My New ARTHaven–The Sink

Delay in uploading due to the DNS server being down for a couple of days.

The second of two posts for today.

Andy started putting the sink into the corner of my new ARThaven, opposite the office section. I am delighted that this unit (from the original kitchen) fits in the space exactly, and that I have also got the original sink which has a half-sink as well – originally I was going to have Andy’s second hand sink from his store, and this one was going in the annexe kitchen, but it was too large for that so I have got it.

Here Andy is fitting the unit. He has put my new tap in. I got this tap really cheap on Ebay, and then it was £10 off because I had a cashback from Paypal! The only problem is, the weight which pulls the retractable hose back down has a bore which is too small for the hose, so some adaptations have to be made – I wonder if this is why it was so cheap?!!

It’s a lovely tap, though, because on the top of the pull-out nozzle is a button you can press to convert from a stream of water to a spray. This will be very useful in my work, I can see.

In this next picture, Andy has put the cupboard doors back onto the cabinet. I am not sure whether I shall keep them, though, because if I put Mum’s pine table in front of the balcony door, the doors won’t open. I don’t mind open shelves, which give easy access to the contents. The waste will be visible, but I’m not too fussed about that.

In the ARTHaven proper, I’ve been continuing to bring stuff in. At present it’s just being dumped in the respective work zones, ready to be sorted later. I haven’t got my deep shelves yet, or the music cabinet from Mum’s furniture (coming out of store tomorrow) so there are certain things that can’t find a home just yet.

This is the main work area. The little brown thing on the left is a small divided box which I got from Dad’s workshop. It is very oily, but after steam cleaning it, I shall paint it white and mount it on the wall for storing small pots of things – maybe my flowersoft, or glitters or something.

A couple more Really Useful Boxes in the black shelf unit, and on the left, some album binding equipment and other odds and ends. I am proposing to store things in this unit that I don’t use very often – it holds a lot as it’s very deep, and has nice big shelves. Mum’s pine table will most likely live in front of it, to be moved beside the sink when I want to do any dyeing etc. near the sink. I have got a set of castors that I am going to put on this table so I can move it easily – actually I’ve got three castors, and hoping the fourth will turn up eventually!!

In the shelves across the corner where Sheba, my Cougar cutting machine will eventually live, I have put my small cardboard storage boxes. This is only a temporary arrangement for now, as I’m not sure I want them stored on their ends like that, but they do all fit in quite nicely. My aerosol cans of spray adhesives etc. are above. Again, none of these choices are set in stone and I shall probably move stuff around several times before it finds its permanent home. The ring binder storage boxes will go in the office once the shelves are fitted in there.

Over on the textile wall, I’ve put my plastic boxes full of buttons, lace, braids, etc. etc. on the shelves. I am delighted how well they fit! The cardboard boxes in the middle section will get unpacked eventually into more accessible storage.

A long and busy day today, but at least I’ve managed to clear a path to the fitted cupboard in the spare room so my hubby can start to get his stuff stored in there.

Our New House–Carpet, Garage and Airing Cupboard

Delay in uploading due to the DNS server being down for a couple of days.

The first of two posts today. Plenty going on at the new house. Paul has put the finishing plaster on the arch from the utility room into the back passageway, and Ashley was here today as well, painting – he has made a start on the utility room, and I love the way he has done the two-tone green to match the kitchen, so there’s continuity.

Here’s the arch from the other side.

Looking through the arch to the back passageway, now that all the plastering is done around the new boiler, you would never imagine that there had ever been a door there.

Today Paul made a start on the airing cupboard door. This is where the little sliding glass window was, which I was sorry to lose as it was an original feature of the house, but it wasn’t practical. There will be a bi-fold door across this opening to save space.

Paul says he’s going to box in the cables and electricity meter, with a door to give access. What was there before was awful – a panel, which when you pulled the handle, fell right out!

Paul has put a panel into the gap over the door. This will be plastered and painted.

Just inside the airing cupboard is a switch and a timer, to control the heater which runs along the bottom of the wall the width of the cupboard (not visible here because of all the stuff in the way).

The airing cupboard will be divided in two, with the heater serving both sides – one for us and the other for Mum. She will have the rest of the space for storage

Here is Paul working on the tiling in the annexe kitchen. He is using the same tiles as the ones in the main kitchen – again, these look white in the photo, but they are actually a beautiful neutral marble effect.

Here’s a general view of the main kitchen, with the plastering finished, and the tiling almost finished – just the grouting to be done. Ashley has started painting in there.

The pale green, together with the light oak finish of the units and the almost-white worktops, is a huge improvement on the dark appearance before. I love the light, airy feel of the new kitchen. Once Ashley has finished with the painting, the extractor hood can be installed, which will be the finishing touch to the kitchen.

These two boxes contain the water filter and a spare cartridge. This is going in the loft void above the utility room. The cartridge will need changing only once a year, and we have asked Jamie to do this when he returns each September to service the boiler.

Here is Ashley painting the plasterwork around the new window and door in the annexe sitting room.

The bottom cupboard in the annexe sitting room contained a built-in wooden wine rack, and my hubby removed this today – with some difficulty as some of the screws were rusted in. It will provide extra storage.

In the afternoon the carpet men arrived. Here, they have laid the underfelt (lovely and thick and springy, and insulating too) and they are about to unroll the new carpet.

Unrolling the new carpet. We have chosen one that will be neutral, hard-wearing and not show every mark, and a nice background for Mum’s rugs.

Fitting the carpet.

Working around the edges, making a lovely neat job.

The finished carpet.

This is the new vinyl floor covering in the annexe bathroom. It is lovely with the tiles, and makes the room a lot lighter than the dark floorboards. It has a slightly gritty, rough surface so it will be non-slip.

As promised, Andy has fitted a spotlight in the box covering the pipes in the ceiling of the annexe kitchen. A nice little touch to give some extra light over the worktop. It will come on with the main light – adding a separate circuit for it seemed unnecessary.

When the carpet fitters were here, they moved Mum’s new wardrobes into the annexe. This one is in the space created by the wall of the en-suite bathroom, and fits perfectly.

Outside, great excitement! the old garage has been demolished. Andy is either celebrating this fact, or doing a rain dance. Not sure which.

Here is Chris drilling out the foundation of the old garage.

To get rid of the old garage, they are using it as hardcore for the foundation of the new one! I said this was archaeology in the making – in the ancient Middle East it was common practice to build cities on the ruins of their predecessors, forming a tell which when excavated, takes you down through the centuries of the city’s history.

Finally, some more artwork, this time by my hubby. Remember the banana trees on the balcony where we used to have lunch when the scaffolding was still up at the front? Andy is extremely upset with my hubby because my hubby has thrown all those banana skins away… Note the banana skins in the picture, the knee pads (especially Chris’s) and the fact that they are all called “Boss.”

It’s amazing any work gets done at all!!

Tomorrow we’ve got to be back early because the removal men are bringing Mum’s stuff out of storage, and will be with us around 9 a.m. I have to make sure the carpets are clean before everything comes in, and afterwards my work will be cut out, sorting it all out. We’ve got a bit of time, thankfully. I’m already shattered after today… Still masses to do at home too.

Update 24th August: Mum’s stuff arrived safely yesterday, and all the furniture is now in situ, and I have made a start on unpacking and organising her stuff. We are leaving her pictures till she arrives and decides for herself where she would like them. I can’t start on the kitchen until the work in there is finished.

WOYWW 220

To find out what WOYWW is all about, click on the logo in my sidebar which will take you to our hostess Julia’s blog, where you can follow the steps to join in the nosiest blog hop on the web.

I am delighted to be able to share with you that I now have art stuff in my ARTHaven! Not a lot, I grant you, but progress is being made!

This will be my main work area. So far all that’s in it is my brand new Stickles carousel and my craft spinner that I bought for my Ink Dusters. In the Really Useful Boxes to the side are all my distress inks and re-inkers, glitters, distress stains, flower soft… you name it! I shall find a good way to display and use these.

Over on the other side of the room is my embryonic textile art area. So far I’ve just stacked up some boxes on the shelves – these contain embroidery fabrics, equipment and threads, interfacing, crochet, etc. I haven’t decided where everything will be stored yet, and I expect it will change and remain fairly fluid until I’ve worked in there for a while and know what works.

My sewing machine in its new home:

and I’m thrilled to discover how well my larger-sized Really Useful Boxes fit in the tall unit left behind in the house by the previous owner:

I am mega-excited to have unpacked my gel mediums and gesso etc. in the mixed media area, which will extend beyond the doorway onto a table which will stand between the doorway and the new sink once it’s in.

Only a few more finishing touches on the construction of the room before it’s finally finished – installing the unit with the sink, fitting some deep shelves for storing large flat things, and the fitting of the Venetian blind in a week or two. Watch this space for further developments!

Thanks to everyone for their good wishes re my recently diagnosed ulcerative colitis. I have now been on the medication for a week, and am happy to report that I noticed an improvement in my symptoms almost immediately, despite being told I shouldn’t look for any change for 2-4 weeks. As you can imagine, it’s making a huge difference to my life.

We have now got a confirmed date for our move – Monday 16th September. Mum’s stuff is arriving this Friday so I’ll have my work cut out, trying to sort it all out before our own move, and there’s still loads to do here as well…

I am sorry it took so long to reply to everyone last week – I was having major problems posting comments on certain blogs. Asking around (thanks to anyone who responded), it seems that it may have been caused by a browser conflict – Firefox has just done a major upgrade of itself and half the features don’t seem to be working – why they don’t check the compatibility of their software with their own add-ons and get rid of the bugs before foisting a new version on us, is beyond me… Anyway, I managed in the end, using Chrome. I shall stick with Chrome until Firefox have untwisted their knickers.

My New ARTHaven–The Move Begins!

My second post for today. A most exciting day for me today, as I began at last to move my things into my beautiful new room!

There are still a few finishing touches required in the room, i.e. installing the sink and wall unit, and a shelf for the microwave, and putting up some deep shelves both in the ARTHaven proper and in the office section, but Andy said I could start putting things in there once he had sealed around the worktops.

I began by bringing in some of the office stuff. There are so many boxes in the spare bedroom, and although I tried to be as methodical as possible in packing them, quite a few of them have a mixture of contents, so I have not unpacked these yet. Also, most of the boxes of books are at the back (first ones to be brought over) so those will have to wait. Here is the office so far:

There are some spare pieces of shelving propped up, and the red bucket is there for cleaning off the dust. The red baskets on the bookcase will probably end up in the utility room but were packed up with my ARTHaven stuff. The small black desk which is at present in the sitting room, will slot under the left-hand side of the desk at the end of the room, to fill the gap to the filing cabinet. I’ve managed to access a couple of boxes of books so have started filling the bookcases. All the packs of paper on the shelf above the desk will eventually find their way onto the deep shelves going up on the long walls.

Moving into the ARTHaven proper, here is Andy running some clear silicone sealant around the worktops. He was going to ask Paul if he could use this, and then he said, “No… he was rude to me! I’m just going to take it!” Lol!

On the top shelf you can see my cardboard holders for paper and ring binders. These will be going on the deep shelves in the office.

Here is a picture of the clear sealant. Quite hard to see, isn’t it – but then that’s the general idea! It will stop bits and dust etc. going down behind.

I found one of my boxes of art books so started loading these onto the tall bookcase in the ARTHaven. There are a couple of black shelves propped up in the doorway which may eventually find a home in the office.

The space in front of the left-hand section of the window has been designated my “heat” section. I have put my electric skillet there, because its box was readily accessible. I use this for melting friendly plastic etc.

Over on the other side of the room is the textiles zone. I have just stacked up the packed cardboard boxes on the shelves for the time being – eventually these will be unpacked and organised properly. These boxes contain such things as embroidery fabrics, threads and equipment, crochet, interfacing, etc.

My sewing machine in its new home. On the left of the picture, in the display zone, you can see a box which contains artwork created by other people, which I am longing to be able to display. Beautiful things sent to me by lovely people, and treasures all.

A few Really Useful Boxes in the black shelf unit. The two on the right are long ones for rolls of paper etc. and they fit exactly! As this is a very old unit, I was surprised that the boxes fit so well.

The large ones also fit perfectly in the open shelves of the tall unit which the previous owner had left in the bathroom. They don’t fit in the cupboards, unfortuately, because the doors won’t close! I can put less attractive boxes in there. Another redundant panel which might end up as shelving of some sort. In the corner you can see a cardboard box which just fits – with bits of loom in it. I have two other tall narrow boxes that I want to stow in that corner, full of long thin objects, and the loom bits may end up on the deep shelf above, once it’s fitted. Lots of decisions to be made, and the whole thing will probably be pretty fluid for a while, as I work in it and decide what works best. On top of the wall unit on the left you can see my length of white guttering which is going to be used to create a ruler store.

This is soooo exciting! Unpacking all my gel mediums, gesso etc. onto the mixed media zone shelves by the doorway! The worktop is unfortunately not very wide here so not terribly useful, so the mixed media/painting zone will probably extend further under the window, overlapping somewhat with the heat zone. It needs to be fairly near the sink, though, and eventually, when that is installed, and Mum’s furniture arrives on Friday, I shall have her old pine table which exactly fits in front of the balcony door beside the sink. I have got some small castors which I am going to screw to this table so it’s moveable, and I can access the balcony when I want. This table is probably where I shall do most of my mixed media work.

Another really exciting area! This will be my main work area, to the left of the fireplace/display zone. You can see that I have assembled my brand new Stickles carousel and put the Stickles in, and also my new craft spinner which will house my Ink Dusters. In the really useful boxes I have got my Distress Inks (which I am going to make a carousel to house – I am fed up with the way I used to struggle with them, in piles, with the one you want always at the bottom…), Distress Stains, glitters, alcohol inks, sprays, etc.

On the worktop Andy is going to make me a free-standing shelf for my carousels, and under which I can put my small plastic storage drawers as I had before. My old shelf is now part of the desk in the office. Above this, under the shelf, I have not yet decided what I shall put – possibly pegboard, or small shelf units (e.g. Mum’s old spice rack) screwed to the wall to hold small items like Glossy Accents etc. Under the shelf will be a rail for ribbons and also my gorgeous new little clips from which I am going to hang my rubber stamps – I got the idea here. I got the split rings and clips on Ebay.

On the shelf you can see my little wire rack that I keep my double-sided tapes on, and beside this, the black thing is a clip-on camera mount that I bought recently from Maplins. I have also got a couple of angled brackets with camera mount screws on them, and together, this should enable me to clamp my video camera onto the shelf above, to enable me to video my work. I am intending to rig something over the window to support this as well, and to ensure that I can film anywhere in the room. I can’t wait to press my new video camera into service!

There is still a huge number of boxes waiting to be unpacked. I am going over again on Thursday and hope to crack on then – my hubby is hankering for that room as he needs to fill the fitted cupboard in there, and can’t get anywhere near it – and also to use it for his own storage until after the move. I have explained that I couldn’t make a start until the final work was done on my ARTHaven, but now the electrics are in, and the sealant is in around the worktops, I can go ahead.

I had hoped to be further on with this than I am, because Mum’s furniture is arriving on Friday, and my work will be cut out after that, getting her annexe sorted out in advance of our own move, which we can now confirm will be on Monday 16th September. My main concern is how tired it makes me – time is short and there’s a lot to do, and I need to keep functioning!

Our New House–Underneath the Arches…

Warning – photo-rich post!

The first of two posts for today. Over at the new house today we found a hive of activity, and then contributed to it – with me doing things indoors and my hubby working hard outside.

The first thing we noticed on arrival was that Paul had started the kitchen tiling. Unfortunately it’s really hard to get the colour right – in the pictures the tiles look white, but they are actually a natural marble-effect. I had problems with the light in most of the indoor photos today because the sun was extremely bright.

In the next picture you can see he’s begun tiling to the left of the window, and is working on the arch from the utility room.

Tiling over the hob.

The tiling is now complete, ready for grouting. Once this is done, Ashley the painter can come back on Wednesday and paint the kitchen, after which the extractor hood can be installed. I think this will complete the work on the kitchen.

The new plaster in the utility room.

The next series of pictures shows Paul working on the arch between the utility room and the back passageway. I managed to persuade Andy (who has an aversion to arches!!) to allow me to have one over the doorway created by the removal of the door. Without the arch, it looks as if a door has been removed, and the arch makes it look much more like an original, intended feature. Andy said, “I take your point…” I said to Paul, “He’s softening!!! We’ll make an arch convert of him yet!” I have chosen the Flannigan and Allen song “Underneath the Arches” as Andy’s theme tune.

Originally Paul thought he might use a purchased arch former, but in the end decided to construct it himself. He has cut four curved pieces of plasterboard to form the arch, and in this photo he is attaching them to the doorway.

Here he is attaching the small blocks which serve to support the arch pieces.

This picture shows the construction of the arch, taken from underneath.

Paul demonstrating how to construct the curved piece to cover this construction, which will form the base for the plaster. Taking a strip of plasterboard, he has made a series of cuts at right-angles to the length, but not all the way through. This causes the strip to flex, and enables it to follow the curve. I have seen something similar done with skirting board, to follow a curved wall.

The curved strip of plasterboard in place, nailed to the small wooden blocks.

Paul finishing the attachment of the curved piece.

Forming the curved piece in this way obviously creates a series of flats, but these are obliterated by the plaster. Here is the first, rough coat of plaster on the inside of the arch.

Paul smoothing out the rough plaster inside the arch.

Working down the insides of the doorway.

The rough plaster layer complete. Once dry, the finishing skim of fine plaster can be applied, ready for painting.

A moment before the next photo was taken, Andy was also there, looking at it and smiling, and I said, “I’ve got to get a photo of this! A picture of Andy smiling in approval at an arch!!” At this, of course, he promptly vanished into the annexe, and nothing would persuade him to come back!

Paul said I should have said nothing, and simply taken the photo, and the only way we’d ever get a picture of Andy smiling underneath an arch would be to photoshop his head onto Paul’s body!! Using my Serif PhotoPlus photo editing software (which does pretty well everything Photoshop can do, at a fraction of the price) I have done just that.

Eat your heart out, Andy!! (Amazing – and somewhat disturbing – what you can do with a bit of photo manipulation… They can make you believe anything these days!)

To return to more serious matters… The next series of pictures shows Andy putting the finishing touches to the units in the annexe kitchen. Here he is glueing strips to the exposed cut ends of the worktops. He is not using those iron-on strips (which I find always come off eventually), but good old-fashioned Evo-Stik contact adhesive, which will attach these strips for life. He apologised for the smell, but I said not to worry, as this smell held fond memories for me. In the 60s when Formica was all the rage, my dad put it on everything and more or less built Mum’s kitchen for her, and the smell takes me back to the happy days when I was a child and used to “help” Dad in the workshop and always enjoyed watching him making things.

Evo-Stik looks exactly like Nestle condensed milk, something else that Dad loved. We used to give him a tin of this for Christmas and he used to eat it straight out of the tin with a teaspoon! (I don’t recall him ever doing this with Evo-Stik, though!)

Here are the unit ends finished, ready to receive the cooker and fridge when we move.

The sink in the annexe kitchen. Originally Andy was going to use the one from the old main kitchen, but it was too large, so this is now going in my ARTHaven. The sink he has used here is a second-hand one from his store, which was originally going in my ARTHaven. Sort of game of musical sinks around the house…

The next picture shows where the fridge is going. Mum is having my fridge from our present house, having left hers in their old house. As I am having a new fitted fridge freezer in my new kitchen, this is now redundant, and newer than hers, so she is having it. Tim has wired in a power point under the worktop for it, with a fused spur running up behind, so that it can be switched on or off without having to pull it out – this is the smaller of the two boxes over the worktop. Beside it is the double box which will house the cooker switch and a single socket.

We have bought Mum a small counter-top freezer for her day-to-day use (she will also share with us the chest freezer in the outhouse), and this will sit on this worktop.

The space to the left of the fridge will be occupied by the slot-in electric cooker, also from our house. She had a separate ceramic hob in her old kitchen, which has remained as it was fitted, and again, as I am having a new fitted hob in my kitchen in the new house, my cooker is now redundant, and Mum is having it. It is only a few years old and in good condition.

You can see the cable for the cooker coming through the wall via a plastic box. All this cabling was laid while the space between the annexe kitchen and the back passageway was exposed, at the same time that Jamie laid his famous pipework. To the left you can see the capped-off end of a gas pipe – a bit of future-proofing, in case anyone in future wants a gas cooker in this space. Much easier and cheaper to lay the pipes when everything was exposed, than to do it later.

We have taken the same approach the other side of the annexe kitchen, fitting plumbing for a washing machine behind the two single units. Mum doesn’t need a washing machine because I shall be doing all the laundry, but if any tenant in the future wants their own, they simply have to remove the two small units to expose the plumbing, and slot in their machine.

After all the pipework was finished and the wall created with plasterboard, there were a couple of pipes remaining, projecting down from the ceiling, and the finishing touch for Andy today was to box these in.

Andy completing the box. When this is painted white, it will not be noticeable. He has suggested installing a spotlight in this box to shine down on Mum’s worktop, which I think is a good idea – to keep the cost down, this will come on with the main kitchen light, and not be on a separate switch.

Major progress today – the scaffolding has been taken down at long last!!! It was becoming a sore point with Andy as it was so in the way, and preventing him from getting on and making the step from Mum’s new door to her patio. Speaking to Mr. Chappel, he explained that it suited them better to leave the scaffolding in situ until they were ready to use it on their next job, so that they just had to take it down and load it onto the truck and take it straight to the new job, rather than offloading it at the depot and then reloading it for the next job. I can see his point, but this practice does result in irritated customers who are forced into acting as temporary storage for their scaffolding for no charge!!!

In this picture you can see the roof of the outhouse, which Peter the roofer has cleaned off and sealed for us. It looks so much better than before! His work is now complete.

Now you can see the new roof in all its glory, without the scaffolding. We are delighted with how it looks.

My hubby was busy all day outside, tidying up and cleaning. Here, he is in next-door’s garden, clearing away the massive growth of ivy which is choking everything. Our neighbour is very pleased that my hubby is taking care of this boundary fence, even though it is really her responsibility – we are putting in taller fence panels (more privacy for both) and putting anti-cat spikes on top in an attempt to keep our kitties in the garden.

After lunch he sat down and started to repair the pretty little garden seat in Mum’s patio. The wood on the back is coming apart – it is a curved piece made up of several pieces of wood, and the joints have gone and the pieces have pulled apart. He is going to get a woodworking friend to make a new back piece. You can also see the bird table with the feeders that my hubby has put up in readiness for Mum’s arrival – she loves her birds! Also one of the tubs of flowers he’s done – we’ve got a load more at home ready to come over.

He has cleaned up the other patio outside our kitchen window. One day I hope to have lots of plants cascading down this wall. There is also a water feature just out of shot on the left, and we need to find out how to get it working.

Here is my hubby cleaning up at the front. He’s already put a fresh coat of paint on the tops of the walls, and he borrowed a pressure washer from a friend and has made a start at cleaning the front of the house, which was extremely grubby, making the house look unloved. Part of the problem is dirt caused by passing traffic. At the front door there is an old-fashioned brass doorstep and letterbox, both of which I intend cleaning up and restoring to their original shine. I love these original features…

Plans for the next few days: on Friday they came to measure up for Mum’s sitting room carpet and bathroom vinyl floor covering. They are coming to fit these on Thursday, and then on Friday her furniture is arriving. I shall be over at the house on both these days, and will be extremely busy from now on, trying to sort Mum’s stuff and getting the annexe habitable for her in advance of our own move, after which we’ll have our own stuff to sort out before we are ready for her to come down. Still lots to do – the en-suite bathroom has yet to be finished, and once that is done, work can begin on the garage, which Andy reckons will start in a couple of weeks’ time, which pleases my hubby no end! His man cave… Andy says it will be fully insulated, will have light and power, and he could live in there! I now know where to pack him off if he doesn’t behave lol lol!! Andy has now confirmed that we can go ahead with our proposed moving date of Monday 16th September, and my sister has agreed to bring Mum down at the end of the month, which should give us a bit of time to get sorted and recover ourselves a bit. Meantime, we are continuing to take boxes over, and over the next two or three weeks, I shall be starting to put things in our new kitchen. It’s great to be able to get ahead with some of these things in advance of the move proper, because there will be less to do afterwards, and I should be able to find the essentials!

Finally, a bit of fun! Remember this?

This was Chris’s artwork on an offcut of worktop placed over the hob to protect it while further work was going on. I loved the little face in the “O”!

This afternoon, I discovered that Paul had added to this work of art.

What a brilliant portrait of Andy! Look closely at the “crazed” look in his eyes. Note his signature curly-whirly orange glasses cord, and the sad droop of his shoulders. He’s desperate to get sacked so that he can have time off to work on his own house!

In my second post of today, you can see what I was busy doing. Soooo exciting!