Great minds think alike

Img courtesy of Flickr

As soon as I have a weekend at home I will photograph all the things in the house that we've yet to sort out. The last three weekends have been spent in various parts of the English countryside - kicking autumnal leaves and drinking litres of delicious wine. Hopefully I can make some time this coming weekend.

Until then here's a lovely white kitchen which features a dash of high gloss on the counter top, and chartreuse green as an injection of colour. Oh and they've got moulded white retro chairs and wooden floors too. I used to cringe at my parents bold orange 1970s colour palette once the 1980s were underway, and I guess my kids will have the same reaction to our aesthetic choices before too long. "Eeoow, this house is so, 2008, urgh!"

The plumber came back with a quote - £2,500 to fit a new boiler and replace the water storage tank. Apparently all the necessary parts can be bought for around £1,000 which means the labour (ie one days work) is being costed at £1,500. No wonder so many people are re-training as plumbers! Rob's offered to buy the parts directly to see if we can negotiate a reduced day rate. Watch this space.

Good light for photos

So far we've had one plumber come round to quote for the new boiler. We used to live next door to his parents, and he did the boiler at our flat. Top bloke. It's been a week and a half so we're hoping the quote is imminent. The other plumber I contacted didn't show up and I'm having trouble getting a recommendation for anyone else (if you happen to have a reliable boiler oriented plumber's number, please leave it in a comment below). Would be good to have two quotes for comparison purposes.

The photo at the top was taken by a professional photographer who specialises in taking kids photos. Despite the rainy day there was plenty of light, she hardly used her light reflector. The new Verner Panton chairs were put to good use, though I wish I'd paid more attention to wrangling Gwen (the one in pink), of the hundreds of photos taken she's pulling silly faces in 90% of them.

If you have kids and you're based in London, I can recommend Francesca the photographer - very patient and produces better portraits than I can manage. Here's her website: http://francescaquerci.com/

And some examples of her work below (Yup, these are my kids...)

Cabinet stop gap

Another Friday night at Ikea. We must be getting pretty good at it now as we don't fight any more. Partly due to knowing all the short cuts around the store, but also learning the tricks - such as eating first, parking near the lifts where you exit from rather than near the entrance and making a list.

On this trip we bought the two metal cabinets mentioned in an earlier post, and two plastic trays. Not bad. The cabinets in their massive flat pack boxes only just made it into the Volvo (had to remove the back seat headrests though), but were remarkably easy to assemble.

I ordered a 37" flatscreen Toshiba Regza from Amazon including all the cables, a temporary indoor antenna and related bits for under £500 (there goes the holiday fund) which arrived the next day. The upside of having a second TV is that Rob can watch sport and the kids can watch Spongebob... and I can read the newspaper supplements in peace.

The room is starting to feel really useful, instead of cold and bland. We'll get a third cabinet actually, since this will be our storage for the next couple of years. Looking forward to getting all our artwork up on the walls this side of Christmas.

Now to find a plumber who actually shows up as we need that boiler replaced, and soon.

Click the photo below to see a supersize panorama taken at the weekend...

Petite Panton chairs

I've always liked the Panton "S" (stackable) chair, it's a 20th Century Design icon and was the first plastic chair made from one section.

We considered getting half a dozen to use as our indoor dining chairs, but decided against it as the S chair has become too ubiquitous. From various drinking establishments around London to the Mode offices on Ugly Betty, the S chair is everywhere... so instead of being quirky and distinctive, they now feel a little common.

Last week I was on eBay and saw that you could get kids versions for £14 + delivery, so I went for it. I've put them with the little table in front of the TV in the living room on the middle floor. This way we get to enjoy a little nod to Panton's collectable design without having them take over our dining room. The kids really love them too. I wonder if you can get kids sizes of the Barcelona chair?

Cabinet sadness

I don't know why I actually thought that this would happen any time soon. I guess it's denial. It seemed like we'd been really careful about the cost of most things and even recovering from massive cost over runs - paying for such exciting unforeseen necessities such as extra support beams and what not - the funds are drying up. Heck, I thought by not doing an entire floor we would've recovered quite a chunk of money, but alas. Not nearly enough.

Back in December I posted the architects drawings of the proposed bespoke wall cabinet - which was originally costed at £1,000 and was then re-quoted closer to £2,000. Even so, it's the feature that will really make the room. From being an impactful bit of design as well as enormously useful, it was the one thing in the house that I was determined was going to happen come hell or high water. Anyway, here comes the high water: we need a new boiler.

Our existing boiler is 20 years old and the plumbing is a mess. The power shower pump isn't in the right place so some mornings the shower runs at a determined dribble. There isn't enough oomph to get all the radiators piping hot at the same time. And our utility bills from NPower are eyewateringly high. With the temperature dropping the central heating will go on in the next week or two so it's time to act.

A new boiler will cost around £1,500 to install (quotes to come in shortly according to Rob) but will save potentially over £300 a year in heating costs. Then there's the glass splash back (£550) which is becoming a priority as every passing week means the wall near the hob gets in more of a state. So now we've agreed to get a couple of cheap metal Ikea cabinets (pictured top) which cost £65 each. This temporary solution can accommodate misc house debris, and can be re-used elsewhere when we rustle up the £2,000 to build the proper cabinet.

I guess it's time to move on and sort a storage solution as we've been here for nearly a year and there are loads of boxes piled high in our TV room which are really starting to annoy me (what's IN those boxes?!)

The snagging bit

There's been a bunch of small but irritating fixes around the house that have been ignored for many months. The to-do list probably added up to three days of solid work, but trying to get a builder back for three consecutive days when they aren't getting paid extra was always going to be a mission.

I'm pleased to say that Teia did manage to come back twice in the last couple of weeks and sort a few things out. Firstly, he put a thin strip of white wood along the top of the cupboards - this was to disguise the fact that the ceiling wasn't completely level. If the cupboards had been aligned to the ceiling, they'd never have sat completely flush with each other at the bottom.



Secondly, he put a length of timber at each side of the external doors to hide the concrete where the doors are braced against the brickwork.



Thirdly, he filled in some of the more noticeable cracks in the wall. I haven't got photos of the other two things as they're hardly photogenic but definitely worth mentioning: Teia lifted the planks of the deck to lay a membrane which prevents weeds from growing up between them. And last but not least, he finished connecting the extractor tube (which takes the smells from the kitchen extractor/range hood) and now spurts odours outside. We used to have that tube dangling in the garage so all the laundry that was drying in there smelt faintly of bacon smoke. It's been so nice to go in there and not balk at yesterday's dinner smells!

Teia's done a terrific job and hopefully he'll make it back for one more day to finish off a few more things, before moving back to New Zealand.

Outdoor furniture sorted

Our new neighbours have great taste. Aside from the numerous coincidences that have sprung up since we've got to know each other, they saved us several hundred pounds by sourcing the perfect outside dining table and chairs from the end of line department at... yup, Ikea. Despite frequent visits to Ikea and hours perusing the catalogue in the last couple of years, we'd never seen either this table nor the chairs.

Our mission to find an identical set involved a trip to the Edmonton branch for the table and then a couple of phone calls and a 40 mile round trip to the Croydon branch for the chairs. They look like they match but are from two different lines, and being discontinued were a little difficult to track down. Still, at £75 for the table and £15 for each chair we didn't mind the time involved as the alternative was a similar set from John Lewis which would've cost £1,108 vs the £165 we ended up shelling out.



Coincidentally one of the weekend newspaper supplements had an advert for Ronseal Perfect Finish Garden Furniture Oil and for £15 including delivery it seemed a sensible investment. I managed to do all three coats myself - as indeed it was extremely easy to apply (just like the ad promised). Each coat took about 20 minutes (to do six chairs and a table), which was touch dry within an hour and totally dry after four hours. The furniture now has a slightly darker, glossier sheen which should make it weather proof for the next few years.