Another hallway update and some spangly lights

So, Andy came on Thursday to do the coving for us in the hallway.  These craftsmen make it look so easy.  The plaster is drying out nicely so the day of the dreaded paint roller looms closer!

Paul from APL Electrical returned yesterday to fit the LED outside lights.  These are supplied by ecoLED who also supplied all the LED downlighters in the house.  I wanted the outside lights on a dawn-to-dusk sensor which Paul has fitted on the south side of the house.  They give a nice light and are just what we wanted.

I just need to paint the wall now to cover up the patch left by the old light, another job to add to the list!

Hallway plastering all done

3 days and Adam from Macks Plastering has finished.  Yet again he's achieved a superb result given the challenges we gave him.  The walls are almost impossibly smooth to the touch.  His mate is coming tomorrow to do the coving for us.  Some before and after shots for you...

Hallway Phase 2

Paul from APL electrical came and moved our fuseboard, removed the old doorbell and did a few other bits n pieces.

Paul's mate, another Paul, then came and removed the radiators for us and we spent a couple of days stripping all the old wallpaper off.  Some interesting paint colours appeared - at one point the hallway was red!

Adam from Macks Plastering arrived on site yesterday and spent a day prepping.  Some challenges faced him but nothing he couldn't overcome.  Here's the latest pictures after Adam's prep work.

Hallway phase 1

In preparation for the electrician and plasterer, my job this weekend was to remove all the skirting boards and coving, as well as the previous occupant's nasty homemade cupboard that housed the various leccy and gas meters.  A few hours with a mallet and crowbar saw the job done, along the way uncovering some very nasty shades of paint.

Feast your eyes on these and let me know how many man-points I've earnt!

The existing loft hatch is a real work of art!

Lovely job on the architrave, note how it sits on top of the skirting.

Look at this bend in the wall!  Formed by the previous occupant blocking up a doorway.

Lovely straight wall here!  The new door frame is plumb, the wall is over an inch out at the top of the frame.  I feel Mack the plasterer will have his work cut out here.

 Now you see it....  cupboard gone.

Just look at that lovely shade of paint at the top of the wall.  Whatever possessed them to choose that colour?

Oh, and Senior Management has already vetoed the fibre optic motion activated lighting that I had planned to go in the new skirting boards. "It'll look like a runway" - apparently...

What's next?

The job before Christmas is to sort out the hallway.  Now the new front door is in we can rip apart what's in there and re-do it.  We have a sparky coming in next week to move the consumer unit, move light switches and take out some redundant circuits.  He'll also be fitting more LED downlighters inside and out.

After the electrical work has been done, Adam from Macks Plastering returns to rebuild a couple of walls, skim the ceiling and put up new coving for us.  It's then up to me to paint I suppose before the new flooring and skirting goes down.

I'm also toying with the idea of a fibre optic lighting in the skirting boards activated by a motion sensor. Watch this space for before/during/after photos of all the work.

Oh - some new windows are coming too!

And so we begin again...

It's been a long time since the last update so a quick recap is in order.  The bathroom was completed at the end of May and following that we had all internal doors replaced.  We then thought we deserved a holiday so we toddled off to the Loire Valley for a couple of weeks in August.  We went back to Le Moulin de Maulne, a gite we'd used in 2010, and one we'd highly recommend.

So, fast forward to mid October and the installation of a new front door.  The old one was a cheap and nasty uPVC thing which nearly fell out of its frame every time you closed it.  We'd done lots of research around front doors and looked at composite, uPVC and everything in between.  We finally settled on a steel and aluminium door manufactured by Hormann (German of course!).  Not much more expensive than the composite doors being peddled by our local door/window companies but light years ahead in terms of fit, finish, quality and thermal efficiency (this appeals to my inner geek!).

AHA Doors were contracted to supply and fit and this is where the delay in updating has come in.  The door needed to be a custom size so that entailed a 10 week lead time from the factory.  Anyway, it's in and we're really pleased.  AHA also fabricated the stainless steel sill, and they were a great company to deal with. They'll be fitting the matching garage door in Jan/Feb.

On with the pictures...

Note the fancy double sided locking mechanism.  No local company could provide anything close to this.