The deadline.........

Yep, well, Sarah would be castigating (??) us by now, as we are about to over-run on our 12 week turn around.

But on the positive side, the end is not too far off (2-3wks??!). The kitchen is almost there (waste pipe for sink needs fitting, the skirts and under stairs cupboard door needs painting, the electrical units need switching to chrome, and some wall paint needs touching up here and there).

Craig is in a dilemma whether to fit the bathroom next or do the decking...think he's worried about someone nicking his decking from the back garden before we've had chance to nail it down, but equally, we want to finish the inside before the gardens.

So, how do you like the Front door? We have a public vote you can participate in. Do you think the doorstep should:

• a) be cleaned and left (it will look OK when not dirty and dusty)
• b) Be painted it's original red colour
• c) Be painted black to match door and bricks below damp course outside

Need to think about the fact that the stone door step goes under the door and is visible in the hallway inside when the door is shut. The hallway is cream with white woodwork and the door is black (inside & out). Thoughts??

Ikea King!

We had a lovely Easter weekend at the house. It started by grouting the kitchen floor, and then getting on with other stuff while we tried not to walk on it!

For me that meant more glossing, for Craig it was fitting the reclaimed door which even with fitting a new lock etc looks so much better than the old one...although exactly the same style, so most people won't even notice!!

Only had a couple of hours on Saturday so we began the kitchen units. This was quite easy when we got into it, and we were knocking them together in about 15 mins each. Sunday we really got stuck in and began attaching them to the walls....then ran out of raw plugs.....no DIY shops open, so continued with some of the smaller niggly jobs again, glossing etc.

Monday.....we had a day off!!! This did mean a small trip to B&Q to get more raw plugs so Craig could continue first thing on Tuesday morning though!

Since then, he's been getting on OK, although we've had a to do a slight re-design again! Can't believe it after all the time we spent! Anyway, decided to buy another wall corner unit to match the other side, but it will mean the door won't completely open, as the cooker hood will stop it, but should mean the cupboard is accessible enough.

Starting to really take shape. I've been round again tonight and done some filling in the new door, and sanding it down ready for painting, and sanded some other woodwork ready for more glossing!

Craig is very proud of his new number too.....some little chrome digits.......i didn't put them on straight, but luckily, Craig spotted this and was able to save the day.....God forbid the slightly squiffy numbers may have put off potential buyers!! Sometimes, I just don't think I take development seriously enough :-)

Few days on the tiles!

Even with a super duper tile cutter, and a super duper husband, the floor in the kitchen has take a while to lay, and we're nervous to rush it, so we'll probably leave grouting till Friday. This is frustrating, because we both really want to get on and fit the kitchen units, but if we want the place to look good, it takes time!

I did manage to crack on with the glossing upstairs, which also seems to have taken forever, but with each door side taking 30 mins, and it needing 4 coats (primer, undercoat and by looking at one side after just one coat of gloss, it will need 2....why do they call it 'Solo'????), that is 16 hours of work just painting the doors, without the skirting and window sills!

Craig has started doing the niceties of fitting the chrome electrical fittings (light switches and sockets) today, as some of them might need filling round and painting. We didn't want to keep the white plastic ones, we think the chrome ones look more stylish, and bought on-line, not too expensive either. I'll take some pics at the weekend and you can judge for yourself.

Craig had another call from an interested party yesterday, so we're hopeful that as soon as it is ready, someone will want it!!

The house is finished and sold in an hour.

Did you really believe me???

But we are getting on well. This week Craig has worked really hard getting the floorboards sorted and fitted properly throughout, and has completed all the painting in the kitchen. Last weekend he had a bit of a game fitting the additional joist under the kitchen floor, but managed it in the end, and got the bards back down in there. This meant he was able to fit the large hardboard panels to the floor, and has begun laying the ceramic tiles on the floor now, which look really good.

The glossing upstairs is coming on, but there is so much!! Most is primed and undercoated now, but the final gloss coat is yet to be done. I'll get there eventually!!

We've had Allied round to measure for the carpets, but they won't be fitted until absolutely everything else is finished, so in about 3 weeks hopefully. We spent 4 hours in Ikea on Friday sorting the kitchen units. We'd played around on their computerised design planner at home, but we wanted to look at the units in real life again and build the little block model to give us an idea if it would look OK (see the Flicker album for our masterpiece!!). amazingly, we ordered at about 3.30 on Friday and the kitchen (all 65 separate items!!) arrived at 5.30 Saturday....amazing! Hopefully its all there, although they did tell us at the time that some items were on order, so Craig will have to go back this week sometime when they come in. I guess we'll be fitting the kitchen next weekend, once Craig has finished the floor and it's had time to harden off.

I decided that with the nice weather, I'd take a break from glossing and see if I could improve the look of the garden. have managed to tidy it quite well, but we're not sure how we will progress and how much to do to it really. The grass is quite lumpy, and there are no defined borders at present, but I'm sure we can do a good job. Unbelievably, at the end of the garden was a compost heap (well that was probably it's original use!), with a carpet it in, lots of bits of wood, and I've yet to extract the old vacuum cleaner I can see poking out!! Our skip is just about bursting, so we'll have to let it go soon, but looking at the rubbish at the end of the garden, we'll need another!!

Looking forward to the long weekend at Easter to get the kitchen in and probably more glossing done!!