A Bathroom Makeover

During last summer I decided I wanted to revamp my bathroom.  It was a nice bathroom, the suite was new when I moved in, and I liked the decor but the carpet was driving me potty.

(before pictures)

The dark brown carpet looked nice, for about 5 mins after it was vacuumed and after that every piece of fluff and blonde hair in the house was attracted to it and it generally looked a mess!

After several months of not being able to tackle it due to elbow issues I finally ripped the carpet up a few weeks ago.

Cue first hurdle - the bath panel no longer touched the floor (see it's propped up on those little wedges you get with art canvases).

After filling some of the holes in the boards first by making a few extra struts with square dowel, glue and string (the man who came to make a new step did give me some funny looks when he saw this method)

I cut bits of wood and dowel to plug the gaps, sanded and undercoated.  I also painted the panelling.

I used a product called DraughtEx to fill the gaps in between the floorboards, it's amazing stuff and can't be seen once in place.

Draughtex got me thinking and I bought some pipe insulation foam things and fixed them onto the bottom of the bath panel to fill that gap.

I used Little Greene oil based floor paint, which took 16 hours to dry and involved a fair amount of planning in order to allow access to the toilet at all time, and yesterday, apart from a tiny piece of trim around the step, I finished it.

I treated myself to a new bathmat and hand towels from Dunelm,

and I am VERY pleased with the end result.

Returning to My Happy Place

Today I managed one hour gardening - that might not sound much, and indeed it isn't really but it's one hour more than I've been able to do since last August when I tore the tendon in my elbow. As I cleared and tidied and cut back (gently as I'm still not too good with secateurs) I noticed signs of spring all around:

primroses still moist with dew/rain,

 quince buds about to break,

and snowdrops hanging their dainty heads.

There are hellebores under the shrubs

and hyacinths just about to risk popping their heads up above their leaves.

By my kitchen window the winter flowering honeysuckle is just starting to flower - it was flowering the day I first moved in 7 years ago.

There's still loads to do but it was good to get back into my happy place today :-)