Seem to be marking time

It feels as though I'm not getting anywhere much at the moment, and I'm becoming restless with the project again, as usual when I can't just get in and get it done. However, when I stop to really look at what I've completed it's quite a bit even though it mightn't show.

First of all I re-painted all the brickwork. I'm happier with it now - it's a softer, lighter colour. I didn't mind the darker colour but I do prefer this lighter shade.

The front door is in two shades of lavender and I've rescued a cross piece from a broken french door to use in the top glass section. The porch from Rosebud looks nice against the softer colour. The pavement has 'gravel' over it, and the soft gold colour of that complements the colour of the house really well.
When you remove the front it's rather overwhelmingly lavender at the moment, but it won't stay quite like that. The hallway will remain painted but the two bedrooms will be wallpapered, hopefully with papers that have predominately white backgrounds to show off the furniture. The righthand bedroom furniture has had a wash of white paint over it, the wardrobe will have either gathered fabric inserts in the doors, or paper.

The dining room, on the right side of the ground floor (below) looks a bit crowded with the dresser in there - I think it will be better in the breakfast room. The dining room also looks quite bare with just plain white furniture in there. By the time I add a pretty carpet, vase of flowers, pictures, some sort of small table with bits and pieces on it, hopefully it will look more shabby chic. Suggestions are very welcome!


Above you can see the chest in the first floor hallway. It's a toy chest from the twins' childhood. I think I'll do it with a timber finish for a bit of a change. The walls keep moving out of place, but when the attic floor is installed they will be glued at the top and hopefully will stay in place.

The archway to the living room on the left of the ground floor is just a temporary one while I figure out how I want it to be. It also has just it's first chair at the moment. There will be another chair beside it and a sofa opposite, with a coffee table in between. I am hoping to get a fireplace in there but I doubt there'll be room.

And here is the removable rear wall. I am very happy with the French doors here. Because they are so very fragile I have put two of them together to give a bit of strength. There will be a larger area off the back, for entertaining.

First floor rear of the house has the bathroom on the right. I need tiles for this room so it won't be completed by the end of April in all likelihood.

First floor left is the study - the wall for this room is still drying. The two layers of matboard have been cut and stuck together, now they are weighted down until the morning. The bookcase looks lonely in there, and that little white piece under the timber on the left is the top of one of the desks.

Down on the ground floor there won't be a dividing wall. It is the combined kitchen/breakfast room. The vegetable bin and pie safe also look a bit lonely in there. The kitchen kit is on its way though so hopefully it will arrive before we leave and I can fit it out.
So: what have I done? Repainted the stonework, put in the stairs, done most of the walls, one of the interior doors and the skirting in the first floor hallway. I've repainted the walls with a colour that is more lavender than it was before, adding blue to the mixture because I felt it was lilac rather than lavender - too pink. I matched the colour to flowers from a couple of our lavender plants.

Of course doing that, I got paint on the floors, so I repainted them too.

I have made a front door and adjusted the French doors, fitting both. done the front pavement. Trimmed one side wall in the rear because it was 1/8" higher than the other.

Repainted the lavender furniture and washed it with white. Done a second set of stairs and fitted them - finally!

Filled cracks and bumps and hollows. Really, I thought that extending the house would be no more work than when I did two houses at the same time. I was wrong.

Maybe now I've shared with you I'll feel more like getting on with it. I think I might take a bit of a break tomorrow night - well, tonight because it is 1.30am - and do something else. I think I lack confidence doing shabby chic too, and that's not helping. So I really would value suggestions please, specific ideas for each room.