Phew, my arms are tired

This morning Alan and I visited a kitchen and a fireplace shop in Newbury then hit the house. We think we've decided on the fireplace for the living room and the amount I budgeted was spot on (for once). We've also arranged for a kitchen fitter to come and see us on Friday (but this is going to be way over budget) and I'm not totally convinced but an considering removing the wall between the kitchen and utility room. This is a big thing as it was important to me that we kept the downstairs toilet in the utility room and I am not having a cloakroom in the kitchen, as some people have suggested (you know who you are). Ewww, how horrid!

Anyway, on to the photos from today. This is the only unit left if the kitchen. ...and Alan showing the difference between a decorators sponge and a normal one. I want to show the fireplace hole in the kitchen, which is really confusing us. We'd love to have enough room to have the cooker and hob under here but it just won't work, as it's far too low.Right, concentrate! Here I am stripping the fireplace in the main bedroom. A job I've never done before. This the second coat of paint stripper and it looks like its going to be an OK job.Meanwhile, Alan is stripping the numerous layers of kitchen wall paper. After lots of scraping and scrubbing, this is as far as I get with the fireplace for one day. I've seen layers of white, green, yellow and pink paint. On the outside parts I've hit some blue with no indication that I'm even going to get to the actual fireplace. I'll come back tomorrow with some more paint stripper and energy. Dinner, shower and pub now.

My parents are fantastic!

One picture doesn't do any justice to how much work they put in yesterday but here it is? They stripped the whole of the main bedroom and are currently ripping out the kitchen.

Upstairs

This is the upstairs where there is the best wall paper ever! I think I'm the only person who thinks this though. Unfortunately, it isn't in the best condition so will be removed at some point but I'm hanging onto it for a little while longer.
This room also has a blocked up fire place, which will probably be the last thing we work on.
On to the bathroom, which is giving us quite a bit of a headache. It is 2.6m x 1.45m (going down to 1.35m). We're talking very, very tiny. It even has a miniature corner bath, which I'm never going to fit in.
This is the landing, which is a really good size.
And this is the 2nd bedroom, which has a fire place in. I'm looking forward to stripping this.


This is the main bedroom with another lovely little fireplace in. Hope to start stripping this one at the weekend.

Celebrate!

First things first, get the bubbly open then I'll show you around. This is us in the kitchen. See the lovely original cupboard behind us? I'd love to keep it but it might have to go.


Here are a few reasons why we can't move in until a new kitchen is installed. Yuck! Even with a good clean, I just can't see me cooking in here.


Here is Mum in the living room looking guilty as she has only been in 5 minutes and ripped off the boarder. I'm really looking forward to having a Victorian style fire place in here.

Possibly some good floor boards, fingers crossed. We plan to sand them and not have a carpet in here as well as the main bedroom.

This is the dinning room but Alan will use it as his studio. It is really dark at the moment but we hope to be able to lighten it up, make the most of the door to the garden and do something with that horrible bricked up fireplace. This is the only room that has hardly any plugs, which is going to be a real pain with everything he needs to power.

We thought the fuse box might need to be replaced but Dad thinks it'll be OK even though it still has those wires that you change.

Our New House

This is our new house.

It was built in 1894 and is at the end of four terraced houses on a no-through road in the village of Pangbourne. It had been owned by one family for the past 30 years. I know nothing of it's previous inhabitants.

Our offer on the house was accepted on 25th May 2006 and after four months, quite a bit of stress and a scary survey, we completed the purchase today.