The grand plan house wise for January

As many will know we had a lot of work done on our house several years ago and then it ground to a halt for various reasons. Just recently we have had some of the remaining work done and our new builders have been fabulous about finishing the bathroom in the loft.

Before I go on can I just say it's impossible to take good photos of small rooms !!

There were some head scratching moments and some problems to overcome but they managed them all and we now have a 95% finished bathroom. Before Christmas it had no floor and just bare plaster on the walls.  Now we have a floor and the underfloor heating pipes under it with the excess coiled ready for me to continue the zone in the main room. All the plumbing is in, including the soilpipe for the loo which they managed to plumb into the existing downpipe saving a fair amount of money as the original plan had a new one in a different place. The downside is we can't resite the loo in the first floor without the extra soilpipe but we can live with it staying in the bathroom.

We had the shower mixer tap but couldn't find the shower itself anywhere but Steve the builder managed to source us a great one which was ex display for a very good price.

We decided to go for plain white tiles and a silver flooring so that we we could ring the changes as we wished colour wise.

We already had the loo, shower cubical and sink however we had got a half pedestal for the sink (one that attaches to the wall and doesn't reach the floor ) but due to how things worked out and the fact we swapped round where the sink and loo were from the original plan the soil pipe had to come out of the floor so we had to find a different option. The plumbing suppliers weren't sure if we could get a pedestal that would fit and anyway when we went and looked round we liked the idea of a cabinet but most of the ones we saw were to be honest a bit tacky.

A quick interlude for a sweet story. When we went to the plumbers Treestump (nearly four) wanted to come with us and had fun exploring round the bathroom showroom but when we got to the counter to ask some questions he asked me "Where are the plums? Plums are yummy !"  Poor kid though plumbers sold plums which is why he wanted to come with us !

So what to do about the sink? Head to IKEA of course ! They do bathroom sink units but we decided to go for a kitchen wall cupboard and use an off-cut of oak work-surface we had left from the kitchen. The doors aren't on yet as they were out of stock and are being delivered on Friday. We chose blue frosted glass as doors can be changed fairly easily and it will add a bit of colour. We decided against putting it on legs and instead just have it slightly raised off the floor because otherwise it was getting too high to use comfortably.

I think once the doors are on it will look quite smart and give us useful storage space too.

So what is left to do? Clean the window and get rid of the stickers that are on it. Put the doors on the cabinet and put more coats of oil on the work-surface (I've done  two so far).

Also decide what to do about a toilet roll holder as the loo has ended up farther from the side wall than planned to allow the soilpipe to work and I hate holders on the wall behind you, I end up doing my shoulder in trying to use them. I'm thinking of a small shelving unit to go in the corner between the loo and the towel rail for extra towels so perhaps that can do double duty somehow.

The towel rail runs off the hot water pipes which confuses every plumber and builder we have ever had but this lot at least listened and read the handbook when I showed it them unlike some we have had.

We may want some sort of shelf in the shower too for soap and such like and a mirror of course.

Just as I was thinking about writing this post I came across a blog Funky Junk Interiors and as it happens she is running a challenge for Jan to get a room Picture Perfect. ie do all those finishing touches that never quite get done so I'm committing to doing that for the bathroom this month.

I'd love to say I will do the kitchen too as all that it needs is a few tiles BUT that would mean clearing it of all the accumulated bits and pieces first which I keep trying to do and never managing because otherwise even if I finished it would hardly be picture perfect would it ! Perhaps next month.

The next big job is clear all the rubbish and accumulated stuff out of the loft which hopefully will give me enough work room to be able to finished the underfloor heating in there. Ideally I need to be able to have at least half the room clear at a time.

This is what it currently looks like.

As you can see lots of rubbish and spare building supplies There are also a lot of tools and other bits we do want but I am sure they can be rationalised and stored better. Once the pipes are in we can get on with decorating the room and then we can hopefully move someone up here leaving their room free to be sorted. That's the plan anyway. I'm also hopeful we can get the hall to the stage we can decorate it soon as well.