Category: House

My friends John and Lucy move into my last room today after an unfortunate pyrotechnic accident in their flat, which means that I don’t have frequent use of the wardrobes in that room anymore…

So last night there was a bit of frenzied activity around sorting out how I was going to store my hanging clothes in my room. Now, I’ve been planning to buy a wardrobe for it for a while, but I’m having trouble finding one I like which will fit in my room. So I thought I’d try to buy a cheap and cheerful canvas wardrobe for a couple months, then sell it on/freecycle it when I find a permanent wardrobe I like.

Still, it turns out cheap and cheerful canvas wardrobes aren’t so cheap. So I had a thought, then a brainwave, and eventually built, with the timely assistance of Phil, this contraption:

It uses some of the left over timber from our kitchen renovation, and the curtain rail from the same which I had kept for another purpose (which can still be reused when this is dismantled). I’m quite proud of it, even though it is rickety and not amazingly pretty. While it’s by no means a long-term solution, it’ll hold up for a few weeks until I find a permanent replacement.

My house purchase went through a month ago, and I’ve been spending the time since then just generally doing DIY and unpacking. That, sailing and work, of course. The house is lovely, and I’m starting to get a handle on what needs to be done to it.

I have a lodger who moved in on Friday, and I’m now in a situation where I can properly decorate my bedroom without worrying too much about it taking too long. Once that’s done, I’ll get another lodger in (I have two rentable bedrooms) and I’ll be able to concentrate on the areas of the building that really need improvement; namely the kitchen and garden.

The kitchen needs gutting, some wall rebuilding, a new floor, new damp proof course, new ceiling and new stud walls installing. Once all that’s done, I’ll be searching for a (very!) cheap set of kitchen units to put into it. It’s actually a massive job and so I’m leaving it until spring/summer – this way I have some time to save a little cash, and when I do the work it (hopefully!) won’t be raining.

The garden needs some serious attention at some point – there’s an old shed that’s falling down, and needs replacing and moving. There’s also an area of the kitchen wall that’s been butted up to with earth, and the earth needs removing to hopefully sort out some of the kitchen damp problems.

There is, hopefully, not much else to do, though there’s the usual small problems with flashing and loos that need repairing. These are however all fixable, though need time (which I have little of).