The Launchpad (part 1)

My launchpad is now technically 2 spaces. The main enternace are, where coat hoos, shelf for keys and the mirror are. Then the 2nd part, where the kids tv and console is (under the stairs), the butchers block and dart board are. I've cleaned and tidied the first part. We have some damp that is becoming black mold, I can't clean this myself so I'm going to get {TH} to grab some special cleaners and get him to do, I also need to speak to our landlady and see if we can fix what ever is causing the damp. It's either directly outisde the front door or in the garage.

Before Pics

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 After the coats where moved

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After hoovering and wiping all the area's down. There are some stains on my front door that just won't shift, I don't even know what they are but no amount of scrubbing was shifting them!

I ran out of glass cleaner and didn't have the ingrediants to make my own, so I wiped my mirror down as best I could and dried it off with a micro-fibre cloth. It's still streaky, but it's clean. I will grab some glass cleaner next time I go the the shopping center (or will add it to {TH}'s shopping list).

I rehung the coats, bags and hats in a tidy order and left a space for {TH}'s (he's out at the moment). Left the landlady's mail on the window sill, I'm going to grab a mail rack next time I'm at the shops. I also removed all un-nessassry junk from the shelf, leaving just the front door key. The yellow post it on the door, has to stay there as it's to remind {TB) to lock and post the key through when he goes out. He refuses to have his own key (he's 17) but also forgets to lock the door, so this post it has to live there so he remembers.  I moved my posh coat from being hung on a ahnger on the coat rack to the wardrobe. I think that alone makes the coats look a little neater.

After Pics

For some reason blogger has rotated this image and I can't get it the right way

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Part 2 of the launchpad should be completed soon 

The Dining Room

Following on from my previous post here are the before and after pictures of the dining room. The corner thats totally empty is where my bookcase is going when it arrives on Tuesday

Before Pics

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You can't actually see the table with console and tv as the kids were playing it when I took the pics lol

After Pics

(yes my desk is still a mess lol but its a constant work in progress)

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I will take some more pics on Tuesday once my bookcase is here and filled my books and the games/dvds that surround my fire have been moved too. Finally I feel it is coming together nicely. It's taking time and we are doing it bit by bit when we can afford to, but all in all I'm happy with how things are plodding along.

{TH} is hopefully going to the diy store tomorrow to get the bits needed to sort the doors out. As you will notice from the various pics, there are no doors between the lounge and dining room or the dining room and launchpad.When we moved in there were bi-fold doors in the both these places, however they were awful. They have fake wood in the center and patterned perspex top and bottom. So {TH} took them down while we got together the money to make them look better. We now have somemoney aside to do at least one set of the doors (hopefully both). The plan is to get very thin ply or mdf and cover it in sticky back plastic. Not sure if we're going for a wood look or something plain, but hopefully by Tuesday I should have at least one set of doors back up. I'm at college tomorrow evening so {TH}is taking advantage and doing the work while I'm out. He'll go get all the stuff in the day and once the kids go to bed start work on putting the doors back together. I can't wait.


Now all I have left to do is convice {TH} that the chimney breast wall in the dining room would look much better painted purple to match the flowers on the curtains

The Lounge

Phew! The lounge is almost complete. My mum is no longer having the snakes, so we are going to sell them. They will be advertised for sale on Monday and hopefully will be gone soon. We have moved their tank to where my pc used to be and moved the rest of furniture round. When the snakes go, we will put a table in the corner with the lamp on. Then all we need to do is paint the walls, {TH} and I are still arguing trying to agree on a colour for the chimney breast. We've agreed to a cream on the other 3 walls. I suggested we get some new curtains and cushion covers first and then we can paint the chimney breast to match, rather than painting and then trying to find curtains and cushion covers to match. We are still umming and arrring over whether to replace the very 70's carpet with something plain or buy a large rug to cover the majority of it. We both agree that we dislike the carpet that is currently down. We did manage to 'thin' things out in the lounge and pop up somenew pictures. {TH} dismantled his car (its a racing seat I bought him a few years back for playing on the PS3) which took up a corner (and looked ugly). We moved the small stereo we have into the bedroom. The games and dvd's that clutter my fireplace will be moved Tuesday when books get moved to their new home (more on that below)

Before Pics of the Lounge

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After Pics of the Lounge

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While working on sorting the lounge out, it was inevitable that we would need to tackle the dining room and launchpad too as in typical fashion everything gets moved from one room to another while be sorted.

In the dining room, we have pushed the table right back into the corner of the room and  put 2 of the chairs in the garage. These days its rare that all 5 ({TB} rarely eats at home) sit down together, so we just kept 4 chairs out. When we do all sit together it's not problem to either bring a chair in or use my desk chair. So with the table sitting snug in the corner it gave up more open space in the dining room. My desk is sitting in the opposite corner to the table. In the corner between the doors we had a plant (you can see pics in this post HERE) unfortunatly despite {TH}'s best efforts this plant was very poorly, I know it looks very healthy in the pic but he was poorly. It was losing leaves left, right and center and even the new shoots were dropping. So {TH} has popped him in the garden, in a sheltered area but still getting sunlight. We will see how it fairs out there. This left a space in the dining room which looked just too bare. Much to {TH}'s annoyance I decided it would be perfect for a bookcase. {TH} wasn't happy as for days I've been moaning about wanting more space, I get space and want to fill it lol. I found a nice slimline tall bookcase that arrives on Tuesday. This means the books in the living room can be moved and the books cuurently cluttering my desk will have a a home too. As it's slim it won't be an obstruction and I think will suit the corner just lovely.

This is the bookcase we have decided on. We went for a dark wood to match the fire, as thats quite a dark wood.

We also took the kids tv and console from in the bay window. It turned out the tv they were using was too big to sit nicely under the stairs on the small table, so we swapped it for a portable we had in the garage. Until I can get them some bean bags they have cushions off my sofa, but the kids are happy with it. They are not in the way and can have sounds on their games now without it bugging everyone else. 

{TH}'s pc has gone. We got a buyer for that this morning. My mum came round to pick up the case I got her for new phone and drop off the most fabby pics for me, just by chance we asked if she knew anyone and she said she could do with a new one. So its gone to my mum, we didn't get as much as we wanted originally as we said my mum could have it cheaper. We're happy and she's happy and thats what matters. Plus as she pointed out to me, we've had over £1000 ($1,625) worth of artwork from her in the last few months (2 originals and 4 framed prints). Haven't found anyone who wants the desk yet, but as it's dismantled its not really taking up much room in the garage.