The New Porch

And now the new porch goes up...

And it's just waiting for Derek the Dragon, all the way from Battlesbridge, for the finishing touch.

(He came from http://www.roofdragon.com/ )

Been busy painting...

It's been a while since I posted because I'm spending all my free time at the house, painting. In the family tradition, everything is white, so it's not very interesting at the moment - it'll just be a backdrop for my things when they arrive.  Some 'before and after of the bedrooms show that Vicki & I have made a bit of difference though.

Bedroom 1

Bedroom 2 

Bedroom 3

The old kitchen goes

We're getting to mostly decorating and finishing touches in the house now, so finally the old kitchen extension has come down, to be replaced by a porch and a bigger garden.

Graham strips out the old kitchen 

It's half gone

And it's down

Kitchen lights

I was quite excited by the kitchen lights - the copper shades give a lovely warm glow to the light.
Credit to Graham Oldfield http://bespokecopperlighting.co.uk/ for the shades.

The cooker splashback is copper too, to complement them.

In the hall

I have a brand new front door with beautiful stained glass panels made to match the original fanlight by the very clever Rachael Aldridge.  (The photo doesn't really do them justice - I'll try for a better one when the decorating's all been done.)

Her website is here, if you'd like to see more of her work: http://aldridgeglass.co.uk/

The bathroom...

... is close to being finished.

Windows and chimneypots

Things are changing on the outside as well - the other week I arrived at the house to find men hanging out of the windows:

and now I have (nearly) a full set of new sash windows.

 

All the chimneys have been repointed, and the pots have been reset.  I haven't actually seen this, but Martin initialed and dated his work, and took the photo to show me.

You've probably worked it out, but the initials are mine, Ray's and Martin's.