Our New House–Painting, Grouting and Other Matters

The first of two posts today.

We are definitely in the “pretty phase” with the new house renovations. Gone are the days of hidden work – plumbing, electrics, etc. The finishing touches are being made, which is very photogenic and exciting, as the end result is in sight.

Ashley the painter was there again today, making everything look beautiful! Here he is filling around the doorway from the kitchen into the utility room,in preparation for painting.

Here he is painting the doorway.

The doorway painting completed.

Ashley painting in the utility room.

General view of the kitchen, showing the painting completed.

The back passageway painting completed. When I said you’d never know there had ever been a door there, Chris said, “There was never a door there! Was there, Paul!” They insisted that I had dreamt the door!

The panel over the new door into the airing cupboard has now been plastered and painted.

At last the hole in the doorway has been filled – I was sure I was going to fall down it one of these days.

Now some lovely attention to detail. Paul has scribed some mock tiles into the wet concrete, to continue the effect of the tiling in the back passageway. When the concrete is set, he will paint these “tiles” to match the originals. I love this sort of thing.

He has even done it with the concrete filling around the base of the new arch.

Now that all the debris, tools and materials have been cleared out of the airing cupboard, you can see the heater, running the full width along the skirting board. The airing cupboard will be divided in two, half for us and half for Mum, but they will both be heated by the same heater, with the control on our side, complete with its timer. The timer will come into its own once we have the solar panels fitted some time after the move.

There is now a door in the doorway into the airing cupboard from the annexe sitting room. It was clear that there had once been a door there, but it was missing when we bought the house. It has been a case of musical doors around the house – I think this particular one came from between the kitchen and the utility room but it may have come from upstairs… Anyway, we have one redundant door now.

Here is Paul, unpacking the extractor hood and getting to grips with the fitting instruction manual, and planning how he’s going to fit it.

Paul fitting the extractor hood.

A detail shot of the extractor hood partially installed. The white covering is a protective film, here shown partly peeled back, revealing a black reverse, and the steel chimney of the extractor.

I love the curved glass hood, with its discreet control panel. It has two halogen lights underneath, and the fan can be “off” or on at three different speeds.

Paul grouting the kitchen tiles.

The grouting on the other side of the kitchen complete. Tim the electrician is returning tomorrow to finish wiring everything in, and to attend to one or two other details.

The painting in the annexe kitchen is almost complete, and the box containing the ceiling pipes has now been painted. Here it is, with the spotlight turned on. It makes quite a difference to the worktop underneath – a very nice touch, and a good idea of Andy’s.

The plaster to the left of the sink is not dry yet, so Paul cannot complete the tiling in the annexe kitchen until later in the week, but he has finished grouting the tiles he has already fixed.

Now for the outside. Here is Andy working on the foundations of the new garage, building up some block shuttering at the bottom end, ready for the concrete pouring which is taking place tomorrow.

This next picture shows the preparation for the foundations complete. The whole of the old garage is now broken up and forms the hardcore for the foundations for the new garage. It looks massive! Usually foundations look disappointingly small, so I dread to think how huge the finished garage will look! I hope it will be a suitably impressive Man Cave for my hubby!

Finally, some fun and games that happened today. Unfortunately I was inside at the time, sorting stuff in my new ARTHaven, so I missed it all, and had to hear about it later. Andy called me over to look at the wheelbarrow which is in a sorry state, having lost its wheel. Andy said that the tone of the area had definitely fallen since our arrival, and no sooner had he brought his beautiful wheelbarrow onto the site than we’d nicked the wheel!!!

I was then treated to an explanation of what had actually happened. The handles of the wheelbarrow have smart yellow rubber grips, and Chris (it has to be Chris, didn’t it lol!!) was wheeling the barrow down the sloping path towards the steps, when the grips slipped off the handles, leaving him holding them, while the wheelbarrow careered down the steps, coming to a graceful halt (thankfully!) just short of the back door! We had visions of it crashing into the door and dumping its load of concrete into our back hallway!! (A bit like me with their idea for my wheelchair, and the velcro suit to stick me to the wall at the far end! – in fact, Chris said this was a practice run for that!)

Apparently Ashley was practically wetting himself over this! I wish I’d seen it… The result was a puncture in the wheelbarrow tyre, and my hubby went out and bought a puncture repair kit, and the inner tube was repaired over lunch.