www.9thcircle.co.uk

welcome to the frozen north

This was the view from outside B&Q on Wednesday morning. It was bloody cold - we'd had to de-ice the car and van so we could take the van back to the hire place. I'd slept in a jumper because I couldn't find my good pyjamas - it was freeeeezing! Thankfully it's not been so bad since, but boy are we going to know about winter in this house!

Helter skelter

Today we went to John Lewis and used our vouchers towards a lovely shiny mirror for the chimney breast. The Trafford Centre is sheer hell on a Saturday afternoon, and I wasn't allowed to club people who I thought were Christmas shopping. Most disappointing. I did go and ogle a Kitchen Aid mixer though. I could be a real domestic goddess and make cakies and everything.

I was sitting in the Papasan chair in the living room before we left, dossing about on the internet, and I noticed that the chair was quite close to the wall and I didn't want it to scuff the paint. So I stood up, moved the chair, and then sat back down again. At which point I discovered it wasn't balanced properly, and it tipped me over backwards, complete with laptop in hand and legs in air through the open dining room doors. Which is preferable to falling through closed glass doors obviously. However, I now have a headache and a sore wrist, and am not relishing the prospect of going to Tesco later.

virtual housewarming - grab a beer!

The kitchen - there would have been a breadmaker in this photo but it gave up with some very loud creaks and a bonk this morning!



The cool wall.




The dining room - just ignore the ladders, right?


The front bedroom - complete with Stashapotamous and Squishapotamous.



Groovy lights on the landing - the walls are going to go dark blue with loads of photos - like a rogues gallery!




The back bedroom. I may have had a little to do with the decoration *whistles*

The lovely bathroom:




Not a great pic, but this is the design on the frosted windows in the bathroom, dining room and kitchen:


And the living room - I think it's my favourite room. I'm sitting here now on the corner sofa, with a JD and Coke, watching Bottom Live, and it's f-ing magic!




Oh - and we finally replaced the defunct doorbell. We got one that you can record your own sound to. Remember Max's car alarm from Phoenix Nights? Guess what our sound is...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTDDlWtnvSE

Are you moving house? Nope, just taking my furniture on vacation...

Here's your sign...

Jaysus - we're knackered! Several trips in a hired Transit, plus a couple of journeys in the car last night but everything is in! Packing, dust and unpacking are probably my least favourite thing at the moment. I have too much stuff! Can it be sleep tiem now plz?

Have a gratuitous photo of the boxes in the back bedroom. I should have taken a photo of my parents' living room stacked with boxes just to show the enormity of the situation...

it's beginning to look a lot like our house!

Looooooook!




Just the place to curl up and read Where's My Cow? :)

Are Kid came and built our dining room furniture yesterday, and I painted the back bedroom in crazy shades of blue. Squeeee!

and arch said "let there be light,"

I have been playing electrician -

And nothing went bang or anything.

My dad has also been playing electrician:


Although he did try to go up in the loft to pass the wires over the joists. The bathroom has a flat roof.

He discovered when fitting some other light fittings on the landing that there is a big hole in the old landing ceiling which is hidden by the newer ceiling. Just looking through the loft hatch and seeing the saggy laths and ancient wallpaper makes me think of photos of bombed out houses from the Blitz. Apparently if that's how it makes me feel just peering through the hatch, I shouldn't go up there!

Anyhoo - the bathroom lights give a lovely nice shiny light now - yum!



Chris has also given the little bits of wall around the door and boiler cupboard a lick of paint:


And he has glossed the woodwork in the dining room too - here is a picture of the brush to show that it was that pink paint that dries white. Although when the weather is chilly the stuff takes longer to dry than expected, so still looks pink when you think it should be dry...

YES HE WAS A VERY NAUGHTY PIG, WASN'T HE?

My Pratchett shelf. *beams broadly*

rollin, rollin rollin

The dining room has paint! Although I got attacked by a very splattery roller when I was doing the blue bits. I have blue disease!


Here is the kitchen - looking more like a kitchen than a dumping ground for paint rollers.


Chris's mum scrubbed and painted the garden wall - now it's crazy bright white!

once more unto the breach

Well, I'm back to work, and have spent this week shouting "louder!" at lots of children ready for the Harvest festival in church. They managed to be louder when it counted :)

In other news - here's what the house is doing:




The dining room is all papered and ready to be painted.


One of my many tester patches in the back bedroom - I used the whole pots on various parts of the room to check I liked it ;)




The bathroom is looking good, and since this photo has been taken the floor has been tiled and both walls and floor grouted. Poor Chris spent many hours today cleaning the grout off the tiles, then it's just time to decide what to do with the ceiling.


Here is the main bedroom - complete with sleeping bags which have been so delightfully described as Renton-from-Trainspotting's squat!



And finally, the living room - it looks like a home! The bookcases have been fixed to the walls today :D