The living room. Note the lovely stone-cladding, and the artex ceiling |
It was in great need of it.
These are some of the 'before' pictures. The house has literally had nothing done to it for decades.
I assume the wallpaper went up in the early 80's, and nothing had changed since. Not shown here: the lovely curtain poles, which were screwed to untreated bit of wood which were, in turn, glued to the wallpaper.
My Bedroom. With woodchip wallpaper everywhere |
Spare room. More woodchip. |
The 'before' pictures of the bedrooms are less dramatic, because you cannot really tell that the walls (and ceilings) are covered with lumpy wood-chip wallpaper, and the carpets so thin that every floorboard could be seen.
And these pictures don't show the black, sooty plaster, loose around the sockets and where the airing cupboard used to be. Or the lovely holes where the previous owners had TVs on the walls, and all kinds or random bits of wire everywhere...
Living room. |
Also not shown: the peeling artex ceilings in the kitchen and the bathroom. They were not fun.
So, I moved out, and the builders moved in, and made dramatic and messy changes.
It is very strange to come home at the end of the day and find that you can see all your brickwork, or can learn what your loft insulation looks like from the underneath.
My bedroom. No more woodchip! |
Also my bedroom. No more ceiling |
But mostly what I came home to was dust. Black dust. Lots and lots of black dust.
And then some more black dust.
And did I mention the the black dust?
It was also a little worrying to see just how much stuff was ending up in the skip outside the house. I started to feel as if I might get home one day to find the entire house was gone, with nothing left but skip after skip of rubble.
Fortunately, things then started to improve.
I would return each evening to find plasterboard, and then plaster, and new skirting boards, and new electrical sockets, and all sorts of things.
Living room |
And then came the decorators, and the new, non-black, walls went from pink, to white(ish) to the colours which I had chosen.
Then, last week, after the decorators had finished, the carpet fitters arrived. I had not, originally, planned to replace all of the carpets but in the end, I decided it was easier than doing them bit by bit, plus they really, really needed to be replaced...
Bedroom |
And it does, I think, all look rather nice.
The carpet fitter finished on Friday morning, and on Saturday morning two blokes with a van arrived to move all my furniture back indoors, so I am now, officially, moved back in.
spare room |
It is not quite finished:
I don't have any curtains yet, and all of my books are in boxes (the third bedroom is, literally, half full of boxes of books right now.)
Bedroom with furniture! |
I am stalking a couple of carpenters with a view to getting some bookshelves and cupboards built into the living room, and one day I want to have a wood-burning stove in the fireplace, and some better quality furniture.
The books, awaiting unpacking. |
And outside, the garden needs work. But for now, by new house is all shiny and new, and I am very happy with it.
Now, I just need to get the books unpacked ...!
2 comments:
Whohoo! It does look lovely and I bet you are glad to be moving back in, after all these months.
Are the kitties as excited as you are?
I think they approve of there being an indoors again, and soft furniture to sit on.
They have not offered any views about the colour schemes.
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