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Carpet was ripped up, many nails removed, sanded, stained & now going to paint spindles which go all was in upstairs hall too in this green & will decide what to do with rest. Painting the hall an undecided shade of yellow.
 

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Bathroom update from back home. So glad this is being done while I'm away as it's taken weeks so far and no bathroom access or water in the mean time. New shower goes in tomorrow. Wondering how I'm going to get anything up on those tiled walls like my nice mirror. And is there an issue with having tiles behind a radiator?
 

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Bathroom update from back home. So glad this is being done while I'm away as it's taken weeks so far and no bathroom access or water in the mean time. New shower goes in tomorrow. Wondering how I'm going to get anything up on those tiled walls like my nice mirror. And is there an issue with having tiles behind a radiator?
I love your wall tiles.
Could you ask them to put the mirror up and any other bits when they’re done? Our bathroom guy put ours up as we were too scared.
We didn’t attach anything else to the walls apart from the mirror and heated towel rail. We do have a unit that really should be attached as it tips sometimes.

Tiles behind radiators are fine.
 
Question re cleaning up after a new bathroom being fitted.
Apparently my bathroom is nearly done. (I'm thousands of miles away so just get updates on the phone and the occasional video/pic when I push for it.)

My boyfriend keeps saying that the entire flat is a mess and covered in dust and he is trying to get a professional cleaner in for several days but can't find anyone. The outside area (which is small) is full of the old bathroom stuff. It's making me feel anxious although there's nothing I can do from here. This can all be cleaned up, can't it?
 
Question re cleaning up after a new bathroom being fitted.
Apparently my bathroom is nearly done. (I'm thousands of miles away so just get updates on the phone and the occasional video/pic when I push for it.)

My boyfriend keeps saying that the entire flat is a mess and covered in dust and he is trying to get a professional cleaner in for several days but can't find anyone. The outside area (which is small) is full of the old bathroom stuff. It's making me feel anxious although there's nothing I can do from here. This can all be cleaned up, can't it?
It can all be cleaned up, but this is why it's probably advisable to be around when you're having work done, so you can make sure the builders close all the internal doors (and maybe cover things with dust sheets) when doing messy, dirty work, so you don't get so much dust in all the other rooms and all over everything.

My experience with contractors to date, both council/housing association (my flat was stock-transferred and then I bought it) and also ones I've paid myself is that they will always take short-cuts and bodge jobs, they will lie to you saying 'It has to be done like X' when you know it's a load of bollocks and they just don't want to do it like Y, which you've asked them to do, because it's harder and will take longer than X. And if you're a woman, you'll be patronised and talked down to, the relationship of the tradesmen doing the work that's being asked of them by their client and which they're being paid to do is strangely askew when the client happens to be a woman.

I've had holes knocked in walls (then filled back up with damp, scrunched up bog roll), cracks caused, plumbing for my kitchen sink fucked up when the guy I'd paid to remove a pantry cupboard and also the work unit under the kitchen sink, who must've figured I was paying him the day rate, so he'd be quids in if he could just quickly yank the unit out from under the sink (instead of taking the time, care and attention to unscrew it and dismantle it), except he fucked up the plumbing. I've had a hole burned in a carpet when someone came to fix a leaking radiator and he used a blowtorch on the radiator valve/pipe, without putting down any fireproof blanket to protect my new-ish carpet. Then there was the painter who put paint pots on top of my immaculate condition vintage teak dresser and left ring marks on it and also broke the handles when moving it. All those things happened because I didn't keep a very close eye on things, just trusted them to get on with their jobs and do them to a decent standard and be respectful of me and my home.

I've probably got more horror stories about shitty builders and other tradespeople... Oh! Yeah, the carpenter who asked me for £200 for materials to do a job and then was never seen again.

Personally, I wouldn't trust a builder as far as I could throw them. I wouldn't be able to trust that if I'd eg asked for type A taps for the bath and basin, they wouldn't substitute types B and C without first checking with me, because the others were 'out of stock' or more likely they were using ones left over from another job or that they got cheaply. Or at least this is what I'm now scared might happen with my bathroom renovation after all the other nightmares.
 
Spent a week with a friend from Junior school ( left in 1978) doing this Billy bookcase modification. Just one thing missing now…

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Why am I looking at that and imagining cats enjoying some of those compartments? 😻 Room for plenty of individual cat storage.

On a more serious note, great job, it looks amazing!
 
Why am I looking at that and imagining cats enjoying some of those compartments? 😻 Room for plenty of individual cat storage.

On a more serious note, great job, it looks amazing!
I’m am worried the cats might get in the cable holes…
 
Spent a week with a friend from Junior school ( left in 1978) doing this Billy bookcase modification. Just one thing missing now…

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Looks like you have done a decent job and good enough that it's not obvious how you have managed to extend them upwards.

If I was the kind of person who liked to quibble about stuff just for the sake of it, I might question this corner junction.

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Looks like you have done a decent job and good enough that it's not obvious how you have managed to extend them upwards.

If I was the kind of person who liked to quibble about stuff just for the sake of it, I might question this corner junction.

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That’s the corner of the room not the bookcases. Mr Ikea’s machine made bookcases are square. The corners of my room aren’t.

Also, anoyingly the wall is 9cm to short to get 10 rather than the nine I fitted in. I put it there so it’s shaded by the desk. Extension units to raise the top. Upside down MDF dado rail top and skirting bottom.

You could do similar but larger to hold your Moomin Libary…48F0DB8A-C390-4B67-88EB-208A2C53D54B.png
 
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Looks fab..
You must have a lot of books 🙂
I'd love a set up like that.

One question....what happened the vent?

I have far too many books. As does Ms 747.

The vent has batons arround it to create a false space and, hopefully, allow the air to circulate behind and into the corner void which has the big cable/ kiteh holes cut in it.
 
Not house but it will free up our spare bedroom because my husband is moving his desk down to the shed and it's also going to be his workshop. It needs painting, insulation and a floor but I'm very excited about him moving down there, so there will be less dust in the house.
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Not house but it will free up our spare bedroom because my husband is moving his desk down to the shed and it's also going to be his workshop. It needs painting, insulation and a floor but I'm very excited about him moving down there, so there will be less dust in the house.
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Oooh that's lovely, if he wants a mini-fridge and a kettle in there it might mean he's considering more or less moving in there (I'd be tempted if I were him, it looks great!)
 
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