D.I.Y. In Pictures Part III

Yeah I know, I've been slacking in the writing department for...well...most of this year really. However, over the last couple of months it's mainly because I've been so damn busy. One of my own personal projects has included our living room. In a nutshell, it was a shit hole. There was debris on the ceiling from a party several years ago (no, not that, but that silly string stuff, luminous freakin' yellow too). The carpet was old and black (yes, the previous owner did have a thing for decking out the whole place with black carpet. Idiot). The wallpaper was twisted and bubbled, we had no real storage, and the 3 sofa's took up way too much room. So when I had some spare time (jobless) I decided it was time for a change...

Jokes about a cup of tea being on the floor prior to any evidence of work having been done will be ignored...it was my Thinking Time.

Yet another bay window suffering from moisture. Sigh.

The walls were heavily sanded to try and get shot of some of the texture on the wallpaper. Ideally I'd like to have had the whole place replastered, but it would've cost way more than I could spend at the moment. Instead, bubbles and twists were cut out, prepped and filled then sanded.

The light switch that was hanging off was definitely on my list of things to fix...

Then the mess arrived. By the bucket load. Brilliant. Love a bit of mess sometimes.

I started off with making some storage. Really showed up how different the alcoves were in width. I think our house was built by guess work. Nothing is level or square anywhere. I ripped out the carpet, built a bay window seat, sanded, filled, painted, swept, hoovered, sang a bit, drank a box and a half of tea, got to know people that also live on my street, ordered carpet, argued with Carpet Right (Right? My Arse), got curtains and throws, and had the odd smug grin. And here are the photos of the end-ish result.

A new TV (reconditioned jobby off of the Great God Amazon) is on its way. And at some point some pictures will go up (I'd like a Weller picture up there...don't think the others are all that keen unfortunately). A rug of some description will probably go down and the bay window seat, that has storage space inside via a handy lid, will have a cushion made for it. I dare say that I'll put something inside the now vacant fireplace, if only to please my brother. He pestered me to put a bowl of stones or something in it. I'm thinking a Goblin. That'd be pretty cool to have in the fireplace. Or a Smurf band. Ones that could play whatever you wanted. I'd have them play the new Song of the Week, Give It Up by Datarock which features on their newest album, Red. I highly recommend it.