Randoms from round the house

Stairs & Landing

Looking down

Looking up

En-suite 2

Pebble tiles appearing here very soon!!

Stud & plasterboarding complete and feeling happy with how this bathroom has worked out so far :-))  

Guest Bathroom

Not 100% on the built in shelving above where the wc will go?  

Would it look better with just 2 shelves instead of three? 

Was also thinking about putting a door on to hide any clutter....too many decsions already!!

Windows

exterior

Lounge is south facing so these windows let in loads of light, yes even on a grey wet day...and there are many of those here in Limerick! 

The addition of 4 velux windows over the vaulted dining area was definitely the way to go - these were extras as originally I had not specified any.  Again letting the light flood in whatever the weather in Limerick is up to ;-))

Another tweak of the windows here in the Games Room.  Notice the side panels are split into two.  This again was a late amendment.  

We have a full heat recovery & ventilation system running though out the house which should negate the need to open a window for ventilation purposes. 

So in theory this window unit could have been fully glazed with 4 symmetric panels that were fully fixed and no-opening. 

However as you can see from the side panels that are now in situ, I opted to add a window either side that opens for both the sake of safety and the waft of real fresh air should I desire to sniff it!!

see what I mean about the weather!!

Busy Week Buying

Ticked off the list this week

Sockets and Data 

• All the sockets and data points are from the GET Ultimate Screwless range and have now been purchased.
• I have gone for a stainless steel finish with white inserts.
• These have been ordered from an electrical wholesaler in England and should be on site ready to be installed by early next week.

Tiles for 1st Floor Bathrooms

• Have gone for a Classic Flax Mix Honed Limestone (wow that's a mouthful) from MandarinStone and a white pebble tile from MarbleMosaics
• Will be using the Flax limestone tile as the flooring in all the upstairs bathrooms and the laundry room.  I'll be using the pebbles to tile out the inside walls and floors of the showers.  They are all wet room style - NO GLASS!
• Just didn't seem to have the energy or inclination to do something wildly exciting or different in each bathroom.   I'm all for KISS at the moment, just Keeping It Simply Styled!
• Tiles should be delivered first week in April.

Fittings for Master Bathroom

• As if by magic these lovely Dornbracht Tara fittings appeared on ebay this week....who was I to resist!
• Just one more part (the very unglamorous concealed element) for the wall mounted taps to secure and then thats it, the master bathroom is complete...well not quite, but you know what I mean....

Whoooohoooo Windows!!

Long story as you know....but they're here at last!!

Our front door 

Two tone grey aluclad on the exterior

white painted wood interior

all stacked and ready to go!

Little ones Big bathroom

Today here's a little look around my youngest daughters soon to be bathroom.  I'm so proud of my shopping skills  (put to good use at last I hear my husband muttering!) in general on this project, but this bathroom in particular will be a notable achievement once completed.

(I'm going to use a light limestone tile on the floors and white/light pebble tiles in the shower and behind the bath.)

It has taken me a year to piece together bit by bit this bathroom, it started with this tap purchased way back in March 2009 - it was the subject of my very first blog post HERE

This purchase re-awakened my mad love for Ebay and the absolute thrill of bagging a bargain.  I learned early on that the high end bathroom brands have the same code numbers for fittings worldwide, so it's relatively easy to piece together yourself from different suppliers as long as you know what you're after.

So armed with my encycolpedias of Grohe fittings I managed to track down the "royal flush" of taps, bath/shower mixer, concealed shower mixer and shower head.  The set was complete this week with the arrival of the final elusive parts which I purchased on-line from Reuter Bathrooms in Germany, all the other items were painstakingly tracked down on ebay!!

THIS IS IT

Cute Sottini Alchemy corner bath...managed to squeeze this 1m x 1.5m bath in as well as the shower, it came brand new and with the matching bath panel (Ebay - Supplier 1)

deck mounted Grohe Atrio bath/shower mixer (Ebay supplier 2)

Catalano Zero Light basin - mine has towel rail and drawer - (Ebay - supplier 3) 

Grohe Atrio basin mixer (Ebay - supplier 4)

Catalano Zero 55 wall mount wc (Ebay - supplier 5)

Concealed parts for WC - (Reuter Bathrooms - supplier 6)

Grohe Atrio concealed shower (Ebay - supplier 7)

Grohe Rainshower 210mm (Ebay - supplier 9)

Grohe Rainshower arm (Reuter Bathrooms - supplier 6)

Grohe Sena handshower (Ebay - supplier 9)

Grohe wall elbow & shower connector (Reuter Bathrooms - supplier 6)

Grohe Relaxa shower hose (Reuter Bathrooms - supplier 6)

 I think I can quite legitimately claim to have "sourced" these items rather than merely "purchased" them.  "Sourcing" seems to be the word of the moment in most of the 'housey' mags I'm addicted to (cutting down on the habit seriously though Mr C if you are reading this per chance).  I'm now finding myself tutting away when reading the many articles detailing other peoples "projects" in which they claim to have "sourced" their items, when surely simply bought would be more appropriate (ooh get me tonight....meeooow!) 

Apologies now for this rather long winded waffle of a post (I'm presumtious in assuming you've stuck with me this far!), this has been quite theraputic in reminding myself just how much effort I've put into this project and how in the most part I've succeeded in getting the max bang for our buck - there's no way, no how I'm going to let my window woes detract from that.  

Recess

Focusing on the positive, thought I'd give you a snap shot of progress down at the site.  Things are still moving along, albeit at a slower pace these days.  

We have decided to to flush mount our TV's in the family room and in the seating area in the kitchen. Made to measure niches have been created in the stud work to accommodate the TV's and slim profile bracket.  

Anyone who remembers the size of our trusty old box at Butterlaw Farm, will realise they will have to be new TV's!!  Hoping that I can make the budget do magic tricks so we are able to fill the niches we've created.....

Recessed TV's

This is where the idea came from...ripped this out of a magazine ages ago, the tv will sit in between the two windows in the dining area just like this (she says confidently!)

When the internal plastering started without any windows in situ, I did think we were asking for trouble.  However, Mark my builder has been a master at keeping things progressing, which has been difficult to do when the house should have been water tight back in October.  As you can see in these pics the walls and ceilings that have been plastered have now turned an almost dried out powdery pink.

Blow the Budget.....

This week definitely goes down as the worst one so far in the great scheme of this house build, so what's a girl to do??  Well if you heed the wise words of Hannah Montana you "BUILD A BRIDGE AND GET OVER IT!"  

Ok, so in an attempt not to dwell on the negative, I'm indulging myself in a little "fantasy house building" today...So actually it's not a bridge I'd like to build Hannah, how about this fab swimming pool for an extension!  A little bit of daydreaming never did any harm did it?

via digsdigs

This pool is now officially added to the wish list along side the spiral stair slide and the tree house....cracking house that would be!

My Nothing Lights.....

Still NOTHING to report window wise (how frustrating is that!) so I thought I'd let you see my Artemide NOTHING lights I bought this week.  They were a great ebay bargain; they arrived brand spanking new and fabulously packaged and I'm delighted to say NOTHING like this this earlier ebay purchase here.

THE BLURB....

"The Nothing collection from Artemide Architectural is a series of recessed downlight with no visible fitting, the light sources appear to float from a void in the ceiling. The surrounds are made using plastering edging trims. Best used on suspended or false ceilings, the final plaster skim can be applied to the very edges of the light creating a sharp edge and a beautifully minimal aesthetic"

you can check them out here

I've got 3 of the single fittings going into the master bathroom and then a double and triple fitting in the dressing room.  I would have loved to have used these fittings all over the house.....again the Big Bad "B" word put at stop to that idea, so as you can imagine I was delighted to nab these 5 fittings when they came up on ebay!!

Not a great day.....

• Really wanted to tell you that my windows are on their way.....but I can't

• Received final quote for my Aquatherm Eco F34 stove....comes it at nearly £1000 more than I'd budgeted for (I need a special type apparently, which costs more...and I didn't factor in the previously unmentioned but supposedly necessary extras).  Am going to have to have a little re-think about this one...heart is saying  "I love it still" - head is saying "look at the alternatives"  

• Kitchen quotation came back......not quite as bad as I maybe expected....but still over budget.

Hoping tomorrow is a better day for all and trying to be thankful that whatever happens, it is really only small stuff as long as my family are happy and healthy!!

IMAGE VIA DESIGN IS MINE

What no windows.............

It's time to

No windows today folks, I've been told that my windows couldn't be loaded for Ireland on Friday as the truck they had lined up to transport my 'precious cargo' from Austria was not big enough for insurance purposes...or something along those lines.  I have been assured that 'correct sized' truck will be available tomorrow...

ain't counting any chickens yet but am taking the advice to....

there are far worse things happening in the world this week than windows not arriving!

Images from www.keepcalmgallery.com