Hole in the floor

Of course, nothing is simple. The last bit of carpet to be removed revealed a nice big hole in the concrete floor. So, first thing Saturday morning I cut some wood to size, waterproofed it and sealed it in... Just in time for the carpet men. 

Mouldy carpet coming up

Here's Tim removing the mouldy carpet from downstairs late on Friday night. Yummy! It looks like there had once been a leak around the radiator.

All the furanture had to first be moved to the kitchen and bedrooms. That is like a big tetris puzzle! 

Tim's yummy pizza

Poor Lara, no cheese... Happy Tim, LOTS of cheese 

Under Stairs Storage Unit - Frame going in

The understairs storage unit is the last major job to do on this house, before the carpets come this Saturday morning. Here is the frame going in. I've used gripfil adhesive to stick the base rail to the floor, and lots of long screws and brackets for the rest! This type of work takes a lot longer than one would hope - got to this point about 11:45 last night... 

Unification brought by Paint

See what I mean about the different coloured woods? This is the beginning of the painting process. Lots still to do before the carpet comes next week! 

Banister being painted

Here's Lara painting the banister late at night. Most pregnancy books say that the lady should be resting in the third trimester... well, at least Lara was sitting down for most of this. That is resting, isn't it?

The stairs are looking so much better now, as all the different coloured woods reused from here and there are being covered over and they now look like they are meant to be together!

Wall behind the fireplace plastered and painted

We're now in the mad rush to finish a long list of tasks before the carpet is laid next week - just in time for the Christmas festivities! Here is the fireplace chimney breast being plastered and painted with its overcoat before placement of the fireplace surround. The hearth stones have now been laid (Gripfill is useful stuff) and most of the skirting board is down; Crystal and I tackled that last night. Lara is doing fantastically well growing our baby, and we're so looking forward to meeting it! 

Dom and the Banister

This last weekend, Dom and Crystal came to stay. While the girls went out shopping for more (even BIGGER) clothes to house Lara and the baby, Dom got stuck into the banister at the top of the stairs. Thankfully, this is all complete now, so we're nearly getting there! Just need to put down another 39m of skirting board (no exaggeration), lay some hearth stones, properly attach the fireplace, paint all the woodwork and make the understairs cupboard before the carpets come next week! (Then we can work on all the rest of the jobs! Yay!) (Sigh...)

Banister on the stairs

Look! Safe and secure stairs at last! I think this banister will be strong enough to cope with most things our little family and bigger friends can throw at it! 

Spindles on the stairs

Once the risers had been attached, we started attaching the spindles to the base rail. Of course, as with most things in this project, the ceiling protruded too far over the stairway, so many of the spindles had to be notched here and there to fit! After about two evenings of chiselling, they seemed to fit ok! Then, it was on to the handrail... 

Baby Shower Number Two

Our lovely church friends planned a surprise baby shower for Lara, which she loved! It was in a posh old teashop with crustless sandwiches and mini-cakes, scones and crumbles - all dairy-free! We also were given loads of lovely things - Tim is here seen testing the baby towel and has proved himself to be a dab hand at dressing baby-sized giraffes in the little baby clothes we were given. 

The Scottish Carpenter

Gavin's greatest hero was a carpenter, so he thought that he would follow in his footsteps, and lend a hand with the stairs. (Look at that arm go!) 

The Scottish Plasterer

Gavin decided to visit us to escape from the plastering of his parents' loft. Little did he know he would be once more taking up the trowel so soon after his arrival. This is him working on our fireplace. 

Wounded

And only one slight wound to show for this*. (*not taking into account the number of times Gav got hit by planks of wood...) 

Stairs - half way

Here are the stairs at the close of play on Saturday - boxed in, and side panels installed! 

Old stairs

These are the stairs as we found them - the plan is to box them in and make them a bit more Victorian. So, when Gavin was visiting us, we made a start... 

Our Growing Family

We've been asked for some pictures of how our family is developing as well as the house, so here's one... less than two months now before there are three Farewells here! So, so exciting! 

Normal Life?

This is just to show that we have managed to achieve some semblance of normal life in our new house - look, no DIY things in sight (at a first glance...). It was great to have the house full of lots of friendly people once more! We even managed quite well with only the one bathroom, so I'm relieved we did the right thing extending the kitchen into the downstairs 'facilities'. 

White fireplace

The Fireplace looks a lot better now that it has had its first coat of white paint. (This was done while watching Jonny English for the xth time.) What a great, philosophical* film!

* By 'philosophical', I mean 'brainless'. But hey... 

Reclaimed Fireplace going in

Lara and I had fun going round a reclamation yard at Ampthill - full of bits and pieces of rock, iron and wood. We found this old rust fireplace, with it's top painted blue!
We had some friends from college with us this last weekend. While most were dabbling in the property market (playing monopoly) Eleanor and I boxed in the chimney-breast with plasterboard, covering up the old brick. Then, with the longest screws we had (15cm or so...) we put the fireplace in place! 

Crystal and Dom's Wedding

Here's one photo from Crystal and Dom's wedding - a lovley occasion. Now happily married they reside in Bristol - a bit too far away we think! 

Gardening in the dark

Who cares that it is dark outside? Certainly not Mom - she gave Lara some lovely bulbs for her birthday, so after the painting was done, they needed to be planted out! Lamps and extension cords work wonders. 

A smashing time!

Simon and Nigel had a smashing time with the fireplace of ugliness. 

The 70's have a lot to answer for

Don't you love the fireplace? Tell me please why people would rip out a lovley old victorian fireplace and put this in it's place! Like almost everything else, this had to go. 

Very cute baby things

Lara had a suprise baby shower from some friends at work and we were given some very cute baby things - have a look at these tiny socks!