Wednesday 5 October 2011

Same old, same old

Some of you have gone quiet, and some report that you have nothing to say on your blogs. I feel a bit like that too. I sit at my desk, and my mind goes blank. Nothing bloggable is happening to me.


Although, really, lots of things are happening, but I've been here before with most of them, and so have you, dragged along in my wake. Bathroom, utility room, shower room; so many hours of renovation-blogging from my old house! How we suffered together!

So what; let me drag you along in my wake yet again, and tell you about the latest round of knocking a perfectly-reasonable house into a new shape. Again.

It means dealing with builders, plumbers, tilers, online window-shopping till my brain liquefies with the tedium of comparing dozens of toilets and cisterns, shower trays and mixer taps; doing the sums, having a bit of a panic, giving myself a stern talking-to ("do it properly; don't cut corners; you don't want to be re-doing this in 5 years' time because you were too mean to buy quality"), and going back to the blaring websites, each of whom proclaim that they will undercut their competitors.

Why a new bathroom? It looked absolutely fine when I viewed it, although as I could only see the very top of my head in the mirror over the basin, I guessed that the people who had installed it were considerably taller than me, and I was proved right.



It has to be changed because I can't get in and out of the giant bath very easily, being short and less than nimble; it's a fall waiting to happen. Because the electric shower over the giant bath is feeble in the extreme. Because I want a walk-in shower that will see me safely into my dotage. Because  - well, you don't want to hear about the toilet and its moods. I'm having a new bathroom again, and I'm bored with the planning and shopping already.

Where I shall put Catkin's private litter tray has yet to be decided; at present it is a decorative addition to the bathroom until such time as she decides to stop being the Upstairs Cat who only makes an appearance downstairs for dinner. (And breakfast. And snack times. The Lovely Son was right: she is a cat who moves only to search and devour.)

The bathroom isn't being started yet, but the new toilet has to come first, as part of the work to create a proper utility room beneath the bathroom, and needs to be moved several inches along as the rusty old soil pipe is being replaced.


The utility room creation scheme is something I do get a bit excited about (I know, I know. It's sad....). It used to be the side path outside the house, and was roofed over many years ago with now-discoloured corrugated plastic sheeting. It has crumbling stonework and a decrepit back door, and is the home of many, many spiders. It was almost empty when I viewed the house.



And now it is a disgraceful repository of all sorts of homeless stuff: appliances, plants, the cats' Monstrosity, from which Millie watches the enemies next door, assorted cleaning products, the giant cat tray that no one but Lottie uses now that they have my garden, and much more that will one day be tucked away tidily in cupboards when they are built.


The floor slopes down to the open gully; the washing machine judders downhill, despite much packing beneath it, and its plumbing connector leaks, so that the concrete floor is always wet. All this will change. 

I shall say no more, but will only hint that I am deeply in love with charcoal grey slate flooring....

Come back in two weeks' time, and see how it's getting on. What d'you mean, it's too boring to contemplate another visit? There will be a sink! A worktop! Cupboards and shelves! Best of all, a level floor! How could you resist?

Good. See you soon.

21 comments:

Mary Ann Tate said...

It sounds very exciting. I cant wait:)

Anonymous said...

I can't seem to post anything under my Google ID so here goes with Anonymous.......:)

It sounds very excitng. I can't wait:)

Mary Ann of My Tate Gallery

Dan said...

All actually sounds pretty exciting to me!
Dan
-x-

Anonymous said...

Just keep saying ' it will all be worth it'!!

I'll now try Mary Ann's suggestion of Anonymous ..... http://frayedattheedge.typepad.co.uk

Anna at the Doll House said...

In my experience, a man who is given the task of hanging a mirror will inevitably place it so that he can just about see the top of his head. Your mirror would drive me nuts. It's a shame, because the rest of the room looks really nice.

Anna

Lucille said...

I can't wait two weeks I need to know immediately about the slate tiles for my new utility room floor (please).

the veg artist said...

Of course we want to know. If you don't tell us different, we will just imagine you wafting up and down dale, and eating cream teas all day long!

Arthur Ransome said...

Oh how I envy you - only two weeks until you'll have the new utility room! I've been "doing up" since June and still there's no end in sight. I've also gone for the walk-in shower option as decrepitude beckons enticingly from the near future. I just went with the plumber's choice of fitments (and now have a whb in which one could comfortably wash a passing toddler) but it still didn't speed things up. Can you tell I'm typing through gritted teeth?

jabblog said...

I understand your frustration! The difference for me is that my son-in-law (one of them, anyway) is a gifted and creative (and honest!) plumber/kitchen and bathroom designer in Dorset. The only snag is that he's always booked up for local and London jobs - but he's worth waiting for (taps fingers and sighs as we wait for new staircase . . . )
Good luck!

SmitoniusAndSonata said...

I , for one , can't wait to see cupboards . I have occasionally seen one .... but not recently . Apparently they don't fit comfortably into tiny Dutch houses .

Annie said...

Charcoal grey slate flooring ... we have it here, and I love it too!

Gwen Buchanan said...

You are amazing.... I need some of your energy. tall the best on your projects.. You have a great eye.

June said...

The mirror arrangement in your bathroom befuddles me. How tall WERE the previous owners???? Did they never look at themselves as they brushed their teeth? Unless they were eight feet tall, they couldn't have!

flwrjane said...

Please don't wait too long to keep us up to date....

I'm going to need some serious amusement very soon:)

Thanks for your encouraging words.

xo jane

Anonymous said...

Yes, me too, I'll be there in two weeks, I have always loved to see what you achieve. Work gets done here on a glacial scale, so I live vicariously through you. (.... Of course that means you also get the neurotic pets, the mess and the expense, but oh, the results are great.) OllieV

Anonymous said...

Oh, do we have to wait two weeks? I'm excited about it all right now.

Elizabeth Musgrave said...

I have my grey slate floor now and would be starting to acquire my purpose built shelves for one wall (i.e. Ian would be making them) were it not for daughter's dog staying this week. Somehow keeping the dog, the cat and the aged p spinning without any of them crashing to the floor seems to be taking two of us. I think your utility room will be fab. I love mine but of course for the last few months I have been unable to see it as it is full of things from the kitchen. It also, somewhere under there, has a nice slate floor I understand.

Marcheline said...

What you call boring, I call extremely exciting. Wish I was doing the same at my house! After ten years of staring at the same ugly bathroom, I am beginning to lose hope.

Anonymous said...

I love seeing what other people do...someday maybe I will be able to remodel....
Amy (USA)

knutty knitter said...

I keep hoping to have my new bathroom by Christmas - for the last 7 years! We did get youngest sons bedroom finished - it is no longer the hallway to the kitchen and toilet. Of course this means I now have a kitchen and toilet out the present back door and across a small deck and in the other back door - with no roof between yet and it snowed the day we did this!

Anyway I'm always interested in a good renovation :)

viv in nz

mountainear said...

It will be worth waiting for - as will your next blog.

I'm in a bit of a blog hiatus myself but haven't got the excuse of major home improvements. Now feel vaguely shamed into writing something...shuffles off to think hard, twiddle fingers and chew metaphorical end of pencil quizzically.

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