The Finishing Touches

All week I have been busy crazily painting the walls in our living room. Changing them from a "Smokers" Yellow to something called Hint of Pashmina, which is an extremely light pink. We knew that the living room needed lifting and the walls really made it feel old and worn, it needed some freshening up!

After the walls were finished the only thing that was letting the room down were the curtains. I like the material, it is lovely and soft but again they have seen better days and it was time the moved on from curtain duty!


(Sorry about the dark photo, still cannot work out how to get my camera not to do that!) But these are they, three curtains to cover the somewhat large window. I hit eBay with a vengeance. I finally found something which looked perfect, used curtains that had been made to measure in exactly the right dimensions for our window! The seller was amazingly patient with my questions (Are they lined? etc) and my requests (Any chance of a Saturday delivery?) But Saturday arrived and found me waiting patiently by the front door... is it wrong to be THIS excited about curtains? The delivery man couldn't find us - no change there - but eventually the large box was mine. I opened it up and surveyed the contents - first thought YAY! Second thought, how do I put these up then! Turned out we needed an extra pole in addition to the one we already had so this was sought.

The day was a busy one, see another post for those updates, so it wasn't until late that I began putting them up! The curtains were easy, all the fancy stuff wasn't! But by midnight I was done (with the first set anyway! Only one to go in the Dining Room!) And I was VERY pleased!

(Say hurray for getting to grips and getting a better photo!)

It is amazing what a good set of curtains can do, the whole room suddenly looked finished and mighty grand, if I do say so myself! I guess it should be noted that here is the proof that some nice accessories can do a HUGE amount to a room! This means the Living Room is pretty much finished - one down....

The Finishing of the Living Room Floor

With Christmas out of the way we decided that the time had come to get the living room floor finished. We had decided that to keep things simple, and because we liked the finish of the Dining Room, we were going to do the Living Room floor as treated boards.

First things first, we needed to do was to lift the old carpet. It was exceedingly grubby and smelled pretty bad. The only thing for it was to take it down to the skip. This proved a bit of a laugh as the gap in the top of the skip was smaller than the carpet was wide. We tried pushing folding and even tried Farm Dad in the skip pulling!! Eventually we tried jumping on it, that got it in... kind of.... just walk away.. act casual.... casual... now RUN!!

The floor underneath, as you can see, is two shades, the lighter stuff are the new boards that Farm Dad had to replace because of dry rot, wet rot, woodworm, you name it they had it. The darker boards are he old floor boards. We were seriously hoping that after Farm Guy got the floor sander on them they would come up the same.

PHEW!! They did! The floor looked pretty good after the sanding and so it was my turn to get in there with the varnish. We used the same stuff as in the Dining Room.


And I don't know what you think but I think it looks pretty good!!

Slowest Internet in the World!!!

Sky, Sky Sky! We were supposed to get our Sky TV etc set up on Sunday (last Sunday) but they never came due to the weather. We were supposed to get our Internet set up on Wednesday but oh no, no Internet till you get the TV!! When are we getting the TV, next Sunday. But for some reason the Internet this time might not be set up until 15 (that's right, count 'em 15!) days after the TV! How much time does it take to press the Go button!!! So I am working on Internet supplied via a mobile phone plugged into the PC, it is generally slower than 56k dial up!

Ah well!! But its CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And we have been majorly busy trying to get the house sorted before then. We completed the Dining Room:

And it really looks great! We have even managed to pick Christmassy colours!! I have also been trying my hand at a few handicrafts. Main project was a wreath with some of the Holly from the bush outside and some left over Xmas decorations. I think it looks rather good, even if I do say so myself!

Next on my list was the Christmas Baking. I had decided that sweet things was the way to go so I went for Vanilla Biscuits and Spiced Orange biscuits with an Orange Icing!

There was also Christmas cake for all! I had bought myself a great new pan that meant I could make 12, 3inch, square cakes, in the one tin. This means I have nice little gift cakes to give away!!
And finally the mince pies, can't go wrong with Mince Pies! This was using my own mincemeat and a nice sweet pastry!
We have got a nice roast for tomorrow and there will be plenty of trimmings!!! Will report as often as I can!

Have a great Christmas People!!

Merry Christmas from the Farm!

I'm Still Here!! And it's Nearly Christmas!! But Where's the Tree!!?

So, what has been going on! Well it has been a busy week and we in no way got done what we wanted to! The Dining Room which we had figured would take a week to do has now crept into its second week. This was due mainly to the fact that we thought that painting over the old paint would be fine but it appears that is not the case! We came down the next morning to several patches of peeling paint! So we had to troop to the DIY Store and bought some lining paper which we have now mostly put up. We had a section of plaster above the fireplace fall out so we are waiting on the repair job to dry before we continue!

The floor does look good though! I said I would try and get photos of Farm guy trying to sand the whole lot with a Hand Sander, and I believe I was taking bets on how long it would take before he decided it was a bad idea.. Well, anyone who said an Hour and a half, you win! He decided so fast I didn't even get any photos :( I was upstairs painting and before I know it he announces that we need a floor sander cos "this sucks!" So, after this declaration of suckiness, a floor sander was duly hired and the learning curve began.... but I think he did pretty well, took two days and as you can see everything got VERY dusty!

After the sanding it is my time to shine! After a lot of hoovering and brushing, and more hoovering and a little sweeping and a wipe down with White Spirit and a bit of drying it was time to get varnishing. It was going to need three coats of...
So, scooting about in my socks, in the middle of the night, (working really does get in the way of fun!) I set to work transforming this canvas to a hardwood masterpiece! Finally it was done and we love the look of it! We are so pleased we have decided that the living room floor will be done in the same vein once we get around to it!

So the floor was a big success and as soon as we get that, quite frankly revolting, paint covered up and the new "do" put on there will be a room ready for all the stuff that is piled up in the living room! And then!!! Christmas Tree!!!! WooHoo!!

The Room that Is..

You may remember that the bathroom looked a little like this when we first moved in. And just for the record, it was a bit whiffy, as the outflow from the toilet was damaged – not leaking but exuding pong!

Well, we have been working away at it (apologies before we start about the photos, the room is quite narrow and it is hard to get the angle right!). We took out the old suite, don’t worry, that wonderful bath has been saved and is waiting to be re-enamelled and re-used in the new bathroom (when we finally get to extend). A brand new bathroom suite and shower got fitted by our friendly local plumber and is looking good. We got the cheapest toilet and sink suite as we could, but decided to splash out on a nicer shower unit and cubicle.

Then we needed the plasterers in to smooth of the walls as after the old suite was taken out things looked decidedly, ummm, rubbish!

Doing this actually made the room feel really dark and it was SO dusty. If you got out the shower you had to get dressed quick or else you just felt dirtier than you had before. So it was time to hit the shops and get some paint. Again we went with the cheapest we could find as this room is likely to be changed..

A nice sky blue, that certainly brightens the place up! Just need to sort out that floor now!

After 4 hours, yes FOUR, (finishing at 2am!!) we managed to get the flooring down and I think it looks pretty snazzy!! It is certainly much more pleasant to use now, ahhhhh, one room done!!

So, this is a bit late but never-the-less represents part of an entire day's working in the decorating section of the renovation (namely the stairwell in this case!). See if you can guess what it is? It comes in two very long boxes and is ridiculously heavy! (Gotta LOVE that wallpaper and the attractive Plaster Fresh walls!!)

Once it is out of the boxes there are hundreds of parts, this is a selection of them, there was a load in the working room behind me too. It was quite a challenge to put together, but apart from one section where I needed to lift the whole thing while inserting slot A into notch B, wasn't going to be doing THAT on my own, i did it all myself!! *Insert Smug Grin*

This particular item had caused us a lot of grief as we had a choice of two but all depended on the simple fact, what fitted into the car!! This one was the winner and so was chosen from the great flat-pack heaven that is Ikea, to come home with us!

We are a house of expert flat packers now after the kitchen - see Kitchen Posts. Or should that be expert flat un-packers or indeed un-flat de-packers?!

As you can see I had all the help I needed from a rather handsome young gentleman caller. Yes, Monty, always on hand to lend a paw, particularly if it involves anything with boxes!

Can you tell what it is yet? This photo also lets you have a sneaky peak at the newly decorated bedroom.. oooo was that a hint on the identity of our flat-packed friend!!

Did you guess Cat Bed of monstrous proportions?......

....then sorry, you guessed wrong, although Monty is in FULL agreement with you! It was in fact a wardrobe. TADAAAA! There is also a chest of drawers to go all with this but it didn't get the Press attention as it was getting dark and the photos looked silly with the flash!!

So, we now have a place to put all our clothes, finally, the days of living out of suitcases and bin liners is over! Phew....!

Farm Dad - What's he been up to?

My dad has been a godsend and if it weren't for him, truly we could not have managed what we have so major hugs and love to him for that!

But apart from being around to let in (and keep an eye on ) the tradesmen, accept deliveries, supply tools for us and general be great, what has he been up to? Well, we already know about his handling of the placement of the kitchen - see The Kitchen is Complete & The Kitchen Progresses, but dad is quite the Joiner, and loves getting stuck in, and has made some great changes to the house!

Well, his first port of call was the living room, it had dodgy floorboards in places and the fitted cupboard under the window was full of wet rot and wood worm: So Dad, got stuck in, out came the floorboards and any offending wood around the window (which in the end was all of it!)
...and down went the new boards. The floor below is concrete so no worries about joists!:

Next the fitted cupboard got a great revamp, old wood out, new wood in. The old shelf and top were saved as we spotted that they were made of great wood, even if they were covered in many, many years of varnish! But after some TLC they came up great:

Then it was a case of varnishing it up and finishing the surrounds for the cupboard.


Just the sides and doors to add now! However, Farm Dad does the props for the local amateur dramatics society and they are currently preparing for their Panto, so he had to head home to put his creativity to use on a more dramatic level! So there will be more from Farm Dad later...

The Kitchen is Complete..

So, with the exception of the decorating the kitchen is finished and in use! And it is great, apart from the fact that it is FREEZING!!! There is central heating in the house but for some reason unknown to the layman, not in the kitchen so it is pretty chilly in the morning and evenings. Unfortunately we can't even leave a door open into the living room for second hand heat as it just steals it all and makes the living room cold too! The washing machine is great but the tumble dryer out-appliance's it! We have been used to a washer dryer that if you showed it a pair of jeans would just sit there getting hot! So a dryer that can do a whole load is just amazing!! So, a little kitchen re-cap...

It all began with this:

Quite quickly became this:

A brief layover with this:

And finally, we can reveal the new improved kitchen with units, please excuse the walls (no idea when we'll get them done!)

Ta Da Da Da Da Da DAAAAAAAAA.....

These cabinets are all Farm Guy and Farm Dad's handy work (with brief help from me and Farm Aunt and Uncle!) You can see more of the kitchen exploits on the How the Kitchen Progresses post - where you can also see the lovely yellow colour it will all become, when I get round to painting the other half of the room!

Still Without Connection...

I hate not having the Internet at home! It means I cannot share all the photos I have taken! My plan for getting them up failed: but I have another! So bear with me! Until then you will have to put up with this horrid “Update” graphic... ah well!

I guess you all wanted to know whether or not there was news over the weekend, well there was, but nowhere near as exciting as I was hoping! We had discussed the possibility of getting a pickup truck for the farm, so Farm Guy and I headed over to a local used car place to take a look at a Ford Pickup. It was good, we liked it. It was pretty old but we figured that it would do for our needs but the question we had to ask ourselves was did we really need it Now. There are certainly jobs around the farm that could be helped with the presence of a truck of some kind but were there enough of them at the present moment to justify the expense of buying, insuring and taxing a third vehicle? So, after much deliberation, and a bit of sadness (I’ve always wanted a pick-up) we decided against it, for the time being. It was probably the best bet we have more pressing matters to attend to…

Like decorating, we got the bedroom finished, just needs the carpet properly fitted and the woodwork round the window done and we can rest easy. (I do have a photo and I will post it as soon as I can!) Just the kitchen and second sitting room to do… and the bathroom and the main living room… and the hall… will it ever end!? We are getting a wardrobe next weekend however, and there are even murmurings about a deep freeze!

Down in the garden I finally got round to releasing the strawberry plants from their transport tub and got them into the ground in their new bed. I also got round to planting the rest of my garlic... so, so far our self sufficiency extends to Strawberries and Garlic, if anyone knows a recipe involving both of them, please let us know!! (Again, photos to come!)

The Latest on the Farm

Hi,

Unfortunately I am still without proper Internet access at the moment so I am afraid that photos will be thin on the ground, although I think that I may have come up with a sneaky solution to that, watch this space.

What has been happening on the farm? Well, we are still living in essentially three rooms out of the 6 available and even these rooms are pretty sparse! Farm Guy keeps walking into our living room and saying, 'this is depressing, we must decorate it', which is a different tune from way-back-when when he was saying that the living room looked alright and we should leave it.

The plasterers are now finished, except for the bathroom, which they will return to do next Thursday. We are hoping to get some of the decorating done this weekend, I have challenged myself with finishing the decorating in the bedroom - mainly because we don't have any furniture, beyond the bed, and it will be easier to decorate with a nice open space!

Farm Guy is hoping to make a start on the secondary living room, which will be an office, we are going to sand the floors, and in his usual attempt to save a few pounds wants to try doing it with a belt sander first (I know, I know, you don't need to tell me!). I will DEFINITELY be giving updates on that attempt! Also, taking bets on how long it takes before he decides hiring a floor sander is the best idea - there is a reason they are called FLOOR sanders!

There is also the question of the kitchen and what we can get done in there too! There is still lining paper to hang, a hole to fill and some painting to do! It is looking good though, probably the best in the house. Once I get photos up I shall do a post on the woodwork that dad has been undertaking around the place too!

We may have some fun news after this weekend.... but then again we may not.... guess you'll just have to wait and see!!

How The Bathroom Progresseth..

The bathroom doesn't look a whole lot different from the original but I assure you there has been major progress. The main problem was that the immersion heater, which was on the wall just as you came in through the door was old and needed replacing. This has now been done, with one about 4 times the size and has been put in a cupboard upstairs, resulting in a nice toasty airing cupboard - see, there is some method to our madness.

The old bathroom suite has been removed, the bath kept - we are hoping to have that re-enameled and use it when we extend the bathroom. We have chosen a pretty plain suite as it was A) not very expensive and B) small! There is a shower unit that needs to be installed, this is being done as we speak.

Once again there is a lot of stuff going on while we chug away at work, it is most frustrating that so much is having to be done while we aren't there. We have both expressed our frustration at not being able to just 'get on with it' ourselves and at having to do everything by phone or trying to explain to someone else what they need to explain to someone else. We are both looking forward to the time that we are moved in and can take real control ourselves.

The Psychological Advantage

With a project like this we have found it quite easy to get bogged down and feel like nothing is getting done and we are going to have to sleep in the shed. So we decided to use the power of psychology to help us out. As present the first thing you see upon entering the house is this:

This is the kitchen and essentially it looks like this all the way around. It is the first thing you see when you enter the house and it looks, well.. pants. It also gives the immediate feeling of 'DOOM', that this won't get done in time. So we decided to make amends... onward decorators.

We spent the evening putting up some lining paper so that we can get started on the painting as soon as all is ready. Even with just the lining paper up it is a much nicer atmosphere to greet you when you walk in.

Goodbye plasterboard, hello adequately put up lining paper!