New Garden Fence

It's been a while since the last update. I thought it would be nice if I showed you all what we're up to in the garden.

So Paul and I have put up a new garden fence. I took a few days off work and we have removed the old wire fencing and put up some treated feather board. It actually went a lot faster than both of us were anticipating and we managed to get it up in a day.

Here's what the final product looked like:

We're also having the garden turfed soon so I also have been doing some work on get that ready. A little jack hammer was involved on breaking up the path to make room for the grass:

Nursery shelves

I also put up a couple of floating shelves today, above the changing table so that we'll have more space for  storage for baby "things". We're going to get a night light up on them at some point soon too.

I took a few more photos of the blind, shelves and changing table so you can all see how the rest of the nursery is coming along.

Nursery Blind

We've never had a blind up in the spare room as we always figured we'd wait it became a nursery and choose something appropriate for a child.

Lu found the fabric on Etsy and then Caroline found the manufacturer in Japan and then Lu finally found a supplier in the US, called Hawthorn Threads. The fabric is called Tiny Elephants in Ivory on Slate Grey. We had some mini pillows made up too, as you can see above.

The blind was made up by Milners in Ashtead who have made all our other blinds, and done a great job. I put it up today and it is going to tie in well with all the other elephant themed elements in the nursery.

Picture Wall

Finally got around to putting up our picture frames on the dining room wall.

They have been sitting in the understairs cupboard for months now while we decided on the pictures and orientation of each one.

This was something I saw in a bar in London quite a few years ago. That was all different frame shapes and sizes though and I always wanted to do it in the house. We've gone for a travel theme initially, though I suspect this will change over time.

Overall I'm happy with how it worked out, may even add an additional row of pictures below at a later stage.

Nursery mirror

So apparently we're going to be having a baby soon, so we've started getting the nursery ready for the impending arrival of Peanut.

I know there haven't been many posts recently, this will soon be rectified. Without further ado, we thought it would be good if Peanut could see him/herself so I've put in a mirror.

It's still hanging 2 days later so I must have done something right!

Lounge blinds

Finally got the blinds up in the lounge tonight too. Started last night drilling holes but thought it was a bit noisy at 11pm so stopped until this evening.

We're both pretty happy with how they've turned out, though they could probably do with a steaming.

One step closer...

Bedroom blind

Just finished putting up the blind in our bedroom. I thought it was going to be a bit of a nightmare to line up the holes in the wood with the holes in the wall but Lu came up with a good idea and it all worked out quite well!

So we now have a proper anti-light device in our bedroom rather than the curtain from our last place which had temporarily (for a year!) stuffed in at the top if the window to keep light out.

Next, I'll be attempting the blinds in the loungebay window!

Sanding the dining room

We've spent the weekend sanding and varnishing the floors in preparation for the decorator coming next week. He's unfortunately fallen on ice and fractured his arm however so we're hoping he's going to be able to find us a replacement, otherwise we'll be doing it ourselves or waiting until next year :( fingers crossed!

One year anniversary

Just a quick note to say that we realised only this evening that its our one year anniversary at the house today!

We've come a long way and now we've just got to finish up the last stretch. More posts to follow soon.

More stripping

We spent today stripping the rest of the old wallpaper in the dining room, on our quest to finish the house. In the process, we've uncovered a hole near one of the radiators that we'll have to find a way to fill.

We've also been removing the old architrave around the doors and putting up new ones.

I think we're both starting to tire on the journey to the end, nearly there though.

A few odd jobs

Our month off from the house while our friends were here is over, back to the grind stone.

This week we've done a few odd jobs around the house. We've finished off the coving in the lounge, put the brass handle on the spare room door, fixed the ceiling on the bathroom and started stripping the rest of the wallpaper in the dining room.

More to come as we progress.

Spare bed

Also assembled an IKEA bed in the spare room for guests.

It's a day bed, so during the day you push the front part underneath the main section and you can use it as a bed/couch, or you can have it out like this as a double bed.

A good space saver, and there are three big drawers for storage underneath too.

Our bed!

Finally, after having it for nearly 10 months and having almost paid it off, and never having slept in it, we finally built our bed! We've been waiting for the upstairs to be finished so we can get the same run of carpet throughout and when that went in, we were able to do it. The bedding was bought ages ago soon and its the first time we've seen it out like this, colour co-ordinated with the rest of the room.



Feels like were on the home straight now :)

Spare Room update

We've finished painting the spare room last night. We've gone for a light brown colour called Wittering Sands on the back wall, which you can see here, and then a light silver colour called Cornforth White on the chimney breast.

All in good time too, we have a carpenter in today starting on the cupboard. He'll also be working on the alcove shelves in the lounge, so I'll be posting photo updates over the next few days.

Skirting board fix

Back from holiday, no rest for the wicked. We're still trying to finish the spare room before our visitors arrive. Had to put in some skirting board where the cupboard used to be and our en suite now is.

After two trips to Champion, couldn't get the wood to match exactly but that's nothing a little No Nails and some caulking couldn't fix :)

Painting the spare room

We were up until midnight last night putting the first undercoat of white paint on the ceiling and walls.

The ceiling and coving will be white and the walls the same Fired Earth White Mulberry in our room. Still deciding on a colour for the chimney breast.

It alwayslooks quite clinical at this stage.

Stripping the dining room

Before we lay down the carpet upstairs, we want to have new lights installed in the dining room. Hence the need to strip the ceiling and walls downstairs.

Paul & Marian came over to help over the weekend. The current wallpaper is about five layers deep, and we were working away until late in the evening to just get the ceiling done.

Lining the spare room

Lucie and I started lining the spare room for painting last week. We've done the ceiling and got around about half of the walls over the weekend.

We're on a tight schedule to finish before Mark & Rach arrive in October.

Spare room fireplace

Spent the whole day putting the fireplace that arrived this morning into the wall in the spare room.

Hired a medium electric breaker from a nearby tool store and broke open the chimney and fitted it in.

Had some issues re-fitting the skirting boards but all ok now with some cement :-)

Coving

We sanded the walls over the weekend and have now started beading the skirting boards and coving, before we start lining the walls in the spare room.

There is a lot still to be done before friends arrive from Australia for a visit in October.