And so it comes to an end...

I think it's time for me to close my blog.  I've loved writing it but the project is nearing the end and me continuing to blog about a little bit of glossing here, or hanging pictures there is not going to make you chuckle!

We even have a very nearly pimped front garden.  It just requires a bit of digging and planting:

And I'm currently sitting typing in our newly re-branded 'spare room' complete with home office (ha ha), guest bed and the washing that's drying.  The drying is the biggest achievement as our smalls are no longer on public view in our living room!

I have my thinking cap on for what I could blog about next but in the meantime, thank you for following our progress.

Mum, Project Manager, two Small Boys.

Ta-da!

After much hard graft, and working right to the last, the boys rooms were finally finished in time for grandparents to come and stay for Christmas and have a bed in our 'new' spare bedroom.  The banister went in at 10am before we headed out to the pantomime and Grandparents were here when we got back!

So, without further ado, Bedroom 1:

 

and Bedroom 2:

I mentioned to Number One Sons friend that he should come and play to see the new bedroom because it was finished.  To which I got the response, 'Does it even have a door?!'.  Busted.  No, okay, it does not yet have a door.  Honestly, 5 year olds these days...

Frustration is...

This evening, we have a new definition of frustration courtesy of our renovation project.  To some people, frustration is a hubby who dumps his socks on the floor, a computer that won't start, picking the label off a bottle of Bud...to name a few!

In this house, frustration is having two completed upstairs bedrooms but no banister!  And the wee boys are too little to navigate stairs without a banister so moving in day will have to wait a little while yet.

However, there was a definite sense of achievement as we finished fitting the carpet and lay on the floor looking up through the skylight into the night sky...

Early nostalgia setting in...

To the untrained eye, this is a strange thing to take a photograph of.
To the trained eye, an incredibly badly cut, even worse fitting, piece of plasterboard.
But to us....?

To us it is beautiful, satisfying - I may even think of it fondly in a nostalgic moment.
It is the LAST piece of plasterboard to be fitted in this renovation project!

It' still naked, as is the rest of the stairwell but that's a job for another night.  I wouldn't want to complete too many tasks in one night - what on earth would I blog about tomorrow?!

..'took something purple and painted it red'

Okay, it wasn't purple to start with but I have been painting with red tonight.  The storage in the boys room is going to have red gloss doors so I got out my roller and tray, switched on my i-pod....and out came the dulcet tones of Daniel Merriweather singing 'Red'.

Which got me thinking - which other songs are 'DIY' songs?

Given the family part of this project, my repertoir mainly consists of:
Bob The Builder - can you fix it?
Build it up, build it up, build it higher (good for brick laying!)
Gonna build a house (with a garden wall...)

But on the grown-up front, apart from Daniel, I could only think of 'This Ole' House'...until I googled and I have now discovered entire albums of DIY Songs!  I spot a Christmas pressie for Project Manager coming on...
Can you dig it?
Lets stick together
It ain't what you do it's the way that you do it
etc etc etc...

oh boy - they look more red in a photo!

It's looking promising

We've been plugging away on the second upstairs room, trying to do as much as we can without spending money - which isn't as limiting as it sounds.  In fact, not at all.  We tend to buy materials in bulk, and on offer, when we can which has left us with a healthy supply of plasterboard and mix.

Over the weekend we realised we had reached that critical point where it looks like we have sooooo much to do but by this evening we had finished boarding out the space ready for plastering.

There was even a moment (which I am reluctant to mention incase I tempt fate) where I caught hubby putting tools away into the garage - woop! woop!

I can now get into the garage (also our utility room) without having to move large pieces of wood or plasterboard out of the way.  I won't go so far as to say it's clean under foot, and I still drop random bits of clean (always clean) washing into the dust...

It's the finishing touches that make me smile

You may remember the lovely wallpaper that we used to decorate our living room, nearly a year ago now http://familyrenovationproject.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/what-happened-to-wall-mummy-it-looks.html

I had hoped to buy some complementary fabric from Next to complete the look but my budget did not stretch that far - very favourably priced wallpaper, not so the fabric!  Luckily, in the January sales (yes, it was that long ago) I spotted a complementary duvet cover in the sale bins and snapped one up for the bargain price of £11 with the intention of making roman blinds.  I have no excuse as to why it has taken me so long - I even know how to make roman blinds!  It was when I bought my favourite interior magazine and they had a feature on how to make simple roman blinds that I decided it was time to get a move on...

courtesy of Style at Home, Sept 2012


  

Now the living area feels nice and cosy, ready for long wintry nights.