Project Moneypit Update

It’s been a busy couple of months in the mighty Bridge of Trow  with assorted holidays, get togethers and weekends away keeping me from keeping you all up to date with the latest goings on here at the Money Pit. So, as the rain pours down outside, I thought it was time to update the world on our progress here in Project Money Pit. As you’ll see, there’s been plenty of change in the 3 months since I last blogged, although not quite at the pace of previous weeks – hence the lack of update. Therefore, I thought I would craft an epic post and go through the house room by room to fill you all in on our current state of affairs.

1. The kitchen
As you can see, the kitchen is now pretty much finished. Miss P’s furniture has now all arrived and so with it came the Smeg fridge (one of two things that determined the overall layout of the room, along with the Smeg range of course!) Mr P has done a cracking job on the tiling and it is all looking rather fantastic. The sweet shop has also been set up (anyone who saw Miss P’s house in Exeter will know what this is all about) and all we have left to finish is the utlility room/shower room, which is being started in the not too distant future.

2. The dining room
Another room that has benefited from the arrival of Miss P’s furniture, including the infamous Passmore dresser which unfortunately is just out of shot.  The wood panels are all painted and treated, the Ikea light has been hung and we even have some rather fancy curtains thanks to Mrs P and material from Dunelm Mill. Considering this is a room which we originally planned to do not much to, the transformation is pretty fantastic and is one of my fave rooms in the house now – although that may be because of my birthday bureau and birthday book shelves which you can also see pictured here.

3. The living room
Probably the most complete room at the last time of blogging, however it now has the added benefit of curtains which prevent the great and good of Trowbridge from looking into our front room (and also means we can hide from people we don’t like when they come to the front door). The addition of some of Miss P’s homely touches and some knick knacks mean the lounge is now a very cosy room indeed – so much better than when we first saw it and it had no wallpaper and barely any flooring!! Now if only that fireplace worked in time for Christmas.

4. The blue room (a.k.a. Tim’s room)
That’ll be Tim the cat’s room, not another lodger! After all the weeks of chasing him around from room to room, we have finally let Tiger Tim settle in one place, and that place seems to be the blue room (as you can see he is curled up asleep on the bed). He has even left his own mark on this place courtesy of muddy paw prints and plenty of drool! As you can see from the photo though, despite the cat slobber this room has been well and truly Hannah-fied as it transforms itself into the craft room. The other new addition is a wardrode in the opposite corner, which is another purchase from the Trowbridge White Elephant shop. Miss P has given it a new paint job and there are some new shelves inside it courtesy of yours truly and my very basic carpentry skills – thanks goodness it is only holding buttons and ribbons!

5. The pink room
What was our bedroom has now been transformed into the fancy guest bedroom. Although it looks finished, we still have another fireplace that we want to put in this room, and it could maybe do with another decorate at some point as we were a little bit slap-dash in a few places as we needed to get the room done so we could actually have somewhere to live in. This is probably going to be a long term project though, once we get the rest of the house out of the way!

6. The green room
What was the guest bedroom when we had the Cleavers staying with us, has now been transformed into our main bedroom. As you can see, another fireplace has been expertly fitted by Mr P. We’ve also added some rather fancy Laura Ashley wallpaper (which required much discussion to agree on a pattern) and there are also some rather fancy Laura Ashley curtains hand-crafted by Miss P. (Before you think we have gone completely out of control with the over-priced Ashley chintz, it’s worth mentioning we got it all in the sale (up to 50% off!!) so there is still plenty of bargain hunting going on in the money pit!). We also got a fancy new bed which is now complete with it’s Trowbridge White Elephant headboard – another top ‘bridge bargain!

7.The garden/outside

With the house taking priority over the past few months, not much has changed in the garden since the early stages of Operation Bash-Off. The pond hole is still very full and will require a spring time skip weekend so that the remaining concrete and rubble can be dealt with and then dispatched. On the other side, it has all ben dug over and a new lawn planted, which is coming on nicely. Meanwhile the rest of the garden has just had a winter prune and a bit of a general tidy up as and when we have had time.

Out the front though, we have been able to tidy and weed the gravel in front of the house, adding in some border plants and generally neaten up the place. While the front of the house has been given a light facelift with a new black front door and a tidy up of the white stonework at the front making it look somewhere approaching smart. The big cable hanging from the roof and the slightly beaten up quoine stones on the left still need work though, but this is all stuff to look at in the spring when the weather picks up again.

8. The hall way, bathroom and boiler room
Alas,  these rooms all remain pending as we await the completion of the downstairs bathroom/loo which is starting next week. Once that has happened we can go full steam ahead and hopefully finish off the remaining rooms and finally be finished [for now!].

And there you go, that is where we are currently. With any luck I will be able to put some more updates in over the next few weeks as things progress, however looking back at the early photos I am still amazed at how far we have come in just 6 short months.

Now that’s what I call a busy month…

October has been a pretty busy month for me, hence the lack of Money Pit updates. Three mags in four weeks, with an additional bit of help on a fourth adds up to one heck of a lot of pages. All four arrived on my desk this morning and it made me realize just how many I have done in the last few weeks – it almost makes those late nights and early mornings worth it!

Project Money Pit Week 12: Happy birthday to me!

With Miss P’s furniture being delivered in less than 2 weeks time now, we have set about finishing off all the little jobs that we have putting off for weeks. As a result we have spent most of our time filling, painting, sanding and generally making the house tidy in preparation for an influx of flowery chintz, wooden hearts and the odd table and chair. Meanwhile, in the kitchen Mr P has begun the tiling (now that we have finally been over to Bristol to collect them) and the kitchen is slowly but surely beginning to take shape.

Work over the weekend was somewhat curtailed though by the birthday celebrations of yours truly. After last year’s rush of 30th birthdays, the possibility of celebrating being 31 was somewhat of an anti-climax. However with the fateful day falling on a Saturday this weekend, it did mean the opportunity for a mini celebration was too good to miss. We were joined by the Bartletts, Kemps and Scott/Hawkins’s for a fine barbecue and much grilled meet was consumed (see below!!). I was also very fortunate to receive a rather whazzy bureau from Miss P which has now taken up pride of place in our stately dining room. The books on the top were a present from Mrs P and has now set me off on an antique book collecting mission which will certainly keep me busy at our car boot sales for the not too distant future. Perhaps that library I have always dreamed of will become a reality now?!

Project Money Pit Week 11: Getting green fingers

With the dining room nearing completion (the carpet is being laid on Tuesday) I was finally allowed back out in the garden to try and stop it resembling a builder’s yard. With the weather on our side, I was ably aided by Mr and Mrs T who paid their first visit to the money pit since week 4. Back then, the house was a shell of what it is now – no flooring, no painting and no kitchen – so to say that they were amazed at the progress was an understatement! They were almost as awe struck as the first day that they came to the house back in June, albeit this time in a positive way, rather than in one of complete horror!

Following a very nice lunch in the Mill at Rode we set about tackling the dandelions and various weeds that have taken over the back garden in recent weeks. They had soon cleared half the lawn of dandelions [and grass!] and then moved on to the gravel at the back and within a few hours had the place looking very ship shape. They also encouraged us to make the most of the tiers of the old pond and so we decided to utilize the brick work rather than destory it and so have created a rather nice raised bed (and unearthed plenty of nice top soil). Hopefully next time they are up to visit we will have been able to finish off digging up the lawn and might even have re-seeded it by then.

Despite our best attempt to economize our effort and not just demolish everything in sight, once Sunday came around I couldn’t resist another wield of the sledge hammer. There a few nice, easy wins with the remaining red bricks and then set about working on the breeze blocks. Unfortunately, once I got down to the bottom, I soon discovered concrete foundations – well why wouldn’t there be foundations – and so the easiness of my job soon became less. A couple of hours of Time Team style excavation soon revealed the extent of the problem and the small, inconsequential wall which I thought I would knock down in a few minutes was eventually removed. This now separates the pond from the ‘raised area’ and will hopefully make the demolition easier going forward. However the fact that the pond is now full to the brim with rubble may life that little bit more tricky. Perhaps it is time to order that skip after all!!

Project Money Pit Week 8/9: A stately home

It’s been a quiet couple of weeks in Project Money Pit, however with Miss P and I finally having a weekend off at the same time, we thought it was about time we started to attack the dining room with a real force. With the kitchen all but done, it means that the dining room is actually in an empty enough state that we could start decorating. Priorities were the removal of the oragen cornicing and ceiling rose, hammering off the diddley-dos on the wood panelling and the last but by no means least, paint the whole thing a nice neutral beigey colour. As you can see from the picture below, the transformation has been quite spectacular and Malc the carpet man will be arriving before we know it to finish the room off with another nice bit of oatmeal carpet. As Miss P says, it looks like a grand old stately home, and all we need now is her furniture, but that is still a couple of weeks away from happening.

To celebrate our achievement, we fired up the barbecue and took advantage of the good weather with plates of meat and other lovely munchies which enjoyed with the Cleavers and the Phins (who we invited to make the long journey across the Wilthsire border from Bath).

Project Money Pit Week 7

It’s been a relatively slow week in the house this week. With the living room taking shape and our new housemates settling, it means that we have been doing lots of little jobs, which alas don’t make for interesting blog posts. The most interesting thing that has happened this week is that Dan the carpenter has been to fit the worktops in the kitchen, which make it look very swish indeed. As a result we have been able to put the handles on the drawers in the kitchen and actually start to use it like an actual kitchen.

Project Money Pit Week 6: Lounging in the lounge

This week has seen a big push to get the lounge finished as we are soon to be joined by some house guests (Hannah’s friends, the Cleavers from Bristol) and it seemed only civilized to offer them one working room! We have also been joined this week by Mrs P again and as such the Passmore work ethic has been in full effect, meaning that the target of a fully working lounge has been more than easily met over the last 7 days.

As you can see from the picture, the lounge has undergone quite the transformation in the last few weeks and I have to admit, the lounge is probably my favourite room in the house right now. If you consider that when we first saw the house it had manky carpet, no floor, woodchip wallpaper that was peeling off and cottage cheese  mould all over the walls, the transformation is astonishing. The addition of the fireplace has turned the room from a fairly mediocre space to a really eye-catching room. We were fortunate as Mr P found us some really nice tiles at a reclamation  yard in North Dorset, and Mrs P has done a fantastic of treating the grate with retarded rust paint. Add to that the fantastic surround, which fits almost perfectly and you have a pretty stunning focal point for the room.

With carpet down and the whazzy wallpaper that Miss P has been umming and ahhing over for the past 2 weeks, then you now have a room which is a genuine pleasure to spend time in. Unfortunately, with the sofa and cordoroy armchair now in situ, there may be even more distractions than ever to put us off finishing the rest of the house!

Project Money Pit Week 5: Comings and goings

It has been a week of coming and going this week at Project Money Pit, as the pond and scaffolding finally left us and a few new additions to the project made an appearance!

First the departures… the scaffolding came down on Thursday and the house now looks like a proper house again! RTC and Fred have done an amazing job and after last weeks little paint-a-thon, the place looks better than ever. With the scaffolding disappearing at long last though, this also meant the last appearance from RTC (to collect his cash) however not before he took away the gigantic breeding pond from the back of the garden. In order to get it out, they had to remove the back fence and then Mr P, RTC, Fred and myself could slowly lever it out and into Ross’ van. Alas the measurement were not quite right and we ended up having to fetch a trailer and all sorts of other tom-foolery before we got rid of it once and for all!

Once that had gone, it was time to concentrate on our new arrivals. Now, maybe I’ve been watching too many episodes of Kirsty’s Home Made Home, but I was determined that if we bought a fireplace that it should have a story behind it, and today I finally got my wish! Bright and early Feiday morning Miss P paid a visit to the centre of the mighty Bridge of Trow and while perusing a second hand shop called The White Elephant, she spotted 3 rather fantastic fireplaces. So she returned home, waited for Mr P to arrive and we embarked into town. After a bit of umming and ahhin, we decide to try a bit of haggling and low and behold the lady in the shop let us have them for a bargain! This means we can now have a lovely fireplace with tiles in the living room, but also some lovely ones upstairs in the bedroom. And all this without having to fork out £400 like the ones we saw in Cardiff last week!!

Inevitably, with demolition work to be done, Mr P was soon taking apart the wall of the living room -  well it had to be done before we could decorate after all  – and I thought you should see our new fireplace in all it’s glory!

*UPDATE: After saying that everything must have a story, well we managed to develop the tale of the fireplace a little further this weekend by buying a surround from an auction in Devon. We really are living the middle-class, house renovation dream now!!

Project Money Pit Week 4: Easy wins with Operation Bash-Off!

We’ve been living in the house for just over a week and now and everything is beginning to settle down nicely. Even Tim has settled in to his new home, albeit there was nearly an escape attempt on Sunday, but this was more than certainly aided by somone who shall remain nameless leaving the back door open and letting him out – whoops!

Before the big move, we had all these grand plans of doing lots of work once we were actually in residence, alas this had not totally come to fruition as work, house work and life in general has stopped us progressing at lightening speed. I say this, however Miss P has been hard at work the last few days painting the kitchen while Mr P has been building units and getting everything lined up. We also had the oven fitted  on Friday and so the kitchen can actually be used as that and not just a big biege storage area. All that we are waiting on now is for the worktop to be fitted, however that is a couple of weeks off now, so we will have to continue work on the inside of the house instead.

Work outside is also progressing nicely, with RTC finally finishing off the quoine stones and also staking a claim to the big pond at the back of the garden, so it looks like that could be leaving us soon as well! Speaking of things leaving, with the quoine stones being completed that means the scaffolding will be taken down next week and we will finally have the house looking like it is supposed to – well, almost! Before we do that though, the quoines need painting and what better way to do that than recruit yet more cheap labour, in the form of Daver and Piran. So, with the promise of a barbecue and bash at the pond with a sledgehammer, I sent them shinning up the scaffold like a pair of Victorian  urchins, while I ’supervised’ from ground level. As expected, they couldn’t resist putting some graffiti on the house in their own inimitable style, but hopefully that won’t show through now the final coat of paint is up!

With that job soon out of the way, I let them loose with the hammers and commenced Operation Bash Off (Although once they started smashing, it took some stern words to stop them moving on to the lean to as a quick and easy demolition win!). As you can see, the pond is now filling up well and everything is beginning to settle down nicely. However if there will be any room for top soil, is still a mystery and fingers crossed we won’t end up with a spongey lawn with a big pond shaped dip in it!

Project Money Pit Week 3: Moving in

After the stresses and strains of last weekend, all has been calm and serene in the house this week with Mr and Miss P progressing along at pace. They were ably assisted on Monday and Tuesday by Dr Steven Bartlett who valiantly stepped in the job of sanding and was soon left a broken, dusty man. But a broken dusty man with lovely sanded floorboards! Thanks to his valiant efforts (which were rewarded with a bottle of something Scottish and malty) we were able to get varnishing on Monday and then Miss P managed to finish the glossing and we actually had a room that was virtually complete.

Which was a good thing really as this would be the last week that we would have my flat and so the priority for this week was to get packed up and moved in. Boxes were sourced and filled and car loads of stuff was taken over in the evening and deposited in the boiler room, or which ever room we could find a spare square inch in. We’d decided to allocate the pink room as our main bedroom for now, the blue room would become the living room/snug seeing as it was to be carpeted towards the end of the week and then everything else would go in the boiler room.

The move was planned for Saturday and, alas, all my life long friends happened to be ‘busy’ this weekend with varying plausibility of excuses and so it was left up to myself and Colin (my Man With a Van) to completel all the hard work. And what a day we chose to do this as a mini heat wave hit the south and we chose to move sofas and chests of drawers out of my lovely top floor flat! Needless to say it was exhausting and I don’t think I have ever sweated that much in my entire life. However at the end of the day it meant that we could put together an actual working bedroom with furniture and everything in it and as you can see it is all looking rather fantastic…

This meant we were all clear for Operation Transfer, which would see the arrival of Timothy Passmore to the mighty Bridge of Trow and with a bed set up he had somewhere ready prepared to hide under! Fortunately with Miss P returning from work, the transfer went without a hitch and so this now means the whole of Team TPT are resident at 14 Frome Road and 18 Kensington Court is just a dim and distant memory (until we go back and clean it on Monday that is!) As you can see, young Tim is settling in well, however he appears to be most perplexed by all the strange new smells and is determined to explore as much of the house as he can -  no matter how much we try and stop him!