A Bit Of A House Update

Basically, I get clobbered with an overwhelming sense of gloom every time I step through the front door.

I should be all "YAY!" because the wallpaper steaming is finally done. Yes, even the awkward bits that involved stanley knives and mega awkward upside down scraping whilst getting my face boiled off by steam. DONE.

But I'm not yay. I am Little Miss Feeling Sick because scraping all that wallpaper off has revealed some extra damp patches and some fairly monstrous cracks and awful ceilings that need boarding out. Urgghhhhhh, it looks like such a mess at the moment.  Plus I can't do anything now.  I'm itching to get in and start actually decorating but I can't decorate until it's been plastered and oh yeah, there's still no electricity because they have to wait till the plastering is done before fitting the switches and sockets and guess what? Plasterers are the bane of my life at the moment.

I went back yesterday and looked at my diary entries from the house-hunting process at the start of the year.  Want to know what I wrote?  "I don't mind something that needs decorating but I don't think I can cope with something that needs loads of repairs."

*hollow laugh*










I've found interesting things underneath all the crap though.


Mary Poppins in the plaster


Parquet flooring!


And a record of how tall Sarah was in 1977 (not very)


I'm off to give someone an actual month's salary to fix all the walls and ceilings. My plan is to not go back there till that's done and it looks like a proper house again.

A Work In Progress

Want to see the money pit?

It's utter chaos at the moment. Rewiring has been done (but not finished), damp proof course has been put in (but not replastered), half the wallpaper has been stripped and the heating blokes are there today to fit a shiny new boiler, take away the ancient old hot water system and put in a nice new fire.

I'm obviously getting workmen in to do all the stuff I'm not capable of but I can do the basics of decorating myself. No point paying a man to come in and strip wallpaper, is there? I'm kinda enjoying the wallpaper removal process (the steamer is my new best friend), which is a good job because holy crap, it's taking a long time. Thick anaglypta everywhere and not just one layer but loads of it. Plus lining paper. It's all an absolute bitch to get off.

The previous owners clearly loved covering things up. You should have seen how much manky 50s lino was underneath all the carpets!






It's not all doom and gloom though. Wanna see the bannisters we discovered once we'd ripped off a load of horrible old chipboard?



And what I think might well prove to be an epic shoe cupboard?



And the amazing kitchen unit I liberated from work?




And my utterly kitsch bathroom?


Without fail, every single person that's seen it has said "When are you going to replace that then?" I'm not. I'll redo the wallpaper section but green bath and loo? Hell yeah!


It might be chaos at the moment but it's not all bad. I'll get there. I will make it pretty.

Won't be long till I can cast the steamer aside and start picking pretty wallpaper instead!

Project Bedside Table

A few months ago I fell in love.


In a vintage homeware shop.


With a laundry basket.


Yes, I know I'm weird.  It was so pretty though!

Hmmm, look closer.  It was undoubtedly pretty but rather than being shabby chic, it was just shabby. And dirty! Ick. There was a lot of dust and crap tucked in the crevices. 

That's ok though: I like a good project. As soon as I had a free weekend and some dry weather (both of which have been scarce recently) I set about transforming it.

Firstly, I took the hose to it to remove most of the fluff, dirt and associated gack:

Then I bought some paint. Oh, how grown up and boring that made me feel. Naturally I chose the most expensive flipping paint in the whole of B&Q. What can I say? I am a woman of expensive painty tastes. Cheap green paint is mostly mushy pea or snot coloured. Yack.

Just call me Painty McPainterson. Turns out I'm not bad with a brush!

Helpful note to anyone thinking of tackling a DIY project. Even if it is an excessively hot, sunny day and the paint is drying tons quicker than you think it will, it isn't magic. Not a good idea to lean on the lid two seconds after you've painted it...

Voila! One freshly painted bedside table.

It looks a lot more neatly painted in real life than it does here. I blame light levels. 

I hauled it upstairs and it's now nestled in between my bed and a bookcase. I don't know if it was originally a laundry basket and some clever previous owner had the bright idea of adding the glass top or if it was made that way in the first place but either way, it's brilliant. The perfect bedside table as far as I'm concerned!

It's all part of the masterplan to declutter my life and try (probably in vain) to be a bit tidier.  There's room inside it to store loads of winter clothing and room on top of it for a lamp, my current book and my specs. Nothing more. It will remain tidy.

Speaking of lamps, do you like this beauty? I do already have a cute little Ikea lamp in my room but it's very happy where it is and I was looking for something a little bit bigger to go on the shiny new bedside table. Out There Interiors, purveyors of a delicious array of modern and French style furniture as well as a whole lot of other beautiful things, got in touch at a very opportune time and asked if I'd like to review a product from their site.

Well, I'm pleased to report that I am delighted with the fab alphabet light I chose. It's porcelain but quite tough and sturdy, which is good, because I am fairly clumsy and bound to drop something on it at some point. It comes with an excellent length of cable too. Does that sound odd? It just makes my life a lot easier! This house is appallingly badly set up with plug points - seriously, I have one plug socket in my whole bedroom - and I was having the horrors about potentially having to run an extension lead off another extension lead in order to plug a lamp in. Worries over. If only all manufacturers thought this way.

Alphabet light c/o Outthere Interiors, book is from Persephone and my specs are from Specsavers.