We are getting towards having rooms complete… very exciting! Our bedroom has been painted. White at the moment, while we live with it for a  while and work out what colours we can have where. Maddie bought some of those day light bulbs, but it felt much like what I imagine standing on the surface of the sun (possibly not as hot) – so we’ve replaced them with warm lights. But other than the carpet, which won’t be in until the staircase is fitted, our bedroom is pretty much there.

And the new feature in the view from our bedroom window – the flue is up and that can mean only one thing.

Yup – our new multi-fuel burner is in and it is fantastic – as is the chimney breast around it. Not sure about the pink – but that’s the colour of fireproof plasterboard… Mark Cunningham is the man who sourced and fitted the burner and built the chimney breast around it. All in one day!

And the installation of the burner coinciding with us finally getting all of the radiators fitted. So we have all the central heating up and running again. Did lead to a slightly eccentric Sunday afternoon though.

Few other rooms moving on – in the upstairs bathroom we gave up on the sinkless approach – the tap looked odd on its own… The loo is plumbed in and the guys are hoping to tile it in the coming week before fitting the shower and the towel rail next weekend. The downstairs loo is plumbed in. No lights and no door as yet – so still a bit of an adventure. And the utility room is set up. Hopefully second fix of electrics downstairs in the next week so we will have lights and sockets sorted for the whole house.

Finally, Maddie found a couple of photos of the builders and her new duster. Sometimes I don’t think they take everything seriously…  🙂

Plenty of space, not really any oddities – but this week it felt appropriate to take artistic licence with the Post title.

So we are entering the final few weeks of the project now (I think). There are probably fewer major changes now to see, so only a short post this week, but every little step moves us a bit closer and gives us a better of idea of what the new places is going to be like to live in. So the new third bedroom has had a lick of paint and its curtains put up – and even though it is just primer it is staring to look like a finished room. The bath is plumbed in to the new bathroom as is the tap for the sink – although in an interesting development in bathroom design, no sink as yet…

We have had the girls home for the weekend – a bit manic yesterday when plumbers and plasterers descended, but the guys have pulled out all the stops to clear space for us. So we have been able to use the lounge – ok only half of it and we had to share it with a mountain of plaster, but boy is it a light room!! The dining room space is also opened up and the final kitchen units put in around the fridge freezer. And finally, Gareth fabricated us some folding doors to hide the boiler and pipes in the utility room, even doing some simple router detailing.

It has been a while since we posted, but little happened with the build over the Christmas and New Year period. But the boys have been back with a vengeance in the past week. Not sure what happened over Christmas, but it seems they have taken rather a dislike to stairs if what they have done to ours is anything to go by…

Our new staircase is currently being built – should be in place by mid-February. Elsewhere upstairs, the new bathroom is taking shape. Gareth has built us a cabinet for the sink to sit on and the largest bath in the world has arrived…

Our bedroom is pretty much done other than carpets and a lick o’ paint. Curtain poles and curtains went up in the week; far more important than we had thought in a south facing bedroom with massive windows!

Downstairs things are also moving along. The extractor fan above the cooker is in, the breakfast bar is in, and all of the units are in place – we are just missing the door and drawer handles which are in a box somewhere… The guys have screeded the lounge floor so all of the floors downstairs are at a single level which makes a real difference to how it all feels. And Xander turned up yesterday to build us the brick hearth for the multi-fuel stove to sit on in the new lounge. He used bricks from the chimneys that came down elsewhere in the house and  the lack of uniformity in colour shape and size is a really lovely reminder of how the old house was  – exactly what we wanted.

And finally a bit of a surprise. We had thought that this was some sort of weird modern wall-hung art installation that the guys had given us:

But no. Over the weekend a miracle happened. It started giving out heat. Yup, that’s right, the plumbing has been switched over. Still the two big cast iron radiators to reconnect downstairs, but heating upstairs and hot water too. Loads of it. Probably even too much for Charlotte to use in one of her mega-showers. And just cos we are never satisfied, we had to open the windows in the bedroom today as it was too hot!!!