The Bathroom II

Okay, so it can only get better from here right? We tackled the old hideous 70's wallpaper, and the old dodgy tiles. Most of the tiles just popped off....except for one section. Instead of the tiles popping off, the whole damn wall popped off. So now we have a gaping 2 foot by 3 foot hole at the top of the bath....ah well, at least the ceiling hasn't caved in...yet.

Old Sink

Ugly old paper....and ugly old tiles. Not too mention a wall that's intact.

No wallpaper, and no tiles...and a big gaping hole. That isn't the one that the tiles ripped out as you'll have seen...there were no tiles there. Me and Penny wanted to know what was behind that wall...and there's only one way to find out....get into it! We're hoping to rip that section out and make the bathroom a bit bigger...we'll see.

Sink area before I got curious about what was behind that wall!

Hmmm...so that's what's behind there, beams. They're gonna have to go...right Pen?

Pen's not sure...so she checks with a few close friends, I'm telling ya, I've heard of a chip on your shoulder...but that's just silly.

The bath before I ripped off those damn tiles....

Pen's just in front of where the tiles used to be, now we're minus the tiles....along with the wall they were attached to. Ooops, anyone know a good plasterer?

The Hallway II

Welcome to our deep blue hallway....

A close up of our little ole closet

There goes the deep blue hallway! Thanks to Anne and Danny who tempted by beer, wine and pizza did an excellent job!!

Looking out from the closet


The brighter and lighter view from the closet (not that I'm in it...)

The Kitchen II

OK, so for those of you keeping up with our reno's. Here are some changes to the kitchen!!!

Before, ugly lino, ugly sink, and ugly pink/white elephant skin wallpaper.

More of the ugly, old sink unit, but note the walled in boiler?

After, no lino, no ugly sink, and no ugly elephant skin wallpaper....thanks Jay! Check out our uncovered sorry ass 1950's boiler!

Blue elephant skin wallpaper, and ugly old cooker.

Cleaner, most of the elephant skin wallpaper gone, cooker gone, and ready to be new again.

Ugly ole sink in front of the window....



Window...no sink!

The nasty old kitchen before Jay, Pen and I ripped into her!

I don't know how, but somehow this just looks tidier!

The Kitchen

The kitchen. Oh, the kitchen. Well we're going to completely strip the kitchen out. That means a bit of work, and a lot of money I suppose. However as you can see...it does need it!

The lino is about the only thing in here that actually is ok! You can't really see it, but the wallpaper on that back wall is like pink elephant skin. It's pinkish with leathery grainy patterns that look like elephant skin! Man alive, I tell ya. The cooker has been there for 30 years, and we don't think it's ever been cleaned!

You can see the remains of the wood paneling that Jay and I removed. You can also see the very not similar wood ceiling. On the right there is also a tad of the wall that seperates the living room from the kitchen. We're hoping to rip this down...we'll see how it goes.

You can see here the boiler in the background, it's had a wood box built around it that goes to the ceiling, and has the pink elephant skin paper on it. It's gotta come out. Inside is a 1950's boiler, I'm surprised it's not a wood burning stove! The wall you can just see to the right of the door way is coming down as well.

The wall will stay put from the doorway to the white cupboard. The cupboard will be walled over so we can use the cupboard space in the bathroom on the other side. The wall from cupboard to the kitchen doorway is going to be ripped down to open up the kitchen to the living room. In theory!

Bathroom

The bathroom is one room that needs to be completely overhauled. The shower doesn't work, the wallpaper is horrid, the toilet leaks, and you should see the colour of the bath and sink!

You can see here the box shaped intrusion from the boiler closet in the living room. We're planning to get a condensing combi boiler which means we can get rid of the boiler closet and knock out this box section which will make a small bathroom slightly bigger. The new shower will go on the other wall above the taps.

I'm not sure how well it shows up in the photo, but the bath is minging. The lino flooring will be swapped for tiles. The bath will be a six jet whirlpool bubble tub. Mmmm can feel the bubbles already.
We're thinking about taking out the sink and putting in a vanity seeing as we're removing the boxed wall and creating more space.

This toilet simply has to go. It takes up too much room, instead a smaller more compact toilet hopefully!

Living Room

So here's our living room. It's a good size, and leads to the kitchen. It has a couple of interesting features. A recessed cabinet, another plaster moulding, and most interestingly a 6 foot by 4 foot recessed area at the back of the living room. This recessed area shares a wall with the main bedroom. Hmm, a doorway and a wall would make a walk in cupboard, or an ensuite bathroom.

The entrance to the living room from the hallway.

The door to the hallway, the recessed area on the right hand side at the top of the photo, and the sofa from the suite that was left behind...if we can clean it we can keep it. The two half doors on the left are where the water boiler was kept. It goes back into the bathroom which you'll see in the bathroom photo's. The door is going, it's just old and ugly.

The entrance to the kitchen from the living room. Note the horrible sink cupboard, well imagine that throughout the rest of the kitchen with that horrible wood paneling. Enough to make you shiver so it is.

We're hoping to turn that recessed shelve area with the candle into a book case, we just need to get a joiner!

The view from the flat looks over the Ochil Hills, and the Wallace Monument. There are certainly worse views to have!

A close up of the recessed area. We're debating between a storage area, a small office, or a walk in closet or ensuite bathroom from the bedroom.

Another plaster moulding...I think they're kinda cool...some folk no doubt think they're hideous! That light has got to go!

The Back (Main) Bedroom

The main bedroom is pretty big, but it needs work as well. As you can see from the photo the floor is bare wood boards, and the wallpaper has to go! We're also using this room as storage for all the kitchen appliances.

Another free bed, this is good!! You can see the appliances and old cupboards from the kitchen. There is an area under the window that is shaped like a parralelogram, we're going to put window seats in the recess. Should provide a bit of storage and a little charm!

1970's cupboards anyone? Jason and I hauled them out, sorry we didn't get a photo with them in...they're pretty ugly. We do have a washing machine, dishwasher and fridge that all apparantly work...this is good isn't it?

The door in the background is an wee cupboard. It's falling apart but we're going to get a joiner to put some shelves in as a shelved cupboard, or possibly take the door off and turn it into a bookcase.

Notice the plaster effect around the light? We think it's original to the flat, but hard to say as you can pick them up in the local DIY center for £20. We're going to try and find an older looking light to compliment the plaster work either way. The ceilings are just under 10 feet high in case you were wondering.

The Front Bedroom

This is one of the best/worst rooms we have to work with. It's one of the best because it's already got walls that are smooth as a baby's bottom, ready for painting. Unfortunately the fellow we bought it from has left a pile of wood and junk in it which we need to get rid of.

Behold the junk, although the pine wood bed is handy!

More wood and crap, but the room is mostly ready to be decorated. Except we couldn't find an electrical outlet in the room! How odd.

What were they thinking? The roof has styrofoam tiles glued on. Yup, just like your average foam coffee cup, except square and with weird designs on it. They've gotta come off.

The Hallway

Our hallway is pretty bleak at the moment. It's got dark blue wallpaper that doesn't exactly lighten up your mood as soon as you walk in. The wood flooring doesn't even go all the way to the all in sections!

Welcome to our flat.....you can see the dark wallpaper....

The front door and entrance needs work....

See that fake wood paneling in the closet? Well it was all over our kitchen. Pretty nasty 70's fasion.

The Outside

The outside of the building from the front. We're the top two windows on the left.

This is our communal backyard. Nothing incredibly exciting, however it should hold a bar-b-q or two if we have our way.