More progress, some finishing touches applied....

The plasters came today. They're going to spend 2 days here and the sitting room will be transformed. Not finished, but having the plaster on, and all the surfaces smooth and uniform will be a huge difference. That's been after about 4 days of hard graft by both of us. Me doing wiring, filling in after wiring, putting plasterboards up (having to cut each and every one of them too), wife doing wallpaper stripping. It's a swiz as it doesn't look better than the last post, even when the boards are up....

There's one other thing - I made the hearth, or at least the base for it. You can just about make that out on the far side of those saw horses. The chimney breast was a pain, with much messing about to get it not even all that even and level.

If you liked it then you should have put a ring on it.... a ring main that is. And some CAT5E too. These sockets will be hidden in a cabinet, and that one high up will be behind the TV.

Anyway, as I said, the plasterers came and have done a bit - you can see where I've covered the RSJ - this room was one knocked into two (not by us - in the dim and distant)

This one just shows the fireplace a bit better on the far side of the Heath Robinson scaffold the plasterers will use to do the ceiling.

In other news, the boy's room got a finishing touch - he's now got a Star Wars storm trooper threatening that soft toy chicken....

Should be more progress to report soon!

not done, but certainly dusted....

Yesterday, we left the sitting room with this view. Today's task was to cut the channels for the wiring for the first fix electrics. I want to get the room ready for plaster. I guess this post marks a first. Mostly I post the 'during' shots. As in the room isn't at the 'untouched' stage, and it's not finished (unless it is). Some of these really are during. As in while the work's going on, rather than the 'beginning of the day' and  'end of the day' shot.

So, then, above is where we left it yesterday. Below is the same view today, in the middle of the chasing out. Good job I was wearing a face mask....

But not for this shot!

Again, lots of dust, followed by the result once the dust had settled . You can see we've not tackled the stairs yet....

This is the end of the day shot. Carpet is up and out, electrics and data points chased out, bit of a tidy up. That sofa on the right will be picked up by the council in a week or so.

A view toward the front of the house, which is the back of the room, or that's how I think about it at least. Dual aspect, or so the estate agents would have it.

This is the view towards the front door. The bottom of the porch used to be timber too. It's brick now and looks much better as it ties in with the house nicely. The dining room is on the right.

The porch is currently storing bits and bobs - mostly wiring and tiling/flooring stuff. Hope to get this finished up soon.

The porch from the outside. Very much a 'before' shot. Or kind of - the brickwork you can see wasn't there when we bought the house as above, but the rest is more or less untouched.

More soon....

Getting serious once more....

...but first a few odds and ends...

 The front wall is finished, at least as far as the bricks:

The gate posts look a bit incongruous without gates. They're on order, being fitted mid-August. We also need another house sign for the wall. The one purched on top of the curved bit of the wall will go on the new gates.

Here's where it gets a bit serious. When we bought the house, the estate agent's pics of the sitting room fireplace had it look like this...

Which is only a tiny bit hideous. To be fair, it is a nicely built effort, but the width of the fireplace compared to the fire itself is huge, and that little fire really doesn't have much chance of heating the room. So it really had to go. It will be replaced by a log burner. Which means the fireplace has to go. The builder's opening is what's needed, this is what the housebuilder left for whatever fireplace the person finishing the house wanted. You can see this below in the whole room pic.

Luckily we had that bit of wood lying in the garden. It had come from the playroom fireplace. I just hadn't chucked it out thinking a big piece of wood like that would come in handy at some point. Well, it just did. Not sure how many barrowfuls of hardcore came out of that fireplace, but it's serious when you have a wheelbarrow in the house, and 110V tools (note yellow transformer).

We're having  a bit of a blitz on the inside of the house for a few weeks. Want to get this room ready for plaster over the next week or so. Then we can decorate and have Mark the floor man back. This room needs a few more things like radiator covers and a cabinet built to house the electrical/electronic gubbins. The hearth and fitting the log burner will also make this a longer process too. I'll also need to make a swingy-arm thing for the TV. So a fair bit, but looking forward at least to having this room modernised!

Front wall - again, so close!

From:

Via:

To:

 And via:

To:

Yes, yes, we don't have gates, and the piers are not finished off, but look - it's starting to look like someone actually cares about it! Finish the piers, remove the cones, plant that verge in front of the wall, and we'll be there! So close....

Guest Room

Again, very close!

From:

To:

Yes, the headboard's not back up, but again, carpets! So so close!

So close on the boy's room!

From:

To:

Yes, yes, so the wardrobe drawers need fixing, and the bed needs making, but look - carpets! Furniture!

And also:

Just need a doorknob now!

Hero father-in-law returns for the little boy's room

When we bought the house, our sons room looked like this (this pic might have been from our first visit perhaps)

As per our daughters room, the room was gutted, the lathe & plaster stripped out, modern insulation fitted and a new window too.

The blue plasterboard is sound deadening plasterboard - it's between the two kids rooms...

At this point the old electric light was still in action....

We'd hardly got the plasterers out of there, when the father-in-law tore around the M25 and did this:

Huge progress - all the lights in, the plug sockets working, walls painted, woodwork done.

Carpet fitter will be in later this week.