Operation "Let's hide the ugly brick wall", step 1: put up metal framing.
The amazing, Photoshop-savvy Marcel very kindly combined all of our plasterboard images into one neat panorama.
So, with the ugly wall well hidden, we were able to get started on the tiles. We'd ben visiting countless DIY stores to find the right colour tiles before stumbling upon those purely by accident in the very last store we went to. The darker ones are the same ones we had already used in the kitchen, thus creating a bridge between the old floor and the new.
A growing tile floor.
While this was going on there was another new arrival to our kitchen. Say hello to the brand-new, extremely shiny kitchen worktop! Isn't it fantastic?
In fact, it is so lovely that none of us want to cut out the holes for the sink and the hob!
This leaves us with the big one: new windows!
The old windows had to go.
Single-glazing, ancient wooden frames: our local energy provider would have loved them! As they weren't exactly energy-efficient, our bill would have been astronomical.
So, away with them.
Of course we had to pick the coldest day of the year, just after some heavy snowfall to cut two huge holes in our wall!
But it was definitely worth it. Here they are, our new windows.
Removing the frames.
Veeery carefully!
No windows!
New windows!
The bedroom window.
December 30, 2014: it was soooo cold! That cup of tea was well-earned.
From the outside.
Looking good.
Looks great from inside, too.
Final bit of tidying.
Almost ready for our first dinner! New Year's Eve 2014, home-made pizza, my plates, real cutlery, a nicely decorated trestle table, and we were ready.
Happy New Year 2015!