What's been going on between May and August...

Well, it's been a very long time since my last post. Very long. Little and often is the sort of unofficial motto of bloggers everywhere, but I haven't even managed that! Ah well. The simple answer to what's been going on is... restoring a Victorian House (as if you didn't know..). And we now have two rooms that look absolutely tip top. So between May and August there has been a serious push to get our bedrooms looking perfect, and a sort of haven for us - kind of "this is what the whole house might one day look like".

Here is what our front room looked like when we got medieval on it. Since we're talking medieval, the latin tabula rasa kind of works as a description:



And here is what it looked like half way.

Highlights of this phase (personally speaking) were:

- Finally getting exactly the right wood for the job and sorting out floorboards like a pro

- Cutting beautiful 45 degree cuts and remaking new skirting boards. Much more fun to do it with a saw manually than with an electric thingy

- Watching our fabulous plasterer, Claire, get the most perfectly flat walls you could possibly imagine. She is an artist

- Restoring the 1930s fireplace with my mate Man About Dairsie and some spray radiator paint

And finally, here's what it all looks like once we finished it all! So chuffed with it - it's been hard work but really good.





Highlights of this last phase?

- IKEA wardrobes! So easy to make, so easy to get them looking fabulous. We love you, IKEA. And your meatballs. And your amazingly cheap cooked breakfasts.

- Painting. And more painting. And yet more painting

- The amazing carpentry of Alcove Queens - brilliant people who have reinvented a little original fitted wardrobe we had (see photo just above) and turned it into M's shoe palace. Nice.

Top tips if I were to do it again?
- Don't paint on really hot days. Rubbish finish.
- Measure lengths of wood really carefully before trying to bring them into a room - saves scraping your newly painted surfaces...

Oh and a final note - music for this phase generously provided by Sonic Youth, Soundgarden, God Speed You! Black Emperor, whatever radio stations our plasterer Claire listened to, lots of Radio 4 and lots of Radio 2.

Phew. It's good to be back on blogspot!!