Are we there yet?

No. But, inching ever closer.

My lovely friend Nick_Cee asked if we would be tiling the boxing in, which would make sense. We decided rather than spending on more of the marble, we would use the considerable space either side of the loo for some storage. There are doors to either side (currently resting on the other side of the room after being painted), but the idea is that Mr SLS and I get a side each.

Decorating in the shower room is almost complete.

I am planning on putting some sort of cabinet over the loo for storage, or a Kartell Componibili unit under the sink.

Heals used to do a red medicine cabinet in a cross shape, but I can't find it anywhere on their website. I wonder if it has been discontinued? Ikea do a nice one as well, red again. I quite fancy the idea of a bit of red against the grey.

The little loo, just begging for a yellow ikat roman blind. I have gone as far as to order a sample of the fabric. I am hoping I will hate it. Ikea used to do a fabric with a broad yellow stripe but it seems they no longer have it in stock, as I took a little trip over there the other day.

We have decided to have some built in storage made for the wall to the right of the windows in the new loft room, and a run of cupboards under the velux windows to the front. Wardrobes will be mine (over 2 metres of storage, somebody pinch me, I must be dreaming) and the low cupboards will belong to the Mr. Very excited about this. Not so excited that they can't start until week after next, but they are good and very fast these guys, so I think it is worth waiting for. I have asked them to quote for laying the wood floor. I think I have found a substitute for the element7 flooring, it is a mid grey oak called 'twilight' (loved the books ;-) ) , just waiting for a sample to arrive to try and convince Mr SLS.

So the list. The never ending, continually growing list. I need to go through and see what I can cross off and what I need to add. I read somewhere that often the last 10% takes 90% of the effort. Feels like it is taking even more than that!!

Three off, three on....

So two lovely young guys arrived this morning at 7:30. Their mission? To box in the cisterns on the 3 new loos. They had loads of kit.




The ensuite is getting two cupboards either side of the loo. They managed to get the frame up today.




Here is the loo in the shower room. Because of where the soil pipe needed to come in, I have wound up with an odd triangle to the right of the loo, but it was all we could do because of the pipes outside.




And here is the little loo. Very pleased with this, what a difference to have it all boxed in.




So three things (just about) off my list, but now three back on the list because they of course need to be decorated....

2 posts in 2 days!!!

Oh my goodness!! Two posts in two days. Well, I thought now that I am on a roll...

Actually, I am stuck at home with a little boy with an injury. Master SLS had a big fall at the park on Sunday. He was climbing a little fence and went right over the top of it and landed on his nose. He normally has a very gorgeous little button nose, and at the moment, he is looking rather feline (a bit like a lion). Poor chap. Here is a picture I took earlier this morning so that next time he does something dangerous I can pull it out and remind him of what can happen (either that or we can use it in a slide show at his 21st!)

Poor little guy. He is actually very happy playing on the wii and having me to himself. He said he didn't want to go to school today, but I am wondering if tomorrow might be the day!!

I have been trying to get a fabric out of my head for the little loo that I have painted 'Slate' (pic in last post).

I really love this fabric and think it would look fabulous against the grey, but it is £86.01 (question, why include the 1p, surely a flat £86 is enough) a metre. I would be too worried to sew a blind myself in this fabric, in case I screwed it up, which is then going to bring the cost of one blind up to the 200 quid mark. Now, I know people do spend that sort of money on soft furnishings, but I have never been able to bring myself around to it. Have you seen anything similar anywhere? I do have a friend in the US (where this kind of print seems to be much more widely available) who will ship for me, but I kinda just want to order this and be done with it. Thoughts?

OK, I am going to go and be productive and try to scratch some things off my list! And give my little fella lots of snuggles.

Another year, another to do list...

Hello! Happy New Year. I hope you had a fabulous holiday season. I can't believe we are more than half way through January already. I had all sorts of plans to post during the holidays, but I came down with flu, as did my youngest, and we were really sick. It lingered on and on, and then went into a sinus infection. So boring. I am now feeling back to normal and am keen to crack on with wrapping up all the lingering bits and bobs that are hanging about. So along with a photo update, I thought I would record a little to do list so that I can get a better idea of what needs to happen around the SLS.


So before Christmas the tiler was about half way through the tiling before he downed tools and went off for 2 and a half weeks. To say that the tiler was a complete knob would be an understatement, he worked half days in the run up to his holiday, he easily could have finished prior to going off, but couldn't be arsed. I won't bore you with the details, but he was a lazy f*ck, but quite good at tiling. I worked out that he was here for 15 working days, not one of them a full day, so I was very glad to say goodbye to him last week. However, I do have 2 tiled showers and 3 floors to show you!!


The ensuite





















Still to do in the ensuite:

• Box in cistern (guy coming on Wed this week to start)


• Measure up for glass screen to go in channel between sink and shower and for mirror panel for above sink and get them fit.


• Buy light for above sink (thank you for your suggestion MangoFrog, I have got a little present for you for making a suggestion, please leave me your email address in the comments section and I will arrange to get it to you!)


• Buy some storage for all our toiletries and something for bottles in the shower.

And then on to the bedroom. This room as become a bit of a workroom for all the rest of the work that has been going on upstairs. While it is almost fully decorated, there are a few tricky bits that Mr SLS and I haven't been bothered to get on with....

Current state of play:








OMG, what an unholy mess. To do in here:

• Clear out crap


• Finish painting skirtings, architrave and doors


• Attach skirtings and various bits of architrave
  
• Make a decision about flooring (more on this soon)


• Get flooring installed


• Blinds for windows


• Wardrobes????


• Move all our stuff up

Gosh, this is making me feel quite sick.

Onwards and downwards, now to the shower room on the next landing. Current status:

• Get cistern boxed in (again, happening on Wed this week)


• Touch up paintwork


• Paint door and windowframes


• Get rid of that effing hideous doorknob


• Buy some accessories and storage


• Buy a blind

• Sort out small leak from shower door (Mr SLS went a bit nuts with the silicone, and put silicone down the inside of the shower frame, which is a mistake, as it is only supposed to be done from the outside, we now get a little river running out of the right hand side when the shower is on....

Hall Stairs and Landings

Not too bad actually. The bulk of the decorating has been done by Mr SLS and he has done a great job. Here is a little snippet:

To do in Hall, Stairs and Landings:

• Paint Dado rail the whole way down (fun, fun, fun...)


• Paint landing outside of new shower room (we left this as we knew the tiler would trash it if we decorated it first


• Paint hall downstairs


• Take plastic off the stairs (we put some on when the tiler came back as he was up and down the stairs cutting tiles


• Put up artwork /mirrors


• Buy lights (I need 4 pendant lights for the landings)

Are you bored yet? I am. Finally, the little loo on the first landing:

To do in here:

• Touch up paintwork. Due to and unfortunate incident with some masking tape, a large amount of the paint along the top of the wall is peeling away ( I had the bright idea of taping off the white to get neat edges, and I have wound up a million miles from a neat edge. Sigh. )
• Paint sash window and door
• Replace door glass
• Mirror above sink
• Yet another cistern to be boxed in
• Make a blind

So, although we are 90% there, we have the last 10% to finish off, which as they say is always the worst. A lot of these to dos are a blog post in their own right, so I am going to leave you now to put my kids in the bath and cook some supper for Mr SLS. But I would LOVE to know what you think. Any kind words of encouragement??

xx

Finished for Christmas??

That would be no. A big fat fail!!! I really am not going to bore you with all the details, just know it involves snow and various other excuses.

But I do have some pictures for you.

The shower room is tiled. Still some grouting to be done, but at least the shower can go in and the door can go on.

The ensuite floor has been laid but there is still a lot of tiling to be done in here. Loo is in, the cistern needs boxing in.

The redecoration of the hall, stairs and landings is about 75% there. We still need to paint some walls that were trashed by the builders, but the stair carpets are being relaid tomorrow. So we will be covering them up to paint over the holidays.

Since I had a whopping 0 comments to the last post I thought I would ask you a question. In the ensuite, I had intended to install a mirrored cabinet with a light inside it (sounds a bit horrid, but it was very nice). I hadn't accounted for the slope of the roof, so it is a no go. But I still have a wire hanging out of the wall and a switch. So I am planning on tiling in the marble up to the line marked on the wall. The area above the tile will be a mirror cut to fit to the ceiling. But I am not sure if I should mount a light onto the mirror as the electric is there? I also am out of ideas, what light would you use? Any ideas?? This is the space and the wire. There will be a prize for the person who suggests the light that I select. Answers on a postcard, or just in the comments section below!! ;-)

Limping along...

Yes, that would be a thick layer of dust. The plasterers were in this week, and my goodness it has made the place dusty. Both the little loo and the shower room have been plastered and are ready for the plumbing second fix. Except the plumber has a sore knee. So probably won't be able to come out this week. And Christmas creeps ever closer...

This is the shower room, the new stud wall for the shower on the left.

The little loo (I am thinking of putting wallpaper up in here, which will be my first ever time!):

We haven't really cracked on that well with the decorating and I am now starting to feel a bit of panic. We have got the carpets for the hall, stairs and landing coming next week, and are hosting a Sunday lunch this weekend, and we have masses to do. I need to get on with it really. I am starting to consider carpeting the loft room. I just can't find a wood that I like enough for the money we have left. Haven't raised it with the Mr yet, but I do think it would make our lives much easier, as he wants to install the wood floor himself, and it will take him a month of Sundays. I also can't get the elements 7 floor out of my head, and nothing else comes even close. I just think going for a neutral carpet would make things so much easier. Sigh. Can you tell I am so over it now?? Tiler is supposed to start on loft ensuite tomorrow although I haven't heard from him and I didn't get a chance to ring him today as I was a parent helper on a trip to the Royal Albert Hall with Miss SLS's class. SO I was too busy telling 7 year old girls to get down, stop chatting, pay attention... Will ring him tomorrow to find out when he is going to start covering my ensuite in marble goodness. Hopefully I will have some piccies for you soon.

In other news, we did some different decorating this weekend and pulled out all our Christmas decorations. Given that the living room is currently a plumbing warehouse (there are currently 3 toilets in my living room!), we have kept most of the decs in the kitchen and the hallway.

SO sick of not having carpet on the stairs:

The kids tree, which for some reason has wound up in the hall!! It looks so tiny there, need to move it!

Our family tree:

Probably should have moved the barbie VW bug out of the way...

My decorating helper with my front door wreath (that I made last year out of cotton wool pads - crafty or what!!).

Hopefully I will be back soon with loads of progress having taken place... but don't hold your breath.

Extreme Decorating

Gosh, it is a long way up. Mr SLS has taken a week of his annual leave to decorate the loft.
He rented this super long ladder and has been up and down it all day decorating the new landing and stairs. I have been on duty in the bedroom doing the less adventurous decorating with just a small pair of steps!! What a guy.

So this is what the loft room looks like with the base coat.

My shoulders are killing me!!

The plumber was here last week. He installed the shower tray, and so now we are waiting on the tiler to tile the ensuite.

Please note that that is a plastic cap covering the chrome waste!

In other news (!) as we have the carpets up in the hall, stairs and landing, and the skip out front, we decided to rip out the dodgy bath room on the second floor, and the loo on the first floor. When we moved into this house, we had a little toilet and sink on the first floor, and a bathtub and sink in a very small bathroom at the top of the house. Here is a photo of the before for your viewing pleasure:

Ack. So horrid. This is what it looks like now:

Somehow this offends me less!!!

This is the little loo

I don't have a before picture, but imagine a symphony of beige toilet, sink and brown tiles and you wouldn't be far off the mark. SO the plan is to refit the bathroom with a shower (900x800) and a loo and sink, and the little loo will be a cloakroom. It is ridiculous really, as we will wind up with 5 toilets in our house and there are only 4 of us, but it is hard to know what else to do with the space. Anyway, the plumber was due here on Monday to first fix these bathrooms but unfortunately his wife is unwell. So I need to put the plasterer on hold until the plumber is back. I was starting to wonder why we even started doing these on top of all the work in the loft, but just looking at that photo with the dodgy green floor and the horrid fittings and I now realise a bit of pain now will be worth it in the end.

I am, however, burnt out on tile selection for this room. I am going to drag Mr SLS away from the paint roller tomorrow to have a look at tiles to see if we can find something. I would really love to use glass on the shower walls but sadly I don't think the budget will tolerate it! So a tile shopping we will go!! No doubt I will fall in love with something hideously expensive.