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Evening faithful followers,
I guess there’s been a lot of wailing, gnashing of teeth and rending of clothes since the house refurbs were finished and no more posts on the blog but fear not!
Now the Olympics are over and I’ve finally managed to peel my backside of the sofa (nice image eh ladies?) I have started a new blog, it’s called Rye Musing and Boozing
As those of you who know me can attest, these are the two activities that seem to take up a fair bit of my time (obviously along with working like a dog and attending to my lovely wife’s every need and whim) so I thought it not unreasonable to use that as a base for the blog.
I hope you enjoy it and come Christmas there will be a prize for the most comments. Now this prize could be a night out with me or it could even be something good, but that’s just a chance you’ll have to take…
Anyhooo, please do pay a visit to the site
and to finish off here’s a photo for you taken in Barga, Tuscany. All together now, aaaaaaaaah
Yes ladies and gentlemen we are now finished, the house (well ground floor) is now ready and able to accept all you good people at any one time in order to recreate either A) Sodom and Gomorrah B) Woodstock C) The Ministry of Sound or none of the above and (indeed more likely), everyone pop round for a glass of sherry and a canape or two with a little bit of classic FM in the background.
Or maybe we can take a soupcon of each and create our own future mythical event…..
Still, I’m sure you’d all rather I stopped rambling and let you see the piccies – if indeed you’ve bothered to read this rather than just scrolling down (I’m talking to you Ms Foxwell)
So let’s start with the living room…
Wow, a sofa and a lamp – pretty cool eh?
It’s a fire but it’s behind glass – craaaazy man!
So let us swoop majestically into Colin, and lo!!
It’s a dining room…
It’s a kitchen…
it’s Sue Ellen’s boudoir (that’s for any Dallas fans still out there)
At this point, seeing as it’s 11:30 on a friday evening and i’m (ahem) a tad tired I think i’ll take a break from the usual inane witterings that are my forte and just pop up a few photos to give you an idea of the general finished product…
It’s a stove and it burns wood so I guess that makes it a….
and on to the next
Did I mention the doors before?
well if I did, tough doodoo darlings ’cause here they are again
Random kitchen shot, shiny shiny (in the words of Hayzee Fantayzee)
And that really should do me for this evening,
Using the vernacular that appears to be in vogue at present – We’ve been on an amazing journey and have learned so much about ourselves. We’ve laughed, we’ve cried and have grown stronger as people. It’s now time to move on with the rest of our lives but we’ll never forget this amazing passage of time.
Or alternatively…
Jeez what a pain in the arse that all was, thank god it’s over and we’ve finally moved home and it’s looking top banana!
you’ve been a wonderful audience and I bid you all a good evening.
Watch this space for the next exciting / insane / illegible (delete as appropriate) musings from me, the Silver Fox, your South Coast Correspondent.
Ciao a tutti!!
Well, Rye East Sussex anyway.
Yes indeedy, this past weekend we finally moved back into our house! The work isn’t quite finished, some decorating still to be done, work surfaces to be fitted and floors to be finished, but we have bid a less than fond farewell to the Pigeon coop we have called home for the last 12 weeks.
So from this Kitchen…
to this..
and from this living room…
to this…
ok, it’s not quite finished but I think you get the general idea!!
We were slightly delayed last week by a paint colour malfunction in the living room that necessitated re-painting the whole room – I think I’ll leave it to Madame Project Manager to explain that in due course.
As a result, we were unable to start putting furniture back in over the weekend as the floors still need to be sanded and oiled so we led a rather spartan existence over the weekend – obviously not the sort of Spartan lifestyle that requires throwing sickly children off a cliff and starting military service at the age of 7 but the kind that reduces the number of fluffy cushions you’re allowed on a chair…..
The cloakroom is now finished
And the hall, unlike my reputation, is whiter than white.
It should all look a bit less stark once everything is finished and we can get some pictures up on the wall, so watch this space for finished shots in the coming week!
Until then, have a good week everybody and I remain,
your faithful blogger….
And so we enter the last week of our peripatetic life (my entry for word of the day) before returning to Schloss Mutley-Hiller this coming Saturday.
Things are progressing reasonably smoothly though Madame Project Manager / Commander in Chief Ground Floor Enhancement Project has had a slightly awkward time of late as adjustments are inevitably made to the Grand Plan.
Just think of it as if Locog decided they couldn’t quite squeeze the basketball arena into the Olympic Park so chucked it behind the bike sheds instead – the minor kitchen travails are somewhat similar (except not at all really).
Anyway, moving on from Hutley rambling pt47, I can hear the shout from a thousand voices – WE WANT PHOTOGRAPHS AND WE WANT THEM NOW! In which case good people….
We now have a woodburner in place in Colin
Sadly heating in the living room is still absent but I have it on good authority the funky new fire will be installed this wednesday, as opposed to sitting in front of the fireplace in boxes..
though doing it in this order does give us something to put in the wood burner (well cardboard was originally wood wasn’t it?) You can also see that the prep work has mostly been done ready for decorating in the living room
Interesting to see the difference in what a professional decorator views as prep work compared to my version which consists of a 5 minute rub down followed by 5 pints of cider and a kip.
Moving on swiftly to matters culinary, the Kitchen was delivered Saturday. As usual the horror of the delivery men when confronted with our steps was palpable but a swift offer of help in lugging boxes (yes I can do manual labour when required!) assuaged that somewhat and soon a pile of random boxes was stacked up in Colin – is a kitchen really going to come out of that lot I hear you say?
Well judging by yesterday evening, it may well do as units are going up even as we speak…
Things are fast moving this week as we progress towards completion though I suspect there will be further hiccups and plan tweaking before the end, however the good news is we have a dedicated project manager assiduously slogging away to ensure all goes well…
ahhh, ok folks looks like we’re in trouble
But I do have a wooden floor (almost)
Yes indeedy boys and girls, the wooden floor is in! Not sanded or polished as yet but that will be done in due course.
We can also take a sneaky peak at the kitchen floor which has been laid but is being kept under wraps at the moment. I’d like to say it’s because we have an artistic masterpiece which is being kept hidden until the grand unveiling before assembled media, dancing girls and local bigwigs but in reality it’s to protect it
Stan doesn’t appear too enamoured with the prospect of having to sit on a wooden floor (and yes, that is a poor excuse for another gratuitous dog picture!)
The amount of various building paraphenalia appears to finally be going down and space revealing itself once more….
I understand from Madame Project Manager that this week the electrics and plumbing will be done and the skirting boards finished off. Hopefully some decorating also will be done as the kitchen is due to be delivered on saturday ready for fitting (in that very space above) next saturday.
I’m away travelling this week to Singapore (for jealousy purposes below is the view from my hotel window) so am quite excited at what I may expect to see on my return.
At which point, from a 35 degrees and sunny singapore I bid you all a good day!
Sadly after our brief sojourn in foreign climes it’s back to working for the man.
But the good news is whilst we’ve been away trying to explain the joys of marmite, haggis and Ant n Dec (nope still don’t get that one) our fine builders haven’t stopped grafting..
And progress has been quite significant over the last week and a bit
Plastering has been finished
Lantern now displayed in all it’s glory
The wood has been delivered for the flooring and is now being room conditioned (which is the technical term for sitting around waiting till they can find an empty floor on which to lay it)
Underneath that pile of wood and various tools you would also have been able to see that the Kitchen floor had been laid if only the photographer’s assistant (aka Project Manager, aka Mrs H) had put a shift in and moved the pile so that the official Project archivist and photographer (aka Mr H, aka yours truly) could take a photograph but you just can’t get the staff these days..
But i’m sure you’re all dying to know the current status of the retractable inter-room ingress (never again will I utter the words sliding doors) well here it is / they are…
But what’s this?
and that, as a Mr Paul Daniels may have said, is magic….
On to sporting matters, If ever anyone fancies some indoor bowls (not sure if that’s an oo er missus but feel free)
we have the capability
And I think that’s about it for now, I’m off to fetch some lunch and count my winnings from my Euro bets – currently estimated to be approximately £7.32 from an outlay of, well enough about that…
More later this week but until then I remain as always,
your humble servant and blogger…
Indeed it is!
So as a result this week there will be no pictures of the ongoing work, though I can tell you that the plastering should be finished today/tomorrow, also the kitchen tiles are going down along with various other bits and pieces being done this week.
Meantime you might care to enjoy the view from here in Sunny Lerici…
and from further round the bay..
So not much more to report really, if I was more of an Alan Whicker or a Judith Chalmers (sponsored by World of Leather) I would be waxing lyrically about the Tuscan and Ligurian coasts, the fabulous food, glorious weather etc but as this is a humble house refurbishment blog (albeit almost the Official Olympic Rye House Refurbishment blog) I will leave you with one further view…
Normal service will be resumed next monday but until then…
ciao a tutti!
They’d probably look like this…
Yes indeed, Site conferences are not quite as I imagined they’d be. This is our self appointed design consultant Ms Eleanor ‘If it’s worth doing well, do it in white’ Broderick in conversation with Ms Project Manager before the inevitable onset of bank holiday booze, but I digress…
We are definitely moving on apace and have more plasterboard than you can shake a stick at now
As you can also see the doors are fully operational (I’m eschewing the use of the door related S word for now lest it leads to another bijou rant-ette)
Stan the dog (for those who don’t know him) appears happy with them judging by his covetous glance back
But onwards and upwards and look to the skies my friends, more particularly look to the skies through the new roof lantern.
By the way that is insulation you see I’m not covering the ceiling and walls with tin foil to stop the microwaves from getting to my brain I have a foil lined hat for that (its all true you know, David Cameron is in fact a Giant Lizard, David Icke was right all along but shhh i’ve said too much already)
Errrr anyway…
Electrical first fittings have been done (apparently)
Blimey, that was dull even for me!
If things have got that desperate that i’m reduced to showing pictures of socket boxes it’s probably time to take on board a glass or two of inhibition reducer so i’ll leave you with the news that it seems the powers that be are on to us already and have sent the RAF’s latest spyplane to check out what’s going on at Schloss Hutley-Miller…
Enjoy the short week everyone!
Just checking up to see if our brave guardians of Olympic marketing rights are on their A game today….
I Wasn’t going to post for a couple of days, yes I know I’ve said that before, but then again a compact and bijou postette never goes amiss (Mostyn) …
I popped up to the house last night to pick up a rather jaunty pair of Italian Brown suede shoes to complement my new season look (obviously there will be photo opportunities for all those in need of a little reflected glamour at any stage) sadly they were nowhere to be found but on the plus side things have continued to move on apace….
All previous external windows now fully bricked up
Once again my sick mind comes to the fore and I think of Edgar Allen Poe’s The Casque of Amontillado, let’s hope nothing is ever found behind this wall…….
Moving round to the back of the house, they are finally clearing the Patio – for those who don’t like the word Patio feel free to substitute with one of piazza/quadrangle/curtilage/backyard
The rear view of the house continues to take shape…
and the extension roof is now finished except for the lantern (which should be in place later this week)
Moving inside now, it’s Gwyny’s moment in the sun…
Yes, we have our own sliding doors.
Memo to self, Must resist the urge to launch into an anti-Gwyneth tirade – but for those who wish to see why I loath and abhor am somewhat ambivalent towards her, dive into this great steaming pile of ordure/helpful lifestyle hints (delete as necessary)…
We also have another sliding door lurking in the hallway…
On which note my friends I will leave you with this thought – Gwyneth, there is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about and that is not being talked about…..
Richard and Fay's house refurb in Rye 