Part 8 - Lounge

Summer 2008

Lounge

This was quite a big project involving a new fireplace as well as a whole new ceiling!

Lounge before:

(mmmm, more anaglypta!)

(notice the useless windows and tiny radiator?)

Lounge during:





Lounge after:

(notice the beautiful patio doors?)

Part 7 - Master Bedroom

Summer 2008

Master Bedroom

We had a rest over winter 2007/08 (apart from having a new boiler fitted after the old one packed up!) and then started work on two rooms together in 2008: the master bedroom and the lounge. Big mistake as this left us without a TV for months!

Master Bedroom before:

(It was basically our bedsit for the first three months)

(Look at the lovely 70s glass wall! It had to go)

Master Bedroom after:

(Glass wall replaced with stud wall)

Hosepipe Ban Lifted

I've interrrupted the house porn posts to let you know that United Utilities have lifted the hosepipe ban on the North West of England. An advert in our local newspaper this week told us the good news with the following explanation:

"Significant rainfall from mid July to mid August has allowed us to announce an end to the ban."

That significant rainfall was my Summer Holiday!

Part 6 - Dining Room

Summer 2007

Dining Room

By now we'd done six rooms in five months.

We were starting to flag.

Also, work was going on outside eg soffits and fascias, clearing garden, patio laying, etc, hence the dining room took from June to September!

It took me a month of evenings to strip the room, then nearly another month to paint it after the plasterers had been.

Dining Room before:



(anaglypta - nice!)

Dining Room after:

Part 5 - Study

March 2007

Study

Probably the least offensive room in the house; we made it daughter's room when we moved in until we'd done her real room.

Study before:

Study after:

Part 4 - Spare Room

February 2007

Spare Room

Whilst the kitchen company were doing the kitchen, I got on with revamping the spare room (which included having the bay window replastered because when I took the wallpaper off I found I could see daylight through the wall!)

I forgot to take "before" pictures of this room, but it's the same wardrobes, just picture a grubby green carpet and that 80s wallpaper "Provence" with swirly flowers..........

Now, the spare room after:

Part 3 - Kitchen

January 2007

Kitchen

Yes, in the middle of winter we lived off food that I'd prepared and frozen in advance being microwaved in the dining room while we had the kitchen done.

I can't quite bring myself to show you all the before photos because it was too gruesome, but here are some.

Kitchen before:

(The whole room was tiled with an artex ceiling that had absorbed the oil of twenty years of cooking - yeuch!)

(The oven was broken so we had been living off microwave and hob cooked food up 'til now and the built-in fridge was so full of mildew that we had a separate fridge in the garage)

Kitchen during:

Kitchen after:

Part 2 - Izzy's Room

December 2006

Izzy's Room

That's right, just before Christmas - we finished this room on Dec 23rd!

It was a large room covered in woodchip - nice!

Took hours to remove and then the whole room needed to be replastered.

Izzy's Room before:




Izzy's Room after:

Part 1 - Bathrooms

November 2006

Main Bathroom and Ensuite

In November 2006 the bathroom company came and ripped out both bathrooms leaving us with just a downstairs loo to do our oblutions (it was cheaper to do both bathrooms at once) so that was fun, not!

We even went to stay at my parents' house while they were on holiday so that we could all have baths!

Major trauma ensued half way through when I decided I didn't like the floor tiles I'd chosen and had to halt proceedings while I found new ones, but then two weeks later I just had to paint and accessorise.

Main bathroom before:

Main bathroom after:

Ensuite before:

Mmmmm, remember avocado bathroom suites?!

Ensuite after:

I just adore those blue glass mosaic tiles - you can almost see through them.