Non rolling roller blinds

I'd bought some black out roller blinds for the bedrooms which worked a treat at keeping the rooms dark at night.  The problem with both of them was that they had flimsy plastic chains that insisted on breaking no matter how I handled them.

I got a replacement chain from B&Q but that lasted only days before it too broke.  So the blinds have been pretty much non functional for months.  Well I finally got round to buying another replacement chain.  Seeing as I couldn't find one locally I went online and got a 3m length of chrome roller blind chain with 2mm gap from a seller on Amazon for a few quid. 

Fitting it was a little fiddly but luckily I have small fingers so it wasn't too difficult.  I did eventually determine that the blind needed unrolling all the way before threading on the chain.  The first time I did it I had the blind fully opened which meant that when I tried closing the blind I found I ran out of chain.  Second time I rolled it down halfway which didn't work either.  Then like Goldilocks I figured out the right option the third time, which was inevitable as it was the only option left.

It cost a few quid and a bit of fiddling and I now have functioning roller blinds again.  I know, it's a small achievement but so is everything in life depending on how you look at it.  Next step - window sills.

Painted stairs in walnut and white

It's a 1930's house with Victorian styling.  From the start I knew the decor had to change.  For the hallway it was either going to be something like painted stairs or carpet runner up the middle of the stairs.  You know, something stylish and eye catching that will bring a smile to the face when entering the house.

This is what the hallway and stairs looked like at the start.

Nice enough yes but everything was changed in the place and it wasn't long before the hallway looked like this.

So after months of neglect the poor stairs finally got cleaned and sanded and stayed like that for years.  A few months ago a banister was installed which made a big difference to the look and feel of the area.  However it was still bare plaster walls and bare wood when entering the house.  No smiles here.

So finally I got round to paying some attention to the the hallway.  I deposited the dogs at daycare for the day and got to work.  After lots of humming and haaing I decided on a painted stairway with walnut varnish for the treads and white paint for the risers and skirting board.  Once I'd decided getting started was easy.  I masked off the risers with bog standard masking tape.  Yes I could have forgone the masking as I was going to paint the risers and skirt anyway but by masking of the area I had two advantages.  Firstly I didn't have to worry about paint not applying properly to the places where the varnish had spilt on and secondly I could quickly apply the varnish without having to worry about staying within the lines.

I got a big pot (in hindsight far too much so will have to find other things to varnish now!) of Ronseal Diamond Hard Floor Varnish in Walnut and got the first coat down in no time.

It felt great to see something on the stairs after so long.  However one coat was clearly not going to cut it as I wanted a much darker colour.  So I applied another couple of coats over the next few days.  Once I'd got the colour right I masked off the treads and primed the risers and skirt with Dulux Primer & Undercoat.

At last I could see what the finished product would look like.  Unfortunately it wasn't going to be the perfect, high quality finish I wanted because let's face it, it's an old house and unless I was going to fork out for a new stairway I was not going to get a perfect finish.  So instead I resigned myself to rustic and charming and applied a second coat of the undercoat and then finished with a topcoat of Leyland Trade Satinwood in Brilliant White.  I then finished it off by varnishing the banister and newel posts and painting the spindles.  Lucky for me I think it still looks pretty fantastic.  Here is the picture of the stairs all varnished and painted.

I also got round to finally getting a mist coat of paint on the walls which makes a massive difference to the look and feel of the whole space.

I had no idea how depressing the bare plaster walls were.  Now they're gone albeit with a crappy mist coat it feels so much calmer and inviting.  Next stop is to finish painting the walls and then make a start of prepping and painting all the remaining woodwork - skirting, architraves, door jambs, cupboards - it's going to be a long winter.

Coffee table

The coffee table in the living room looked fantastic and was another one of those projects that needed finishing off.  It had been in the room for months looking good but not really practical as the surface was uneven and unfinished.  So I took it outside and got the sander on it to even out the top and sides.  I didn't have the foresight to take a picture at the start so instead the picture shows the right side of the table with the original pitted and rough finish and the left side shows the sanded finish.

And here is the table fully sanded.

I considered sanding out all the cuts and pockets on the sides but decided against it.  The whole feel of the table is rustic and I like seeing those notches and cuts in the wood as it reminds me of the imperfection of all things.

To protect the table I wanted a natural finish as possible that wouldn't detract from the wood.  I applied several coats of Ronseal Quick Drying Clear Varnish and again with the ta-da, here is the finished product.

Firewood storage

I have a log burner which is hands down the best thing ever in the winter months.  Problem I had was that I was storing the kindling and logs in boxes and baskets which try as I might I could never make them appear stylish additions to the decor of the room.

So a trip to the local junk store coughed up this little gem.

Not much to look at but it was solid, right size and had a hinged lid.  So a bit of cleaning, sanding, priming and painting and ta-da I now have a storage box that looks like it belongs in the room and I no longer have bits of wood and cardboard cluttering up the room.

Now let's see how long it takes me to get around to replacing the hinges so that the lid closes properly.  As long as I do it within five years it will still be a personal record.

Next stop - DIY

A couple of months ago I had a major life change.  It knocked me back initially but I recovered and remembered that every cloud does indeed have a silver lining.  So new start, new me and I'm finally pulling my finger out and decorating my house.  I've been putting off so many tasks for so many years for so many reasons and now those reasons are gone and the tasks are getting done!

Nail clipping

Let's be clear, the B's hate having their nails cut.  The only way to do it was to wave a really tasty treat in front of their nose, have one person grab and hold them in a bear hug while the other quickly clipped nails as fast as possible.  Then it was a case of letting them scrabble down to solid ground and to safety and wolf down the treat.  So fair to say it was a stressful event for everyone involved.  In fact it was so stressful we often put off the task for weeks on end.

This weekend it was clear their nails needed trimming and I was home alone with no partner in crime.  I considered doing both the bear hug and clipping myself but quickly realised that was never going to work.  Luckily I found a super easy way to do it all by myself.

I sat down next to them and cut up half a dried chicken sausage into tiny pieces.  The noise and the smell was enough to get their attention and before I'd finished they were both lying at my feet waiting for the treats.  So all I did was pick up a paw and give a treat.  Then I clipped one nail and again gave a treat.  And that was it.  They both sat there quite happily while I picked up a paw in turns and clipped a nail.  No struggling, no squealing and no stress.  All I can say is thank you for greedy dogs.

Training two dogs together

Decided today that I need to get back into a training regime for the B's.  This was after standing around for 10mins this morning waiting for the little monsters to come back after disappearing into someones garden.  So as with almost everything I do now I started at the usual place - Google.  After a bit of searching found this great YouTube video about how to train more than one dog at a time.

First thing I did was cut up a hotdog as I didn't think the usual kibble would cut it for this session.  I then started by calling their respective names and giving them a piece of hotdog.  I then worked on having one of them stay while working on simple tricks with the other.  It took them a few tries to get it right and by the end of the short session I had them responding individually to there names and commands.  Not sure it was a fluke as they are still super tired from daycare so will continue this over the next few days before moving forward.