Mostly finished bathroom

Ten weeks into the build and the bathroom is finished (except for a little snagging). And I started a new job yesterday. My summer off went super quick.

Here's the inbuilt shelving. Would be my preference to only have Aesop products but my family would disagree.

The cabinet is massive - managed to get all first aid and skincare items in my side...

View from the bathroom looking towards the hallway (lampshade is from B&Q - amazingly). The white box on the wall controls the underfloor heating.

Wall hung toilet and a Geberit flusher, which is the same style as the ones in my new office. Odd coincidence.

Slate non-slip flooring is from Topps Tiles.

Heated towel rail was from JT Spas - who delivered quickly and had excellent customer service (before and after).

Massive cabinet and lights were from Ikea...

...as was the double wall hung sink unit.

These photos were taken early evening - the light during the day is intense! Really happy with how it turned out. Kind of like a retro Case Study house.

Bathroom is almost finished

This is the view from the hallway looking into the bathroom. The sliding door is necessary in the space or it would be wacking into the double sink.

We ordered a shower door from a retailer on eBay but it took 5 weeks to get the bathroom ready to install it. When the builders opened the package they found that the shower door was smashed as were the brackets. The retailer wouldn't refund or replace as 30 days had passed since we ordered it. We found a better shower door subsequently and combined they were both cheaper than one from a reputable retailer so all's well that ends well.

The gunmetal grey tiles look on the brown side in these photos.

The giant wall panel to flush the loo allows access to the hidden cistern. I never knew that's what they were for!

The enormous towel rail accommodates all our towels and will keep the room toasty in winter - well, that and the underfloor heating (thank you Breaking Bad...)

The mirror is actually a huge cabinet which is sunk flush into the wall. The best bit is that the inside of the doors are mirrored so you can see the side of your head when it's open.

On the home straight

My builders are amazing: one stayed behind to sort stuff out and other drove all the way to Ikea and handed over an extensive four page shopping list. All our wardrobes and internal gubbins, kids mattresses and some bathroom lighting came to £1,551. The builder loaded up his van and drove back to us, and as he lit his cigarette he remembered he'd left various items on a trolley somewhere. He put out the cigarette and drove back - at least a 90 minute round trip - and thankfully the trolley was where he'd left it.

The wardrobes began to take shape and as the frames were nearing completion, the builder realised that the doors were missing. As well as some of the internal racks that were on the shopping list. It turns out a third of the pile of flatpack boxes had been left behind at Ikea...

So for the 3rd time in 24 hours, he went back to Ikea and again, thankfully the items were still there. (NB we are missing one shelf and 6-8 of the little things that hold the shelves in place but in the scheme of things this is both expected, and accepted).

So - 8 weeks after starting we finally got to sleep in our bed for the first time. The bedroom has no blinds or lighting, and we've swapped places so that Rob can be nearest the window. Despite this, after two months of sleeping on a sofa (with occasional respite by being away), I slept like a baby on our extremely comfortable bed.

The kids are sleeping in a double bed in our spare room, so they're not being too hard done by. This is their bedroom, which is full of parts for their wardrobe...

Carpet is in!

I've just enjoyed a week in Croatia with some lovely friends and it felt delightful sleeping on a proper (single) bed, after many weeks of kipping on the sofa. I got back to find the bathroom was 75% finished, the walls painted in eye-hurtingly bright white and the skirting board had been mostly laid. Today the carpet got installed in around two hours.

It's the same carpet we have on the stairs - New Zealand wool with a rib, and cost an eye watering £2K including underlay. The skirting board is a rebellion against the generic white standard issue most houses sport. Ours is made from layers of ply and can be stained any colour.

The photo above is looking where the wardrobe will go, and shows the loft access ladder slightly ajar, which probably means the spring is not strong enough to hold it shut.

This is the view from the master bedroom showing the sliding door in place, and the nasty faux Victorian era banister boxed in (yippee!).

50 shades of grey

I've been adding photos of dark tiles to my Pinterest board for months. Incredibly, Rob and I looked at the same photo and I said 'Those tiles are dark grey, possibly black' and he insisted they were light grey. In the end, I managed to source gunmetal grey tiles in high gloss which were the same shape. Rob wasn't keen, insisting on even smaller tiles, in light grey, with a matt finish. His fictional tiles don't seem to exist so with the plastering all done, my choice won out.

The colour looks like a browny/grey but with the light pouring in a dark colour works fine - and now we're going to argue over dark vs light grey grout...

Looking straight up at the Velux you can see that the builders have used jaunty angles to vault the ceiling. It gives the room an architectural feel. The finish on the plastering and paintwork looks like it was done by professionals which makes all the difference. If I'd had to paint this myself it would look pretty dire...