Building warrant

Just got an email from the architect to say we have our building warrant!  Hurray, we can start pulling down the kitchen during the summer holidays!

Decorating started

Dining room taped

Bedroom taped

Bedroom

Bedroom painted

Alternative view!

My dad and I spent today painting downstairs.  It's great getting some paint on the walls, feels like we are on the home straight!  We only stopped because we ran out of paint!  We picked up some furniture I had dipped too.  I bought a painted cupboard for £28 in a recent auction, it looks great now.

Hallway looking much brighter

My lovely pine cupboard stripped and ready to be waxed

If you are wondering why the floor is now blue it's because of the damp proof resin!  The floors are concrete and this epoxy resin stops any moisture coming up through the floor.  We had to mix two liquids together then had to use it within half an hour - it was a speedy job!

The bits I really like!

I have always loved working with fabric so I'm really enjoying this phase of the project!  I have made blinds for both upstairs bedrooms and a shower curtain for the bathroom.  With the remnants of fabric I have made a couple of cutlery rolls and drawstring bags for our camping trip!

Blinds for boys bedroom

Blinds for the master bedroom

Cutlery roll

Bag for my plates and bowls!

My dad and I are having a trip up to start painting tomorrow so the electricians can get in and get us all connected up.  Will post more photos of the decorating this week!

Planning

Hurray!!  We have our planning permission!  It has taken less than 2 months for the plans to go through Moray Council planning.  Our building warrant has also been looked at (within 2 weeks of submission!) and the architect has some amendments to make.  Looking forward to getting out the sledge hammer!

Any old iron?

I had my first trip to a scrap yard this week!  I took along all the old copper pipe, lead and electricity cables we stripped out of the house and came home with £140!!!

The taper is starting this week and I spent a couple of days this week making a frame inside the fireplace and putting on the insulation and plasterboard.  I did have Michael helping me with the frame but I'm pretty pleased with my plasterboarding!

My scrap

Tiles for the en-suite 

My fireplace in the dining room

A different view!

Busy, busy!

We have had a busy weekend at the house!  Graham (brother-in-law and plumber, thank you!) has plumbed in our bath and shower tray so they are now ready to be tiled.  I have ordered lovely brick tiles; white for the bathroom and a blue crackle glaze for the en-suite.  They should arrive tomorrow - need to find a tiler now!  I have also ordered lovely seaside fabric to make a shower curtain for the bathroom.

Michael, our dads and myself had an early start on Sunday morning!  The 3 men put up the last pieces of plasterboard on the ceiling and I spent the day pushing in nails in the new wood paneling and sanding down the existing paneling ready for painting.  It was such a beautiful day again and we had our picnic outside in the garden!

Ross came round with the building warrant plans, they have been submitted and hopefully we will hear fairly soon about them.

The plasterer paid us a visit to discuss his work.  He is going to skim our only existing ceiling to preserve our ceiling rose and patch it in at the sides so we can put up new coving.  He's also going to start plastering the rest of the house in a couple of weeks.  Very exciting as we can get going with painting!

It's getting to the stage where I can think about all the nice things like colours and fabrics!  With the boys back to school today I am sitting today picking paint colours and looking for coving and skirtings.  I've also to contact the electrician as we are now ready for him to put in all the sockets and fix up the fuse box.  Once I've ticked those things off my list I can get back to making my blinds and re-covering my Gumtree chairs!

I'm liking my new taps on the bath!

Roomy shower tray!

The door we did not realise had glass will go on the opening to the en-suite

Plasterboard all done on the ceiling in the living room

Plasterboard all done on the ceiling in the dining room

What a difference a week makes!

We had a really busy week during the first week of the Easter holidays.  Thank you to all our parents who helped put up plasterboard, tidy, make food and look after 2 small boys!  We also had our friend Andy in to  fix in the windows and put the shutters back.  He has made a great job - they are looking fab- and they work!

Non working shutters in bedroom

Wood cladding in boys bedroom.  It will be painted so won't look like a sauna for long!

Living room with working shutters.  

Dining room with working shutters.  There is a fireplace hiding under the
plasterboard!  We will open it back up.

View from the dining room to the living room

I am going back up this week with my dad to take more wood paneling to be dipped and take lots more rubbish to the tip.  The building warrant application is now ready so things are progressing with the extension too!