Houses can be fabulous, a work in progress, and a future dream

One thing I have neglected to publicly mention following the Manchester Blogmeet was just how stunning and beautiful Clare's house was**: this is thrown into sharp relief by chez Rullsenberg and Cloud which, at best, could be called a future dream or a (potential) work in progress. I say potential because we are so inept at getting things done and organised that at this rate we will have paid off the mortgage before the damn work is finished on it.

We need to (in no particular order - though we are aware that you install a new bathroom upstairs before demolishing the old one downstairs to extend the kitchen

• chimney stacks and repairs gaps in walls / install airbricks


• bathroom upstairs should come before tearing out the old one)


• replaster the house, and add/improve damp-proof


• scrub up the old tiled hallway floor (still some traces of sticky tape from the scarilege of the old owners having a carpet down...


• install a bathroom upstairs (currently it is directly off the kitchen downstairs)


• fix the door of the upstairs toilet


• replace the large radiator in the back bedroom with a smaller one...
  ... because when the new bathroom goes in it will otherwise be partly in two rooms (and therefore once the bathroom-room is built into part of the back bedroom space we will also need a new radiator installing so BOTH rooms have heat)


• repair roof gaps to prevent birds entering


• fix loft to become another bedroom space or at least suitable storage space(currently unused and when the bathroom goes into part of the currently huge old back bedroom we will lose a lot of space)


• once bathroom upstairs, knock the kitchen through the old bathroom to create an extended kitchen - with new windows, roof, door, eating space, laundry space


• new kitchen installed: current one was fitted onto the old original shelves of the house


• raise the floor level in the pantry to reduce damp problems


• decorate

I could think of many other more minor tasks, but this should give you some sense of the scale of task ahead of us to get anywhere close to the beauty that Clare's house now has.

One day...

** the link was a bit fuddled as at 1.30pm 22/2/06...