Mattresses, Beds and why do I have to do everything the hard way....

Ok, so I'm heading swiftly into my third trimester and we still havent properly moved into our new bedroom.  The main problem being a lack of bed.  So I drag Nick on a shopping  spree to cribs causeway. We tackle prams/pushchairs in the morning (exhausting!) and mattresses in the afternoon.  At about 5pm after a days shopping, we have been in 3 mattress shops already and I say, "Lets just try John Lewis"....  So we are wondering around the department half comatose and end up lying our weary bones on a particular pocket sprung delight.  "Arrrrrrrrhhh" we both groan, completely unable to return to the vertical. And that is the story of how we ended up spending twice our budget on a John Lewis mattress.

The bed was another story.  I had really wanted an antique upholstered one, but figured that baby dribble and worse all over the unwashable padded bits would soon look a bit grim. So I picked up a victorian carved one on ebay for what I thought was a song with the intention of painting it.  4 coats later, and some nailbiting attempts to "crackle glaze" some of the frame, I'm starting to think Dad was right when he said I should have gone to IKEA....  I really need to give up on doing things the hard way when we just need to get practical before the 25th September!

As yet still sleeping on the floor...

Patio for my Precious

Probably to do with a few weeks in the South of France, but, on returning, my beloved had a bit of a (justified) meltdown about the view from our patio doors which consisted of a pile of rubbish left over from tiling the kitchen floor, general rubble and more bindweed than you can possibly imagine.

So, although we have a zillion other priorities, I agreed to get someone in to do the patio, in the vain hope we might actually have an indian summer and a bit of sunshine that we can sit out there and enjoy. Somewhat inspired by Auntie Vikkis garden path, and the general theme of recycling that grows stronger as the dream of sticking to any sort of budget fades into the distance, we decided to reuse what slabs, bricks and tiles we had left over and laying around the garden to create a patchwork patio.  I say "we"... actually a nice chap called Mike.

Its not finished yet but there's enough there to get a table and chairs and a beverage out!

The Jericho moment

Well, after our big push and three lovely weeks in France, our builders were supposed to be promptly back on site to tackle taking down the wall between the two front rooms.

In reality it took them two months to actually show up.  In the meantime we pottered, doing little jobs, while I got fatter and fatter and less and less able to do stuff.  Also the weather has been terrible- it has rained virtually every day throughout the summer, so little hope of getting any outside jobs / painting done.

Finally they arrived to take the walls down.

This happened while Nick was in Asia and I was on my own, pregnant with only 12 hours notice to pack up two rooms. Joy!

But as soon as the wall came down I knew we had made the right decision.  What a lovely big room! The next challenge was what to do with it!

The big push!

The first few weeks of May were a whirlwind. We decided to do a big push before our holiday to France as Katy was coming to stay. Kitchen in, kitchen worktops on, and carpets down on the last Friday!  It was exhausting but we did it.  No bed yet though...

Tiled Bathroom!

The Bakers come to the rescue again with the ensuite tiling. What an amazing job! My renaissance bathroom is on its way...

Tiled floor!

Finally the tiles arrived! Unfortunately a lot of them were broken on delivery but we got replacements delivered. Nick and I had a long conversation about which way the tiles should be laid, and Nick won!  As his prize he got to seal the floor with linseed oil.  And then wipe it all off with turps when it went all sticky. Unfortunately we left a sponge soaked in linseed oil overnight in the kitchen.  Would you believe it - it spontaneously combusted in the early hours of the morning! Luckily we smelled it before the house set on fire!

 At last we were nearing the stage where we could move into the kitchen.

Mum and Dad come over and Dad fits the utility sink!

We have decided to paint the wall a bright orange colour.
This is going to be a sort of 50's mid century modern weird throw back room with nostalgia from my early childhood and pop art tin can folk decoupage decor...  hummm.