Well it's been a while. As expected I am not good at keeping this up to date.
A lot happened between September and December, but then we stopped. Our resolution to put the tools away and enjoy Christmas coincided very nicely with, well, running out of money!
First of all the re-wire. That took nearly three weeks. We moved back in after the 4th week amidst the plasterers hurrying to finish the dining room, hall and filling in all the channels left by the electricians. It took a lot longer than they expected because, typically our old house and wonky walls caused them a bit of a headache. That was my low point right there, the day we spent in the cold shuffling through plasterdust and rubble making fruitless attempts to begin cleaning. That first weekend the girls were not allowed to take their shoes of and we felt like it would never feel like home again.
A lot happened between September and December, but then we stopped. Our resolution to put the tools away and enjoy Christmas coincided very nicely with, well, running out of money!
First of all the re-wire. That took nearly three weeks. We moved back in after the 4th week amidst the plasterers hurrying to finish the dining room, hall and filling in all the channels left by the electricians. It took a lot longer than they expected because, typically our old house and wonky walls caused them a bit of a headache. That was my low point right there, the day we spent in the cold shuffling through plasterdust and rubble making fruitless attempts to begin cleaning. That first weekend the girls were not allowed to take their shoes of and we felt like it would never feel like home again.
That was followed by a soul destroying weekend of wallpaper stripping (actually only for me, Ash had many of these!) which also included an emergency bit of plumbing after a nail was hammered straight through a central heating pipe while putting the floorboards back down in the bedroom.
Much debate over paint colours ensured (narrowly averting divorce) and then all we had to do was paint about a thousand walls, put all the rooms back together, unpack our lives again, put the Christmas tree up aaaaaand relax.
In December Ash broke the no tools rule by spending a day taking out the ugly shower from our en-suite and fitting a much prettier new one. We also got some curtains for the living room.
I should probably add that while all this was happening we also had a new roof. That escalated when it turned our that at one end of the house the roof was not supported by anything at all, and at the other the chimney was crumbling. Both gable ends had to have the top portion taken down and rebuilt, and we also had a brand new chimney. We did have some good luck though, fortunately all the roof timbers are, in the words of the roofer, "sound as a pound".
So that was the end of the renovation fund. £30,000 has now become £250 and we still have four bathrooms to replace, two woodburners to fit, a whole lot of wooden beams to remove, one vaulted ceiling to bash down, a staircase to replace and a garden to sort out. I also really want a nice new lamp for the living room. We might manage to get the lamp in 2020!
I'll add some photos when I get a chance.
Much debate over paint colours ensured (narrowly averting divorce) and then all we had to do was paint about a thousand walls, put all the rooms back together, unpack our lives again, put the Christmas tree up aaaaaand relax.
In December Ash broke the no tools rule by spending a day taking out the ugly shower from our en-suite and fitting a much prettier new one. We also got some curtains for the living room.
I should probably add that while all this was happening we also had a new roof. That escalated when it turned our that at one end of the house the roof was not supported by anything at all, and at the other the chimney was crumbling. Both gable ends had to have the top portion taken down and rebuilt, and we also had a brand new chimney. We did have some good luck though, fortunately all the roof timbers are, in the words of the roofer, "sound as a pound".
So that was the end of the renovation fund. £30,000 has now become £250 and we still have four bathrooms to replace, two woodburners to fit, a whole lot of wooden beams to remove, one vaulted ceiling to bash down, a staircase to replace and a garden to sort out. I also really want a nice new lamp for the living room. We might manage to get the lamp in 2020!
I'll add some photos when I get a chance.
