We love this house. I love this house. This house is 100 years old and something always needs working on. When we bought it, we got it for a shockingly (relatively, this being England and in particular, this being Southern England) low price as so much work needed to be done on it and we fully intended to do so. We lived in it for two years before the twins’ arrival pretty much necessitated changes, and we finally got off our asses and got in gear.
I love hearing how people think our home is beautiful. I think our home is beautiful, but then I’m biased. I am often intrigued when I hear people say that our house is posh, though. Posh? Us? Me? I think not. The truth of the matter is our house is something that is in a constant state of renovation and the people renovating it are Alastair and I. We blew every last pound of the savings we had accumulated for years in hiring builders to extend the house and add more rooms. They left each room skinned with plaster and that was it. The rest has been and is up to Alastair and I. We’re not poor but we’re certainly not rich, and as such we spend a lot of time finding materials that aren’t expensive and trying to put together rooms which are simple but lasting. Plus we’re weird, and our tastes reflect that, too.
This weekend we hit the hallway. This has been a peeve of mine for some time. Lemme’ ‘splain.
This was the hallway in early 2008, prior to any building work commencing.
It wasn’t great. Dark. Narrow. Fugly cheap tiles. A half-bath had been fitted just inside the front door, which, you know, is just where you need a toilet. Someone had extended the house in the early 80′s (thereby ripping out half of the original softwood floors) and this hallway was a part of it, but it wasn’t done well as the floor sloped down towards the door.
The stairs twisted halfway up, coming to the landing where the two and a half bedrooms were. The stairs were old and rickety and the staircase was covered in 1980′s carpet that I hated (but then I don’t like any carpets, so there it is).
We hated the hallway.
When the builders came, we knew that the hallway would change.
First they put in a new staircase.
This led to a new landing upstairs.
The stupid front-door toilet room, the one I would always think of as The One I Miscarried In, was taken down.
And then it became a big hallway.
But we didn’t do anything with it as we had more pressing matters. For a while the hallway – half broken tiles, half decrepit softwood floorboards – was covered in large pieces of cardboard with some throwrugs over it. Over time I went crazy with it and so laid some cheap laminate down.
I did a terrible job though, but as it was only ever meant to be temporary we just lived with it.
Until now.
As I wrote about, we recently got a new front door in.
We also put in a new front door bell.
It looks like something that Wile E Coyote would rig up, but it’s actually an old school bell that Alastair rigged to a large, old-fashioned battery. He will soon be joined by our other find, a Victorian butler’s bell box, which needs to be attended to before it can go up.
So we stripped up the laminate and laid down some plywood.
We floated the floor.
Repeatedly.
Until it was level. Level enough to begin, as we did on Saturday.
Now I’m no stranger to tiling, as you can see from this photo two years ago.
We hit it, using some tiles we stumbled upon on sale two months ago because a supplier had over-stocked.
And kept going.
Although I was the one who did the laying down of most of the tiles (thereby winding up with tile cement in places I don’t want to talk about), Alastair had the tough job of cutting all the corner tiles to fit, which basically means you end up with a soaking wet T-shirt from the tile cutter and clay water winding up in places you don’t want to talk about.
We did have help.
We tiled all day yesterday and much of today.
And today we finished.
Tomorrow we grout and tidy it, we still need skirting boards and I have to create a screen to cover under the stairs, the stairs and walls need painting and Alastair is building a coat wardrobe inside the front door, but for now we have a new floor, a lovely floor, a beautiful floor, and I am happy indeed.
-S.
That is an awesome floor. I have paid my tiling dues in the past and I know what an absolute piglet of a task it is. Good job!
And less than a month to go before a huge bunch of bastards muddy it up!
It never ceases to amaze me that you both have such energy for all that DIY and that the kids let you achieve such great results!
Seriously, can you hightail some of that energy over here and work on our backyard? It’s not that big of a project, comparatively.
Oooh, shiny!
Floors are a beyotch. I’ve only ever laid laminate, and I hated every single second. Tiles? You are both brave and noble.
It looks great! I am totally in love with your outdoor room you have going on there. Looks like a wonderful place to take a snooze.
I love finding things on sale/clearance. I swear we’ve done most of our homes that way… of course this means we have light fixtures and boxes of tiles laying all around.
It looks great! I know just how hard tiling a floor is (done it myself!), so I am very impressed with all your hard work!
What a productive weekend! It looks lovely.
It does look great. I think that hallways are the worst to do, at least that is why ours is still bare concrete and the slate tiles are waiting for me in the garage. Your floors look amazing and were certainly worth all the hard work that you both did to get them to that state.
Beautiful floor! My husband has been tiling like mad around our house. First, the mud/laundry room – and in a diagonal pattern. Oh, the cutting that had to be done there! Then the entryway in our walkout basement (waiting for the guy to come and install carpet because that’s what people want in their finished basements here). Next…the bathroom. He’d love it if you came and gave him a hand, since all I’m good for is staying out of the way…
Excellent job, all of you!
I love it! Great job!
Everything I saw on your pictures (including the hallway with those fabulous tiles) was not posh, it was you and Alastair. A very personal travel through time, from victorian pieces of furniture to high-tech light fixtures all mixed up between walls in wonderful colours. I never did a tiling job before, but I’ve laid circa 100 square meters of laminate- and did the worst job ever on the skirting boards. One of my cats wandered of yesterday, wearing a piece of this wanna-be-wood on her back, firmly attached to her fur with a sticky mess of double sided adhesive tape.
You absolutely HAVE to slide down it in socks. It just beckons, even through a picture, that it needs to happen.
Hats off to you for doing such an awesome job. I’ve just been revamping some old furniture in the garage this morning (it’s been calling my name for a few months now) and well, lets just call it an EPIC FAIL and be done with it. I’m *this* close to chucking it out and spending a fortune on new stuff.
Grrr.
*love your new hallway!*
You are not automatically posh when you have style and good taste. Your hallway floor looks fantastic and was worth all that bloody hard work!
The tiles look beautiful!! Are you planning to have storage under the stairs?
I love the butler’s box!!
That looks awesome, congratulations! Might I add that you have the best kids, ever? We can barely get light cleaning done with our twins around (roughly same age as yours)…they would be eating the supplies, crawling all over us to be picked up, and generally reaking havoc. I’m jealous but happy for you :-)
Wow!! That looks really nice! I’m glad the super model Mrs. Solomon doesn’t want tile anywhere. Like you & Angus, I’ve done electrical, plumbing, framing, sheetrock, and hardwood flooring; but I’ve never (and hope never to) done tile.
The baseboards (or skirting boards) will be a piece of cake compared to the tile.
Fabulous-really. Just fabulous.
It looks really good!
Awesome with awesome sauce.
Hi
How in the holy hell can you do that with 2 toddlers roaming around? We have one – 2 next week and I can’t imagine trying to do tiling or any major DIY jobs with him around!
Well thats the the excuse anyway!! Looks lovely though.
M
Oh wow, that looks great!
Wow that is great! I love your house renovation posts. And I can’t even begin to describe how much I admire you and Alastair to be able to live in the house whilst renovating … just the thought of it makes me hyper-ventilate and want to tidy up … Lots of kudos to you for that!