Hallway Part 18

In the evenings in the last week, and over this weekend, we have been ploughing on with the painting in the hallway. So lots of caulking happened; we have added the second coat of paint on all the walls, and the bulk of the woodwork has been done too. Phew!

Apart from a snagging list of little bits of painting and tidying up (don't buy B&Q's own masking tape - its dreadful, and pulls the paint with it when you take it off!)...



And here, how the hallway is looking (L-R), looking in from the front door; looking down from the stairs; looking up at the upstairs. All tidy and nice!

I also just realised that nowhere in all the hallway updates have I mentioned that we bought ourselves a length of coir matting to put down by the front door to act as a large door mat. So happy that we did - infact wish we'd bought a bigger piece that went all the way to the inner front door. Edging the mat is on our snagging list, but its perfectly functional as is.

Autumn Sunrise

Both Sunshine and I were wide awake at 6:30 this morning (must have been all that chocolate at his parents last night!). As a joke I suggested that maybe we should just get up and go find somewhere to see the sunrise ... and somehow the idea caught on... Looking it up it appears there's not many good views of the sunrise from Bristol (lots to be found of the sunset), so we thought we'd just hedge our bets and head up to the Observatory overlooking Clifton Suspension bridge. All wrapped up and flask of tea at the ready, we drove up to Clifton in the cold but fortunately dry morning ... sooooooooo glad we did! The sunrise was a bit hidden round the corner behind some trees and a crane, but it was lovely to be up that early in the quiet city and watch it wake up.

We then headed into Clifton village for some hot chocolate and toast and then back home to DIY ...

Hallway Part 17

Another weekend's push on the hallway... MCP came round again and we masked, sanded and painted. Can't quite see it here (got too dark to take any decent photos by the end), but by the end of Sunday we had most of the hallway, upstairs (done ages ago) and downstairs with their first coat of paint... its coming together now and I need to start thinking about lamshades and picture frames :)

Hallway Part 16

So, after a few weekends off (term has started and Sunshine has been REALLY busy with lecturing and stuff), we had another go this weekend at tidying up the bits of the hallway that needed doing like sanding and prepping all the skirting boards, including making ready all the little bits of wood that need screwing into the walls for the skirting boards to attach to; fixing the door frames that got damaged when we pulled the old floorboards up (you can just about see the trip-hazard we've put up for ourselves on the inside front door frame - its to hold in place the glued and screwed door frame that had been splaying outwards and making us not be able to close the door properly).

Sunshine's dad came to help again and by the end of the weekend we had the bulk of the stuff down and ready for PAINTING :)

*erm, yes, the front garden path is still not totally filled and covered yet ... seems to have dropped off our priority list at the moment ...

Lead Pipes Woes Part 8

Water board contractors came today and dug up the street and took out the bit of lead pipe in the road and replaced with blue plastic. I must say it was fascinating to watch them dig up the concrete on the footpath ... we could have done our own garden path MUCH better ... but, hey ho - you watch and learn. One of the annoying things though was that they dug no-where nearly as deep as we had been told we had to, (neither did they add a trace wire to their pipe as we had been instructed to). They are not following their own advice! You can see our blue pipe being connected to their new blue pipe on the photo at the bottom left. They were also very efficient in filling the whole up again ... I think it will take us a little while yet ...

And here's Sunshine pulling out the left-over lead pipe from under our hallway floor - my was it heavy! And on the other end of the hallway, under the stairs, blue pipe waiting to be connected to a connecter that leads into the kitchen (which Sunshine promtly connected after I took this photo). So apart from what (we believe) is a small amount of lead in the kitchen*, we are now a lead-free household :)

*Kitchen overhaul is planned for next spring/summer so we will deal with all the lead at some point.

Hallway Part 15

The new floor boards are going down today! How exciting! Sunshine is doing the nailing mostly by hand this time - he used an angled nailer the last time - but actually its quite difficult to use an angled nailer in a narrow corridoor. Also, our walls are not the straightest in the world so there was a lot of pre-laying thinking involved in working out what the best "straight line" to align the boards up to would be ... you can just see the bit of brown string to the right of Sunshine's mallet that is being used as a guide - which runs all the way to the front door.

I'm so pleased though - it feels like we've turned a corner in the hallway (considering this was the "room" we first started with last summer...

Hallway Part 14

Another busy weekend on the hallway front. Over the last week Sunshine has been doing things like levelling out the joists so they all sit flat and don't creak). Then early today, Sunshine and I spent a big chunk of time clearing out under the floors (wish I'd taken a photo of how much "dust-of-ages" was down there in the first place!). The bulk of the houses where we live are Victorian, so under the floorboards is often bare earth. Luckily for us (unlucky for some!), ours was one of a stretch of about 7 houses bombed out in WW2 and then re-bulit in the 50s in the same Victorian style as the rest of the houses in the neigbourhood. Means we have a much better quality of construction, electrics and plumbing; including concrete under the floors ... so we cleaned and insulated the water and central heating pipes in preparation for ...

... laying down more insulation... Our lovely neighbour and friend, David P came round and helped Sunshine staple in netting; lay down insulation and the vapour barrier membrane. Sunshine has had to then put down some boards temporarily so we can walk along the hallway (much easier when you can see the joists...). Current exclamation to all guests walking in the door is "Don't step in the lava!"

Lead Pipe Woes Part 7 and Hallway Part 13

Sunshine's dad came round again today to help fill up some of the pathway ditch-making. He even inscribed our names in the concrete! How sweet...

The Water Board man also came to inspect our work and he was very happy (He gave us a 9/10 considering we did it all ourselves) - so we should be getting our supply changed within the next couple of weeks.

In other news we tidied up the hallway a bit and Sunshine managed to give the stairs a bit more support by wedging in a longer piece of floorboard under the stair post and some extra wood underneath.Things are on the move again ...

Hallway Part 12

So here we go again with the hallway - finally ready to get all the old floorboards up - only to realise that the staircase main post seems to only be supported by a bit of floorboard ... yikes!

Lead Pipe Woes Part 6

Ah! Things moving along now ... Big grey pipe and bendy duct installed under the front door...

And new drinking-water blue pipe (and insulation to keep it from freezing if there is any ground frost) slowly but surely installed.

Neither was as easy as it looks on the photos - lots of jigging and poking and shoving ... but its finally done! Can call the Water Board now to come and disconnect the lead pipe and connect the plastic pipe! Whoopee!