DIY – slow and steady wins the race

DIY – it’s rewarding, fun, exciting and grownup but it’s also slow, hard work and a little frustrating at times, mainly because it’s stuff we can’t do ourselves!

My good friend over at Let Her Eat Clean once said to me ‘slow and steady wins the race’ so that’s what I’m standing by and letting the experience of doing up our first house together be an enjoyment!

I’m learning new skills, which is great and putting late victorian features back into the house on the lake is so rewarding. My latest project has been restoring a fireplace for the second bedroom – this eBay wonder that Welly won:

Paint stripper in hand, protection sorted – it all began:

Two hours and two layers of paint later:

Four hours and four layers of paint later (I was starting to wish I had just applied a fifth layer of paint at this stage):

Meanwhile Welly had made room for the fireplace by exposing the original ‘hole in the chimney’:

And it went in, got sanded down and got plastered up:

Now we just need to sand the floors, paint the room, put a radiator back in, put down vintage victorian tiles, paint the fireplace and most importantly decorate the room. It might sound like a lot but we’re more than halfway there and it’s all still pretty exciting 🙂

Are you living the DIY dream?