Bathroom's at 50%

Yet again it has been too long, yet things have been chugging along nicely.

Since my last bathroom update we have tided up but we're still in the in-between stages.  After Neils parents left on the Sunday (weeks ago now) we were left with a fully functioning bathroom but with a long list of finishing touches to be done.  

Here's a breakdown so we can cross them off one by one.

• Fill in holes in wall left by tiles, screws, nails and bad plastering. (Sunday 13th November)
• Make good bumpy walls
• Choose paint colours (Saturday 5th November)
• Test paint colours next to tiles/coving etc. (Sunday 20th November) 
• Clean and repaint bath
• Tile remaining walls
• Stick and paint skirting board
• Finish cutting and sticking down flooring
• Wipe down and paint all walls, (decide which colour goes where)
• Find and hang bathroom mirror
• Find bathroom cabinet and arrange delivery
• Choose bathroom fittings

The bad news for today is that although we love the white we have chosen for the bathroom (that sounds mad to me, how can there be a good or bad white but I am convinced).

Oyster by Wickes

Our bargain blue paint from Homebase just doesn't look dramatic enough to really make the room and it should.  I think it should be bold and grand to suit the rest of the suite.  So it's goodbye mountain rain (which is no longer on their website) - it looked a bit like this...

So we were thinking of going for something a bit more like this instead...

Hague Blue @ Farrow and Ball

Bathroom skirtingboard

Yes, it is 5.54 and i am oh so awake in my sofa bed considering whether yesterdays skirtingboard painting in dry! Its all sooo exciting eh.

We bought all new skirting for the room (twice) but when we came to take it off it would not budge! (With the added problem that in some parts there was nothing behind it and it seemed to be holding up the walls...)

So old skirting it is, and what an excellent job the previous occupies did.
 

So, after a quick hoover and wipe i made a start as we're hoping to lay down the new floor tomorrow *happy dance*

So ta da! 'new' and improved skirting.

And here's what the rest of the house has decended into!

Bathroom DIY begins

After all the endless chatter of bathroom rennovation I am astonished to announce that operation re-do has oficially commenced.  A very brave and dedicated Neil has been working alone over half term to clear it out before his parents arrived today.

Here we have stage 1, tiles removed from around the bath and toilet and majority of flooring removed.  On the right you can see the pedistal for our new sink!

Tiles behind the bath removed

Gemma getting in on the action!

And then day 2 commenced where Neil removed more of the grout from the wall and smashed up the bath ready for its collection this morning.

My biggest irritation so far is that we didnt really take any proper 'before' photos and I'm worried that its going to be easy for us to forget how it looked before and therefore wont allow us to truly appreciate what an acheivement it will be once it's done.

However, going from an ill fitting dark wood floor to a posh waterproof vinyl floor with freshly painted walls and a gorgeous bath and sink should be enough to make us realise the distance we have traveled so to speak.

There have been a number of last minute alterations, including us having to pick out some tiles at 10.30 last night with the realisation that throwing more tiles over the mess that is now on the walls was a quicker alternative to preparing them ready to paint.  So in the end we went for these, which we picked up at 7.30am this morning.



Bevelled Edge Ceramic Wall Tile @ Wickes £9.59 per Sqm

We also got some of the black line tiles to try and add a bit of detail but I'll see what I think of those tonight when I get home!  The next thing to choose is the grout. I think they'd look nice with a dark grey. But we shall see...

I feel so close to you right now!

This is me today, oh boy I feel on top of the world!

There has been this HUGE list of things to do for oh so long and finally I think I can confidently say we are getting to the end of it, or at least getting through it!

Life is made up of lots of small achievements like getting the washing on while you text a friend and hoover the lounge. Multitasking at it's best I like to think!

Anyway here is my list of achievements from the last few days and a few choice pictures to celebrate.

• Pick & Order bathroom floor - We used the final bit of cash we got for our wedding to purchase the floor, 3 packs of this beautiful vinyl floor (manufactured by Polyflor in the UK) The sample is gorgeous. (I'll report later on how easy it is to lay.) I originally wanted to pay £10 SqM but this has worked out at around £15 which I am stonkingly impressed with seeing as, in my opinion, it's the same quality as my original dream floor (Harvey Maria).

• Find and buy bathroom light - This has been one seriously EPIC battle to actually decide on something, I was debating posting a few of the ones we *almost* went for but I don't want no disagreement so this is what we FINALLY went for.

Ok, tiny I know, M&S arent keen on letting me show you the full thing - it's here 

I originally wanted to get a chandelier but I haven't really found one (anywhere in my price range) that really floated my boat. And although I was trying to ignore the issue, all the taps in our bathroom are brass so anything really modern is not going to look great! I'm hoping this will give our room a classy yet perhaps a little industrial feel which will be contrasted with some coloured accessories.  BTW the lights £28 in the sale (Huzzah) and free for us as we purchased it with some wedding gift vouchers. 

• BOILER repair - OK, this isn't totally solved but we have moved 90% towards the finishing line, I've booked a repair man to come round on Monday at 7.30am.

• Choose and order nursery stencil - Done and done! Many thanks to groupon, it's the first voucher I've bought. So I got the stencil for £9.99.  Will look gorgeous over our little mans cot me thinks :)

Tree & Swing Wall Decal 

Big love, now back to the cleaning!  Did I mention we're off for the weekend with Neil's family who have booked a lovely murder mystery weekend away for us.  Cannot wait to see them and show off my ever increasing baby boy bump.

Old fashioned cleaning.

Our new (but old and limescaled) mixer tap for the bath arrived today. It is very heavy and in need of a good clean. I've Googled limescale removal methods a million times but never actually done it.

Yet, here i find myself sitting in our sunny and breezy garden dabbing vinegar onto cotton wool balls, willing them to clean up my taps. Articles available online give differing times for how long i should leave them. I think I'll give it a good few hours.

And then, after the 3rd and 4th attempt I'll be out with the brass.cleaner!!

Compendium

Wow, I keep meaning to update on the various bits and pices that have been going on but I scarcely know where to start!

I think it's fair to say that things are moving along with the bathroom.  We now actually have the bath (even if it is presently located in Neils study.) I had the delivery all organised through Shiply however things as usual were not quite as easy as expected.  The driver had a nightmare journey and arrived around 9pm.  Allowing me and him to grapple with it, slowly squeezing it through the door and sitting neatly behind the sofa.

I was having second thoughts about the bath after I won it.  It will be one of the most expensive purchases that we get for the bathroom. (It was just under £150 for bath and delivery) I realise in terms of normal people this is a snip for any kind of bath and this bath is soooo gorgous, I can't wait to get in it. (Even if my belly doesnt fully fit under the water by then.)

In other Ebay related news - In a fit of madness I also decided to bid on 3 boxes of tiles.  Through some slightly mad calculations I guestimated that just 3 boxes would be enough for the entire room.  Having picked these up last weekend I think I was a little more than optomisitc! They're still sitting in the car so I hope they are heat resistant... We shall see what comes of them.  But they did only cost a couple of pounds and the petrol getting there wasnt any where near as expensive as I expected.

The garden although still full of weeds has been 'bearing fruit' or rather veg. (i keep meaning to ask Neil to help me with it but always come up with better uses of time.) Perhaps this weekend will be a go'er.

I used the carrots for the meal I cooked on Sunday and they were really yummy.  I'm so pleased we managed to thin them out as it allowed them to grow much bigger.

We also went blackberry picking in the morning on Sunday whilst we were walking the dog.  I had started eyeing them up when I went out with a friend the week before so there we headed with our two little pots.  I was amazed to hear Neil had never been blackberry picking before but he seemed to really enjoy it.  Even if he did get into a bit of an argument with a few thorns.

One of my other favourite things from the weekend was when Neil and I sat in our front garden in the beaming sunshine going through an old suitcase of science textbooks I picked up from Freeycle as a surprise for Neil on Friday.  It was really fun looking through them and Neil seemed to really love them.  So there we were, me dusting off the books, Neil flicking through them as we polished off the rest of the home made lemonade.

So now it's time to decide what to do with ourselves this weekend.  Ideas muted so far have been -

• Southbank Vintage Fayre
• Cycling in Hyde Park
• Lunch at Franco Manca's

New towel delivery

I am loving them!

Bathroom Fast Forward

So, I am pleased and elated to announce that we are really moving forward with our bathroom.

A few weeks ago I ordered some floor samples from Harvey Maria, which I am slightly in love with.  We cannot afford to pay £24 a SqM and even in the sale its still a good £20 and when you have a floor measuring approximately 9 SqM  there aren't many flooring options that are going to come in under £100.  But seriously, I can't even begin to explain the quality of the Harvey Maria stuff, it feels like it would last a life time.  Did I mention they have Cath Kidston designs *drool*

When I ordered the samples I didn't expect to really like them very much, and ordered quite a few of the sale ones just to get an idea of what they were like.  I ordered a few samples in a style I didn't think I would really like, but now I'm totally sold on the look of whitewashed wood and I can't believe how realistic it looks even in a tiny sample.  The pictures just don't do it justice.

I like the fact that the wood style of it would go with pretty much any colour we choose and as I still can't pin myself down to anything it would be great for us.  It had a really realistic texture and a solidness with the durability of being 100% waterproof.

The other fantastic news is that we finally have our long awaited bath! After what feels like hundreds of bids on ebay for roll top baths we are finally there.  It's quite funny actually, I like it when ebay tries to recommend similar items when you don't win the auction, we're trying to buy a roll top bath with taps for no more than £150 and it starts recommending ones that are thousands.  Nice try ebay but I don't think you have the right idea quite yet!

So drum roll please here is our new bath! 

I did make the slight error of choosing one without the shower head attachment but I have been assured it has no scratches or chips so its nice and sturdy.  I estimated that hiring a van to collect it from Lydhurst would cost us £40 to hire a van and with petrol (what planet was I on?!)  Just with a quick browse it looked more like £100+ so I did a google of shipping companies and came across Shiply.  As I was getting a bit desparate in terms of my lack of collection options I thought I would list it on there and get some bids for how much someone could deliver it to me for.  I was absolutely astounded, within 20min I already had 2 bids and by the next morning there was a bidding war.  I don't want to jinx it as it's currently set to be delivered on Monday evening, but do far its's been amazing.  It's actually cheaper to get someone else spending the time doing all the hard work. So the delivery is now costing just shy of £40 with the Shiply admin fee included. How exciting!

We've also gone full steam ahead and bought a set of towels off Ebay as well, don't worry they're not second hand.  I was looking forward to rolling around in then and choosing some from my favourite stores (TXMaxx, or John Lewis, both have a sale on at the moment.)  However, Ebay came up trumps again. 2 hand towels 2 bath sheets and 2 bath towels with delivery for £31!  They look gorgeous as well, really plump and cosy.  They were originally from Next which I wouldn't have thought of for towels but I'm not complaining!

Oh and we are pretty blissed out from our 12 week scan today, but I'll tell you about that some other time :)

Bathroom movement and stir fry!

So we finally won our new sink and toilet for the bathroom re-fit.  We managed to get them for £1.02p and are due to pick them up in Henley on Thames on Saturday, we're mega excited!  The pictures don't do them justice but these are the models.

So once I've cleaned up the taps that come with it, it should look truly beautiful.  Now I'm on the hunt for cheap and glorious tiles. Hurray!

P.s for quick, cheap and delicious dinner make this! (Courtesy of The Pioneer Woman Cooks)

Bathroom antics

And I'm back, sorry for the delay! Working full time had removed me from my DIY goals so I'm a part time creative for the next week or so.

In any case, we are still on the hunt for our new bathroom, we are putting all the money we received for our wedding today a major renovation.  I'll add a photo of our bathroom later but suffice to say it is a bit of a mess.  Don't get me wrong its a massive space, just badly organised.  We currently have a corner bath and a massive double sink we don't use.  We even have a chair in the bathroom at the moment which is a slice of luxury I kind of enjoy!

We have decided that we want a traditional suite with a splash of colour.  I want some cute and quirky but also stylish and appealing to any future buyers.  Here are a few of the images that have caught my eye.

Love love love the colour mix and the bath!

Definitely want some shabby chic storage

Love the drama and the style

Love the light fitting!

Why paint when you can paper

Oh hello morning.  I'm wide awake and drooling over some amazing wallpaper.  I think the fact that they dont put the price on some of it explains to me that it is far too expensive for me to afford.  Maybe I can do without the bath if I can just buy a roll of it...

I thought the print above would be beautiful in our bathroom, it goes with the traditional victorian with an edge vibe we're aiming for. - It's called Liljekonvalj and its by Sandberg where it can be seen in it's various colour combinations.

There's definitely something for everyone on their website where they have hundreds of different designs which range from classic florals, to modern angular designs and even fun designs which would be heaven for a kids room.  You can also search by colours which makes it really easy to navigate depending on the colour scheme you're thinking of.

Metropolis by Sandberg 

I'm also dreaming of these amazing designs by Little Greene.  The ones I like are based on designs found at a house on Broadwick St c.1775 which have been recreated and they even show you the original sample which inspired the design.  I love this one called Broadwick St Garden.

But there's other modern stuff too with a botanical influence which I love.

Herbes - Cocktale by Little Greene

There's also an AMAZING collection of wallpaper available from Graham & Brown and some of it is pretty reasonably priced.

Meadow by Monsoon

But I could forget all my Traditional Victorian Bathroom dreams for this!

Momento by Amy Butler @ Graham & Brown