Slap and tickle

There is no such thing as a quiet week here and this week was no exception. The noise levels were ramped up when Sean and Ging returned to join and Matt and Kev on site, whilst Jon began a marathon stint in the workshop crafting our oak window sills, some cupboard doors and . . . our hand-built wood staircase! We cant wait to see all this wood added to the interior.

On site, more major steps forward. Below, Mat and Kev fitted the downstairs bathroom window and once in, we welcomed Dain to site to slap on some render the first section of the back back. And what a huge difference it has made unifying the back and hiding the mish-mash of brick and block work. The rest will get done in phase 2 and the new kitchen and bootroom have been done. We've ot decided on the colour yet, butthat can wait until the end of phase 2.
Once the render was done, Sean and Ging laid the slabs along the back, Ging on slab slicing and Sean on tickle duty. And don't they look nice. OK. We know. They are bog standard concrete slabs. But they were free. With our environmental ethos we are reusing as many of the slabs we already had around the house (four different sorts!). They looked a mess before we started work, but re-laid, they look great. It makes a big difference when even masic slabs are laid well.

Below, Ging (left) and Sean hard at it. Note the lack of builder's bum here. More a case of builer's boxers. . Not an ideal day to hang out your smalls with all that dust flying around!

Inside, we've been slogging away ourselves with the never-ending decorating. We got all the base coats slapped on and we began to slap on the top coats.

And here is what we are using - ECOS organic paint. Organic paint! Great stuff. And it don't cost the earth either, around 5% more than top end Dulux/Crown stuff and cheaper than your fancy dan Fired Earth or Farrow & Ball slap. We found them whilst searching fthe web or eco-paint and then found that they are also rated by my beloced Which? Top stuff! Below, Liz slaps on the 'citrica' in the bathroom which ties in with the orange in the border tiles. Wait til you see the other colours we've bought!

Like our new oak floor? Niiiiiiiice!