After many years in Dunkirk, we’ve bought a house out in the sticks (well, Burton on the Wolds). The previous owner was a bit of a DIY disaster, so we’ve spent the first two weeks of ownership ripping out all her handiwork in preparation for people with more skill than us coming and making things look nice again!

A few people have asked to see photos, so I thought I’d post this to fulfil that role. In addition, some people have even dared suggest that “I’m removing tiles” is just a convenient excuse for not climbing / going to gigs, etc. – hopefully this will also persuade people that we really have been doing an awful lot of work! ;)

The plan from day one involved a lot of refurbishment, meaning we started pulling out old bits of wall / flooring / utilities almost as soon as we got the keys.

The kitchen was nice enough on the surface, but investigation revealed cupboards held together with sellotape, worktops not stuck down, and the weirdest boiler wiring you’ve ever seen. All this had been spotted on our viewings prior to purchasing, so we quickly set about ripping everything out in preparation for an entirely new kitchen.

Further investigative work with James led to a number of awful DIY discoveries, my personal favourite being that the hall walls had effectively been reconstructed with newspaper and toilet roll!

All the rooms had dado rails, which were removed at the expense of the aging plaster.

The ridiculous boiler in the kitchen has now been replaced with a nice combi in the attic, but this also necessitated the replacement of all the central heating pipes throughout the house. In the process, we lost the hot water cylinder and so decided to knock a wall through on the landing. That therefore needed a bit of work…

Similarly the bathroom had a wall moved and the suite was being ripped out and replaced. I made start but quickly ran out of time…

… so we brought in someone who wasn’t trying to fit the job into two hours after work each night. They quickly dealt with the issue…

Meanwhile things moved on apace in our bedroom, with David plastering around the new wardrobes (deftly re-arranged by James):

In the kitchen, the tiled floor is now down, and the electrics have been sorted out prior to plastering…

The bathroom will hopefully be sorted by the end of this week, along with the rest of the plastering in the bedrooms and the lounge. Although it’s a nightmare of planning and organisation, it’s quite a fun project and a massive learning curve. When we get towards the bit where it’s actually furnished and can be lived in, I’ll take some better photos. For now I’ll leave you with the foggy view from the back of the house, which isn’t too shoddy…