Mews News Part 4 - House renovations

I can't even remember where I last left off.

To summarize and cut a long story short - we are behind schedule.

I should have been home 6 weeks ago.

We are now in my brother's flat who is graciously hosting us.

We have slowed down due to the holiday season and...

I am sure I will laugh about this in a few years and it will make great cocktail party chatter but we are not a-mews-ed. ( Sorry but it is our local pun.)

About a week before Xmas my main builder was 
packing up at lunch time to leave.

I don't even pretend to be civil anymore and questioned 
where he was going.

He replied, "Charing Cross."

I assumed he meant the hospital and it was a follow up appointment regarding the fall he suffered back in September.

"No, Charing Cross Police Station."

"Why the heck are you going there?"

"Road rage. You see...."

 I can't do his accent so I shall translate for you.

He got nearly assaulted by someone at a traffic light but in the 
brutal white man van's world, the first person to hit is the winner so he pre-empted a hit and head-butted the other guy first.

Police investigated and the other man had a previous record but so did my builder. He has an alibi and defense to why he did it but we won't get into it here.

So then he had to take another half day for a lawyer's appointment, another day for the court date.

He got charged but no time - just a very big fine.

But this incident is not wholly to blame for the delay.

I committed the cardinal sin of not 
choosing every detail ahead of time.  
We hadn't decided on what to pick for the new bathroom.
So when we did finally make it to our quarry 
there was so much choice.

Plus Mr CSW and I had to mutually agree.

Then we had to see what was readily available.

Interestingly enough, our stone guy in North London says a lot of stone that was readily available is now harder to source and that the business is changing a lot.  Like jewellry, what used to be considered semi-precious apparently is in the upper leagues now.

I wanted something classic and durable but 

I also wanted something visually graphic.

I would have liked wallpaper but in the end the issues with condensation just became too much of an issue.

So the stone to tick all the boxes was Marmara marble 

which is naturally striped.

The stone had to be finished off and edges polished inside.

Will show you the room when it is completely done.

Remember the outdoor decking?

It's finally in.

Nothing fancy but I am just pleased a section of the house is done.

It's south facing so gets lots of natural light - well for Britain.

The perspective to the new floor is basically this.

Balcony and room with bathroom ( behind shelves).

Some shelves will have doors and some will be exposed.

We are having wooden floors and 

we had to air them for two days before installing them.

I wanted individual planks and getting the perfect compromise 

of budget and quality was time consuming.  

I was excited to check after the first day of installation but...

It seemed there were issues with quality control.  There were random rogue planks that were much darker than the rest.

So Mr CSW and the builder went back to the yard and chose another batch but went through each box to pick out any irregular ones which took half a day.  

They found twenty bad ones.

Then we had to wait another two days of airing the wood 

before we could install it.

Below is what used to be and will might be our bedroom.

( We have three bedrooms, two viable ones to choose from.)

Our headboard was on the right and cupboards to the left.

But the door is where I took the picture and I just never felt the flow.

It isn't a feng shui thing but I like looking at the foot of the bed 

and headboard as I enter the bedroom.

But that would have meant that due to storage issue we would have had to do the bridge storage cupboards.  This means closet on either side of the bed and then overhead cupboards. So I am sticking to the old arrangement and having wall to wall cupboards on the left.

This is my third bedroom that rarely gets any usage except my storeroom. I thought we were almost ready to paint but there was a damp patch that kept coming through.

We had to rip up the wall as 

we have to re-render as water is seeping through.

So after it is fixed, we need to replaster etc.

We are doing a lot of the jobs twice.

As I mentioned I am at my brother's house as the flat in 
South London was only temporary and had to be relet just 
before Xmas so all the boxes that were with us 
there are back in the house. 

So since Xmas I have become even more minimalist and 

am living out of a weekend bag as I can't be bothered sorting even through the temporary stuff.

Oh well.  

I hope I get to do another update for you soon!

PS Could readers TonKath and Grace please email me with your address because you won the giveaway!