Right! Itās time for the traditional 6 and a half week update on everything thatās going on. Some things have been going well, some things been going less well, and some things have been going abroad.
The Bathroom
The bathroom continues apace. Itās certainly starting to feel a lot more like a bathroom than it has done in a long while.
Obviously the only metric for progress in a bathroom is how close the bath is to the room. Iām happy to share that the bath has made it out of our lounge and into our bedroom
Not everything is going smoothly. Weāve been hit by supplier issues for the towel radiator, and Simon would like the radiator before he tiles the wall behind in order to hide the cable as best as possible. Weāve found another radiator thatās pretty similar but we still have to wait at least a week for it. The mirror weāve chosen has also been delayed. If we do something like this again Iām just going to ask to have all the products sent to our house straightaway - weāve got enough space to store it and it would give a much larger buffer for these supply chain issues.
Weāre also having to make some adjustments regarding the toilet bowl. The way things are at the moment there wouldnāt be enough room to comfortably accommodate oneās knees whilst sitting on the toilet. This is due to Simon moving the toilet wall slightly further out due to a joist being exactly where the waste pipe would have gone, and us asking to move the monolith slightly to the right to be centred under the ceiling rose.
Itās really opened my eyes to how many compromises are generally made on these projects. I would like to think that given how much thinking goes into the design, building it would be easy. Also, given how big the room is I find it incredible that weāre strugging to find a few extra centimetres here and there to make it feel comfortable (It is a very awkward room).
Anyway, our solution is to change the toilet for a shorter projection (short throw? the terminology doesnāt sound pleasant) toilet. Weāll also widen the monolith to the left, allowing us to move the sink and mirror leftwards too. We can still align the sink with the tap and mirror, but weāll no longer be in line with the ceiling rose. Weāve got a plan for some lighting that hopefully wonāt make that too obvious.
The Kitchen
The kitchen work has been a bit more exciting than it was last time. Certainly more exciting than watching plaster dry
I donāt feel like the pictures do it justice, but the kitchen feels like a completely different room. Itās so much brighter now that the floor doesnāt absorb all the light. Itās going to be really interesting to see how it feels once itās properly finished.
We happened to be away when the flooring people were doing most of their work and I am very glad we were. The dust thatās now in the house has completely knocked me out for several days š¤ Hence the 6 and a half week update.
Weāve just had a visit from the kitchen company to check what the access is like for some of the larger cabinets and units - to be honest I feel that itās a bit late in the project to be checking things like that, but ĀÆ\(ć)/ĀÆ. They looked a bit despairing when we were leading them down the stairs from the front door, but brightened up a fair bit once we showed them the route through the garden. Weāre going to have to cut back a few things this weekend, but nothing major.
The kitchen is due to start being installed on Monday (1st Nov). They gave us the now standard apologies for some likely delays regarding the countertop due to suppliers, Covid, canāt get the wood nowadays etc. Iām really glad we didnāt pay to get the hob and dishwasher rushed in!
Other House Things
Weāve finally sold Harrow! š„³ Woo! š„³ Itās taken around about one year, but we finally got there. The day of completion ended up being my birthday which was pretty nice.
Just as we were celebrating not having to deal with Harrow anymore, the š» Ghost of Harrow Past š» came to visit us in the form of water coming through the ceiling š§š¬š§ At least this time we didnāt have to deal with anyone else to get it sorted. One of the drains on the roof had become blocked with moss and gunk - once we unblocked it everything was fine again.
High on our priority list is now a way to sort this out without having to climb on the roof. The drains are accessible from inside the loft space but weāll need to board over more of the space in order to reach it.
Continuing with the theme of water getting in the wrong places, our dishwasher āsolutionā from last installment has proved insufficient. There was just too much water not going down the downpipe, and weāre not sure where it ends up goingā¦ Our new solution is a large bucket that we need to empty after each dishwasher usage - Bring on the new kitchen!
Nozzy Things
In more exciting news, Nikki and I played for our first in-person Contra dance last weekend! We were invited to play for the American Contra Dance in Paris. It feels pretty weird to go from āvirtual gigs, no-one is allowed near each otherā to āinternational travel for a reasonably busy danceā in one step and Iām not sure Iām quite ok with it - but it was very enjoyable.
I was a bit miffed that I couldnāt use the gorgeous Steinway as my piano for the dance, but we did make sure to arrive super extra early for sound check so there would be time to have a play on it :)
See you next time with lots more kitchen progress (we hope!) š