Ready Steady Renovate!!...

Well well! It has been a while! Apologies for the radio silence since October, however much has been happening and not much of that has been renovating! In fact we have been having a nice little rest after our mad DIY frenzy at the South London flat. To catch you up...

1. The flat is now rented out to some lovely tenants, who thankfully are treating it well
2. We moved into Arthur Road and have been getting through the dark winter months of commuting (2hours each way - sob) but its soooo worth it, open fires and nearby country side and a generally more relaxed and quiet way of life are just what we were hoping for.
3. We are expecting a new addition to the family! I am 4 months pregnant with our first :)

Of course all of this means that operation extension is on hold right? Wrong! Work is due to start on the extension mid next month, and to top it off the recent storms have made it apparent to us that we are now having to re-tile the roof (something we had hoped to leave till next year) - and all before Truffle (that is the bumps nickname) makes his/her appearance! Don't ask why we always seems to give ourselves these ridiculous time pressures, but it just always seems to happen that way!

As we are building over a couple of manhole covers that are outside our back door to the garden we had to come up with a solution that Thames water were happy with and get their permission before we could start work, and then of course the husband had to finish the construction drawings before we could send them to our builder, all of which has led to our start time, but providing there aren't any complications we should be able to complete the extension and fit a new kitchen in there 'BT' (before Truffle) (eeek!)

So understandably interior decoration has not started yet as there is not much point until the extension is built, or being built. With one exception of course - the nursery (*does a little celebration dance*).

This is the room as it was (before we made it the temporary office which has now been relocated to the second bedroom)

Bit difficult to get a good shot as the room is the smallest - a single bedroom. This weekend passed we have relocated the office, taken up the carpet and taken off the very old and very battered skirting boards - not easy to do under the radiator! it was quite odd to see floorboards rather than the Bacolite tiles that we were so used to at the flat. We also bought the paint too, it is Night Jewels 5 from Dulux

I am hoping that is comes out a little lighter then this - its a very bright room and gets a lot of sunlight so it should be able to take it. We have also chosen the carpet (the boards are actually really nice but far too echoey for a room where there may be a good deal of screaming - although i did put that order in for a quiet one.....*crosses fingers*), which incidentally will be the carpet for the whole house eventually (well the bits that are carpeted anyway! The colour is called Portland Stone, and even though it doesn't feel like it, its man made so stain resistant (whoop whoop):

So the idea is to have a grey background and use cool furniture and rainbow accent colours - therefore being gender neutral, yet modern and fun :) Here is the cot that we are getting (swoon):

And we bought one of these which has inspired the accent colours:

I am going to attempt to make some lovely things and I am super excited (can you tell?)

So I will post update pictures soon :)

Once the whole extension business is started I should be updating fairly regularly again - Hooray!

Moving on

Well the time is nearly upon us....a week and a half till move day - yikes! and the packing is in full swing!

The good news is that within 24 hours of the flat being listed for rent, we have just agreed to let to some really lovely tenants who we think will love the place as much as we do. Just thought I would share the finished pictures with you so we can draw a line under the south-east london flat and look forward to starting the house...

Looking at the kitchen pictures now, I am going to find parting with it very difficult indeed. I just want to thank my clever neighbours for all their hard work at http://www.karlmarrowfurniture.com/ the beauty and ingeniousness of it is down to their ability to take an idea and transform it into something wonderful and I am so glad that we were able to create it, even if I do have to leave it behind (sob). I just have to keep it in mind that we will be putting in a lovely kitchen in the house....keep saying over and over like a mantra...

With regards to the house we are surging on with the detailed drawings and have our builder lined up and raring to go. Unfortunately there are some man hole covers under the extension that we will now need to get permission from the Environment Agency to build over and will probably have to provide side rodding access, which will take a couple of weeks and be an extra cost, but once that is done we are full steam ahead!!

Now...need to get on with that packing!!

Its a kitchen, Jim, but not as we know it..

*****STOP PRESS****

The Kitchen is finished....one two three HOOOORAAAAY!!!!

Here some shots for your viewing pleasure...lets just remind ourselves of the before....
Hardly any worktop space, no room for a dishwasher

 very old and slightly broken oven...

And now...

 It was never my original intention to own this many Jamie Oliver books, it just sort of happened....There is also under cabinet lighting but I couldn't have it on for the pictures...

 Aha, in the reflection you will see the task lighting under the top cupboards...

 Shelf closed...

 Shelf slides open revealing secret entrance to the utility cupboard (and nice place to hide)...

 Lets not forget the cat needs to get out still...

Unfortunately the video I have to upload is not currently working on here so that will have to wait.

So what do you think??

The other exciting thing is that we only have 23 days left to enjoy this wonderful quirky kitchen before we leave it for the the little house......and start all over again.....

Renovation - good for the soul, not good for your nails...

 So its been a busy week/ weekend in the flat, but i can safely and proudly say that after many very late nights and a fair amount of swearing, the tiling is finished and grouted!! Hurrah!

 Unfortunately dark grey grout does little for your nails, you will be pleased to know that in lieu of payment I am demanding a pretty intense manicure once all the work is completed!

 So we painted most of the walls too, and this have fixed the skirting to the main wall as you come in. We still need to said and smooth the big wall before we  can paint it.

 So the sliding shelf and the plinths should be going on this week - its possible that some of it will be there when I get home from work - exciting!! I can't believe its nearly finished. So here are some pictured of what its looking like so far, once the shelves are in and its all dressed properly there will be more.