Where, oh where, is Nick Knowles when you need him?

We are feeling a teensy-weensy bit bogged down.  

Well, I say 'we' but actually Mr U-t-B is being relentlessly positive and optimistic, in spite of rather too many evenings DIYing or driving home from IKEA till way past a sensible person's bedtime.  The flat decorating, especially the kitchen, seems to be taking forever.  I know that in actual fact it has only been ten days, but...

Capable though my husband is, I think even he would be really delighted if Mr Knowles and the DIY SOS crew...

...just appeared (minus the TV crew) and said, 'Well, you've been working very hard at this, and it's all looking pretty fantastic, but could you use a few extra pairs of hands to finish the job?'  At which point, we would weakly mutter 'Yes' and put the kettle on to keep them supplied with hot drinks.  I could even bake a cake or two - though actually I'd probably find that the middle Miss U-t-B would be happy to oblige on that front, in the hope that Nick would be suitably impressed. (It seems that his appeal encompasses more than my own age group!)

But as all this is unlikely to come to pass, and as I can't do anything this afternoon as I'm waiting for new plaster to dry out, I will try and regain my own positive, 'Can-do' approach by sharing progress so far here!

 This (above, boring, with blu-tak splattered brickwork) has become this...

A feature wall - a good way to hide the less than perfect paint finish underneath.
Sadly, the wall directly opposite this has gone from this...

'A lick of paint will sort it', to this...

'Help!  We need a plasterer!'  


(Good thing that's a hat that fits Mr U-t-B's head!)


On a more positive front, this grubby corner, whose skirting board had been lost to rot...

...has been stripped back and treated and now looks like this...

It's actually a nice stoney, mocha type colour, not the grey it looks here.
We're going to build a tall but narrow (because the radiator and bedroom door are in the way) cupboard in the back to create a bit of storage and hide the fuse box thingy.  We got bargain doors for a tenner a piece at IKEA last week!


The chimney breast in this bedroom held a secret which was revealed when I took that yucky grille off to do a 'proper' job painting the wall - a dead bird! Oh er...To prove I am a proper grown-up now, I removed it myself, even though Miss U-t-B's boyfriend did the gentlemanly thing and offered!

This room was awash with blu-tak stains and numerous holes in the walls, plus it was a rather mustardy colour - not quite the ticket.  We had to paint it with stain covering paint first, and then 'Aged White' plus a feature wall of a lovely linen-textured wallpaper.

The enormous bay window has been cleaned (something that didn't appear to have been done for the last several years - I'm not that house-proud, but mould on the glass -yeuk!), sanded and painted.  All that's missing are the right hooks to hang the curtains - they are proving rather elusive.

In the kitchen, which looks strangely quite nice in this photo, but really wasn't, this...

 ...became this...

And this...

...became this...

... which is going to be an 'interesting feature'.  We thought the new boiler might get hidden in here, but after finding out that the old one is fixable, and getting a quote for just shy of three and a half K for a new one, and being told that the boiler couldn't go in there anyway, 'interesting feature' it will be.  More plastering for you-know-who.


We finally got started on putting in the kitchen units on Sunday late afternoon, after a few minor skirmishes with the 'easy, click together' flooring.

Miss U-t-B is very good at putting together flat-packs, so she had got most of them ready last week, which is speeding things up enormously (thank heavens).


Tonight four more units need to go in, but there are a few pipes to be taken into consideration, so a bit of hacking into all that MDF before we see a complete run of units. As Friday is moving day, we need to get a wriggle on!


Who's got some matchsticks?  I think I need them for my eyelids...