Since I’m a bit behind with documenting the progress of our house, today we’ve got another construction update to see how the kitchen/diner – more commonly known at the minute as the dust heap at the back of the house – is coming along.
A few days ago, I shared with you the fact that the bottom of the lounge wall had slowly started to come down. Well, I go away for one weekend and come home to it completely gone!
The downstairs of our house is now completely open plan. It won’t stay like that forever as I think it’s nice to separate the kitchen from the lounge to avoid smoke/smells/noise from dominating an entire floor of your home. But for now, it’s a big gaping hole. Joe took a few pictures of the destruction on his phone so apologies for some of them being appalling quality. Not quite sure why he started by smashing the window…
Looks different right? Those boxes are most of the kitchen units awaiting their time to shine. Currently they’re in limbo – the lounge.
I felt a bit anxious about this stage and I’m not sure why. I very carefully tiptoe through the space, and am hesitant to touch any of the walls as if the upstairs is going to come crashing down on me. WHAT IF THIS HOUSE REALLY WILL BE THE DEATH OF ME?, my completely overdramatic and illogical brain screams. I read home blogs every single day, and I don’t feel like many of them prepare you for the reality of renovating and decorating. It’s not all HD cameras, careful positioning of fancy throws and pastel colours. It’s fast moving, seriously messy work, and it’s scary!
I have seen my uncle, the builder on the project, clamber over scaffolding like it’s a trampoline and hopping on bricks where I tiptoe like a drunk ballerina. Deep down I know everything is solid and structurally brilliant. But still, I’m nervous. It’s been such a long time coming this stage, and an absolute overwhelming part of our existence since becoming homeowners, that with every bit of progress, I always have in the back of my mind that idea of “what if?”
After all, we had the flood in the downstairs not all that long ago. I know full well that it wasn’t a huge deal in the grand scheme of things. We had to replace a few bits of underlay, and rip out some skirting and flooring. But, hey, these are all replaceable. Nothing sentimental got damaged, and no-one got hurt (Must see the positives!) And yet I’m still apprehensive.
Seriously, is the house going to fall down? When I came home this weekend (after an amazing girly trip in Berlin thanks for asking) it felt like that reveal on Blind Date, where a wall was whipped away to reveal an exciting new venture (or a lorra lorra bricks in our case, as Cilla would say – for you Americans reading, if you didn’t have Blind Date, you missed it. It was a cracking show).
Thankfully, nothing had fallen down. Arrrgh where is some wood when you need to touch wood!
The wall is down. The open space we can now see in all of its glory. And it’s ace to talk about the room without needing to start every sentence with “now imagine that wall isn’t there”.
I don’t want to ramble, and I know that I do! So another post will be coming tomorrow. But below are some final looks at the missing wall, and the space it opens up for us to work with. It’s all go at the Clough household right now!
