Picture dump

I haven't updated in a while, so I'm gonna do a picture dump with a little commentary.

I started removing paint from the front door. It's a mess!

We'll perservere.

We also installed much needed blinds in the attic windows.

We doubted a long time about the colour, finally went with white.

They absolutely block the light.

Shellac!

There was a spare night table around so I washed it, shellac-ed it,
and it is now extra storage in the attic bedroom.

The bathroom vanity suffered water marks, so I fixed it...

The first layers of shellac I used, I mixed well with all the wax contained in the flakes. I found info that the wax is more protective against vapour, which worried me more than a few droplets of water (we ventilate a lot but showers happen). However it is less water resistant.

I rubbed the spots with alcohol and a piece of cloth, which worked quite well, and then gave a few more layers of shellac, this time skimmed from the top of the mix. There will still be wax, but less. If this doesn't perform well enough (we are trying to splatter less, but we're human), I'll have to bring out the varnish :(

And... workshop! I'm very excited about the workshop ;P but it needs lots and lots of work...

Closing gaps with PUR.

Plastering.

Installing water pipes.

Putting up plasterboards.

Water, yay!

Another container come and gone

Drains

Pim's been working on drains under the driveway.

I'm trying to convince him to write a post about it.

Hose tap

There it is. Sticking out since this wall still needs a layer of insulation covered by thin bricks. Sometime.

This wall is the driveway / court side of the farthest building, what will be the kitchen and dining room.

Clothes bar

Between cabinet and wall we installed a curtain rod to serve as clothes hanger, to air clothes. Later I'll hang another bar for a curtain in front of it.

We also did errands (ordering some marble, swatches for curtains), garden work, and started installing a hose tap outside. Cement curing so images tomorrow. 

Rubble &

Today we had a 12 m3 container brought. About half of the rubble and crap we found in the kitchen double ceiling fitted in it. So we'll have to get another one soon.

Pim and his dad had 7h to fill it up, tidily so that most would fit.

Lamps

I haven't been posting much. Three main reasons:

1. Most importantly, since the move our productivity has decreased, due to being a bit saturated, sense of urgency gone, it being winter (I think last winter the same happened, I thought it was the cold, but the house is now cozy, so perhaps the darkness), and it's actually difficult to do things when it's already full of furniture and stuff.

2. Even what we do, I don't take many pictures (re: darkness).

3. Lamest of all, blogger app stopped working so there wasn't a straightforward way for me to post pictures from my phone. I just installed Blogaway, let's see how that goes. Edit: great!






It took us a long time to decide which wall  lamps to get for the bedroom and bathroom.

We finally decided, ordered them, received them and installed them today.

The bedroom lamps are dimmable and the led light bulbs are awesome, particularly when dim. They have this crown of prisms thing going on.






The first floor is getting closer and closer to completion!

An intermezzo

Because everyone loves before and after pictures, right? I didn't get the angle exactly right, both sets were taken with different phones. The old pictures were taken on our first visit to the house (with the real estate agent).

I forgot a cleaning rag in the washbasin, let's say it looks lived-in ;)

9 February 2013

6 March 2015

9 February 2013

6 March 2015

Some things are in store. More soon.

PS: the bathroom is not finished, but it is indeed the most finished room in the house.

6 bathroom pictures

It's sunny and it snowed, and it stayed, so there is enough light for even phone pictures.
The bathroom is not finished, but it is the most finished room in the house at the moment.

Sad post: cutting furniture up

I feel tempted to title this post: "Picture dump 2". No much time or energy for much else...

Not that I've been taking many pictures: it is too dark. With the Solstice behind us, perhaps this will change soon.

The house is still a mess, lots of boxes everywhere. I hear this is normal...
Let's see what I find in the memory card...

Ah, yes. I butchered the Art Deco sideboard to have access to plugs in the wall behind. Router, external drive etc live now inside. I kept the piece I cut out, I tried to do as little damage as possible, but...

Aand, had to cut up even more furniture. The cupboard/library/whatever Pim inherited from his granddad was 5 metres long. There is no such wall in this house.

It is made up of 5 elements, but the "seat" was made up of 3 elements (2, 2, 1), and the only 1 metre element is an edge element, so we had to cut one of the 2 metre "seat" pieces in two. The entire thing is oak, except for the pieces were they could get away with some early type of particle board with a thick veneer, like the "seat", and most everything except the doors and drawer fronts.

I managed to cut a straight line, and then filed a camber on the edge as the other pieces had (sorta, they're a little convex, but you can't tell the difference). A little walnut dye and a little wax and you really can't tell. I don't have any good pictures, this is the darkest room in the house...

The join is between the first and second elements visible in this pic.
Do not confuse with the black cable lying there ;)

Gratuitous cat photo in the relevant piece of furniture

So, the leftover element went upstairs next to my side of the bed.

Due to the way the legs were made (one leg in between two elements) we had a conundrum with this orphaned piece. Had to hack some more I'm afraid... I removed the back leg and some extra pieces of wood that were in the way, didn't install the only front leg left over, and just installed a new set of 4 legs that we bought in the hardware store (turned beech), I dyed them to match and protected them with shellac.

There is space on the left of it, where I want to build some storage and a hanging bar for clothes that need airing and so on.

As can be seen in the previous pics, this element is bare on both sides, and there's even a hole over the seat/drawer section. I'll have to cover this up somehow.

Looking ok from the front ;)

And, to end on a brighter note, a piece of furniture I did not have to hack into:

Bad lightning

I got this table off eBay for 25 euro, in 2007. The top was damaged because someone put a hot pot on it. I started fixing it up back then, but it's been covered up for years, after a monumental fuck up*. All this time I thought it was cherry, but now I got a better look at it I realise it is mahogany... I found an older image:

Back in 2007. You can see the crop circle if you squint.

I found about the fuck up in my old Livejournal. Ugh. Back then I didn't even finish sanding off the gunk since my sciatica was very bad. Just covered the table up until now... Here's a post about the first "restoration" steps, and here about the fuck up. Do not mix sawdust with wood glue to fill gaps, kids! :(

Now I've only sanded, oiled a bit and shellac-ed. I was aiming to fill the gaps with the shellac, but they may be too deep. We'll see. Looking good so far. Darker, more red than the previous finish, because of the oil I believe. It has a great depth now so I am happy about that.