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.

Stair Handrail

Did all the preparation and drilling last weekend but had to wait for the paint to dry before I could put the new handrail up on the stairs. No more dirty hand marks on the wall now hopefully.

Lucie and I were looking at original photos of the house last night, its amazing how things have changed.

Spare Room

After waiting for Lucie to start feeling a bit better, we've finally started on the spare room. Paul and Maz came round on Friday and started filling cracks on the ceiling and walls before we start lining. Maz made some good headway on the garden too.

I've removed the old architrave from around the door, done some final steaming, removed the remainder of the old cupboard and finished the filling.

Kitchen Pan Rack

I finally got the pan rack up in the kitchen. The pots and pans have been laying around in the dining room,  so it's good to get them hanging up and easily accessible.