Last little push

Hello lovely readers.  Apologies it's been so long since the last update.

You may choose to look away now if you don't like the "Sometimes this is just so tough" posts!  I make no apologies for writing when I feel like this, as I always wanted this blog to be a fair reflection of the ups and downs of developing property, lest I be accused of sugar-coating the reality, but I try to be a positive person and do hate to sound like a moaner!  I feel so fortunate to be able to do something that 95% of the time I completely love, but I'm in the 5% just now!

In short, it's the end of the project.  Forgetting the sanding and staining and finishing of the floorboards, there probably isn't more than 1-2 weeks' work left.  If conditions were perfect then the floors should be done in 2 weeks too.  Of course, conditions are rarely perfect, and at this stage of the process, most everybody is physically and mentally tired, so I'm not sure talk of perfection is helpful in the slightest!

It's an ongoing battle as a perfectionist to accept myself at times like these when I know I am not performing as I like.  Of course I'm not the first working mum to feel she is letting down the little person who is used to feeling like he is the centre of her world, but now finds mummy impatient and stressed, with no time or energy to play.  I hate that this work has done that to me, when I've always been so proud of who I am as a mother, and I'm aware I'm not myself with most everyone else around me too.

Things are particularly tricky for me this time as I'm not only trying to drive a high quality finish on a project with a toddler in tow (who seems to be intent on giving me a preview of the terrible twos!), but, and please excuse me, I don't mean to be dramatic, I also have some medical stuff going on.  Nothing too serious thankfully, but hospital procedures and check ups and medication are messing with my body, mind, sleep and emotions and it's all making me such a mess right now.  I know I'm not even close to being at my best, let alone any kind of a pleasure to be around, and yet, at this final stage of the process, I feel I need to be on site more than ever to make sure the finishing touches that will be staring at me for the foreseeable future are as I envisioned and as I have fought so hard for all along.

I'll post some photos below so you can see how BH is coming along, but first, if I may, I'd like to share some nice things I've heard while working on this project.  They go a long way to help balance out just how very (not one to mince my words!) crappy I feel right now.

Firstly, from a friend and fellow mum:

"You run your own business while looking after your little boy full time and always look so glamorous: You're such a role model for other mums." 

Glamorous - ha!  But thank you, I'll take it!  

Secondly from a contractor on the project who I've worked with several times now over the years:

"I don't know how you do it.  You've done a lot of these renovations.  I couldn't do it."

So nice to hear that from someone working in the same game

Thirdly from the main builder, who is charming to everyone, but said he was being serious:

"If my wife was like you, I could take on the world."

"All of the guys on site ask how it's possible you manage a project of this size with a little one.  

I've never seen it before - you're one in a million."

"Typically in business it's men, but you're better."

"If there were a building exam, you'd get full marks: couldn't get higher." 

Like I say, charm personnified, but I like to believe there's a bit of truth in some of it at least.

So these are the things I try to focus on when I feel so drained and fed up, that, quite honestly, I just want to run away and hide.  It looks like there's another big project on the horizon after this one, but I really, really need a break.  Compliments can tide me over for a while, but heading back to Italy and Il Palazzotto for as much as I can of the rest of the summer seems common sense now, don't you think?!

So, if you're still with me after all that, thank you!

As promised, here are some photos to show you where we're at:

Gorgeous metallic splash back going up in kitchen - yay!

Some floorboards polish up great...

... bought in some similar to replace those that don't!

Gorgeous floorboards looking just as I hoped - yay!

Choosing carpet - ugh!

Fantastic skylight looking just as I hoped - yay!

Took a while to find the right one, but...

Bold colour in the living room - yay!

Bold colour in the master bathroom - yay!

So really overall I know we're getting there and of course it will all work out in the end.  Forgive me for being tired and emotional.  A ragazza's allowed a little wobble now and then, right?!

Just a last little push to get this house finished and I can be swimming in the sun in the Adriatic Sea.

Come on!

Feeling removed

For various reasons, Mr RR, little man and I are out in Italy right now, staying in the building the renovation of which inspired this blog.  It's lovely to be back: really touching to be offered such a warm welcome by so many who have become a part of our day-to-day lives out here - the ladies in the deli, dear neighbours, those who recognise us from the beach, and so on.  It's also funny to see how little things change: just a few days here and the woman who lives round the corner has already accosted us at our front door to complain about "l'aqua nella strada!" complete with accusatory finger-wagging!

It's really not ideal timing to be away from BH's renovation while it's in these final stages.  It's hard to be direct with the builders, trying to drive the project on, when they know you are calling between trips to the beach!  And for me it's tricky finding the balance between letting go, enjoying a relaxing break away, and monitoring the progress so when I return I'm happy with all the micro-decisions made in my absence.  All this whilst trying while I'm here to avoid the extremes of appearing like I don't care or like I am some control-freak, sat on the beach fretting about grout!

The way I see it, if I'm not able to switch off completely, and I think it would be foolish to try to, then I may as well get progress updates from the builder to help me feel reassured when I'm thinking about it, that things are going as well as I would hope.

Skinny minny en suite!

As an example, here is a situation where I could really do with being on site.  This en suite bathroom is only 85cm wide (it's fitted into what was originally space allocated to a staircase!).  The plan was to have the basin recessed into the wall to maximise space to get round it, but it can only be recessed 6cm!  Apparently the gap's more or less 50cm between it and the back wall but it doesn't look much does it?  Sometimes there's no replacement for being on site walking back and forth testing how a space works, especially when said space has pointy corners jutting out into it!

Following on from the last post on tiling, here's a little introduction to the wonders of underfloor heating!  We have never had piped UFH before, always electric, but seeing as we have had issues using electric UFH in large areas before and I have been assured less can go wrong with piped, we thought we'd give it a try in BH's kitchen and hallway.

Specialist matting to secure the water pipes

Here's the controls for the whole system

Fully piped, self-levelling screed going over

So so so much of this stuff to fill all the gaps!

Beautiful greigy tiles, diagonally = so happy!

Of course, at every stage, I can always count on little man to make sure things go smoothly!

Someone's got to tidy up the site!

Checking stability of the walls!

P.S. The builder thought it was hilarious I let him get so dusty!  Seriously, this kid was rolling around on the floor having the time of his life!  What's a renovation ragazza to do?!  It's just dust, right?!  

Random tiling

I don't know much about tiling, but I'm learning.  I think a certain gentleman on site may be learning valuable lessons of a different type too!

It would be fair to describe the man in question as older.  He's probably retirement age and came across as an old charmer when he started on site a couple of weeks ago as a tiler in one of the en suites.  With very little English language but full of hand gestures that showed appreciation for my eyes, hair, clothes, etc. he seemed harmless enough and made everyone smile.

So, back to the tiling.  Standard patterns include brick (see below) and grid (where all the tiles are lined up with straight grout lines).  You get herringbone and 2/3 and variations on all of these, but brick and grid are probably the most commonly used.

He started well enough with the shower area of the en suite:

Brick style metro

I then asked for the floor tiles to be placed in a random staggered way.  Much confusion!  But they got it in the end and staggered the floor tiles randomly.

Staggering!

When I asked for the same running horizontally on the wall I was equally clear.  This is what I got:

See the problem?!

Not only are the tiles running vertically, the grout lines are clearly lined up so it looks very un-random, very un-staggered and very much like brick pattern!  (Maybe the lady didn't know what she really wanted so he just did it the way he thought looked best?!)

Not only that but over what will be the recess for the mirror he has run them horizontally, because it involves less cutting I'm guessing (and probably the lady won't ever notice, right?!).

Not random, just inconsistent and bad!

And then there was this:

Spot the mistake on the bottom tile trim?

A few chats later with the boss and the gentleman tiler is re-tiling this wall and fixing the tile trim, and I suspect talks far less now with the team about my beautiful eyes and far more about less desirable qualities he may deem me to have like wanting what I asked for!

At times like these, I find myself questioning whether I'm being overly picky - whether other people would just let it go.  I console myself in this instance with the following facts:

1. I offered at least three times to draw a plan for the tiling,
2. the design was confirmed verbally by the boss with the tiler present,
3. other parts of the tiling were done horizontally, like the niche in the photo above.

(Plus, I warned the builder, in no uncertain terms, that I am super-fussy when it comes to the finish, in particular tiling, and that he would likely hate me when it came to this point of the project!)

This wasn't a miscommunication or language problem, just a pure and simple cock-up!  So I'm okay if I come across less like the charming lady the gentleman tiler thought he was dealing with when he first met me, as I firmly (but fairly, no?) convey I'd like his work done the way I asked!

P.S. In the end, I suggested a compromise: remove and re-fit some of the tiles so that the overall effect was staggered, without switching them all to being horizontal.  I know, I know: I'm a softie!

Staggered!

P.P.S. While on the subject of tiling: here's how this renovation ragazza handles those moments on site when you just have to give the builders your full attention for key decisions, but your little man has lost all appetite for being held quietly!

Artist at work!

Breaking down walls and a nudge to patriarchy too!

The past two weeks saw the biggest part of the job take place (certainly the part that causes most stress to the builders because it's so serious if anything goes wrong): the load-bearing walls coming down.

We took out 2 major walls in the kitchen to make it as large and open-plan a space as possible.  I love this part!  Even with all the dust and noise, there's no way they could get me off site, despite their pleading!  There's just something so transformative about walls coming down!  

Heavy beams arriving on site and heading into the house

...while old wall comes down

New support wall built...

Ta-dah!

Another wall ready to go - this time it's double brick so needs a lot of steel

Strong-boys in place but open to the hallway!

Elsewhere, more subtle transformations were also taking place...

Smooth new plaster over textured ceilings

...and I was gearing up for a little work of my own!

Ready to try and find the perfect grey

Does this count as a triptych?!

In other news this week, my builder felt the need to twice commend me by saying "Good girl!".

The first time, I pointed out it was a bit patronising and asked him to please not say it again, which he dismissed telling me that calling me a girl is a compliment, meaning I'm young and I've still got it!

The second time, after a trying day, I really saw red and so, in what may have been overly forceful terms, I made my point rather more clearly, including pointing out that I pay his (insert choice word here) bills and patting him on the head with a "Well done!  Good boy!"!

Too much?  Either way, I don't think he'll be saying it to me again any time soon!

Ripping out - aka floors up, walls down

So, it's been a busy time with lots happening on site.  The big changes are mostly happening on one side of the building.  The best way to share the progress is with some photos, don't you think?  (Please don't forget before you look at these, things often have to get worse in order to get better, right?!)

Let's start with the huge guest bedroom en suite and the tiny family bathroom with no space for a bath, which are next to each other on the top floor.  Clearly not a great layout! 

With the wall down between them it was a long process deciding the position of the new dividing wall and layouts of the two new rooms, but it won't be a surprise that we are pinching most of the old guest en suite, (previously home to a shower cubicle and roll top bath!) for the family bathroom.  Sorry guests!

Another plasterboard wall comes down as it's too shaky to leave, let alone put floor to ceiling tiles on.

Pretend bath to try and help plan layout!

Boxing in the boiler as it's staying put

Tiny new en suite - it will look bigger finished!

And what happened to the old roll top bath?  She went to a new home at the end of last week.

We have ebayed a lot of BH's old fixtures and fittings.  Doors, granite worktops, kitchen cabinets, shower screens, 20 radiators!  Even if we didn't get much money for some of them it saves us paying to get a skip to take them away.  What's left goes on freecycle!

The kitchen looked passable before we started but in reality it was grimy after years of tenants' use and the floor tiles were coming up where they had been laid badly.  So it all had to come out!

This is the master bedroom complete with boudoir bath!  Lovely but not quite us!

So all that came out, and it clicked that the kitchen is the same size as the master bedroom and the kitchen has lovely old original boards that would be wasted sitting under all the tiles we'll be putting in while we will be leaving the bedroom with exposed floorboards, so (you can guess what's coming!) we decided to pinch the lovely original floorboards for the master bedroom and move the bedroom's modern ones down to the kitchen!

(Thankfully my builder did this extra work for a great price.  He is still at the very understanding and eager-to-please stage seeing as he's just been working on this and with me for 2 weeks!)

Spot the difference?!

(Ofcourse our Eastern European builders think we're nuts!  Why would you take up floorboards in good condition to put down old ones that are full of splits and holes?!)

And a mini make-over on the other side of the house where the old damp stained plaster has come off the chimney breast to reveal the beautiful exposed brick, complete with characterful offset fireplace opening!  Love it!

This coming week should see the load-bearing walls in the kitchen coming down so you can bet I'll be there to capture the moment!  Hope you'll be back to see it too!

Time to make some new introductions

Well, dear reader, what have you been up to since we last met?  It's been nearly a year and a half since my last post and this ragazza has been busy with our little boy who is now 16 months old and an absolute joy (well, 99% of the time!) and working on our latest exciting property project.

Before you start to worry that you've missed all the good bits of the project already, the reality is, this house took us a year just to buy it!  April of last year we first saw it and 31st March of this year we completed the purchase.  That's a long time by anyone's standards and this building was a really tricky one to get finance on - I think it was the 7th broker who managed to get us a mortgage!  Good news is, getting all the problems resolved to sort out the finance have already added real value so not only am I super excited to share with you our plans for transforming this space, I'm happy to say this renovation ragazza hasn't lost her touch since becoming a mama!

So all this is an introduction to the next big project.  She's a beautiful old Victorian house and will be our biggest home to date by far, particularly exciting as Mr RR, little man and I have all been living in a 1 bed since he was born!  Where the 1 bed has been affectionately known as the little house, this new one is the big house, hereafter BH.

The story so far is that while the electricians and guys working on the windows did a few days last week, the builders didn't start proper until yesterday.  But boy did they make their presence known!  It makes me so happy to see things happening - all the old tiles off the walls, all the old showers out.  It's destruction but such good destruction!  I'll get some before and after photos to you soon showing the rip out.  But here's a little glimpse of the old dear's charm.

The big news yesterday was that a lady walked past and asked one of the guys working if I'd be interested in selling BH to her!  I'm proud to say that's happened before on projects and I always take it as an incredible compliment, but to have that on the very first day is a new record!

So that's it for now.  I'm not sure how often I'm going to get on here or how much sense my ramblings will make as life is a lot busier now than it was when working on the Italian project, but I'm so excited about our plans for BH and I'd like to share it with you, so I truly hope you'll enjoy coming along for the ride.