BEFORE AND AFTER....

Well after a weekend of cleaning and organising, the kitchen and bathroom are presentable....

I think the before and afters are self explanatory....

Still lots of things need finishing....

What do you think???

DAY 6....

Well things do seem to be getting better!

Can't be bothered writing much about it as it's ever so boring but this -

is now this -

....and there was no need to break anyone's (apart from mine that is) ceiling or walls! We decided to change the pipe and the bendy part only. The vertical pipe can be reached from below when/if the neighbours from below want/need to change it!

So now Alessandro and Stefano are back to doing MY bathroom!

Today I went and picked up the tap for the shower and got a surprise! The lever is huge!!! It kind of reminds me of a door handle! It's lovely and it feels very solid and well made but I repeat, it's huge!!! This particular tap wasn't on display at the showroom so was chosen looking at a little pic in a catalogue. Will take a pic later...

In the meantime I have to decide about how to flush my new loo. In the shower room we installed a concealed Geberit cistern. Today Alessandro brought over a similar one made by Valsir. Internally they are pratically the same and he has used both brands successfully in the past. The only difference can be seen in the photo below. Top one is the Valsir and bottom one is my Geberit in the shower room. Opinions? (BTW top one is about €30 cheaper....)

DAY 4....

I'm glad to say that the last brown tile has gone!! This morning Stefano and Alessandro transformed the bathroom from this -

to this -

Even in this messy state it looks so much better without the tiles!!

All seems to be going great with bathroom. I went to the showroom this morning and my "goodies" are starting to arrive. Shower base, bath and taps are there already! The rest should be there by Friday at the latest Monday (even though I'm sure it will more like Wed or Thur which is fine anyway). Other good news is that the existing divider wall that was there before (the shower cubicle wall) can stay and will be part of my built in cupboards. We were afraid that once the tiles were taken off it wouldn't be strong, but it's very sturdy! So that's saving some time and money.

Am still playing around with different ideas for the tiles in the kitchen. One idea is to have these big tiles laid horizontally. I like it. The workman thinks it won't look good and it'll look like a bathroom floor! But hey, it's my kitchen not his! (fingers crossed....)

CAMOUFLAGE....

Now that my digital camera is back in action, I took some more photos of the current bathroom!


Whilst taking them I realised that my hair is practically the same colour as the horrendous tiles !!??? What this says about my hair, I'm not quite sure!!! Not a good photo - it's blurry and I had to crop it as I had one eye closed!!! Camouflage or not I will be so glad to see the tiles go!


And here's a mix of all the new yummy things! What a difference!! Still no final tile decisions have been made! Must decide asap!!

THE KITCHEN....

Well the kitchen is getting renovated too!

If you stand back and squint your eyes the kitchen isn't that bad... Close up it's a different story - chipped enamel sink, yellowing once white cupboard doors, doors that don't open properly, broken granite worktop, units that block the window etc... I think the kitchen was previously in another house and the old owners had adapted it to fit this kitchen.

We're getting our new kitchen from DoimoCucine. See the Tekna range. Raimondo from the kitchen shop is coming around tomorrow to measure up! Yeah!

Here's a photo of the kitchen taken in March 2003!! Sorry, don't have any more recent ones. Before moving in we changed the tiles which were beige / brown with flowers on some of them!! And last year we changed the oven and cooker.

More details and photos in next post!

ONE DOWN, ONE TO GO....

We actually had 2 horrible bathrooms...

Last October we renovated the first one. It was very small and badly arranged. The toilet was squeezed in between the wall and a column! Unfortuately we couldn't move the columns but by taking a small piece (70x65cms) of the adjoining office and by moving the door we managed to create a spacious-feeling small bathroom with quite a large shower (100x80cms). Here's a few before and afters.

p.s. still missing the lights above and under the cabinet, and the shower door which is waiting to be installed! And one day I'll have to replace the cabinet door! I broke the corner of the mirror whilst attaching the handle!!!

WHY I CALLED THIS "THE WORST BATHROOM" IN ROME...

I think it's obvious from the photos!!

After 6 1/2 years of living with this every so "lovely" bathroom we are finally getting rid of it! I'm in the process of choosing and ordering taps, sink, shower etc... and this is just a way to show family and friends (many of who are too far away to pop over and see for themselves) what's going on, and anyone else who is interested in house renovations!