Go go instant garden...sort of

Well what more could i ask more after a busy weekend in the garden than the current shower of rain that is christening my newly planted back border? Excellent (although I am not looking forward to traveling home in it mind...)

This weekend we continued to install the sleepers that were delivered last week, and I can categorically say that even though gardening is supposed to 'keep you young' we both felt incredibly old and broken by the end of it! There still a bit more to go with a path, removal of some rubble and doing something about the lumps and bumps in the grass, but for the most part it is done. Big tick off the list - HOORAY!!

Here are some pictures (hoping to get an aerial view from the neighbors soon).

The back of the flat looked like this

 With the addition of some stepped areas (which still need to be filled with gravel to finish them off) it now looks like this

The back of the garden which you will remember from last week now has plants in it looks like this

 and the side which did look like this

now looks like this

Hard work

Well here we are again, Monday morning, after what has been hard working weekend, I bearly have the energy to lift my arms enough to reach the keyboard. However we have made some excellent progress, so with hard work comes results!!

This weekend we completed a number of tasks - lots of things to tick off the list (Hooray!). We took a very early delivery of our sleepers for the back garden

After lots of hard work digging (heavy clay sun baked soil and LOTS of stones- sheesh) We have managed to make this (I still have a bit of soil to put back in and it needs to be planted up)

The wall deals with the slope in the garden by making the bad along the back all one height, so its a lot higher on one side.

As if that wasn't impressive enough, we also managed to collect the white glass (obscured glass) for the door to the back room and top panel of the new door frame

We have also removed the last of the kitchen units (meaning we are now down to washing up in the bath as the sink has gone) and the husband has nearly finished the wiring, but behind the sink we found a glorious array of very retro wall paper and some newspaper from the 1950's

The kitchen now looks very bare indeed and its a bit strange. We hope that the units will start to be fitted by the end of this week (fingers crossed), but in the meantime we will have plenty to get on with in the garden and glazing the door.

Now on with the working week! At least I get the sit down for a bit (though its a bit painful getting up again....)

Destruction

So this weekend we decanted all the kitchen into the lounge so we could remove the cupboards and make the channels for the new sockets and breaker switch to go in. We have fashioned a sort of army kitchen, which is not very convenient but not totally awful (mostly because we have left the oven in place and the sink unit for now - no washing up in the bath just yet!), it feels a bit like being on holiday being able to make a cup of tea in our lounge - obviously is you are used to living open plan, this won't seem so novel of course.

The actual destruction of the original kitchen did not take very long to do, and now the room looks like this: (please excuse the dustyness, the photos were take just after the husband has finished angle grinding the channels in the wall so the air is still thick with brick dust - yuck more cleaning)

 The back wall where the tall cupboards used to be (please see previous post)

The side wall where there used to be a storage heater and table with a small shelf (please see previous post)

So now we await the new kitchen which is being made as I type! Thought I would show you the colour scheme.

So Oak worktops, shelves and kick boards

 Light grey top cupboards (matt finish)

 Darker grey bottom cupboards (matt finish)

with gloss white flat metro tiles and grey grouting. We are still a little undecided on the floor so I will give you that up date when we have made the final decision!

Kitchen: Whats cookin...

Well, we've been very busy working away since my last post. We now have a fully functioning utility cupboard (one two three - hooray!). I'll pick up where I left off with some pictorial explanation...

So after the plumbers visit to move the pipes, we set to work earthing them and sealing up the hole we cut in the ceiling

We then filled  all the gaps in the plasterboard with a filling compound and sanded it down - very messy... it was not until after this was done that I set about cleaning the entire kitchen (and I mean everything) for the third time (groan) - *tip for the future... it may seem like a lot of work to remove everything that is not in a cupboard, out of your kitchen before doing these small things, but trust me, cleaning them all afterward is a lot more soul destroying! You have been warned!* - Here some pics of it all plastered and sanded, oh and a very dusty husband to boot....

So then we could fit the floating shelves (complete with blowing the fuse because of drilling into a cable - whoops - check where your cables are people!) and paint it. And once that was done, we could move the washing machine in and other bits! Hooray!

As you can see from the first pic we have used expanding foam to fill around the door and eventually this will get plastered so the wall with the cooker on will be lovely and smooth. We won't be laying the floor tiles until the kitchen units have been fitted.

I thought you might like to see some picture of what the kitchen looks like - before the washing machine moved (so that when it is all complete you can marvel at its wonder and beauty)

The exciting thing is that the new kitchen is now in the process of being hand crafted at the workshop, all final design decisions have been made and we just await the nod to take out the old one and start the fitting.

Eeeeeepps!!

Progress cont...

Just thought I would add some picture following the plumbers visit today :)

Progress..

So our good news about the planning consent at Arthur Road has given us a new wave of motivation to power on in South East London to get the flat finished to enjoy it a little before moving. With that in mind we are anticipating the start of the kitchen refurb and have been busy this past weekend preparing for the plumber who (as I type) is redirecting the water pipes and making new connections for the washing machine in our little utility cupboard - not sure I have ever been this excited about plumbing...

So I though I would post a few pictures of what we got up to at the weekend in preparation of the new kitchen (eeeek!)

As you can see the pipes currently come down the wall, these will be in the way of our lovely sliding shelves/ secret door so need to be redirected up into the ceiling (where my lovely husband has started to cut) into the room behind him (which is our newly created utility cupboard), down the wall to service the washing machine, and then back through under the level of the work surface to service the sink and dishwasher.

A word to the wise when taking down a ceiling that has been up for a long time (in this case the 1940's), the crap that falls out on you is truely disgusting so masks, goggles and clothing that basically covers you up is recommended - trust me!

We then decided to that since we had already made a massive mess, we should destroy the small wall next to the (retro) cooker and take the tiles off that wall as it will be painted in the end (the cooker is coming out and there will be an electric oven and hob at the other end. The amusing this was that the tiles seemed to be stuck to each other stronger then the wall and so mostly came off in great sheets which was in equal parts satisfying and strange.

 Heres what it currently looks like

Once the plumber has finished today, we hope to be able to finish the utility cupboard this week. Stand by for pictures!

Green light

I am pleased to report that we have been granted full planning permission for Arthur Road. Since we have our moving date and contractor lined up we can now start to firm up the plans for work to commence as soon as possible. HOORAY!!!

We have been away on our holidays recently so not much has been achieved in Southeast London, however we did managed to get out and make a great start in the garden at the weekend, which we hope to continue with gradually. We have a plumber coming to redirect water pipes and relocate the washing machine into the newly built utility cupboard, and are just waiting for our carpenters to let us know when the kitchen will be ready to fit so that we can rip out the old one in preparation. We then have to decorate the back room and hallway before the flat will be finished - 4.5 months till we move!!!