I guess it's a traditional DIY nightmare - start something full of confidence and enthusiasm, and then find yourself most of a year down the line and still not finished.
The good news is that there's a shower room downstairs, such as it is. That is to say, there is a room with a functioning shower and wc, and a few spiders thrown in for good measure. So whilst we may have been deprived of comfort over the past, er, several months, at least we haven't been deprived of the opportunity for cleanliness.
Not of the opportunity, in any case.
When we moved into the house, the upstairs bathroom was the archetypal seventies bathroom suite in that most appealing of colours, avocado.
Why so many people fell victim to the avocado bathroom suite, I have no idea. I am sure that back then, in the seventies, most of the people who had an avocado suite installed had never seen an avocado - it was just a colour of green, which was a shade or two lighter than olive green, and they probably hadn't eaten many of those either.
Looking at that picture of the bathroom as it was, with its hand-made fittings in heavy-duty hardwood and ceramic, the enormous green plastic bath, the off-white vinyl floor it seems like another house from a long-forgotten dream. But whilst I remember, at the other end were some rather odd glass shelves, supported by a chain hung from the ceiling. They're all gone now, all those treasures, off to the recycling centre in the sky. I did almost have a seizure when Ticia said she wanted to re-use the avocado wc and washbasin in the downstairs cloakroom. I thought that she was joking at first, and for the life of me I can't remember now how I managed to get them to the tip (whoops - recycling centre) but they are definitely no more. Instead, there are a multitude of white bathroom fittings in the process of being fitted. And the most opulent, expensive-looking tiles on floor and walls that I ever did see, even if they did come from B&Q. I mean, look:
That's a pretty sophisticated look, no? And when I got out a pen and paper this evening, it seems that after ten months of on-and-off enthusiasm, the list of things left to do is now rapidly depleting, to the point where I can fit it all on one side of a piece of paper, and that, I can tell you, is a pretty inspiring thing to see, when back at the beginning I couldn't see the end of it all.
For example, look at this - the little ledge behind the washbasins
Doesn't look much, does it? Well, it looks pretty damn good as far as I'm concerned, but the amount of planning and measurement and cutting of trim and measuring again and trying this and that and eventually deciding to do it exactly like that, well, that took a long, long time. But it's worth it in the end.
And one day, we'll be able to take a bath!
One day.....
And now, an update: 26 January, finally finished tiling the walls - I still have to do the enclosure around the pipes which come from the airing cupboard, but that's a good step in the right direction! And the frieze (if that's how it's spelt...) looks absolutely brilliant.
vccjhnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn
just in case you were wondering, that last line was written by Djé, who has just come in from the cold and wet outside and decided to walk over my keyboard.
Thanks, mate :)
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