The Man Cave - aka Bedroom 3 Renovation

Bedroom 3 was to be my husband’s room, or rather, the “Man Cave”.

He didn't have full design control but was much more involved in the paint scheme than on any of the other rooms.  Magnolia and light blue were agreed by all parties.

Whatever colour it ended up, it had to be better than the shocking magenta that filled the room when we got the keys.  You’d never guess this had been a little girls room...

The bed was a Gumtree find for £30, and the mattress an unused freebie on Freecycle.  The curtain pole was already there (albeit with paint sloshed all over it – so we smartened that up a bit), and the curtains were existing ones we had from Ikea.

The lamp was my desk lamp at university (again Ikea), and the frame and print were a room warming gift to my husband. The frame we already had from my uni days (again Ikea, can’t get enough of Ikea!) and the print is from Paperchase.

The big thing in this room for my husband was the bike hanging system.  This was the item which he researched and purchased and was his final touch to the room.  This solution saves all the floor space it would otherwise take up.

It’s made by Cycloc and costs in the region of £50 – the most expensive thing in the room (apart from the bike!).

What do you think?

Hallway Renovation - the 2015 project. 6 month progress

It's going to take us all year to finish this job - I just know it.  We are 6 1/2 months in and it looks like this:

Almost stripped to the bare bones.

Let me start at the beginning - we've got 6 months work to catch up on!

In the beginning, it was purple, and textured.  Just everywhere.  Texture.  There were two different wallpapers - both textured, the coving was textured, and the ceiling was textured artex.  Excuse me while I vomit...

One of the textured wallpapers

The other textured wallpaper - painted purple

The ceiling texture

The "complementing" green carpet

The textured loft hatch - heck if you are going to texture the ceiling you might as well do the loft hatch too right?!

The textured coving

Have we all thrown up yet?  

So we stripped the wallpaper - every last inch of it.  That took most of January (evenings and weekends) and a good push over easter weekend to get the last bits.

We were held up with the really high bits as we didn't have a ladder.  One gumtree purchase later and we are now the proud owners of a multi purpose ladder.  Not that I can use it mind.  It gives me the heebly-jeeblies somewhat.  Therefore I considered it a gift to the hubby :)

We were then held up when all the plasterers said they wouldn't touch the radiator with a barge pole because it would leak.  Hence our April 'holiday' spent replacing all the radiators in the house.  Consider all of this enabling works.

So we finally got all the radiators done, and I gleefully called the plasterer to tell him we were all ready and when could he fit us in?  August, he said.  Oh...

To be honest it's a good thing, as it's allowed us to save the money up to pay for it as the radiator work made a big dent in the budget.

Watch this space!

Retro-fitted lintel above window

So one day I came home from work and happened to glance at the front of the house for a few seconds longer than I usually do.  That is when I noticed a big crack above our lounge window, and to see the bricks 'dropped' onto the window frame.  Eek!

Like all sensible adults, I didn't tell the husband, daren't open the windows and hoped the problem would magically go away on it's own.  Funnily enough, it didn't.  Who would have thought...

A few weeks later, I finally admitted to myself that we would need to throw some money at this thing to make it go away.  And devastatingly money which wouldn't make the house prettier, or add value, but rather keep the whole thing standing - to me that's the most annoying type of spending!

We had a few builders round to quote to retrofit a lintel above the window.  We wanted to keep the actual frame as there was nothing wrong with it.  Basically, the problem stems from when the houses were built and they were built with lovely structural timber window frames.  Then in the 80's Mr Cheapskate who used to live here ripped them all out and replaced them with cheap PVC which is not structural.  Essentially the window frames are therefore holding up the outer skin of bricks - not what they were designed to do.

A week later our chosen builder came round and fitted a lintel for the princely sum of £520.  Admittedly we had a 2.4m window so it was a big bit of steel he put in there.  Unfortunately I was at work that day, so I made the hubby take as many photos as he could without being a pest so I could see the process.

BEFORE

DURING

A brick that has been cut to hide the lintel at the edge

AFTER

Overall it took the builder a day and a half to complete the job.  You can see in the after photo (before he put some white sealant in the gap), how much the middle of the window frame had actually bent under the strain of the bricks.  I think that's a permanent deformation now, but I'm glad we caught it when we did.

The next job out here is to paint the rendering to cover up the unsightly insulation holes. I'm waiting for a sunny day! 

July - Gardening

Well the vegetable patch has gone crazy.  It's such a lovely feeling pottering down to the end of the garden just before dinner, and picking out what salad to have for tea.  And homegrown strawberries - can't beat the taste and satisfaction.  I've had my strawberry plants for 4 years now, and they have always been so so disappointing - but they finally seem to have got themselves together and we have a right bumper crop :-D

These photos were actually taken a few weeks ago, and everything has flourished even more since then!

I have also fulfilled a life long ambition and bought myself a hydrangea for the patio - it's just coming into flower now - I literally cannot wait :)

Last month I also gave the front garden fence a good spruce.  We already had the paint in the garage, so with a bit of sanding just to give it something to grip to, and it scrubbed up really well.  Hopefully it's got a good few more years in it yet.  Our neighbour also dug out all the gravel which was a weed patch and put some concrete in - much better.

Triathlon 30th Birthday Cake

I haven't been baking that much recently as I have been up to my eyeballs in radiators! It was the hubby's bithday while we were doing all the radiator replacements, but I did manage to knock him up a good old victoria sponge, with fresh cream, strawberries, and jam - yum!

A few weeks ago though, I was commissioned by one of his triathlon friends to make a surprise 30th birthday cake with a theme of triathlon.  So here was my plan of action:

The plan

I started with the figures as these would take the longest.  I used a fairly thick gauge wire, although in hindsight it was probably a bit too thick as it was soooo hard to bend.  Here is how I got on:

I used flower paste for the body of the runner but it was horrible to work with.  The rest of the models I just used regular sugarpaste and it worked just fine.

The cyclist taking shape

This was taken before his arms fell off!  I also needed to support the legs and feet with a wire ledge as they kept dropping off - but when the final cake was put together the glue had dried firm enough that I didn't need the extra support after all. Phew!

The runner needed extra support in the form of kebab sticks in his legs as the wire just wasn't cutting it.  I had also hoped he would look like he was actually still running, but I just couldn't get it to work.  Instead he is in his victory stance, standing with his arms up, having crossed the line!

The workspace

 I didn't have much time in the run up to when the cake needed to be done, so I bought in ready made cakes from Sweet Success in Nottingham.  Their cakes are lovely and so moist.  It's not the same as saying they are homemade, but when in a time crunch they are a great solution - and if I'm honest, they taste nicer than my bakes too!

This was the swimming cake and was a victoria sponge with jam and buttercream in the middle.  I wanted to emulate sand on the cake so I left an area without sugarpaste, but some soft buttercream on it, and then applied some crushed shortbread biscuits.  I actually had a piece of this cake at the party and the texture of the biscuit in the cake was just fab.

The swimmers in action.  I got fully briefed by my husband on where the arms should be, and was forced to watch lots of youtube videos about swimming technique.  And I still got it wrong apparently....

This was the runner, running along a trail path and over the finish line.  The candles were supposed to represent the banners along the finishing straight.

The runner from the back.  Note the number on his vest :) 

This was the cyclist on a smooth asphalt road - tri spoke on the front, disc on the rear.  My husband criticized me for the "relaxed geometry"of this one. But given how bloomin hard it is to model sugarpaste, I was jolly chuffed with this one!

Front view

The finished cake

With the birthday boy!

The swimmers were definitely most fun to do, and were actually pretty quick and easy to do.  The shortbread was fab too.

The runner and cyclist got a bit frustrating at times as they kept falling apart, but I was really really happy with the finished product.

To give an idea of costs, for 3 x 6" cakes, this cake cost approximately £55 in materials.  It's a lot more expensive to make cakes than most people think!