Tag: decorating

Tables and chairs

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I’m looking at tables and chairs for the kitchen.  We’ve talked about having stools and having the extra bit of wood as a breakfast bar, but I’m anti-stools in principle.  I don’t enjoy balancing as I eat.  The extra bit of wood has to wait until we get the flooring in anyway, as we need to fix the pipe (that’s just arrived) to the floor to hold it up.

I’ve got my beady eye on these white chairs and matching table from Argos, but Barry prefers the purple, which I don’t think matches.  I also like these ones, which are on offer at the moment, but we’ve just bought the flooring, so I think they’ll have to wait a while.  You can have a look at them with the other stuff on my Pinterest kitchen pinboard.

I am looking forward to having breakfast in our shiny kitchen!

As a side note, you may notice that I’ve added a bunch of buttons on the right to make it easier for people to find and follow me.  Most of them were copied from Karen’s blog (thank you!).

As yet another side note,  I’ve committed us to the raspberry paint I mentioned before on our bedroom wall, although at the moment, it does like someone was shot and killed against it, and then the killer tried to clean it.  It’ll be better when the whole thing’s pink.

Something for the weekend

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Along with going to see The Hunger Games on Saturday and Sunday dinner on Sunday (both with our best buds Charlie and Jaime, hi guys!), we’ve got a few kitchen tasks for this weekend…

  • Paint the alcove. If you aren’t thinking quotes from In Bruges right now, I pity you.  This is the alcove (right).  Or do you say nooks and crannies?
  • Sand and paint the ceiling.
  • Cut the peninsula to the right size. Barry’s just bought a shiny new circular saw and is itching to try it out, despite the fact we can’t put it up until the flooring’s in.
  • List the radiator and butcher’s block trolley on eBay.  Because we all know how much I love my customers.
  • Order flooring. We’ve made the following mathematical calculation:

a + b = c

Where a = concrete flooring, b = £100 off online sale and c = credit card.

Barry put one of those pop up plugs into the worktop yesterday. Scary drilling a huge hole into our shiny new worktop, but it looks fine! A post for the peninsula is on its way. eBay is good for so many things!

We also bought one of those paint pads with the tiny wheel a few weeks ago. They’re supposed to create a straight line at the edges when you’re

painting, but Barry’s had another crack at the black paint and it doesn’t seem to have made a blind bit of difference.

Barry put the shiny new curtains up yesterday too.  They’re a lot thinner than our last ones, but they’re pretty!  I could always line them if it’s a problem.

Almost there

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Barry’s been a busy boy (say that five times quickly after a few drinks). He’s made the box to cover the fuse box. Twice. I didn’t like the purple on white action, so he had to make another door in white.

He’s also been sawing away at the cornices and pelmets, so they’re done, and we’ve made the interesting discovery that Tipp-Ex ® is nigh on exactly the same white as our wall units. Good to know.

This means that the units are done!  The peninsula can’t be made until we’ve got the flooring in, so that’s it for now.

We’ve been comparing the flooring samples to the units; it’s definitely got to be white. For the quantity we’re wanting for the kitchen and living room, it’s of no benefit to us to get two rooms’ worth together, so we may split it into separate lots so we can at least have one room sorted. It will definitely be the kitchen first due to the concrete flooring!

We’ve also put the dining room table back up because it doesn’t look like flooring in there will be changed very soon and we’re both tired of eating off our knees in front of the TV.

You know the drill, photos below!

I’d like to thank my parents…

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Karen from Well I Guess This Is Growing Up, who I’ve mentioned before, has very kindly nominated me for a Liebster Blog award.  I’m unclear as to what this actually means, but I think it means that she likes it, and no award’s actually won by anyone.  If anyone does know, please tell me!

Anyway, these are the rules, as listed by Karen…

  1. Thank your Liebster Blog Award presenter on your blog
  2. Link back to the blogger who presented the award to you
  3. Copy and paste the blog award on your blog
  4. Present the Liebster Blog Award to 5 blogs of 200 followers or less who you feel deserve to be noticed
  5. Let them know they have been chosen by leaving a comment at their blog.

So here goes…

1. Thank you Karen!  You’re pretty!

2. http://welliguessthisisgrowingup.wordpress.com/

3.

4. This is a difficult one because I would definitely have nominated Karen for this. I’m afraid I’m going to have to follow suit and disregard the numbers thing (and they’re not all about decorating/DIY)…



http://adetailedhouse.com/
This blog collates fabulous photos of other people’s homes. No need for an explanation why, but I especially liked the posts about colourful kitchens!

http://lesleycarter.wordpress.com/
I found this blog because Lesley’s liked a few posts of mine, so I thought I’d take a wander over there. It’s a travel blog in the main, but has lots of different sections, so check it out. I’m in the midst of writing a guest submission about our honeymoon in Sri Lanka and the Maldives – watch this space.

http://www.littlebirdfashion.com
This is a fashion blog.  I actually saw Jen speak at a CIM event last year, which rekindled my interest in blogs. I did keep one when I studied abroad, but that has long since been deleted, so thanks to Jen for bringing me back!

http://www.scrappingmojo.blogspot.co.uk/
This is written by a friend of mine, Jules (I’ve mentioned her hallway before). It’s about scrapbooking, which I don’t do, but even so, it’s worth looking at for cute pics of her gorgeous dog, Mojo!

http://jthornburghartistry.com/
This is another DIY blog I’ve enjoyed.  Again, I found them because they liked a few of my posts.

5. I’m writing on their blogs right now!

Neighbourhood watch

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Despite living in this house for three-and-a-half years, we don’t really know our neighbours.

On one side, we have Family A; the ones who let their dog poo freely.  I’ve mentioned this before.  We know the couple’s names, but they had a baby a couple of years ago and I’ve forgotten his name.  I know the name of the dog, who is the fluffiest Alsation you ever will see.

On the other side, we have Family B: a lovely couple who I think we’d get on with well if we saw a bit more of each other.  I once sat next to the lady on the bus home and we had a lovely conversation.  Barry’s spoken to the man’s dad quite a few times, so we know more about him than anyone that actually lives in the house.  Her mum has been round a few times to borrow a corkscrew!  They also have a dog, but it’s a bit crazy and won’t stop barking when it sees anyone other than the owners.  Although I see myself as a dog person, this makes me jump and scares me.  On our way home from a night out, a very drunk Barry stopped to pet the dog and (in his best doggy voice), said, “Hello, doggy!  Why are you out on your own?  Where’s your owner?”.  The owner was at the other end of the lead Barry had failed to spot, so I just dragged him away, apologising.  The neighbour seemed bemused, but it may be why we haven’t seen much of them.

Both sides have been round and looked at the kitchen.  The dad of the man from Family A actually knocked on our door to have a nosey (which is fine because we’re show-offs), and then happened to be outside the day after the worktop was put in, so we asked if they wanted to see it.  Family A guy said they were thinking of doing something similar, so there may be a spate of home improvements down our street shortly.

Family B nipped round when B&Q delivered some of our stuff to their house, and made polite noises about it looking nice, but haven’t been round since.

I’m thinking a housewarming may bring us all together.  I’m calling it a housewarming, because we never had one, and now we’ve definitely got something to be proud of (or will, when the floor’s done!).  After all, we all know that’s when good neighbours become good friends…

Bits and bobs

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Did a few bits and bobs yesterday.  Barry put the new lights up while I cleaned the kitchen windows and then he sealed the boxed off boiler pipes with silicone and the cooker hood with liquid metal.  We also remeasured the kitchen and the living room and looked at flooring again – if we get the one we want, with cheap underlay, it looks like it will be about £750, so Barry’s investigating cheaper options!

In the meantime, I’m sewing material into some boot top covers – we’ve got fancy dress next month for Barry’s birthday, and I’m going to be (wait for it) Supergirl.  Can’t wait!

A retraction

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Following yesterday’s post, in which I explained how I was sorry for not picking up the phone to the eBay woman, I would now like to take that back.

Exhibit A is the texted conversation from yesterday morning:

The kitchen is incompatible with the plumbing, so I need to sell it.  could you offer it to the next highest bidder for me please.  many thanks

I’m sorry, but you will have to relist it.  I can’t see the next highest bidder now it’s been sold, and it was possibly different bidders for all 3 items.  Sorry unable to help.

OK.  I might just change tops and sink, so not a total disaster.

I really didn’t want to get involved in either the fact that plumbing matches the kitchen, not the other way around, or selling the kitchen to another person who could turn out to be just the same, and still be embroiled in this madness.  I’m emailing her the photos of the kitchen so she can relist it (when her computer’s back up and running), but that is it!  My part is done!

We were at a 105th birthday party yesterday (happy birthday Jaye and Carole!), so didn’t get much done, but we did nip to B&Q in the morning to buy some lights and get the right cooker hood filters (thanks once again to Jason K, who was brilliant.  Bet he loved seeing us again!).  We decided on some lights from B&Q, like the other ones I wanted, but in a circle instead of on a rod, and £10 cheaper.  They have disappeared from B&Q’s website though, we’ve got a habit of choosing lights that are about to be discontinued!

Barry’s also bought a coffee machine that lights up, very exciting!  And he oiled the main bit of the worktop so it’s really glossy and smells nice!  We also took the protective plastic off the stainless steel splashback, which is always very satisfying.

An apology

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The eBay lady (see: Woman, you are testing me), tried calling me the day before yesterday.  I’m ashamed to say, I let it go to voicemail without picking up, thinking I’m not going to tell you how to put the kitchen together.  I have neither the knowledge, nor the inclination.  She didn’t leave a voicemail, but then sent a text, which consisted of only one sentence, and no punctuation:

I only have one drawer front

Massive oops!  Incidentally, she doesn’t have one drawer front, she has none at all, so not sure what she was looking at.  I had told Barry that we needed to empty the four drawers, but then we didn’t, and they were abandoned in the living room when the rest of the kitchen was collected.  I mentally slapped my own forehead.  All I could do was apologise profusely, and then text Barry quickly to see when we could take them round, which was Thursday evening.

We set off as soon as I got home from work, eventually found her house, and took the drawers to her door.  She welcomed us in, and then asked us to close the door; she had a few questions for us.  Barry and I exchanged worried glances.  We didn’t really want to shut ourselves in, but had little choice.  We were ushered into her kitchen, where we were set upon by a barrage of questions, including:

  • What’s this bit of wood for? (Erm…)
  • Do you think your kitchen will fit in my kitchen? (Shouldn’t you have measured this before purchasing the kitchen (two weeks ago)?)
  • What’s this bit of wood for? (Ah…)
  • What amp plug does the oven need to be?  Is it 30? (Um, no, 13)
  • I suppose I’ll have to have the worktop cut then. (Not technically a question, but she phrased it in such a way that she seemed to require a response.  Yes was the response).
  • And finally, what’s this bit of wood for? (Arghhh!)

We were gradually edging towards the door, as it appears that she is actually going to attempt to put the kitchen together herself, and we didn’t really want to be party to that party.  We made it out eventually, and returned home for some fun times (sweeping and pipework).

I still feel slightly guilty for hitting “ignore” on my phone when she rang, and I truly am sorry that we forgot to give her the drawers, but I feel that we have been suitably punished.  No more!

Ta-da!

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I spent quite a bit of time last night on my knees, doing something truly filthy. Yes, that’s right, I was cleaning the kitchen floor of wood dust.  RtJ has finished!

There are still some bits for us to finish off (cornice/pelmet), but he’s done everything we wanted him to, and he was very reasonably priced with it.

When I got home last night, we first of all had to drive to the “special” eBay woman (more on this tomorrow), which took a couple of hours out of our evening. Then, when we returned again just after 8pm, Barry spent the next two hours fitting the tap and doing the pipework under the sink.  I swept the floor and inhaled probably lethal amounts of wood dust.

Photos of the progress below…

Double whammy

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Two good things happened yesterday, kitchen-wise: the joiner made a start and a man with a van came to pick up the old kitchen!  Hurray!

I’ve included four photos from yesterday morning, before I went to work, and then five from when I got home and the man had taken all the bits away.  The worktop has all been cut (including a hole for the sink), it just needs fixing.  Richard the Joiner (RtJ, as he shall henceforth be known), broke several jigsaw blades on the solid wood and had to get some more!  There’s enough of the worktop left for us to have a little bit of surface coming out of the wall by the door – we’ll just need to get a brushed stainless steel post.

RtJ has also cut some plinth for underneath the oven so you can’t see the bodge job of making it higher, but it means we’re going to run out of plinth, so may need to have some further bodging of using end panel for some of the plinth area.  Barry and I nipped to Wickes last night to get some glue and silicone so he can continue today.  Barry also spent a lot of last night preparing the pipework for under the sink so he can do that quickly once RtJ’s finished today.

The man who collected the old kitchen couldn’t believe how many parts there were to it.  He was glad he’s not the one putting it back together!  I’ll be very surprised if I don’t get at least one call from the eBay woman with questions about it.