We still plan to:
Hang artwork
Add new sofas (they are on order and should be delivered around the start of October)
Buy/make cushions
Shorten curtains
Buy sideboard (hoping and waiting for a Laura Ashley sale)
Replace double doors leading off the hallway
Anyway, photos! There's quite a few, you might want to get a cup of tea/glass of wine... From the beginning:
When we viewed the house. We later found about a million rawlplugs in the walls, but strangely there was no rawl plug, and not even a nail-hole where that picture above the fireplace was! I think it was blu-tacked...
Shortly after moving in:
Bought curtains and new wall/ceiling lights (24 Feb)!
In March we got new windows and patio doors, and heating so we gained radiators...
Began stripping wallpaper (27 May) - we just stripped this wall so the hole could be filled and the wall skimmed, and then stopped for a while to concentrate on other rooms...
Stripped the dining room (31 July)
Graham ripped the gas fire out (he'd disconnected it when he installed the boiler) and we were left with this lovely hole (4 August)
We temporarily stuffed it with newspaper to keep the draughts out...
...and bricked up the hole with some bricks that were not the right size, and a LOT of mortar. Still, it dried solid so job done, despite it being seriously ugly!
Continued stripping wallpaper (I should probably mention that the anaglypta wallpaper ruined the painted surface underneath, which is why we had to have the walls skimmed. You wouldn't normally expect to skim walls in a 1980s house, but the only other option was to wallpaper, and I don't like wallpaper...)
More stupid holes in walls...
Discovered paint samples painted on the walls underneath the paper...
Finished stripping the wallpaper! (20 August)
Pre-plastering (note artex ceiling)
End of plastering day 1 (21 August)
End of plastering day 2 (22 August)
Drying out (23 August)
Painting the smooooooth ceilings (26 August)
The in-laws come to the rescue for 2 days of painting. Mist coating begins (27 August)
First coat of Dulux Almost Oyster on the walls, with my team:
First coat of Dusted Damson on dining room wall:
Painting complete at the end of day 2!
Filling annoying holes...
Painting the woodwork (it's wet in this photo, it's actually satinwood rather than gloss) (29 August)
New curtain poles up! Also replaced all light switch/plug socket fascia plates (31 August)
And at the other end...
And curtains re-hung! (3 September)
Old carpet and underlay cut up, to reveal the glorious yellow lino tile underneath (4 September)
Aaaaaand today (5 September) the carpet was laid and the piano delivered! The room is pretty much in its final layout though as I said above the sofas will be replaced next month.
The oak sideboard will stand against the purple wall on the left here:
