Took me a while to get these pics on but I was hoping to get all the finishing touches sorted like pictures, trimmings, doors and proper shelving units. Money and time as usual have put '
paid' to this.
Anyway here ya go:
The lounge. To see what it looked like before check out page 1. This room is definately not finished yet. (Postman Pat lampshade in place at the mo which I haven't taken a picture of. Please forgive the tennis on the TV. I am not a fan of tennis at all but I am a fan of Serena Williams so I was watching her bouncy bits...err....bouncing like all good pervs do.
I have repainted, added curtains, added short term shelving, added fire surround, hung the TV(s), laid the Italian walnut laminate floor, added a free suite with some brown covers my mum bought me for a house warming.
1 - This is my fishy area. New scape as you can see and pride of place next to the TV. This corner of the room is also complete with children's toys. lol
2 - Our dining area. Sorry for the plastic table cloth and unstraightened curtains but you see what I see, no special tidy ups for the fishy viewers. This table and chairs was in a poor state of affairs when I bought it for £50 off ebay BUT it is extendable up to 12 people size, old, good quality and I wanted it. I have stripped it all, french polished it all, hard waxed it all, re-upholstered the chairs and made my mother jealous at the same time. he, he
3 - The media centre. This is the area which is most behind because I plan to build a full unit to go from floor to the top shelf (out of photo) which will hide and house all this equipment, complete with glass window doors so the remotes work for the TV/Satellite and Hi-Fi stuff. (Satellite is TV Cabo from portugal as I don't watch TV and it keeps the wife happy........ish)
4 - The Seating area - This is also unfinished but too expensive to complete for a long while yet. The covers are makeweights really until we can get the money for a decent chocolate leather suite.
The Hallway. Boring place I guess but may as well show you. Small compact. Space for a door etc.
I have painted and used the same Oak laminate as the kitchen (its waterproof and if you've read the first page I bought a whole pallet of mixed stuff so I had to work out what to use where and get each room the same colour floors etc. lol)
The Stairway. Boring again but this part was the worst in the house. the stairs were covered in paint spots and very splintery. The walls had huge holes in them and were a nightmare to fill due to it being powdery old plaster and often filling a hole made it worse. lol
I have painted, stripped the stairs back and 'made' a stair runner.
Landing. Boring again but it is the 'welcome to the sleepzone' area. Can you guess which room the kids sleep in?
I have painted and used beech laminate flooring.
The bathroom This was like the lounge. Cream Paint. Permament Marker Graffiti. Horrid old taps.
I have painted, replaced the taps with a shower/tap combo, tiled part of the wall, added a shower rail and curtain etc. The floor is made up of 2 different white and bleached Oak laminates which were waterproof and they actually look quite good mixed!!!
Finally for this post is the Garden
When I/we moved in this was like a derelict unused field. As you can see I have managed to cut the top 3ft of grass down and it has started to go green. I resseded a patch in the centre (to the left of the clothes post) which was an old bonfire. grey, ashy and dead. The far end I have totally dug up as I will be using this as a vegetable patch next year. This year it is acting as a safety are to keep the kids away from the rubbish. I have also started to cut borders (On the left and you can't see them lol) I have started chipping the ¼ish ton of natural limestone that has come out of wherever I have dug into smaller (1cm ish) pieces for a cheap free 'gravel' patio. You can see how much I have been chipping so far. lol
There you have it. There are 3 more rooms left to show you.
Master Bedroom - Finished but full of crap that needs to go into cupboards or skips etc.
Kids bedroom - Finished but full of clothes boxes and other things (like a fat lazy sister in law that never gets out of bed.)
Downstairs Lav - Not really started on yet.
There are also 2 cupboards which need sorting and then the bedrooms can be cleared.
As you know the objective here being heavily in debt and losing my job last November (I started a new job in February) was to keep the cost as low as possible hence why the whole house's laminate bought as a mixed pallet for £165 delivered. Here is the breakdown for the rooms:
Lounge
Shelves - Free, made from old broken wardrobes
Large TV Wall bracket - £22 off ebay (The smaller one had one with it)
Fire Surround - Free off dontdumpthat
Table and chairs - £50 off ebay
Curtains - £16 from instore
Suite - Free off dontdumpthat
Suite Covers - £49 off ebay but a house warming present from my mum.
Stair Runner was made from 4 runners £5 each from instore and stapled to the stairs.
Bathroom
Tiles and Grout - £25 from Wickes
Shower Rail - £8 from Wilko
Shower Curtain - £1 from Poundland
Tap/Shower Mixer and shower - £22 off ebay
Garden - Totally free. I have used wood from broken pallets for the fence and stone from the garden itself for the patio. I guess you can say the grass seed was the only cost at £1 from poundland. Oh and concret for the fence posts was £5 from Focus.
Next up will be finished pics of the bedrooms and maybe an advance on the garden.
Hope you like it. Not bad for 6 months work in a derelict house whilst working around women and children and with a daytime job too.
Andy