Floors, glorious floors

Three coats with two hours and a light sanding in between coats has resulted in Poor Man's Wood Floor.

From Briar Crescent

From Briar Crescent

From Briar Crescent

From Briar Crescent

It really feels like we have a proper house now...or will, once the trim is painted and the sofa is out of the kitchen.

Wriggling little monsters

So, we were happily pounding the nails down in the floor in preparation for sanding when Lukas noticed the boards in the corner seemed extraordinarily soft. Lubo decided to pry them up, and the culprit for the softness soon became evident.

From Briar Crescent

Yes, it seems the woodworms had quite the meal of our floor. We're half convinced this is old damage and the nasty wrigglers have died out long ago, but just to be sure, we removed as many affected boards as we could, and coated everything we could reach with worm killer.

From Briar Crescent

New boards fitted, we then left Lubo to the sanding. The floors are now beautiful and bright and ready to be varnished today!
(Thursday morning, the lounge looked like this - photos of latest progress to be uploaded tomorrow)

From Briar Crescent

The final push

Lukas and I had great plans for this week that would involve nice, homemade dinners, relaxing on the sofa, and a few episodes of Jeeves and Wooster. However, the best laid plans were quickly smashed yesterday with a call from Lubo, who it seems had a few days free in case we wanted his help around the house. How could we say no? So, hopefully, by the weekend, we will have several useful shelves and (drum roll, please) the floors in the living room all sanded and shining! So, instead of lazing about, we spent the evening buying supplies and cleaning out the lounge.

Half-cleaned out living room:

From Briar Crescent

From Briar Crescent

We also managed to drop some things off at the recycling centre and the only things we came home with are these two oil paintings:

From Briar Crescent

L. isn't fond of them, but I'm really pleased.

The little bedroom

In a few minutes, I will close my eyes on what has been an exhausting weekend. For some reason I can't quite remember, I decided Saturday would be an ideal time to install one of my beautiful doors. I now know that door installation should never be taken lightly. It's almost worth it when I see it hanging there, looking so nice, but L. and I have both decided the other two doors will have to wait a long time for their installation.

Door from the bedroom:

From Briar Crescent

Door from the hallway:

From Briar Crescent

As well as wrestling the door into place, we also finished painting the little room (white, for now) and spent this evening moving things out of the office and into the little room in an orderly fashion.
The paint, still drying:

From Briar Crescent

From Briar Crescent

From Briar Crescent

And the clutter moves back in:

From Briar Crescent

From Briar Crescent

(It's still a work in progress, but we're quite happy to have another proper room done in the house)

On flooring

Along with the many, many things that came with the house (more curtains than we have windows, loads of ugly cement garden figures, stash of 60s porn), we also had three whole boxes of unused laminate flooring - with underlay, no less. We've been plotting for a while to install it in the little bedroom over the very badly abused floorboards, and this week we finally got around to it.

Little bedroom before:

From Briar Crescent

Underboards to even the surface:

From Briar Crescent

Spongey underlay:

From Briar Crescent

And finally, the new floor in all its glory!

From Briar Crescent

From Briar Crescent

We were pleasantly surprised with how easy it was (though definitely a two-person job) and swearing was kept to a minimum. The only downside has been that the stuff that used to be piled in the little room is now crowded into our office.

From Briar Crescent

From Briar Crescent

Odds, ends, and doors

We've been doing little things around the house of late and happily settling into the office.

The hall's woodwork has had its second coat of white and touch-ups have been made:

From Briar Crescent

We finally found some appropriately-sized frames at the Recycling Centre, so we have started cleaning them up:

From Briar Crescent

Lukas is no doubt getting tired of hearing how excited I am about the amazing doors I found on eBay for a shockingly good price.

Doors as they are (L. think's they're fine as they are....and they're not bad....)

From Briar Crescent

But look at these beauties:

From Briar Crescent

And finally, Alien Table!

From Briar Crescent

The office

I am typing this from our freshly painted office and it is glorious! Lukas and I spent ages trying to find a colour we would both like for it. In the end, we ended up with a blue that I love and (as a default), Lukas's beloved sash red.

The process began last weekend, with the careful scraping away of all of that blasted peeling paint and filling as many cracks and holes as we could whilst still remaining sane.

From Briar Crescent

From Briar Crescent

Stage 2 involved painting the whole thing white, and convincing the ceiling to stay white with a few extra coats.

From Briar Crescent

From Briar Crescent

And finally, colour, glorious colour.

From Briar Crescent

From Briar Crescent

Lukas's side:

From Briar Crescent

(My arms are shaking at the thought of bringing his desk up the stairs)
My side:

From Briar Crescent