Electrics (all bar a problem which is now being fixed) are finished and I have spent most of Sunday/Monday cleaning every inch of the house. Absolutely everything was covered in brick dust which meant every ornament, book etc had to be washed or dusted. It’s nice to have the house back to normal for now, of course when we have the building work done upstairs it’ll be back to being filthy again. Also, we will soon be having our bedroom plastered and carpet laid so that will make a huge mess.
We’ve been out and about in the garden planting the bedding plants into the newly dug beds, and we’ll soon be planting out the ‘cottage garden’ perennials we ordered on the internet. It’s looking really nice now. Before it was really overgrown with geraniums (pretty if you want them, but we saw them as a weed) and far too full. I do love our garden, it’s full of nooks and crannies – we have the main part of the garden and then behind the beautiful ornamental cherry tree we have the rockery and the entrance to the secret garden – our veggie plot which is full of wild flowers at the moment more than veg. In fact, the wild flowers looked so pretty I had to pick some to celebrate having a clean house. I much prefer them to shop bought flowers. I bought this old tin bath from Nutley Antiques and planted out rocket and mixed salad leaves. Someone once came round to our house (think they collected something on freegle) and said “our garden used to be like this [in a negative way], then we put lawn down and removed the borders”. I adore cottage gardens and the thought of this being a strip of grass with the odd plant here and there would fill me with dread (each to their own I suppose).
Here is the chandelier I bought for our room. It’s ok for £30, but one day I would like to rewire an antique chandelier and install that. I am thrilled to bits though with this outside light I bought from Garden Trading. It fits in perfectly and matches the cream doors. However, it’s just as well our electrician has some common sense because the connector inside was too large for the light fitting and had to be trimmed down! So hit and miss buying online isn’t it?
So, we have achieved rather a lot lately – Tim is now able to do basic electrics (ie, he can fit as many chandeliers as I want, yey!) and is going to install all the network cabelling around our house so that we are hard wired in the rooms where we need fast internet (ie, for Tim’s work and to stream iPlayer for our TV).
Because Tim has been helping the electrician, not only have we saved huge amounts of money (really he installed most of the cabelling and the electrician connected them up), but Tim now knows where everything is so is unlikely to accidentally drill into wiring, we have been able to move everything where we want in preparation for the building work so all the switches, lights and sockets are in the right place. These are all things that tend to go wrong when you are not watching building workers like a hawk! We’ve put in extra lights over the stairs, smoke detectors, new outside lights, extra sockets, new lights in both lofts, and all sorts (all things that have take very little time, but would probably ordinarily add extra costs). The money we have saved can now go on other things. The plumbing has also been done and we have the new boiler and water tank so really the boring (and expensive), but absolutely essential things are finished.
[Wisteria over the gate]
[gorgeous miniature yellow roses]
Next things to do (there are so many so prepare yourself):
- Guest room: repaint, fill and sand the lining paper joins, and re-carpet
- Main bedroom: rip out fitted cupboards, plaster board over beams (they are fake - it’s not a tudor house!), plaster, paint, install fireplace, re-carpet
- My sewing room: reposition door to add extra square footage and make into a double room, plaster, paint and re-carpet (or sand floorboards)
- Bathroom: move bathroom door to the new landing, install new window over garden, install new bathroom, including large walk-in shower and slipper bath, plaster, sand, fill and paint floor boards, and paint window frame.
- Tim’s office (aka second sitting room/snug): insulate under floor, plaster, paint (I’m thinking red or dark green), re-carpet.
- Sitting room: insulate under floor, plaster, re-paint and re-carpet. Install Victorian glazed door to dining room rather than current opening.
- Kitchen, Utility room, Dining room: knock through to make large kitchen diner (not usually a fan of complete open plan, but this makes sense seeing as we have the 2 other reception rooms). Install wood burning Aga, brick up old kitchen door and install large window overlooking garden. New flooring (either slate or reclaimed floor boards). Buy lovely new Stoves mixed induction and ceramic black range cooker.
- Driveway: cut down bushes and widen driveway to fit 2-3 cars, re-tarmac (or perhaps a more permeable surface, not sure yet) and sort out drainage
- Garage: new garage door, fix leaks in roof
- Garden: buy a tiny strip of land to square off our garden off neighbour (approx 6 ft by 20 ft) which is currently massively overgrown, ie, 12-foot brambles (fingers crossed this is a possibility one day – it’s not used by anyone and is no use to them, it’s more use to us) and install greenhouse
- Stairs: move banister from the wooden wall to the brick wall (much safer!) and re-carpet with a runner and stair rods. Paint walls/wood panneling ivory white, install new light (I’m thinking a garden trading light?).
- Landing: re-carpet
- Front door: buy and fit ‘new’ old front door – the one we have is on borrowed time. It’s solid, but is looking rather tatty.
- Front garden: just keep it tidy – might put in a nice low white picket fence, but will see.
Phew, exhausted now! :-)
