Action in the bathroom now also, we're on a roll!

Progress has also been made in the bathroom, with some tiles ripped out, and.... well that's about it to be honest.

I love this.

This is my absolute favourite piece, our new chandelier. We picked it up from a small antiques shop in St Leonards (South Coast, near where Pix's mum lives). I absolutely adore it. It's 50s apparently, and is the perfect welcome sight upon entering our little flat. Perhaps we have delusions of grandeur beyond our little two-bed with garden, but I don't care. We deserve opulence.

This will be decking.

The mound of dirt you see before you will become our new decking. Excited? Not overly impressive (or progressed for that matter), but it's happening. And we like it. We think. The Poles are constructing a completely new structure for the decking and then laying new outdoor floorboards, which I think will look fab. Bring on the 'summer' (don't get me started) barbecues!

ooo noice.

This is one of our favourite rooms, the main bedroom. It's really starting to come together now, and you can get a great feeling for how it's going to end up. The wallpaper looks amazing (in my opinion) and is well worth the weeks of pain with choosing and ordering and then chasing up non-delivery. The fact that I ended up with twice the amount of wallpaper (at no additional cost), also sweetens it a tad. Straight onto eBay with those 4 rolls, thank you very much.

The reclaimed radiator that we've put in here looks very cool (well chosen Pix) - and sets off our white bay window nicely. We only had one wall that required painting in the end, so we decided for a darker/warmer biscuit brown, eventually. We did originally send Aaron to the paint shop with the urgent task of matching paint swatches with our wallpaper, whilst we were away in Italy. He was understandably nervous about picking it without us seeing it, so we told him whatever he chose would be absolutely fine (providing it was the right one). Comforting no doubt. We then changed our mind upon returning from said holiday and went for a darker colour, but did use Aaron's (crap) choice in the spare bedroom (which looks great). Thanks Aaron.

Beginnings of a kitchen.

The kitchen is really taking shape and we now have worktop, appliances (some of), and some very fancy larder shelves that we designed! The challenge with this kitchen was to create maximum work space and storage space, without it feeling as small and cramped as it previously did. Hence the use of open shelves. I think we cracked it, but time will tell. Let us know what you think.

Wall unit: check!

Our super duper wall unit has now been finished in the living room, and it looks very cool. Well to be honest, it's not perfect, but we're not going to talk about the things I don't like about it (uneven shelves and inappropriate gaps), because we're positive people. And it's too late to do anything about it. And, as my wife assures me, it really does look great. Once it's painted and full of interesting books and things, I am sure it will be fantastic.

One down, quite a few to go....

In a desperate bid to feel like we're gaining some momentum with the project, we've decided to start counting the rooms that are finished. The count so far is .... 1. Not particularly impressive granted, but it's a start. The first room to be regarded as done (but still requiring a few finishing touches) is the spare bedroom. As a result we've been able to move into a room where the floor isn't covered in an inch of dust, making it a lot easier to breath while we sleep. So, some clear benefits coming through already. We're really happy with this room, though it received the least thought from us during the process. The original pine floorboards have come up looking really good, except a square where they were rotten and the Poles replaced with new boards and then proceeded to cover them in a hideous varnish that resembles smeared poo, but we're ignoring that for the moment. Antique pine apparently.

It's a nice and light room with a lush garden to look out on. We're sure our many (foreign) visitors will feel at home during their stay in Chez Brondesbury.

Feature wall here we come!

In true Changing Rooms style we have decided to go for a feature wall in the bedroom, using some lush wallpaper. After considerable deliberation (and samples), we settled on a lovely floral pattern from Osbourne & Little. The most expensive retailer for Wallpaper I subsequently learnt. This is the kind of place that has a showroom on the Kings Road, and gives you the paper in these ridiculously luxurious shopping bags, that you just know added another 20% to the purchase price. Oh well, it looks nice. It's going to look great when hung.

Now we're cooking, sort of.

The kitchen is coming along, kind of. We have floorboards throughout, a new washing machine and new spotlights that dangle out of the ceiling like christmas decorations. I am assured that they won't stay like that. All progress is good.

We've gone green.

We've gone for one of those colours that will either work REALLY well, or look like utter crap. And we've gone with it through most of the house, so if it's crap - it will be plentiful. Fortunately, I think we like it. It's green. (didn't think I would ever paint inside a house green, but we have). And it looks good. It's kind of like a sage green, but more interesting. It's actually called 'Cooking Apple Green' (I love that name), and it's how I picture old English houses. Our local pub is similar, and I love that place. So that must be a good sign. More pics to come later. Thoughts so far?

We're liking the Welsh. For once.

The floors are mostly finished now and have been smacked with a few coats of wax. I think we love them. A lot. The best thing to come out of a Welsh school since Charlotte Church.