Our Dream Home in the Country

The Living Room

Chris Oldroyd — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 18:25:13 +0000

Well its finished at last, we have stripped off the old wallpaper, put in a new damp course, ripped out the old fireplace, added in new sockets, completely replastered the walls, opened up the stairs, decorated through out and finally fitted a solid oak wood floor. The difference is amazing, we now have a room that’s a beautiful place to relax and spend time as a family, its been 8 months of hard work and dust but this makes it all worthwhile for us, now we can enjoy Christmas.

The best room in the house is finished!!!

Chris Oldroyd — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 21:10:05 +0000

We have just finished the spare room, and I am well happy how its turned out:-

I have my Windows Vista Media Center PC, Xbox 360, Sky + with 80 gig hard drive all connected up to a brand new 32″ HD TV, its awesome, the 32″ display is an amazing monitor for the PC and you can surf the net from the sofa.

It’s Time for a Rant

Chris Oldroyd — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 15:59:00 +0000

I am bloody sick of joiners and dogs.

Had the joiner booked in for this weekend to fit my wood floor which is stacked up in the living room, rang him constantly since last Tuesday to confirm he will still be coming and left message after message and not one reply. Why are these people so bloody ignorant, if he decided he didn’t want the job at least have the balls to say so, pathetic, makes me sick!!!!

Dogs, well she’s been no bother recently walking to heal on the lead, all good stuff, but today I leave her in the house for 2 minutes and come back in to find she’s found a cable in my freshly plastered and decorated wall and decided it shouldn’t be in there so She’s pulled it out, great now all the new plaster has cracked off and i have a channel right up my wall, the dog has a very sore arse now and she won’t come out of her basket, Jesus what a weekend.

Plastered!!!!

Chris Oldroyd — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 12:08:34 +0000

The plasterer has finished, its taken him 5 days to completely plaster the living room, stairs and landing and he has made a good job of it. The difference is massive, we now have smooth walls without holes and channels and the rooms are starting to come together. We got some paint samples on Sunday and have decided on the colours for the room. We also chose the wood floor and will get that on order soon, at last its all coming together. The decorating is due to start in November.

The Front Garden’s Finished

Chris Oldroyd — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 12:05:49 +0000

We now have an amazing front garden. Mick has made a fantastic job of the patio and grass. We shopped around for a nice table and chairs and ended up buying it online, it was delivered last week and looks great, we are really happy with the way the garden has turned out, thanks Mick for all your hard work.

We had our first Barbeque and invited Mick and Kim from Crag House, they brought their two daughters and Tia invited her school friend Chloe, it was a good night but got very cold later on but we were determined to go ahead with it.

Wood Chipping

Chris Oldroyd — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 15:29:52 +0000

Bloody Hell!!!!!

Now that was hard work, I started at 9am and have just finished at 4.30pm. I am totally wrecked. My hands are sore, my arms are scratched to hell, I have been lashed in the face but its finished!!!!

This turned into a really long job as the stupid machine kept jamming and stalling and it totally peed me off.

The Back Garden (Update)

Chris Oldroyd — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 19:02:27 +0000

Just an update on the back garden. I have hired a wood chipper and the huge pile of trees that I cut down a few weeks back are going to be chipped down and eventually become the floor of Tia’s playground.

I have a full day tomorrow to feed them through the machine before I have to give it back on Monday.

The Front Garden

Chris Oldroyd — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 18:36:41 +0000

The front garden is starting to take shape nicely. The patio area is now complete and all that is left to do is the small turfed area in front. We decided to completely remove the apple tree that was growing up the front of the house to avoid damp problems, it looks a bit bare at the moment but we will get used to it I am sure.

The Back Garden

Chris Oldroyd — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 15:57:54 +0000

This weekend seemed like a good time to cut into the back garden area. At the start it was full of bushes and trees, very dark and totally enclosed. I borrowed a chainsaw from my neighbour (Mick) and set about cutting down the trees on Saturday. The following day i was joined by Andy and my Dad who both helped out with the rest of the trees, Sharon and Mam looked after us with a great lunch.

So far so good

Chris Oldroyd — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 07:59:55 +0000

The central heating has been installed this week, well the water side any way. The radiators are now hung on the wall, all the flow and return pipework is complete and the new hot water cylinder is in place and piped up. With the system we are installing my kitchen is now beginning to resemble a ships engine room.