Buying furniture

Having bigger rooms and, indeed, new rooms. It's about time we bought some more furniture. I have plans for a reading corner in the conservatory. So Ben and I popped to Homebase to procure a bookcase. We found a lovely flatpack one for £50.

We went into the store to have a look around. After much deliberation and purchasing something else on a whim (more about that below) we came away with a bookcase. We put it together last night and it looks great in the conservatory. We just need to unpack our remaining books into it.

The impulse buy

Whilst looking around the furniture section we saw a lovely extending dining table that came with six chairs. It was reduced from £750 to £429 and if we bought it on a Homebase card then we'd get an extra 20% off. Seemed perfect.

Upon saying we wanted to buy it we found out it was no longer available for delivery but they'd check in the warehouse. Table came up as did four chairs. That was all the chairs they had but we were told we might be able to take two display chairs.

Another problem soon arose. There were no legs for the table. They should've been in another box but our Homebase and the one down the road didn't have them. We were a bit baffled by this but we were told it was probably because a table was repaired with those legs sometime in the past.

We were then offered the whole display set with six chairs but the table was quite badly damaged. We told the store manager no and that we'd just take the bookcase.

He then said that if we looked through the catalog he might be able to do us a deal on another table we liked.

Of course, I stopped on the massive, solid oak £750 table with six amazingly shaped chairs. Worth a try.

We eventually got the table, six charcoal fabric chairs and the bookcase for £540 including delivery. Solid oak rather than oak veneer, stunning chairs and a cheaper bookcase. Homebase were very helpful and the manager did us an amazing deal. Can't wait for the table to arrive!

Before and after: Painting - The computer room

All we've managed to paint so far is the computer room and our bedroom. Everything else will have to wait until we've unpacked. I honestly do not believe how much crap I own.

The computer room


This is the second bedroom, used by the previous owners to house their two boys. The paint was scuffed, the electricity sockets broken, chunks taken out of the plaster and drawings on the walls. It needed painting it looked so grubby.

We decided to go for a relatively neutral colour so we could hang all sorts of geeky dren on the walls. The room started off like this. Cream and grubby.

We chose some Dulux One Coat paint as we are lazy. Egyptian Cotton is the colour. Here's our brilliant cutting in....

And the transformation!

I'm so much happier with how it looks now! It's cleaner, we've filled in any holes in the plaster, we've glossed the skirting boards and fixed the broken socket. Computers are in now on a horrible hand-me-down desk. We are hoping to get Unique Woodwork to build us a pretty corner desk with tons of storage and loads of space for all our techy bits.

The next stage is putting all the geeky stuff on the walls. We have our eyes on Kirk and Spock prints on Etsy.

The first electric Rayburn

I thought that once I'd bought my own snazzy cooker I wouldn't be that bothered by all the others out there. Wrong. I'm obsessing again. At least this model is £1000s out of my price range.

The Rayburn Electric

Features

• Touch-sensitive controls and a single ceramic glass cooking surface
• Choice of induction or ceramic hobs with square or dome hinged lids
• With two 2.3kW burners, the induction hobs have excellent response times
• Ceramic hobs use the latest infra-red technology to give rapid heating and cooling
• Two thermostatically controlled ovens give a wide choice of cooking modes
• 43-litre capacity top oven
• Patented ‘Warmfront’ technology
• 3-year parts and 1-year labour warranty
• Standard 910mm x 980mm dimensions
• Available in a variety of colours – Cream, Black, Dark Blue, British racing Green, Pewter and Aqua

What I've learned since buying a house

Since buying a house and having to decorate it I've learned a lot about how it feels to be a home ower as well as about DIY. Here are a few things I've learnt in the last two weeks.

• When painting a room work from the top down. Do the ceiling and coving followed by walls then skirting boards.
• You have to gloss a skirting board (no emulsion allowed) and there's lots of sanding involved
• Buy good value gloss that dries quickly
• We need a drill
• I like cleaning a house I own
• Owning a house is exhausting
• Wired networks are exciting
• I like black feature walls and lots of grey
• I LOVE cooking
• I'm better at glossing skirting boards than Ben is
• Painting is much easier when the parents visit and all I have to do is make tea and lunch