Renovation Part One - The Dining Room

Next room to discuss! We have an open plan sitting room and dining room, so both rooms were completed at the same time.  I wanted to keep the theme in both rooms the same so it felt that they were one, yet clearly show each room had its own purpose.

Like the sitting room, we have another chimney breast in the dining room.  My mother could have cried when we told her that we were blocking up both chimneys (they were already blocked up with a 1960's back boiler in the dining room and heater in the sitting room).  Although they would have been great features for a Victorian house, I wanted them blocked as I had in mind how I wanted the room to look.  

The main building and construction tasks for this room were as follows:

-Remove double window and replace with large floor to ceiling French doors

-Build a floor to ceiling chimney breast

-Damp course completed

-Plaster boarded walls and ceiling

-New skirting boards, coving and flooring

-Plastered walls and ceiling

-New radiators and pipe work
-Floor to ceiling alcove book shelves

The French doors made a huge difference to the light in the room and yet made the garden feel welcoming.  I am so pleased we made this choice.

The Right Hand Side of the Dining Room

The Left Hand Side of the Dining Room

New French Doors

Chris Blocking and Building a New Chimney Breast

The Left Hand Side of the Dining Room

The Right Hand Side of the Dining Room

Renovation Part One - The Sitting Room

As chris and I are about to embark on the second phase of our renovation project, it got me thinking about how far we have come and the fact that we are about to rip up the beautiful work we have achieved to replace with something even more amazing.

We bought our current house on the understanding that it needed a complete renovation from top to bottom and inside out.  Chris even dedicated a whole blog to the renovation (which even he got bored of!)  so I won't waffle on too much.  (Is that actually possible though?)

With the help of Google and the knowledge and help from both of our Dads, Chris completely transformed our house from an old lady's nest crying out for some TLC to a contemporary modern home.  Our house is Victorian and has a mock-Tudor style with a few Victorian features.

I dread to think of how much money we have spent on renovating and furnishing our house - as long as we are debt free I don't care!  We moved from a one bedroom flat to a three bedroom house so furnishing costs was something we hadn't taken much thought of.  Luckily Chris and I share the same tastes with interior design so although every choice and purchase was painfully slow it was to ensure it was right and now I can see it was worth it.

We will start with the sitting room which was taken back to its bare bones.  I did say to Chris he can build his home cinema no problems, but under no circumstances were there to be any wires on show.  So god knows where they are!

So putting the interior design and soft furnishes aside (my job) the Building and construction included: (I'm sure if this was Chris' blog, this list would be huge.. but lets keep it basic!)

-Blocking one door up
-Building a floor to ceiling chimney breast including a home cinema projector and surround sound system
-Damp course completed
-Plaster boarded walls and ceiling
-New skirting boards, coving and flooring
-Plastered walls and ceiling
-New radiators and pipe work

So the bit which you are most interested in is below.  To keep this brief, I've included 'before', 'in-between' and 'after' shots.  Can you tell which are which?

The View Looking into the Sitting Room (Ignore scary man in photo!)

The Right Hand Side of the Sitting Room

Digging Deep

Chimney Breast and Home Cinema

The Right Hand Side of the Sitting Room

The Left Hand Side of the Sitting Room