Latest addition to the kitchen...

Still loving Hipstamatic... and our new birdy and his bottom, on the pantry wall...

Can I hack it?

Probably not.

Have been looking for the perfect headboard to go on a grey/blue wall, in a room with aubergine wallpaper and curtain (singular rather than plural as window bigger than last appartment). Grey or duck-egg blue will disappear, but don't want aubergine to look to matchy-matchy. Perhaps a pattern? Could I really make my own headboard like this lady on Appartment Therapy without injuring myself or my flat?

Stop, start, stop...

We've been working really hard this week - especially D - and treated ourselves to a nice lunch in a sunny garden mid-week featuring the café gourmand above, yum yum.


Unfortunately, the electrician hasn't been doing the same and at the half-way point of his job, we still have huge slashes in the walls, all ready for electrical cables, yet no actual wiring.


We've started to paint where he won't need to touch and the kitchen is already transformed form the yellowing, poky space it was before. Units won't be staying like that by the way, but not really a priority when we still have no floors and minimal walls painted so close to our move date... which we're having to extend by a week, but the electrician doesn't need to know that, does he?

The quest for a level floor

Think my cold is coming to an end and I may venture to the appartment today. D doing a great job single-handedly removing all wallpaper to reveal old, weak plaster unfortuantely so we will need to put up lining paper before painting. Today's task is to scrape off the glue from the carpet and have another go at re-levelling the floor with levelling agent and the help of our expert friend. If not, we have professionals on stand-by to lay a skin across half of the floor on which the flooring people can lay our floor.

I like the levelling compound, close-up it looks like lava.

Ps: Look! Two doors! In the same room!

The Before Photos....

This afternoon we went to visit our almost-flat. We measured up and noted plugs and tapped walls, our estate agent, Mr Raimbault was his usual helpful self and brought along a fantastic little gadget which measures distances with a laser. Rambo is great, unlike P from the bank, who is not.

This was the old lady's bedroom and will be our lounge.

She has left behind a hulking great wardrobe, which takes up a lot of space and would need a coat of paint, but would provide great storage. Undecided as to what to do, but as its on a wall that we are taking down it will need to go anyway...
Same wardrobe. It really is massive as the ceilings are 3metres high, or they will be once we remove the original and stylish polystyrene ceiling tiles that are currently taking 5cm of precious space. Why would you?

It's on the ground floor, but higher at the back. An optimistic and probably now rather disappointed neighbour had hung a French flag in preparation for Euro 08.

Now we're in the kitchen. The wall to the left will be taken down with Simon's special wall-removing machine which I'm quite looking forward to having a go with. There are also units to the right, for the time being we'll paint over the veneer until we redo the kitchen, in a Farrow & Ball-ish Matchstick, or Ball Green-ish type colour.

These cupboards are the best bit. Also to be painted for the time being.


We cross the hall, into the bathroom. Lino to be replaced with parquet.

The bathroom will do for the time being, but, this being a very important place for me I will be needing a bigger bath...

Little tiny bathroom window and another big cupboard, which can stay for now.

From the bathroom into the kitchen, D and Rambo measuring... something.


Finaly, our bedroom, formerly the lady's lounge. The windows has silly non-opening bits on the side, which only leaves a gap of 80cm... the lovely squashy sofa is 77cm tall and too big for the front door... Hmm.

So voilà. We'll be spending July steaming off wallpaper, pulling up carpet, removing ceiling tiles, tearing up lino, knocking down a wall, filling, sanding, painting, putting up more wallpaper, hopefully getting an electrician to do something to the plugs to make them modern and laying flooring. Then packing and moving in. Wish us luck.