steel is the new gold

it has traversed icebergs, fought polar bears and finally, it has arrived.

so now all hands to the deck. the steel joist is being lovingly prepared, basted with stuff and primed for its new job of holding up my house. it weighs in like a gold bullion and needs four people to lift it in to place....yikes.

and then the wall can come tumbling down...

all hopefully taking place tomorrow - will take photos and keep ya posted.
much excitement.

snow drift

ok, i usually love snow. its the best thing ever and there is nothing better than fresh snow fall...on the alps. now it is starting to get my goat (if i had a goat).

our steel beam, crucial for the wall op, is lost in england. our builder, crucial for whole house op, is stuck in lanarkshire. me, crucial for not a lot, hijacked at work (there are definite cons to being a press officer in the transport industry during a snow crisis). my phone, crucial for a lot of business organisation, lost somewhere in the snow.

basically a right sticky-wicket.

s'no joke

structural engineers and a dirty house

there has been so much to do that sadly this blog has been neglected. i do apologise (to my one reader ;-)).

so, where are we...the house is now a work site. the builder has been in and removed the bathroom suite and kitchen units. as we are knocking out the wall between the dining room and the kitchen to make one big work / live space at the back of the house, he has also knocked holes in the wall and installed padstones, which will take the weight of the impending steel girder. (we are still awaiting go ahead from the council before we fully knock out the wall).

warning. i am in the mood to rant i therefore am about to start on our experience re structural engineers, namely those that have done our council application. (should you be not interested in this, please skip to the next paragraph.) firstly, if anyone is looking for a career where you do little for a lot of cash, become a structural engineer. we needed to fill in a council required building regs form in order to knock the wall out safely and be able to sell on our house in future. after asking about and no one being able to recommend a structural engineer (for reasons which become clear) we finally picked at random from an online website. they quoted us for the work and from chats with others, it was a standard amount. an extortionate £525 for the drawings plus £90 for the council application plus £65 for the SER certificate. then they needed architect drawings provided on which to base the engineer drawings. really, what did they do for the £525 except turn up with (i kid you not) a biro pen and the back of an envelope on which to take down a rough drawing and measurements? so over the proverbial barrel we had them do the architect drawings as well (after checking this was common practice) and a mere £450 later these had been done. however, if this wasn't enough money (c£1.1k) to have fleeced for what ostensibly was about half a days work (at a push) they then had the cheek to charge us printing costs for the 2 sheets of A3 paper £9 - the worlds most expensive printer,  i could have done this at work for free - and then to cap it off, the £2.25 for stamps. what a rip. at least we haven't paid them yet :-)) and if you're after the name of this delight i will publish it once the form is complete and in my little pauper hand.

ok rant over!

back to the house and i think this is the most worried i have been. kingarth is now completely uninhabitable and covered in dirt. if we do not start to put it back together soon i may start to stress that our january deadline is unrealistic.

on a more up beat note, we have started to strip with earnest. the dining room is now wallpaper free, and the interesting (?!) bamboo print from the lounge is three quarters away. slate floor and retro metro wall tiles have been ordered and will be delivered next week. the kitchen will arrive over the week and the wall coming down is scheduled in for next sat. b&q is becoming a second home.

preparing for the wall op

so much to do...

so after the waiting, it is now the doing. and a lot of doing.

firstly the structural engineer was round to do the drawings (back of an envelope, a most interesting approach) and charge us a lot of cash for the privilege.

our builder was over and ripped out the kitchen and the bathroom - took three of us to get the beautiful baby blue bath out of the house, the weight of it was unbelievable. it is now serving cows well in a field near airdrie.

tiles have been ordered, deliveries have been taken.

work has started. stripper dogs are a god send (thanks eric).

research continues - whilst we've ordered the kitchen, the worktops remain an unknown quantity. corian is leading the way, though there is a worry over the stain control.

and taps. so many to choose from - and why the expense? i never thought i'd be having to debate the rinser sink / monoblock flow / swan neck / faucets and swivel spouts and even think i would care, but now it is all consuming.

i have concerns for my sanity.

a new dawn

at last. on a drech and dreary day last friday, we got the call. welcome to us, the proud owners of 'Kingarth'.

as we crossed over the border to what will be our new home (after a few months of diy heaven [ahem] ) it felt chilly and strange. rain belted at the windows - fortunately no leaks - as we wandered around the rooms, each one with something to explore.

plus a bunch of granny furniture. anyone in need of a

• dining table & 4 chairs
• sofa & 2 armchairs
• 2 fireside armchairs
• natty rug
• 2 x single beds
• double bed
• small wardrobe
• massive gplan length of room wardrobe
• dressing table
• medium wardrobes x 2
• chest of drawers
• massive wardrobes
• gas cooker
• and on (ask for more detail)

let me know.

boring but informative

right, have exhausted every kitchen available to man (under the £10-15k mark). so somewhat dull but all the same possibly helpful for anyone else looking, see my reviews ...

• homebase - verdict: 6/10. ok (but safe) colours -mainly white/cream wood/gloss, cheap prices. however, quality reflecting price. terrible showroom in the milngavie site, poor selection and no 'soft' shut for drawers/cupboards even (not sure if that's a reflection on the showroom or the goods). to be honest, the one trip was kinda enough to put us off. though not a bad website for initial viewing. reviews from friends = none.
• moben - verdict: 5/10. this could have been a lot higher, however...the website is not bad, though lawrence is a bit off-putting. there is a good range of colours (safe and non-safe) and had i gotten to know the prices it may have had more to offer, however the two times we tried to go to the store (sauchiehall st, glasgow), it was shut. review from friends = none.
• howdens - 8.5/10. liked the colour range and price of these guys. they had a trade showroom (open when we visited) however the quality of the style we had chosen put us off a little. busy showroom (good sign) and this came highly recommend by both our builder and friends, for quality and build. review from friends = 9/10.
• john lewis - 7/10. some good colours in the range and really like the idea of the painted wood range, though, in the glasgow showroom, it looked a bit mock for my liking (and therefore the price). also despite having wandered around the showroom twice, for at least 15 mins, not once approached by a sales person. website ok, hard to find - i didn't realise they even did a range until visited 4homes website (which is very good for ideas btw, hats off to them). review from friends = none.
• fired earth - 8/10. to be honest, this would be a 10/10 but i can't afford it, so ba humbug. anyone who has afforded anything fired earth rates it 10/10
• magnet - 9/10. liked a lot about their products, very helpful showroom (glasgow sauchiehall street) and the kitchens felt quality. therefore whilst being mid-range on the price, worth it. the only let down was the colours on offer. apparently they have reined in the range to reflect the current wants of the market place, so now focus mainly on wood/cream/white/gloss. the website is very informative with good pics, and gives a good idea of range and cost. we went during their sale and they offered a realy good deal. friends have rated this pretty good.
• ikea - 8/10. liked a lot about these kitchens, stylish and good designs. the quality, unfortunately not so good. website not bad, the 3d planning tool rather irratating. key item to consider - can you handle going to ikea.
• b&q - 9/10. an initial review of the place had left a good impression. we had liked one of the ranges, though were slightly worried, because we hadn't felt the quality was as quite as good as some of the other higher-end places we had been. but the colour range was definitely the best we had seen, and generally the quality was comparable/better than the mid-range kitchens, but with less of a price tag. however, the website isn't that appealing - it feels cheap and this rubs off a bit on the way that you feel about the product before you look at it. however, a second look round after seeing all others really helped. the staff were friendly and helpful and the look and feel from the showroom puts the website to shame. no friends rated, however following a purchase and the impending installation in Dec 10 by our builder, we will be able to provide you with an in-house review. woo yeah.

any other reviews happily received - just comment

come diy with me

got a sneak preview at our new place this week. the agents let us in (pretty good of them considering they get nothing back now its a done deal ~ so ta SHH clarkston) and i was v excited, running around and admiring stuff. also tempered this with running around and freakin at the dodgy wallpaper / carpets / paintwork / electrics...you name it.

so anyway, thought i should start 'come diy with me'. it would follow the simple rules of the programme, with a twist. basically you get four people who do or don't know each other, but each claim to have an interest in diy. then i get them to come round to mine and work their magic.

some photos to paint the picture...

like the idea of this blue suite, but the reality is a bit difficult to pull off (especially when the toilet has already been changed to white). so have been to the salvage yard (glasgow architectural salvage - fully recommended, very helpful and they have a good range) and got an edwardian white sink, called trevor. still searcing on the perfect bath to match.

aahhh the kitchen. again, would love to keep these cupboard fronts- the colour is amazing- but the reality is they're creamcrackered. this is the room that will take the most work. we're going to knock out the wall (still working on that) and basically refurb, but keep the traditional larder and wall cupboards. has made planning the layout of the kitchen very tricky but we're getting there. couple of items to note, stop tap coming out of the wall. plugs in the window frame. lush lino.
nb. also check out the tiles and play spot the difference with the above photo...

just dodgy paint in the one...what's that? oh yeah~the amazing 70's carpet. love it. will find a special place for it (no this is not a euphemism for the skip).

bedroom #2 wallpaper. 70's revenge.

non-hoose

not house related but thought i'd post some pictures for you as it is stunning.

located up in the remote wilds of north west scotland (past ullapool and keep going) we attended a friends wedding - aka the dodgy ceilidh dance shots.

enjoy...

and on

good news - secured our mortgage today - relief. on the decorating front time is marching on and, despite my continuing research (in between attending a fabulous wedding up north in the beautiful achiltibuie - will post pics shortly) we've still not nailed down a definite style for the kitchen. this could be a worry in that, according to the helpful chappy at magnet, if you want a kitchen in time for christmas it really needs to be ordered in the first two weeks of october. apparently a new kitchen for the big xmas day-do is a popular choice. who'd have thought. we're looking to get an early visit into the house before we get our keys (end of oct) so that we can have an engineer check out removal of the kitchen wall to make a big dining kitchen at the back of the house. for the interior wall to be removed we just need a ceres approved engineer to put it to the council, who should approve it within a couple of weeks. i would love to get french doors out to the back, but this would involve knocking down part of the outside wall - i am presuming that this is likely to be exceedingly expensive and will require additional planning, thus more time consuming at the council, but will research further... handily my brother-in-law is a builder, so he will be taking the lead with this ~ unhandily like all builders it will be at their pace which doesn't quite match my own enthusiasm / patience. and so we wait.

purchase

so we finally managed to secure our dream home. we were on holiday at the time, having left instructions with our solicitor that we would like to place an offer on the closing date. our offer was reasonable and at the valuation, but from our previous experiences of people over paying we weren't too hopeful. having left the mobile in the hotel room, we returned to a message from Ali, our solicitor, who informed us that we had been successful. elation and joy! followed by ~ uh oh we've bought a 'project'. we'd not meant to buy a project, previously we'd been admiring houses [as others had as well, clearly] that had been beautifully done up, nothing needing doing but a small stamp of your own. but 'kingarth' had commanded smiles the minute we walked in the door. it had a good feel, was not too big or small and, most importantly, had a dining room carpet any vintage-lover could not fail to love. that and the cupboard with a secret spiral staircase to the attic. immense.

where to begin

research is never ending. i'm taking inspiration from all areas - the 20s (when the house was built) to french styling to vintage. loving it all. this blog http://bit.ly/90gi6w - showing jeeves & wooster 1920s stylee - is tops.

but the first thing to address - the kitchen: not been changed since ???

so have been reviewing them all - from b&q to fired earth. the first one a no-no on style, the last one a no-no on expense.

its proving tricky. love the french look, as in painted wood cabinets (fired earth do a good range) and have drawn inspiration for this look through the original wall cabinets and larder that remain in our kitchen at the moment. though also liking more modern gloss and the striking dark colours. at the moment i'm thinking it could be amazing to do both.

and what is it about wooden work tops? they look lush but kitchen sales staff we have spoken to have described them as a nightmare, having to oil every week to keep in condition - though on line it says 2/3 months. which is it? hate hate hate laminate (?don't know why?) not keen on granite (having already smashed a plate on the ones in our current rental) but have found a possible alternative which is 'corian' by dupont (can be found almost anywhere). a man made material it can be shaped any way, and i love the way the white one looks like it has been poured across your cupboards and sink...

at least we're settled on tiles. retro metro, fired earth all the way. absolutely gorgeous.