Labours of love

We have been working, but as yet haven't had the satisfaction of seeing anything completed so I've been resisting posting. It's all been about the preparation, the sanding, the priming, the clearing. None of it very inspirational. Sanding the floorboards was exciting, until the plasterer turned up in his boots and wrecked them all again. Note to selves: must do things in right order.

We may be about to turn a corner. Our solid wood kitchen from Woodstock in Bristol arrives tomorrow. We failed in the quest for a second hand kitchen. You could get lucky, or you could wait years for the right thing to appear on ebay etc. But it's handmade, and it's supporting a local Stokes Croft based business, so happy with that. Painted in F&B Borrowed Light. We've chosen Cornforth White and Wimbourne White for walls and woodwork to go with.

We've done quite well foraging for other reclaimed items. Wessex reclamation yard in St Werburghs has provided us with a limestone slab for under the range cooker, a Victorian fireplace for the bedroom, and a radiator for the bathroom. Second hand range cooker found on Trade It in Portishead for £250. 

My parents came for a weekend of stripping, sanding and digging (up pets from) the garden. Good progress made. Lots of jobs started. A few weeks on, lots of half finished jobs still hang around. But this time next week I should be able to post a beautiful transition from ugly duckling to swan.

Some of the work done so far.

Black, green, yellow, cream... a hundred years of paint layers stripped away from the door frame in a lead-filled haze.

New bifolding doors in F&B Light Blue, finally seal us from the elements

Sanding... boring. Foreheads well protected from particulates

Painting the back of the house

Digging for surprises

In case I wasn't sufficiently poisoned with the lead paint, I then set about filling gaps between floorboards with resinous glue and sawdust.

Kitchen walls, stripped and plastered