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My house
- the refurbishment is almost complete...
Over the last three years I've been re-modelling and redecorating my house, which was really showing the signs of its age (120 years) and, while I was acting, had suffered from the severe shortage of cash to get the neccessary work done. It's been a bit of a slog, with a lot of upheaval, dirt and disruption, but it's finally getting there. Just the bathroom to go now. So here's a virtual tour of my 'crib' as they say on MTV...
The hallway
...before the renovation...
...and after...
The most expensive part of the hall renovation was the plastering. Because the old plaster was in severely bad condition (huge areas just fell off the brickwork when the woodchip was removed) it needed several different sealing and stabilising layers to get a good surface. Even then, a few cracks have opened up as it's dried, but these can be easilt filled and sanded to complete the job. In retrospect, the choice of a cream carpet was a bit of a mistake - it gets very grubby very quickly, even with a 'shoes off to go upstairs' policy in force, and I'll probably replace it earlier than I had intended. Pity, it was quite expensive :(
While the plaster was off the wall, I also took the opportunity to have all the wiring for the burglar alarm buried in the wall, so the only external sign of the alarm is the illuminated keypad just inside the door.
The main sitting area
during the renovation...
...and after...
The biggest change to the house has been the knocking through of the dividing wall between the front room and the back room downstairs. This was a bit of a last minute decision, but it was a good one, as it's really opened the living space out and made the whole space much more light and airy. The replacement of the old doors with glazed ones has also allowed a flow of light through the whole downstairs from the kitchen to the front bay windows.
The look I wanted for the house was to get away from the old 'homely clutter' look and go quite minimal and modern. I like the juxtaposition of the old Victorian outside opening up itno a contemporary 'loft'-like space. I have kept the existing period features like the plaster cornice (which I had renovated) and tied them in with the modern furnishings and colour scheme. I really like it. There was a lot of plastering and building work done in this room, including the complete insulation of the front wall and the installing of a new damp course.
In keeping with the minimal look I was after I decided on a very plain, pale and consistent colour scheme for the walls throughout the house, the colour of the walls being continued into the simple roller blinds at all the windows. Hopefully, this is prevented from being too austere by the wood in the floor and the furniture and the colours used in the upholstery and other decorative features.
I used to live with dark warm colours a lot, so this was a big change for me. I do like it though, and it helps to make the house a lot less dark and closed in.
The other big difference has been made by the replacement of the old wall-mounted gas fires with a stylish modern 'real flame' fire which provides a nice focus for the room. The bigger of the two sofas is a double sofa-bed for when visitors come to stay (the old spare bedroom has now become my office).
The dining area
during the renovation...
...and after...
Looking the other way into the new dining area. The floor of the downstairs rooms (including the hall) is one continuous surface of beech laminate, again helping to tie the whole house together. This provided another problem when the dividing wall was knocked down as it was discovered that there was a 1.5cm difference in the level of the floors in the front and back rooms. The meant that a skin of plywood had to be laid in the front room and the hall before the laminate could go down.
It is really nice to have a proper dining area at last after ten years of everyone having to eat off their laps!
The glass door between this room and the kitchen helps to bring even more light through to what was a fairly dingy room before.
The kitchen
during the renovation...
...and after...
The kitchen has been the refurbishment that has caused me the most grief due to a decision to have the kitchen installed through Homebase's own fitting service. This is contracted out to a company (SIS Installations) who use local installers to do the work. It's not cheap so I was annoyed when guy who they sent to install the kitchen turned out to be less than competent. The first few units went in OK and things seemed to be going well, but after over a week of noise, mess and disruption, the kitchen still wasn't fully installed, he didn't seem to have the first idea of how to do plumbing, one of the units had had to be replaced due to him cutting a hole for pipework out of the front rather than the back, and I'd had to buy further replacement worktop as he'd cut and "fitted" the ones originally supplied to leave a gap between the wall and the back of the worktop that varied between 5mm and a staggering 35mm at the widest point. When I raised this as an issue he announced that he "wasn't worried about that as the tiling would cover the gap"!
The second attempt at the worktops still resulted in large gaps, not only between the wall and the back of the worktops but also at the worktop joints. Eventually I'd really had enough. Following a complaint to SIS (whose customer service was excellent, by the way, and who resolved the situation very fast and with no quibble after an inspection of the kitchen) the work-tops were replaced by another fitter who did a perfect job in less than a day. Other minor faults I dealt with myself.
Unfortunately, I've had to play safe and remove the name of the original installer as he threatened me with litigation. He's probably full of sh*t, of course. But having checked the bizarre libel laws in this country I've discovered that (a) the defendant in a libel case can't get legal aid while the plaintiff can, and (b) the truthfulness of what has been written does not necessarily constitute a defence! So if he did take me to court for saying he's crap, and even if I proved it (pretty easy - see pictures above!), he still might win. And in the meantime I'd have to find thousands to defend myself against the charge! Obviously, I can't afford that - even though it would be my 'biggest claim to fame' (see below). Also slightly worried about bricks through windows as he gives every impression of being that sort of guy.
He does write great abusive e-mails though - the electronic equivalent of being sent a letter scrawled in green crayon!
From: [deleted] [mailto:[deleted]]
Sent: 06 October 2004 21:26
To: jon@wayouteast.co.uk
Subject: (no subject)
Dear Mr Dixon
AFTER SEEING YOUR HOUSE PICTURES OF YOUR HOUSE(sic), I THINK ITS TIPICAL(sic) A MAN WHO'S(sic) KNOWS FUCK ALL ABOUIT(sic) DESIGN. AND BY THE WAY THE HOUSE DESIGNS ARE CRAP. IF YOU DO NOT TASKE(sic) MY NAME OF THE WEB SITE I WILL PUT THIS INTO LITIGATION AND BRING YOU DOWN WITH A BIG BUMP AND THAT WILL BE YOUR BIGGEST CLAIM TO FAME.
PS DONT FUCK WITH ME PALL(sic)
Brilliant! I love the way he starts really politely before immediately embarking on a mad, illiterate block-capitals rant! What a delightful man... 
Anyway, the kitchen is in now and wonderful. I did the tiling myself and I'm quite proud at how it turned out! I'm also quite smug about the under-unit lighting and the built-in cooker hood which I also installed myself. I also laid a cement float over the old floor and laid the vinyl flooring.
In the second picture above you can just see the edge of the positively ginormous Bosch fridge/freezer that I bought to replace the old, worn out appliances. It looked smaller in the shop, I swear! Still, it's really nice to have a big, eye-level fridge - no more rooting around on hands and knees to find the things covered in blue fluff at the back of the fridge!
The bathroom
During the renovation...
The latest room to be refurbished is the bathroom. I always quite liked the eccentricity of the old room. The walls were the exact colour of Heinz tomato soup, which sounds awful but actually worked quite well with the old seventies avacado green suite! And it was nice and warm in the winter months. It was badly in need of a refresh though, and when the bath developed a split which I had to fix with waterproof guttering-tape(!) it gave me the impetus to replace the suite and redecorate.
Inevitably, like every other piece of work on this house, what started as a quick and cheap replacement of the bath, wash-basin and loo and a re-paint of the walls turned into quite an expensive job involving re-plastering of the walls, loads of tiling, the installation of a shower, re-plumbing and the laying of a vinyl floor to replace the old carpet.
The result is well worth it though, I think, quite contemporary and stylish. I especially like the 'mini operating-theatre' main light-fitting (from IKEA) and the mirror above the wash-basin with its built in lights. The bath is both bigger and deeper than the old one, and I really wonder how I managed all those years without a proper shower!
I wanted a darker and warmer colour on the walls in this room, but I didn't want anything too different from the warm white of the rest of the house. In the end I settled on a cappucino colour which is quite pale and neutral by daylight and turns wonderfully warm and cosy under artificial light. Plain white tiles and an aluminium blind at the window set the colour off nicely. The floor is the same almost industrial embossed vinyl as that in the kitchen, but a silver grey rather than black. Finally, the modern white suite is really fresh and minimal-looking.
The bedroom and the office
One of the things that first drew me to this house rather than any other was the fact that the main bedroom was huge, running the full width of the house, and this was the first room I re-vamped when I started the process. It was the choice of pale cream walls and beech furniture in here that defined what I wanted the rest of the house to look like as I was so pleased with the calm, minimal effect that was created. It is a really restful, peaceful room (even with the noises from the street).
The office, which used to be the spare bedroom, is functional but the room still needs the same attention paid to it that the other rooms have had. The walls are poor condition plaster held together by woodchip wallpaper and there is a horrendous crack in the ceiling from when the house settles after the downstairs rooms were knocked through! At some point, I will strip it, have it re-plastered and the ceiling re-boarded and decorate it to match the rest of the house. The furniture is all relatively new so that can stay - though there is a crying need for more shelf space as always!
The garden
When I first moved in, years ago, the garden was little more than a tip for builders rubble and, even now, when I'm digging I can still expect to unearth old drainpipes, bricks and even motorcycle parts! Still, over the years I've done a lot of work to the garden and it's now got quite a bit of really quite nice, mature planting. If anything, there's now too much in the garden and it has become a bit of a chore keeping it from getting overgrown and out-of-control. For this reason, this year or next, I'm planning to change the garden quite radically and bring it in line with the the contemporary feel of the rest of the house.
Luckily, one of my dearest friends is a very skilled gardener and incredibly knowledgeable about planting, so I'm going to let her plan a new garden. She's already come up with some great ideas which, budget allowing, we'll implement!
I'm hoping that the result will require less upkeep but still be as nice a place to sit on a summer evening...
Updates:
October 2005 - back to basics! Part way through clearing the garden. Apart from two plants, everything was taken down to bare soil. A LOT of digging required! All the garden was then dug over, buried rubble removed, and the various levels started.
November 2005 - new patio has been laid and the woodwork has been started. I've also had to replace all the drainage, which was an unexpected expense! :(
December 2005 to January 2006 - the structure of the garden is beginning to take shape as more woodwork is built. The uprights and beams will divide the garden into two 'rooms', one minimal and contemporary for entertaining and one more secret and 'jungly' for quiet and seclusion. The wooden structures will provide support for climbing plants eventually effectively screening the garden from the neighbours without too solid high boundaries.
February 2006 - a circle of palisades is hammered into the ground to act as a retaining wall for the raised beds around the hidden seating / hammock area in the 'back room'. Only a narrow entrance will allow access to this area once the planting is in place and has matured.
Late February 2006 - planting day! My friend Anna, who designed the garden, is placing all the plants in position ready for planting.
Planting all in place. Weed-suppressing membrane has been laid over all the soil to make the garden as low-maintenance as possible. A good layer of chipped bark in the 'back room' and cobbles in the 'front room' will go over this.
March 2006 - More woodwork as the decking seating area in the corner of the patio is constructed as well as the decking 'bridges' that give access from the patio to the back garden. Various trellises also divide the garden into its two 'rooms' as well as screening each side of the patio. The fences have also been painted a pale grey, The main wooden structures will eventually be a darker grey.
End of March 2006 - nearly finished! Cobbles, pebbles and gravel all laid. Lighting is installed (pics to follow). The only big jobs remaining are the painting of the main wooden structures (waiting for the weather to be more settled) and the building of a small shed to go just behind the trellis on the left hand side of the garden.
April 2006 - The woodwork has been painted, which really ties the garden together as well as softening the 'framework' a bit. As the planting becomes established and the climbers soften the structures still further, it should look beautiful, I hope! These photos were taken early in the morning, hence the strong shadows...
A close up of the Buddha water feature and its planting.
May 2006 - What a difference a month makes! Especially one as wet as this one has been so far. The planting has really taken off and the garden is starting to look really full and lush already. Can't wait until summer proper!
Late summer 2006 - The garden is really looking beautiful. A real oasis of peace in the middle of the inner city. With the golden hop and clematis starting to soften the starkness of the woodwork, and the planting maturing beautifully, it's really starting to look like Anna's original drawing. I love it.
December 2006 - I got these 'peace crane' sculptures for Christmas. They are lovely and match the slightly Japanese feel of the garden beautifully. This photo was taken on a foggy late December morning, and shows how the garden planting is designed to be interesting all the year round. You'd hardly believe it was the middle of winter!
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