Chandeliers went up today. More on my flickr.

Take one Victorian bottle, one cork and a oil drizzler and you have a washing up liquid bottle pretty enough to leave out on the worktop.

Says on the bottle:

Professor Wheeler
Hair Doctor
1 New Burlington Street
London .W.

We applied an adhesive decorative film to the bottom sash of our big kitchen window in a graphic dots pattern. It blocks out hardly any of the light or view unless the sun is shining directly on it.

In the mornings we had a problem of being “cooked alive” if we went in the kitchen as the sun is so strong then, now it’s cooler and less blinding! When the sun moves around the film is much less apparent and you can see right out.

Solves the early morning dash to the kitchen in just your undies problem too

We moved down to Brighton and bought this flat in part because of his job. Sun, sea, sand and a new fresh start after the horrors of our last flat. Now the job is no more. The management powers that be have decided not to go with game development in the UK after all and has shifted development back to California and Asia. After being head hunted for this job only five months ago that is a bit rich no?

Well on Monday night I cried, was very worried and worried some more. My immediate thoughts were: losing the flat we both love, affording the mortgage, being in debt, me trying to get a job back in finance, having to move back to London… M seemed less concerned and was a complete trooper reassuring me.

After some phone calls and emails and the official company announcement today things seem a bit brighter. M is bloody good at his job and in the UK games community is well known and well liked. So, he has some interviews lined up already and his feeling positive. I am trying to stay positive too but I am not of a naturally sunny disposition as M.

His company seem to realise what they’ve done and are offering reasonable redundancy packages. Quite a few people moved here from London, bought homes and moved families to work at this new studio. Thank god we don’t have kids to worry about too, just us.

The main thing worrying us is that M will have to take a job in Surrey (where lots of game studios are based) or London, which means a big old expensive commute from here taking three hours plus out of his daily life. Or having to buy a bloody car for said commute if the trains don’t match up. Walking to work is just so much better. Let’s hope a local job appears.

Oh well, this was also just the day for my back to go ‘twang’ too. I am typing this lying on the floor as I can’t sit down. Damn sciatic nerve.

Wish us luck.

Today we are getting the main bedroom sash window repaired. At the moment we have a big hole!

To give you some idea of the scale the armoire on the left is 1.85m tall.

Apologies for crappy cameraphone picture – it’s so grey here today.

The Fireplace man scratched the surface of the three fireplaces to ascertain what we’d be taking out: wood, rotten wood or some kind of 1950s stone / tile.

And lo, we scratched, and up came perfect grey carrara marble. We have three marble fireplaces.

I nearly fainted.

*Meant to be agreeing what wood burning stove to get – we picked this one, the F40.

In other news I have no windows in the second bedroom and its en-suite and it’s raining. Damn.

Our new TV cupboard, formerly the bottom of a Victorian pine dresser we bought on eBay. (Next is the small hanging armoire we bought for the bedroom. The main armoire is already painted and contains lovely shelves for our folded clothes.)

I still need to wax the cupboard to preserve the painted finish (which being acrylic isn’t one tenth as durable as gloss paint and scratches if you merely look at it) with clear furniture wax. Then we will line the drawers and the inside with the same pattern wallpaper we are using in the sitting room.

Before (eBay pictures):

As you can see it was quite orange pine but had lovely bones and the door panels match the architecture of our sitting room really well. It is also huge. The bottom and middle shelf will contain all our technology and the big drawer above will contain all the games controllers and most frequently played games and DVDs.

During:

Firstly we primed and undercoated after a bloody good sanding. I now have muscles like popeye. Then M drilled six large holes in the back for cables to go through with a kitchen door hinge maker attachment. Cool.

What you can mainly see here are the doors (which are not attached) which are painted like the rest of the cupboard in Paint & Paper Library Wattle IV. The wallpaper is Cole & Sons ‘Woods’ in the green-grey colour way with white trees. We’re using the same paper on the chimney breast and the rear wall. The rest of the rooms walls will be in Wattle III and the painted woodwork and shutters in Wattle II. Finally when we get around to painting the ceiling that will be in Wattle I.

Our electricians are now gone for two weeks until we get the builders in. It seems after inspection on Friday afternoon that our lath and plaster ceilings will not take the weight of the chandeliers and the current light fittings are not screwed into a beam. Scary. The builders will have to reinforce the centre of the kitchen and sitting room ceilings without bringing the whole lot down so we can install our lighting. I vetted (after our previous builder experience) a company on Friday to do the job and was very happy with them. They should quote me – hopefully happy – this week.

Better get on, the joiners return tomorrow for the rest of the week and the fireplace man is coming to talk stoves.

Our excellent carpenter / joiners are refurbishing all of our sash windows so that they:

* actually open
* have working locks
* are rot free
* are draft proof
* look smashing

They are starting with the sitting room bay which is enormous. It’s very weird to not have any windows in at all, I can see and hear the whole street and it’s right there.

After the windows are renewed we can actually clean them – no more seagull poo! – and get the wooden shutters in. Then we will be toasty and have some privacy.

I have made a list to discuss with my wonderful Aussie electricans. Look away now if this is boring to you:

* Fit New consumer unit and certificate
* Check supply to kitchen and upgrade if necessary to cope with new appliances
* Fit new LED low energy downlighters in the hall and bathroom (x 12)
* Change out ancient dimmers for new (x 2)
* Replace bathroom fan to new ICON humidity activated fan and change fan isolator position
* Change position of bathroom light control to outside the room
* Hang three antique chandeliers
* New socket for dishwasher.

That’ll do to be getting on with.

Tomorrow the sash man arrives.

* Walking past a pub in Kemp Town yesterday their blackboard said “It’s still Summer! (But only in our hearts)”