Bookshelves - with books!

The fuse box has been fitted, the final shelf installed and the paint finally dry, so I spent the morning loading stuff onto the large alcove shelves. There are a few bare patches (especially on the bottom shelves) and I need to drill holes to move a little speaker higher up, but I think it’s looking good so far:

The other great thing is that there is room for more books. The smaller shelves are looking almost bare. I don’t have enough books! I need to go book shopping! Woe is me, o me miserum, alas-alack-alas, etc.

I have also thought that I need something to go on top of the little church collection box on the bottom righthand shelf. I’ve wanted a bit of kinetic art for some time, and this seems a great place for a piece. I can’t afford that now, but it’s something to look forward to for the future.

The destruction continues…

I have been so busy with the house that I haven’t had time to post any updates. Lots has changed and I should be able to share some prettier pictures soon, but mostly I’ve been continuing to pull the kitchen apart.

The good news is that our new (well, secondhand) cooker is now installed, after removing the glass safety lid and fitting some stainless steel plates (kindly made by my father-in-law) over the holes . It’s great - two ovens, big burners, shiny stainless steel - and exactly what I had in mind. It was also only £63.

I’ve also cut down one of the cabinets and installed a little pull-out larder to the right of the cooker, which still needs a door. Mostly, though, I’ve been ripping things out. I’ve hacked off a lot of the bad plaster from that corner and ripped up the quarry tiles. We’re going to need to use a self-levelling compound on top of the old vinyl tiles that were underneath before we can install the cork floor. I’m quite looking forward to that, as I’ve never done it before, but it does sound daunting.

I also got around to staining the curtain poles in the sitting room yesterday, using teak wood dye topped with shellac (French polish). I think they came out really well:

That’s all for now.

The destruction begins…

I started work proper on the kitchen this morning, taking out two base shelving units, worktops and some wall shelves. I have shuffled the two remaining base units into the corner, which will be my only work surface until near the end of the process. I don’t think any gourmet meals will be coming out of my kitchen for a while.

This is the corner where the new radiator-cum-drinks-and-cutlery cupboard will go. Eventually there will also be a table here (where the cupboards are at the moment).

Tomorrow I’m going to order the radiator and pipes, and then I’ve got a lot of clearing to do as we’re having the gas cooker installed on Monday and the electrician is here on Tuesday and Wednesday to install the lights in the kitchen and do the fuse box.

Little Spotty Chair

The little chair looks finished, so I thought I’d post a photo now. I just need to do a little bit of stitching but have mislaid my small upholstery needle, so that will have to wait. I’m quite pleased with the end result. It wouldn’t pass muster with a professional upholsterer, but it’ll do for me.

AT Spring Cure To Do

I’m sitting here feeling a bit overwhelmed by just how much I have to do in the sitting room and kitchen, so feel that a list is in order. I must remember that I’m concentrating on the sitting room only for the cure - the kitchen is another project entirely. So, that said, this is what I want to get finished during the next 8 weeks:

Windows - finish up curtains (hem the second one), replace the blind, stain the curtain poles

Bookshelves - install final shelf (once fuse box is fitted), arrange books and ornaments, drill holes for hi-fi wires, etc

Chairs - finish reupholstering small chair, choose fabric for large chair and reupholster

Sofa - make / buy throws and cushions

Lighting - decide where lamps will go and rewire if necessary

Landing strip - clear out table drawers, get hole in wall replastered, rehang pictures, buy message pad

Fireplace - decide on colour for fire surround, paint chumney breast, buy and hang picture

Art - find, frame and hang pictures for walls next to bookshelves

Understairs cupboard - organise storage and make room for coats, bags and shoes

Floor - order floor tiles

Reupholstery 101

Looking at everyone’s Apartment Therapy cure photos has inspired me to do something a bit more decorative than bashing bits of wood together. I’ve had a quiet work day today, so took the opportunity to start work on the little chair with the wobbly leg. First up was to mend the wobbly leg. I started off by trying all sorts of proper leg mending techniques, none of which worked, as the wood round the leg was so badly mangled from someone else’s previous attempts. In the end, I just screwed on four metal plates and hammered some little metal wedges in. It’s not pretty, but neither is it wobbly.

The only downside is that the leg is now about 1/4 of an inch too short, which makes the chair rock a bit, but I’ve decided I can fix that by inserted a stained wooden washer in between the castor and the bottom of the chair leg.

After all that bodging, I followed the instructions from Mother Earth News archives on how to reupholster furniture. I’ve taken off all the various bits and labelled them and am now left with a naked chair:

Now all I need to do is cut out the bits from the fabric I bought and put it all back together. Which I’m going to do right now.

Work on the kitchen begins

I’m doing quite well in getting through my weekend to-do list. Today I installed our new fridge-freezer, which was delivered yesterday morning. It’s an under-the-counter one, and I had to cut down a cupboard in order to get it to fit. (This is all part of an already-decided kitchen design, not just a random act of cupboard destruction).

This is what was there before:

And this is what it looks like now: (The picture isn’t very good because it’s dark already and we’re still living by the light of one lonely bulb in the kitchen, but you should be able to get the general idea)

The itsy-bitsy cupboard on the end is going to be a little pull-out larder unit, to hold stuff like cooking oil, soy sauce and other ‘need it by the stove’ items. I’m going to experiment with designing the door for the cupboard, but I’m pretty sure it’s going to be a natural wood finish. I’ve also wondered whether I should put some reflective surface on the far side of it, as it’s the only barrier between the fridge and the cooker. Would foil help to reflect heat back towards the oven, or would it need to be a stainless steel sheet? I need to investigate.

Spring Skirt

I’ve been neglecting my Wardrobe Refashion duties, what with all this woodwork, but last night I made a quick skirt. It’s made of teal moleskin with some Liberty fabric for the waist facing and comes just below the knee:

The pattern was from Sew U by Wendy Mullin. I like this book a lot and learned quite a few tips even with this simple project (like punching holes in the fabric with a bradawl to mark the end points of darts and using masking tape to mark dart lines before sewing). It’s also got a good section on organising sewing stuff, which I think I need to read and put into practice.

Spring Cure ‘Before’ Photos

I’ve been very brave and just posted a set of ‘before’ photos on Flickr ready for the Apartment Therapy Spring Cure which starts on Monday.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/36355274@N00/sets/72157594565099286/

Off to Wales, now. Hwyl fawr am nawr.

Plans for the Weekend

It’s been a pretty exhausting week work-wise but, as I’m taking tomorrow off to go for a little jaunt to Wales, I’m in weekend mode already. Before I go tomorrow, our new fridge-freezer should be delivered so I’ve got to plan the quickest way to get it into position in the kitchen so we’re not completely overrun by duplicate appliances.

The fridge-freezer is a side-by-side model which is much wider than our existing fridge, so I’m going to have to chop down an existing kitchen cabinet to make room (and to hold a little pull-out larder). While I’m at it, I think I’ll also have a little experimental excavation of a few floor tiles to see how difficult they are to remove. If I have time, I’m also going to borrow my father-in-law’s workshop and attempt to make a cupboard door out of this:

I picked it up from a client earlier in the week who has a barn full of this stuff and said I could have as much as I wanted. They said it was some sort of quality hardwood, maybe walnut, maybe oak. Who knows? Hopefully it will clean up well. The good thing is that I can just experiment, as there is enough where that came from to make hundreds of kitchen doors.

Also, because I’ve been slacking on the Wardrobe Refashion front, I’m going to make something on Friday night. Not sure what, yet, but just clearing all the work off my desk and setting up the sewing machine will be a good start.

And I suppose I should also get around to touching up the walls behind my new shelves so I can load them with stuff. And stick felt to the bottom of the TV and my new lamp so they don’t mark the paint. And… and… and…

Sod it. Right now, I’m going to relax and have a little snooze. I am very, very tired.