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Leaps and Bounds  (the hall after plastering but before painting) Sorry, it has been a while since our last post but as you will see things are coming on in leaps and bounds. Every time, I go to the cottage (albeit just at the weekends) I can see how much it is changing and starting to fee llike it could be a home. Here are just few snapshots of the past weeks. (living room wall that has been plastered) (kitchen halfway through tiling and with the units excellently fitted by Rich) (I finally got this dirty looking radiator painted in the breakfast room) (Here rich is halfway through repairing the wall around the fireplace) (the soot on the inside of the fire place was unsightly so Rich has been working on a solution) (I got involved with covering over the dark paint in the hallway - still needs a second coat for it to truly shine though) (the walls next to the fireplace needed some sanding) (painting the bathroom ceiling - let me tell you it is a very high ceiling!) (Rich with the supe
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‘Chasing’ our tails: the electrics

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Whoever coined the phrase ‘the old ways are the best’ has never tried chasing out back boxes in solid brick using only hand tools… For an indecisive soul like me, one of the harder aspects of this project has been all the decision-making. It’s incredible how many choices need to be made: everything from picking a contractor to deciding on the quality of the finish. Some decisions have been simpler than others. The old back boiler and gas fire, for instance, were well beyond their service life and clearly needed replacing with a combi. But faced with dated but serviceable electrics, we needed to make a choice. The problem When we took possession, we knew at least some work would be needed on the electrics. The old Wylex fuse board - fitted with fuse wire - was a dead giveaway that they hadn’t been touched in a long time, but there were other tell tale signs. The different socket styles indicated work had been carried out piecemeal, while the buzzing coming from the living room light sug
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The Skip Again, it has been rather a while since out last post, but that certainly does not mean that there has been any slacking! Rich has been working hard every day and has honed his plastering skills, not to mention all the prep that needs to happen before you can even consider plastering. But I think that might be a post for another day.   We did however make progress on another front and ordered a skip to come bright and early one Friday morning. It was amazing how much rubbish was collecting in the house as we were removing everything to start afresh. One of the things that we though would take up a lot of space was the old kitchen units. But we decided to get a little technical about it and instead of just fling them into the skip any old way, we laid them out flat. We got a bit geeky about it and tried to make it fit like a mosaic. Rich also cut up the old kitchen counter so that we could get it out of the door! We were surprised at how much room, the carpets, underlay and car
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Happy New Year It has been a little quiet on the blog since new year, but that does not mean no progress has been made. The new boiler was installed just before Christmas, and just after Christmas the cottage was rewired. It was proceeded by a couple of hard days for Rich helped by my Dad chasing out the wires. Unfortunately, it did not make for great pictures, but there is evidence all over the cottage in the form of dust - a visible reminder of the hard work. This kitchen now has a boiler, no units on the wall and no tiles. We have been shopping around in the January sales and have picked new kitchen units and counter tops. It was really nice, seeing the designers impression of the kitchen, after we are used to seeing this half dismantled room. All we need now is to find some suitable flooring. One one of my rare visits to the house, Rich let me on the tools and I had good fun removing the tiles from the kitchen walls. I was rather proud of how many I got off with breaking them:) The
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