They say one renovation often leads to another. . .
When we had the floorboards done, we also planned to have the laundry tiled. It was nothing but horrible old vinyl, torn and worn.
Laundry, Pre-Tiling
Just off the laundry, and actually under the stairs, was also what we call the ‘punishment toilet’. It had the same vinyl that needed replacing but as a bonus had an old, stained toilet with a hairline crack. Eww. So we planned to replace that as well.
Punishment Toilet, Pre-Tiling and Loo Replacement
When our friend the builder came to look at the job, he also mentioned that since we’d gotten a heat pump and would certainly never be using the wood stove in the living room fireplace or the decrepit electric heater in the dining room fireplace he could take these out in favour of some more storage space. Since this is a small house and storage is important, we said yes.
Living Room Wood Heater, Pre DestructionAlso keep in mind that our tv stand, etc were here in front of the wood heater.
The laundry was soon tiled and new loo in. Brilliant!!
Newly Tiled Laundry
New Loo, New Tiling
Since the people who would need to cap the fireplaces had an opening, the work on them started the day before I went on maternity leave. And was a bigger and messier job than we’d realised it would be!
Destruction in the Living Room
At one point Lottie had to add her own signature to the renovations. . .
Since brickwork was being taken out, there was dust and grit everywhere! Whatever could be taken upstairs was, and we were basically camping out in the front spare bedroom. At this point I was on maternity leave, and Lottie and I basically spent all our day in the spare bedroom freezing. The various workmen had all the doors open so they could come and go to use their tools, and it was too dusty and messy to be in any other part of the house. We hadn’t realised how long the job would take; it was actually longer and more disruptive than when we had the bathroom done! So we wound up giving a deadline: only whatever could be done by Friday, 5 August would be done. The extra shelving we wanted could wait! And it’s a good thing we decided on this; I was actually in labour with Sparky when we still had people working on the fireplaces. But it’s done now – not painted, not with all the shelves we want – but done enough for now!
Tv is now on the wall and doesn’t need to be on a big piece of furniture sticking out into the room. The wiring for it runs through the wall an into the shelving that’s been placed in the old fireplace hole. Yes, needs painting, but it’s DONE!
After Dining Room FireplaceWe actually didn't mean for the dining room mantle piece to be taken out, but it was. And we're actually glad - this fireplace is much larger than we thought it would be. We had them retain the old shape of it and it's rather nice and gives us lots more spce in the dining room.
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