15 Days to go ….

and yes, I am counting …

I haven’t posted much for a while on the house, because I wanted to try to show you all the impact of our recent developments. We are nearly there now, 15 days to go until My Brother and Sister-in-law arrive, and they will be staying with us.

My twitter friends will all know I have been painting…. sodding painting. After a days work in the office, it’s a question of dashing home, getting changed and heading to the house to paint. Not an easy job at all. Fresh plaster seems to just drink the paint, so 3 coats required all over, and of course, having those wonderful Oak Beams also means I have to take care painting between each and every one. The two bedrooms are done, the kitchen is done, but a fair few still to go.

We have finished the windows and doors. It was a huge thing to be able to leave the house on Tuesday and actually shut the door behind us. In the 18 months we have owned this place, we have never closed the house off. It has always been open for people to wander in, the dogs to wander in and out and for workers to see it as a building site, now we can close the doors… it’s a house.

We have removed the delightful outside toilet, and are finishing off this small roof that comes off the garage. This used to be for chooks and pigs, but will be my store for tools etc. Comes off the garage which has now had a new concrete floor to it as well.

We have lights in the place too, do you know how good it feels to flick a switch to have light, rather than dragging lamps all over the house !

The kitchen floor is down ….. all tiled and done !

The kitchen is now half fitted … How cool is that ! We have all the appliances being stored at our builders house, we will be moving those in right away …

The trap door leading down the the wine cellar, this will be insulated, and finished in wood.

And this is the dinning room, and we will have a large, family table made from our own Walnut tree.

We have my pride and joy, and about 3 weeks solid work from the builder to have this …. My Fireplace. This is an all English fireplace, Slovaks never have anything like this, and I am very proud to have designed and help create this. I have to give huge credit to Maros, the care, commitment to making this look perfect has been incredible. It looks easy to build right ? well, the guts of this has been near impossible. To cut and shape the bricks to fit around the shell of the fireplace has be slow, painfully slow…. I love it, it has always been my dream to have a house with a fireplace like I have always known at My Mum’s, and now I have my own. With a mirror, a companion set, and a few other parts, it will be just perfect !

and the ever helpful Matej ..

We have some work to do, we have to move a door and relocate the boiler, which is a real pain, but not a disaster.. fit the furnace, connect the water… and we are done …. oh, build a driveway, complete the drains, finish off a new section of roof …… ad infinitum …