the race.

Walking up to the the race course was really exciting and I felt really proud to be involved in a small way with this new race series. It all looked great, the weather was marvellous and there seemed to be a real buzz. I think we had nearly 100 entries which for the first race is fantastic and the feedback seems to have been really good so far. Only a few falls and one incident, as far as I know, that required the help of Mountain Rescue. Of course, the fall happened close to the stretch t'husband was on and as he had recently attended a first aid course he was on hand to help out. Although according to some spectators reports, he was last seen dabbing pathetically at an ear that was bleeding profusely!

As well as the excitement of the race, we also got to hang out with lovely people...

Admire the views...
Visit the pub for post race celebration feasting and still managed to get a few things done including this...
And at long last these, although these are only doing the job short term until I have put up the longer term temporary ones....


So a lovely, busy, fun weekend.

Bathroom project - planning

So, with the other two (drains and civil engineering type stuffs that I mention here) being more t'husband type of projects (he is the kind of man that got excited about copper piping during plumbing stages, copper piping that will be hidden under the floorboards and eventually carpet -see exhibits A and B above) my next project is the bathroom project. Or I should say a bathroom project as we have the luxury of three bathrooms and a downstairs loo. Three bathrooms sounds like far too many but if you know anything about my husband then you may even question if three is enough! In our old place we only had one which could be pretty frustrating when t'husband was in residence as his residence was never a short term let, if you know what I am saying.

Now, because of The Grand Plan (which I am not yet going to divulge details of here...yet) we decided that the bathroom on the third floor will be the next one for attention. As well as the kitchen, bathrooms, fireplaces and stone flags that were taken by the previous owner, it also seems that he may have taken the chimney pots. Okay, he may not have done but when we were fitting the living room fireplace, the sweep discovered that there were no pots. Hence the weather had been getting in and the chimney breast in the top bathroom was rather damp and the paint was flaking. I decided this weekend (in order to get the project underway) to try and sand the chimney and them give it a lick of paint. As I seem to be finding out rather too frequently with this house, there is no such thing as a simple task. As I began to sand, rather than taking off just the flaky paint, big chunks of plaster decided to come with it. So what was meant to be a quick touch up job now looks like this...

Mneh...ah well another job to add to the list. No biggie as we have to get the plaster chipped off the wall in our bedroom as it has come away, so hopefully we can get this skimmed at the same time. By the time I had achieved (?) this, I was fully into the swing of chipping off stuff so also had a go at the grout that had been left behind when the shower was removed.

Although it don't look that pretty it is now ready for new tiles and a lovely cubicle which we could probably purchase for the same price as 1 metre of plastic inner sleeve for the drains - see I can even joke about the drains now...well nearly!

I have a fairly clear idea in my head of what I want for this room. Although I love prettiness and I love colour I am not actually very confident with either so any choices I make of this nature have to be temporary and reversible. This doesn't help with bathroom 'furniture' as it is permanent.

One of the nicest bathrooms I have been in is my great and dear friend Abi's. She has a beautiful home, full of beautiful things, colours, patterns and textures but I think that her bathroom is one of my favourite rooms in her house. I will try and get a picture of it. So when I thought about the style of bathroom I wanted then Abi's was one of the top of my list. This was helped by the fact that one of Jason's work colleagues kindly donated a basin that he had removed during his own house renovation. Here it is...

So we then had to find a toilet to match (and matching can be tricky as I daresay I will talk more about when I go into the details of the 'other' bathroom). Fortunately, we found something similar in B&Q and even more fortunately it was half price, and I am delighted to unveil the new loo.

Jason still has to finish off some bits of joinery but you know, it's in, it flushes and that, my friends, is progress...


All we now need to find is a bath and I want something like this...

Flooring along the lines of this...


And tiles like this...

And the room will be finished. So a lot to do but a little in the scheme of things. I would have liked to have made some progress by the time my mum (hi mum!) comes to stay early May but if I say that out loud then I am setting myself up for disappointment....but you gotta have a plan.

Money down the drain ...literally!

T'husband was away at the weekend on a first aid course in preparation for the Brownbacks Racing Series he is involved in. So I was left to my own devices with a vague brief from t'husband to have a think about the next house project. Funds are getting pretty low now so it is a case of what we prioritise and what's next.

The cash we have left will probably be directed to 'the cellar of doom'. It's not immediately obvious on the photos above but the cellar keeps flooding. We thought the wet was due to the previous owner stealing all the yorkshire stone flags from the floor and in doing so he had broken some kind of seal meaning water was leaking up from below. This was also the view of a surveyor and an experienced builder. It seems that they all missed the fact it was coming through the walls! Which amazes me as you can both see and hear the water coming through....

We have been monitoring the cellar water problem since we moved in as we were concerned that it was water run off from the hill which would mean trying to find someway of redirecting the rain (which is quite plentiful in the North West) and this seemed like a job that was too big for my head to handle but it now seems there wasn't a lot of correlation between the rain and the wetness of the cellar! However, the problem did seem to get worse whenever we used the washing machine. A friend of ours (hi Rick!) assisted in the rather grotty job of clearing the internal cellar outlet drain . He stuck his hand down it with no idea what could be there and fished out all sorts of silty yuck (apparently, I declined being involved in this particular project) Must have been a little like that bit with Peter Duncan and the poisonous creature infested log in Flash Gordon!!

Not only did he show that kind of selfless bravery, he also helped dig a trench (which I like to call the brook- it's more romantic) from the leaking wall to near the cellar drain and a collection hole for the water to gather for easy emptying into the drain. Now all I need are a few reeds, pond life and a heron and I have my own ecosystem.

Anyway I digress. So the cellar fills when the washing machine is on It seems that now we have the small matter of dealing with problem drains....as I am not a very practical person this seems like a big deal whereas t'husband seems to think that it's better knowing what is wrong and to fix it all we need to do is dig up the back yard and have a look. Easier said than done when you have yorkshire stone flags atop a thick slab of concrete before you get to the drains. Not the kind of work that appeals to me really....

Anyway, a very nice man turned up today to have a look at the drains. We had already had one guy who thought that the water was overflowing the drain and then making its way into the cellar. He put an elbow on the pipe and off he went. Needless to say the brook in the cellar has not run dry so they came back again today. No messing with bits of pipe today. It was all heavy duty drills and cameras! Have a look...

Anyway, after thinking that the problem was just the initial bit of pipe that was broken, further investigation has shown that all the joins in the pipes are cracked and leaking. The easiest way to sort this (digging up the back is not the easiest option as the pipe goes under the backyard wall which would need to be dismantled and rebuilt) is to insert a waterproof membrane sleeve inside the pipe to stop the water leaking out. All fine and dandy I thought and seems easy enough but...the cost is rather prohibitive. £400 per metre prohibitive....do you know what kind of curtains you can buy for £400 per metre. Gold curtains that's what...with diamonds embroidered into them!

Anyhoo, they are coming back tonight (to do what I am not sure, I think my brain stopped processing after the £400 per metre mention) so I guess I will know more then...

The other job we still have to allow funds for is the civil engineering work to monitor whether indeed our house is moving. There were some cracks under the front right bay that showed up on the survey which could be signs of movement. Now, although the house has been there for a few hundred years (I think it was built in 1833), these cracks were raised as an issue for further investigation by the surveyor and caused us all kinds of hoo hah trying to get buildings insurance prior to us completing (I still shudder thinking about those few days). So, annoyingly, we need to keep some cash to put a few studs in the wall and then triangulate and measure them over the next 12 - 24 months. Although I know it is important I don't want to spend cash on these things when we are without carpets and curtains but needs must...

So all in all, I am not happy with the house at the moment.

I think it is like having a naughty child. Although you can't not love it (especially when prettiness like the above appear in the back yard) , sometimes you really want to shut the door and no longer hear about all the problems it is having and instead wish it would just grow up and sort itself out already. Saying that, I daresay if it is a sunny day tomorrow, it will win me round again by shining all that beautiful light in and showing me a potential glimpse of the grown up and together house that it could be. Church View, despite everything, you had me at hello!

Kitchen - the range cooker project...

Project number 2 was installation of the cooker so we didn't have to rely on camping stoves and the microwave when we moved in. Saying that we have a curry house practically next door and not having a cooker would have been the perfect excuse for th'husband having to eat curry every night. So to save his waistline, bank account and my nasal receptors from that which occurs when he eats too much curry we thought we ought to get a cooker installed.

Prior to us getting the house they had a smart kitchen (see below) with a range cooker up against the chimney breast. Of course, all of this disappeared during repossession. Well all apart from the floor in which there are now just a few holes that show what the kitchen once was! We decided so that we had room for an island (or more room for the island) to knock out the chimney breast and make use of this space by sinking the cooker into it...

Here it is part way through (see below). Although the hole for the cooker is relatively small the amount of rubble that was produced seemed to be way too much to have fitted in the hole. I think th'husband singlehandedly took 2 x pick up loads to the dump.

Denise, had you witnessed it, you would no doubt have been impressed at this display of manliness. It had the same effect on me as Jason fixing your video recorder had on you all those years ago! As you can see from his attire Jason is taking an office based site foreman type roll on the knocking down and rebuilding part of the project rather than being hands on....here he is staring at the wall as he is want to do when there is work to be done!

And here it is plastered. I am referring to the cooker not th'husband! See it fits...amazing!

And here it is again in context with that part of the kitchen. The plaster has dried out nicely. Yes, there are a few boxes still to find homes as you can see!

Oh and here it is painted and by night.....looks a bit alien doesn't it? I think it is the futuristic element or the combination of shiny-ness, lots of buttons and a digital display that means every bloke that visits comments on the cooker. The irony being I am not sure many of them would actually have a clue how to use it.... (Kit - you are the obvious exception to this statement and we look forward to you using it for cake baking in the near future - I will warn you, it is gas!)

As with the fireplace in the living room, there are still some joinery bits to do and floor tiles to clean (how does one remove concrete from slate tiles?) so finished photos to follow.

Hours taken: again a fair few to find the cooker and a fair few more to purchase it. Yes, I have a husband that likes to research to make sure that 1) we have bought the best possible product for our needs and 2) you can't buy it for 5p cheaper elsewhere. A week (on and off) to knock out chimney breast, re-fit gas pipes, fit lights, hook up electrics and a few hours painting!

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.