Storage storage every where

When we were living in our first flat, which incidentally is the same size as our current garden, we found out that storage was key. In a country that seems to view closets as some sort of social pariah you've got to get inventive. After all, there are really only so many chests of drawers and wardrobes you can have before you start to look like an overcrowded furniture showroom.

With this in mind we contemplated one of the last great challenges in the dining room. Really it was the only thing that was letting the room down. The hollowed out chimney breast. It was large with not very straight sides and we were desperate for a place to hide the mop, broom, etc etc etc.

The original idea was something out of gothic novels with a wall made to look like a fireplace where the entire thing would swing open. Definitely cool, but seriously heavy and expensive. When we were told that our idea would cost roughly £10,000 due to all the structural work it was time for a rethink.

In the end we took the principals of the original idea and scaled it down with the builders only putting up a frame of MDF so we had at least some right angles and straight walls to work from. Plus it is a lot easier to screw into that than ancient brick...believe me we've tried.

We're pretty pleased especially when we were able to find some hand carved corbels that almost match the living room fireplace exactly. In the end it made a nice feature and gave us storage and function. It's not quite done as we need to make some glass doors for the top, but we're pretty pleased. Thoughts?

Ready to go thanks to the builders

 A nice side profile shot

 Step one..paint (we were still trying to decide what to do here)

 All decided and frame in...no door and more paint needed

 The lovely door is in.....looking spiffy

 Lots of storage inside

 The almost finished article with shelves in on top

The dining room chimney

The last major piece of colored wall that I don't think I've put up yet is the chimney in the dining room. As you can see from the unpainted photo below it's more of an opening than a working chimney. Not letting that slow us down or get in the way we went for a nice bold green paint (green smoke farrow & ball). It will eventually be turned into a cupboard for boring things like ironing boards and mops, but we still think it looks pretty good as it is.

Day 4: Joists up..Spiders Invade

Ok I'm not really one to run away from bugs and creepy things, but there are several things that I am not having anything to do with. The first is mice (we've already gotten rid of two nicknamed Frank and Bryan) and massive spiders. Last night hubby heard a "plop" and looked at the mantle place to see the biggest spider we have ever seen. Matters were not helped when it disappeared before we could find out biggest and heaviest book to drop on it. So while I was having Arachnophobia flashbacks hubby was busy searching. We were just about to give up when another "plop" was heard and it had dropped from the ceiling onto the floor. Hubby responded with a stick shoe squash and all was right in the world. Now that it was dead I was quite interested in looking at in, but decided to wait till day time. The spider has since disappeared...Arachnophobia flashbacks continue

Aside from that the builders have started putting in the joists and are making decent progress. The electrician starts to rewire the house tomorrow so more fun is coming! Let's just hope it doesn't involve more spiders....

Ps. Oh yes and with still no hot water I'm not looking forward to the cold wash I'm going to have to do tonight.

Day 2: The Destruction Continues

Well it's the second day of the builders and I can't exactly say that I've gone off them, but we've had a few ups and downs. On the up...there is more destruction! More stuff has come out and it's really starting to feel like we're making progress. Plus ex-next door neighbour Luke popped round with his dog Heidi who officially approved of the new fence (i.e. she hiked a leg and christened it as hers...now there's a girl that knows what she likes). How can a visit from a dog not be an up? Here's how it's looking:

The down: We found out that the rushing water sound under the floor was a cracked mains water pipe spewing water into the space under the house. While I was tempted to dig a swimming pool I didn't fancy paddling with mice/rats so the builder has fixed it. The other down...after taking out a radiator the builders for got to cap the open pipe so when the central heating kicked on in the evening we had black, smelly water spewing across the dining room floor. YUM!! So we have no hot water at the moment and things are getting quite dusty, but onwards and upward!!