Tiling continues in the kitchen

Work continues in the house with more tiling and suddenly the bright red tiles seem.... extremely bright! When we went tile shopping we had in our minds that we wanted to go for warm neutral colours tones of brown and creams but when we got to the tile showroom and saw these we both feel in love and took home some samples before going for the plunge. 

With months of knocking through walls and removing rubble it's really exciting to see how our house will look finished and is helping to spur on the enthusiasm to continue working hard on the build and renovation. 

Boxing in the old fireplace

Our house is a little bit greedy and has two fireplaces, so we are going to keep one as a working fireplace and the other as a feature in the room, hopefully filled with lanterns and candles.

But before we can do that we need to block up the fireplace and stop the small creepy critters from entering the house. Just out of the shot there is a wooden platform now blocking off the old fire place. With the back wall of the fireplace painted it is now onto finishing the bottom with a slate hearth.

We have already made a slate hearth for the first fireplace and love it so just need to make one to match now.

exterior painting

With the sun shining and the temperature feeling summery (if you ignore the cold temperatures in the morning and night) we are making the most of the dry weather to get a few more outside jobs complete. Although we have big plans for the outside of the house we know it won't be looked into until spring next year so to tie us over the winter the back garden gets a lick of paint to brighten the area up ready for winter. 

The plans for this area will be to replace the the stone steps with something a little wider and less dangerous. We are hoping to create something using railway sleepers but for now a fresh coat of white exterior paint will have to do. 

Now it's back into the house to warm up and continue the jobs on the inside.

Happy first birthday to our little Cornish home

It's hard to believe that we have been in our little Cornish home for 12 months already. It's been an amazing journey for two first time buyers and myself a first time DIY and renovator. But we have worked so hard and the downstairs of the house is so very nearly completed and we have a week off work planned in for November where we are going to attack the upstairs and make a big push to get the house done enough for a Christmas with the family.

With two new roofs, all internal walls removed downstairs, one new kitchen, a new wooden floor and half a bathroom in one year for two first time buyers I think this is a really good effort. Plus holding down two full time jobs and a busy social life we are celebrating our first year in our wonderful little home with a glass of bubbly a slice of cake and a screwdriver in hand to carry on with a few more jobs!

The most amazing kitchen tiles ever!

OK so the most amazing kitchen tiles EVER might be a bit of an over statement but theses tiles are pretty amazing. Throughout my life I have lived at my parents who has a country style kitchen with painted walls and a small tile splash back around the kitchen sink. I've also had various rented accommodation where the kitchens are fitted with the cheapest tiles in neutral colours. More often than not browns and beige tiles are a favourite for being the most appealing to the widest amount of tenants.   

Now that we own our own home our instant thought was to play it safe and go with some neutral tiles, keeping the kitchen simple especially for any future resale. But then we visited the tile show room and found these bright red tiles! We bought a few sample tiles in the bright red and also in a cream and white and placed them in the kitchen for a few days to see which ones we liked the most. It was a hands down favourite with both of us, we ordered up the tiles and next the job of fitting the outrageously bright red tiles. 

As the wall behind the oven filled up we were beginning to wonder if we had made the right choice as it is extremely bright but the more rows of tiling that have been completed the more we fell in love with the colour.

Now to grout the tiling and re fit the extractor hob and part of the kitchen is nearly complete.

Painting the garage

With the last little bit of summer I'm making the most of it and painting the rest of the back of the house. We dug out the patio slabs a few weeks ago as we had drainage issues with the outside ground level higher than the inside and water was entering the house. Here you can see the tide line where the patio slabs have been removed. The new ground level is about 7 inches lower than it was previously. This has left us with a grubby black lines running across the wall. Although the wall does need rendering for now it it's getting a fresh coat of paint to brighten it up whilst we continue working on the inside of the house. 

With the outbuilding now painted and the back of the garage also painted it certainly looks much better out there. Hopefully this will last over the winter until next year when the inside of the house is finished and we can start landscaping and improving the outside. Just need new doors, new windows and a new roof and the garage will be up to the same standard as the inside!

Painting the original out building

When we bought the house this is what the outside of the back looked like. Although we had a vision for this area with a nice new patio and a bbq and a table and chairs the priorities were always to work on the inside of the house first.

We made some progress outside through removing the flower bed and re opening the access to the archway but to make the outside just that little bit more appealing we gave the whole area a lick of paint. Removing the lose render off the wall and giving the wall a good scrub meant that it was ready for a lick of paint.  

It needs to be properly rendered and painted but for the time being the old outbuilding now looks a lot fresher. Hopefully it'll stay this way over the winter before we are ready to render the outside of the house properly and make the garden the area that we dream of creating.  

New guttering on the front of the house

With the weather is on our side it is time to replace the rotten crumbling guttering on the front of the house around the garage. This has been a problem since we moved in where the guttering wasn't attached to the wall in most places and the gutters leaked down the walls in other parts.

Sending James's dad out to the local DIY store he picks up the required new section of drain pipe and fixes this to the garage including a new section of wood to replace the previous rotten wood.

The boys arrive to crack on with the plastering

The boys arrive bright and early at the weekend to plaster the kitchen. This includes the kitchen ceiling and kitchen walls. Seeing the last parts of the open plan downstairs getting plastered is really exciting as it means that we can soon finish the kitchen and finally see the restoration come to a finish.

James and his dad drinking coffee whilst our hired plasterer gets to work on the plastering. 

Our extremely happy plasterer Tom from Candy plastering in Newquay. If your wondering why the plaster doesn't go all the way down to the kitchen tops this is because it doesn't need to as the tiles will be going over this part of the wall.  

Painting the exterior of the house

Waiting for sunny weather in the UK is a very good British past time and when doing DIY this makes no exception. The kitchen window looks straight out onto this retaining wall from next doors garden and whilst it is green and mouldy it isn't particularly nice to look out on. 

With some weather proof masonry paint the old wall brightened up a treat, and this reflects light straight back into the kitchen and through the house.  

Just the rest of the outside of the house to paint before the summer ends!