INDOORS 71

Here you can see how I have rearranged the spare room slightly, yet again, once learning we would not be able to bring the wardrobe around to add to the dressing table. Now, back to that bathroom...

On the third day of work, the Monday, a hole was made in the lower hallway wall - the bathroom was actually looking worse than before they began, although I have confidence it will EVENTUALLY be palatial and snazzy - and I can once again have a shower, even better than before. But for now...I am wondering if it might not resemble a fatality of the recent Alaskan quake!

I can see that the light is going to work again soon, the air vent has been removed, and that the company use Henrys...

By the close of the fourth day, things were on the up. After the initial 3 days had made the grotty grimy bathroom into an empty shell with holes, dangling leads, and brickery, by the close of the fourth one could find a few beginnings of the new look room. Above you will note the old floor boards are now covered in an underflooring wooden mat, while below you can see the first of the wall panels have been installed.

Here we are after the 5th day of work - which was slowed down by rain, apparently. Thankfully I am not in a rush - Liz said I could pop round to have a shower if the work is not finished by Friday and although my son came home an hour early from work - assumedly due to having had very little sleep for the past 3 days - we are coping well after the initial 2 days of getting used to the change from an empty quiet house to bangs, drillings, and crashings.

Here comes the shower and flooring...

INDOORS 70

VIDEO 

In fact, this video shows the old bathroom better. The workmen came on the final Thursday of November and by the close of day the room looked terrible - which is not surprising as a lot of work is going to be done, but first they had to get rid of all the old yukky stuff...

The second day arrived. This time, the electrician arrived and stayed for a bit then left - the workman from the previous day came for half a day then vanished, another one came for most of the day - and there might have been a fourth come and go at some point.... The main tasks completed were lowering the ceiling and plastering it over.

This is the room at the close of the second day's work.

The weekend then arrived along with December, and during the two day break the room stunk, assumedly from the drying plaster.

One of the finds the workmen made was this ancient cigarette package - empty and mouse-munched - that assumedly the original builders had dropped inside the house when building it back in 1953!!!!

So, the room looked worse before it looked better.....

INDOORS 69

This is our bathroom pipework AFTER I brushed it and vacced it - with a Henry! You will no doubt be happy to hear this pipework will also be made to look NICE by the bathroom guys, who will be coming out in around a week's time from my photography/writing.

Those cheap plastic green self adhesive tiles will be gone - phew! They did not go with the bathroom colors as was, let alone as will be. The bathboard will be gone - and the flooring....

You may recall when I laid the lino in both toilet and bathroom, around 6-7 years ago, while my father still owned the house and lived in it. As his FT carer, I rec'd a weekly allowance form him to cover his groceries, and whatever was left over went on buying things to make the house better - such as lino in the loo instead of carpet which I consider gross - I mean, think about what happens in a toilet and the accidents, and what goes onto that carpet.

Its not that dirty - but....I dislike bathmats. It is around 6-7 years old - and mostly only used by myself - though my son uses it once a week. It is too thick to easily wash and dry, though - and so having lovely new flooring that can be mopped/towel-dried on the horizon it can see out this next week before retiring to the garbage bag.

One of the least mucky yukky items still in situ as I speak, is our shower curtain - I think this is the fourth in 5 years...It is less than a year old, but already looks gross.

We would be due to get another one in around 4-6 months time, but our new bathroom will have no bath to keep the water into - instead we have GLASS! Luxury and ease lies ahead - and the then-new butterfly shower drape that was salvaged from a friend's house after her death will retire to become a paint-sheet.

I shall now count down the days....7 left as of today's writing spree, it's all due to begin very soon! That leads me into 1-2 weeks of chaos, mess, noise, lacking water, airing space, and proper cleaning facilities....to be followed by a brand new spotless easy-clean modern, neat n tidy, new bathroom - AKA bliss! I will not be the one doing the renovations, but will take a photo daily as matters progress and share the improvements as they happen!

I have however just begun redoing the spare room... Liz is redecorating her bedroom and I had the idea of trading her old furniture to the spare room and taking mine to the tip, instead of her taking hers there. So far, the dressing table has arrived - but the wardrobe will have to wait til a third pair of hands and dry day coincide. (It turned out that we could not get the wardrobe here after all, but the dressing table is spacious and makes the room look like a bedroom/spare room.)

Let me just remind you what the bathroom looked like before the work begins tommorrow (as of writing - as of posting it's almost finished)...

INDOORS 68

This old wooden towel rail is fine - IF you like living with and using antiques! I prefer to give them to people who appreciate them, or dump them in the tip - and use something NICE and modern. I have a lovely silver colored 2-bar wall mountable towel rail awaiting the new bathroom! Plenty of room for one big and one small towel - no wobbly feet to kick into place every few days - no lumpy bits to collect dust - and not needing a repaint every few years.

You can also see the turquoise decor of the bathroom as lived with in my childhood - 40+ years ago...

The cabinet I like - it was a Christmas gift from Liz 2-3 years ago when the same guys who are going to give me a posh new bathroom did hers into a wet room. The heater however, I don't like, want, use, or need. Dad did not like his old heater as it didn't heat him up enough - so when the young chaps put in the 3 overnight electricity storage heaters, they put in a new heater - chipping half the plaster as they did so, I might add.

Dad used it just a few times - it blew a fuse if used at the same time as the immersion heater was on and dad found it too hot. Soon afterwards he was stuck downstairs with me taking him a bowl of water to wash with instead. It has not bene used since and will soon be removed.

Our ugly ceiling will be lowered and painted. I will soon not need to see stains that I cannot even reach, let alone clean off. The walls will be covered in fancy panelling with a 15 year guarantee - no more yukky flaking paint - ahhhhhhhhhhh, lovely.

Can you blame us for wanting a fancy new bathroom when we see THIS each time we take a bath/shower? The brown gunk doesn't come clean, the tap only shines in parts and only for a few minutes, the wall tiles - SHUDDER!

The inside of the basin as is is - horrible! Some of the orangey bits come off and some don't - the taps don't clean well, although bits of them shine directly after a clean until someone uses them again...

I really don't like using our bathroom - but..... sigh, one week to go (as I am writing) before there is no bathroom at all until its renovated! Maybe I will appreciate this messy mucky room during those 1-2 weeks of no shower and kitchen sink teeth cleaning!

INDOORS 67

The bike alley was in poor shape, with another bit of wood fallen off in the winds. Finally, on Halloween, I got round to fixing it with a piece of former flooring from the toilet. I tacked it over the hole....

It may not last long term, but it will do for now - hopefully 1-2 years, until my savings recuperate from the bathroom renovations due in November. November has now arrived and it is time to get excited about having a fancy posh bathroom in 2-3 weeks time, ready for Christmas at the latest!

This is what our current room looks like - a before shot - from the upper hallway. Looking around in clockwise direction from entry - there is so much that needs doing - sigh - it is definitely not a job I could tackle solo, or even with Liz giving me a hand!

Currently, the bath is between 25 and 65 years of age, unknown, but the bath board is at least 45 years old, as the turquoise decor under the white coat of paint was around in my early childhood. The metal painted towel rail over the bath is rusted and flaked and I will be happy for Liz to take that to the tip. Sometimes used to dry laundry - as demonstrated here - during wet weather, its sole usual purpose is to hang the bath mat between uses. Our new bathroom will mean we can throw the bathmat out too - yeh!

The grouting around the bath and between the tiles is disgusting - and does not come clean. The 'new' over-bath shower sprayer is around 5 years of age but already looks stained and decades old. Some parts still shine when wiped with a baby wipe or vinegar water - BUT.... UGH sums it up.

The plug attachment area is also gross - holes covered in bluetack, where the former plug was before falling off. Moving around to the basin/window area - I like bright pink curtains, BUT I do not like green el cheapo plastic tiles, partial window surround whites, the basin, the pipes.... Yeah - I will be glad to see that all go!

The basin is from the house origin, dating back to 1953 - and were I to appreciate living in a museum, perhaps I might not want it removed and replaced with a shiny new porcelain basin and vanity unit. I would rather have the modern look however, and opt for a 'clean and clutterless' look. I will be happier with a shiny basin I can keep clean rather than a 65 year old relic that won't come clean however hard I scrub and with whatever cleaner I use - from vinegar and baby wipes thru bathroom gel and spray, to enamel scrub and sodium bicarbonate on a scourer!

OUTDOORS 41

October has begun, and within the first week I decided to clear the tomatoes at the plot. If I waited, I might get an extra 1-2 dozen, or might not - but we had already had one night where we almost had a frost which had caused the stems to begin to turn and I decided to pull them - having had 2-3 hundred fruits from my plants already this year.

I also brought the chili and lemongrass plants home after harvesting the former, to overwinter in the poly tunnel. Here you can see I also had one capsicum plant!

Taking a wander round the partially cleared for winter poly tunnel, you can see how I still have a half dozen tomato plants hanging on thru October, along with a couple buckets of spuds, and the chilies and lemongrass I will be overwintering. On the other side, its cleared and I have soiled up containers ready for February/March seed plantings - I just need to rip out the bindweed!

Down the plot, you can see the front is tidy and planted - garlic, broad bean, shallot in most of the plain mud, with a few onion and 2 other plants transferred from other places in front of the leeks and Brussels sprouts. Round the corner, you can see the next lumps - raised beds, cabbages, kale, more cabbages, leading back to the raspberries. Half the soil is dug over and half is not - yet.

The fruit corner has been tidied up - 4-5 gooseberry bushes and a blackcurrant removed to the freebie patch and up for grabs - to be replaced by blueberry bushes. I have two which I moved into the new patch - and there is now room for 4 more! Rhubarb is dying down for the year and will get a dose of horse muck when I next get there at the same time as a muck delivery.

Finally for today, I brought home some kale and Brussels sprouts from the plot - along with leek and cabbage I should have something home grown to keep me going thru til the close of the year - and I have been informed there will be a Brussels sprouts shortage this Christmas! (NOT for me!!)

INDOORS 66

Liz suggested I trim the wine colored carpet in the coffee room - which I did in the above photo. I also painted the floor grey with left over paint from the toilet walls.

With the two tiny paintbrushes in the set I purchased when shopping with Liz recently, I was able to 'tidy up' the painting in the toilet, where the grey met the gloss-white. The floor was then ready to be laid. As I was having one of those days where I bumped into things, dropped and spilled things - I postponed the floor laying and ripped off the bathroom door draught bar - as you can see it's a horrid thing, impossible to clean, and I don't want it - so I took it off when washing and sanding the door down ready to paint.

One coat on, I changed project and decided to lay the toilet flooring. The first step was ripping off the former lino covering, which no longer fitted since a new toilet was installed earlier this year. Liz and I had bought a piece of lino a few weeks back and she had picked it up for me - I was just waiting on the right day to lay it and it came in October.

I had a proper stanley knife at my side and set to work, shoving one corner into situ and knifing along bits til it fitted the corners and round the loo. I was not exact enough for perfection, but it was as good a fit as the former lino had been on the old loo.

I had a few scraps spare, so decided to recut around the toilet and insert the spare bits under the almost-ok hole round the loo - which gives a better finish to the job, though I may have to glue the smaller pieces down if they move. Back to the bathroom door, needing a second/top coat of gloss...

It is done - as of  Mid-October. Now for those bathroom guys at Windsor to come do up the rest of the room for us.....

INDOORS 65

In the last post, I mentioned repainting the front door and having got the paint and brushes bought. The final photo illustrated the door once it had been wiped and sanded. The paint was supposedly dry in 2-4 hours, and after the sanding I painted the bottom coat, left it to dry, and looked at it.

I definitely prefer the purple door to Dad's conventional choices - his last choice being white, prior to that, seen thru flaked off paint, red. Previous colors I recall include green, yellow and blue - all basic everyday colors - nothing exciting!

I went to the store thinking probably purple - possibly peach or pink. The options in the better known brands not being any more adventurous that Dad's choices, I opted on selecting a color and having the paint mixed for me - so I could get the shade I desired - PURPLE! Above you can see that I decided to paint the knocker and letter flap as well.

After 3 or so hours, it felt dry enough to repaint - and I had left a message for Liz to let her know the toilet flooring had arrived in the store, but thought she was out, so got on with coat number 2 - and left a spoon in the mail box to ensure it didn't stick. Liz called me back a few minutes after I finished painting the top coat to say she could take me to collect the flooring - alas, I could not leave the house with the front door wide open because of wet paint.

Thankfully, Liz had time to grab the receipt and then fetch the roll of flooring for me - the toilet will be my next project! So far, I have painted the walls, painted the glass surrounds/door, and this morning finished glossing the window and started the toilet roll holder. I therefore only need top coat the toilet roll holder and patch up any gloss splashes on the wall before laying our new floor! Today I also sanded and painted the exterior surround of the front door, so other than one more coat of paint on that, the front door is also finished! That will leave me with painting the bathroom door and waiting on workmen to give us a brand new bathroom! The bathroom renovations is a little beyond my skills, even the ones I could possibly learn.

INDOORS 64

My next task was on the arrival of the free-to-collector leather sofa. It only cost the delivery fee so was a total bargain at £40, as despite being worn - it is far from being worn out! I had to decide which way to lay the coffee lounge out....

I ended up going for the sofa across the east wall - though I am still toying with changing it to the north....

As depicted above, my tablecloth was getting worn out. I recently picked up a new 'washable/disposable table covering' - aka plastic tablecloth - for use on the kitchen worktable. The new cover blends in better with the kitchen color scheme.

Yes, I am still playing lava lamp with my washing up liquid! My windowsill is far from clear however - due to the recent placement of semi-ripe tomatoes. I have a few dozen in various shades of ripeness from first orange tinge to almost ready to eat lined up to ripen.

My next project, done at the close of September was the front door. Liz had driven me to B&Q on the Saturday, where I purchased a pot of 'Purple Storm' Valspar paint. Two days later, we finally tracked down black bristled paint brushes at Tesco - Sainsburys and B&Q only having those ghastly floppy soft white bristled brushes that I cannot imagine using successfully and Asda having run out.