Owning your own home

You really can’t beat the cosiness of an open desiccant dehumidifier.

Ha, that's a compressor. And I'm trying to get rid of the new wool carpet smell.

Thanks
This shop?
It’s not far from us
https://www.mosaicworkshop.com/contact_location.html

That's the one. Like an Aladdin's cave. We were trying to find a specific type of orange for months in a small quantity. Walked in there and they have every colour and finish you could think of. Really nice, really helpful. Only annoyance for me is that I wanted mosaic tiles on a mesh sheet so I could cut them into strips two tiles wide. These ones came on a paper sheet that you soaked off and then laid the tiles individually. They are also very thin, so need a deeper bed of adhesive and ours are slightly transparent so the grey adhesive I used for the big tiles dulled them. I had to take up what I had laid and use white adhesive. Laying 220 of the fuckers and trying to get them straight and level can fuck right off.

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Give it time and you'll only remember the result, not the effort.

Here's hoping. The other fucker was that I built the base out of self leveling using a nominal size of 25mm x 25mm as that's what most of the ones we were originally looking at measured. These are 20x20 so left a gap. I also forgot I laid 5.5mm ply to raise them to a similar height as the big tiles. The extra gap around the edge means I can't just slap a strip of oak around the edge as I was planning, instead I have to awkwardly cut down a length of cushion bead, which wasn't cheap.

I actually really like that. Perhaps in moderation though - this is due to cover two floors.

Our current criteria are light coloured and not patterned but maybe we should branch out.

@Soul I imagine your new build has carpets and I imagine you've managed to make them work well with classy furniture - what have you got?

Also a year after moving, should finally get curtains next week (if the dispatch/manufacture date is anything to be believed). Getting and hanging a track for the wonky bay was a lot harder than it needed to be.

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Y u no plantation shutter?

I thought that was all that was allowed if you're on this forum and own a house.

Blocked

Lol

Need a proper good shampooing as you have no ideas what have went in it.

We ripped our out the moment we got the keys as it a horrid white and smell of wet dog.

Sanding takes ages but doable, do it yourself can save a whopping £200 each room.

Yeah, it didn't smell but we hired a rug doctor and gave it a good wash. All this was 15+ years ago.

Mind, given the general standard of private furnished rentals me and my friends had in the North in the 90s, I can't get over-concerned about a lived on carpet.

That's gorgeous!

We've got square bays and it was a nightmare. We got the bay pole set from Dunelm so at least it was fairly cheap, but such a faff.

Oh it’s that long ago? Sorry geniunely thought you mean like a couple months ago!

Haha yeah, we aren’t the type to be redecorating every few years. In fact half the house is still not finished despite it being 15 years, and it’s not even a big house. Every time we got close to it, we decided to either do some building work that would mess it up so it wasn’t worth decorating yet, or have a big holiday or get married or something. The last one just once obviously. BUT! We do have someone (forum recommended) booked in to project manage a big push to finally sort the place out next year, so may finally join the world of responsible adult home owning.

TBF it’s not cheap, we only managed to get work done straight away cause I sold a Banksy I brought for £55 in 2003 and now fortunate enough that it just about cover the kitchen and bathroom.

Otherwise, might be 5 years, even 10 to get the kitchen replaced.

Laying 220 of the fuckers and trying to get them straight and level can fuck right off.

I've recently joined multiple tiling fb groups, I was looking for a tiler in the first instance then realised how informative and funny some posts are what what to do and what not to do.

I saw a post recently re: mosaic tiles with a paper frontage and the advice was to lay them first then soak off the paper

Even saw one suggestion saying they used to grout them from the back before laying on adhesive, but not a clue if that's correct

let me find the post

https://m.facebook.com/groups/468663329993375/permalink/1831764250349936/?m_entstream_source=group&anchor_composer=false&ref=m_notif&notif_t=group_highlights

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That’s a great story. Well done Ed!

Our current criteria are light coloured and not patterned but maybe we should branch out.

I feel the pain - I've tried on and off for years to find alternatives to plain-ish oatmeal carpet with no success.

The options seem to be plain-ish oatmeal, plaid (look like a boutique B&B in Northumberland), stripes (look like a boutique B&B in Henley-on-Thames), or 50s/60s modern (should work but actually looks like a travel lodge foyer).

I'm quite fond of this one from Quirky B https://www.alternativeflooring.com/collection/quirky_b/quirky_b__margo_selby_collection/quirky_b_fair_isle/reiko.html - considering it for the stairs.

Husband wants the Overlook carpet from The Shining...

But when we did the loft and wanted carpet to keep the noise down, we just went down the plain-ish oatmeal route.

I think the Shining carpet would send me over the edge. The top one is quite hard work as well.

I definitely prefer your oatmeal one.

This is (a very poor photo of) our newly-installed front door.

It's painted much better than it looks here, thats our weird lampshade making it look patchy.

But is there any way of tidying up the door furniture on the outside?

I've ordered a letter tidy to cover the hole and the two letter flap bolts, and matching covered escutcheons to make that a bit more uniform. Are there any suggestions for what to do for the knob and knocker bolts?

Also am I missing any potential double entrendes?

• Knob
  
• Knockers
  
• Holes
  
• Flaps
  
  

Hinges maybe?

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