Its not over yet

I thought by now I'd be showing you our completed bathroom, wrong.  Mr FF is currently working on the lighting while we wait for trims to go round the door and a bit more silicone to be applied.  So although I've washed down the walls and buffed up the new units, no toiletries have returned to the space,  nothing is being used and our bedroom is still a shambles, you and I will just have to be patient.

When not working in the bathroom Mr FF installed some shelves in the utility for towels, linen etc and this job is finished. We had to get a new tumble dryer, which is stacked on top of the washer so it made sense to do a few improvements  Now this small room is much smarter and practical.  Unfortunately one shelf was damaged when it arrived from Ikea, the replacement is due this week just in case you were wondering about the brackets with no shelf.

The nights are getting longer, the weather is reasonably mild and January is almost over, getting there, feeling positive, looking forward.

Dusty days

It's everywhere of course despite a regular clean up session each evening and much washing of the black kitchen floor.
But progress is good, it's so worth it even if our bedroom looks like an area of mass destruction.  At some stage I need to get into my wardrobe to find a (dust free) party ensemble as we are out tomorrow.  

In this bathroom we selected two contrasting tiles, different shapes and different colours.  The grey planky ones on the floor and the back of the shower

have an interesting texture and go well with the plainer rectangular tiles on the other walls

and in real life look darker on the back wall than they do on the floor, which pleases me

Today we've taken delivery of the fittings, the shower screen only just squeezed into our lift and the plinth for the cupboards had to be carried up the fire escape, but everything is safe in our hall.  The cupboards are very dark grey, maybe granite, with a slightly metallic finish and of course all the sanitary ware is white.  We are getting there, I'm looking forward to a weekend of calm and a finish next week.  Keep you posted.

Answers on a postcard

I didn't report on our £5 Christmas stocking exchange, it was fun as ever though maybe a bit samey.  Books, soap and some pretty little dishes for me, socks from a £1.50 large ball of 4 ply I found in the charity for Mr FF plus a framed postcard of Ilkley and some shower gel.  

However, we received this from friends in Taiwan and I have absolutely  no idea what its for

It can't be a key ring surely as is too cumbersome, 5 inches across 6 inches long and padded.  The little overcoat comes off though the button doesn't work its just decoration.  Unless anyone comes up with the answer soon we are going to have to email and ask our friends which is a little embarrassing.

The bathroom is stripped out, the new fittings are all ordered complete with an illuminated mirrored cabinet that has different levels of light, chargers inside so we can keep the toothbrush etc out of sight, and blue tooth.  Mr FF tells me we can play music in the bathroom via the phone.  Like the little padded jacket, I have no idea what this is about.  I heard someone say on a comedy programme recently that they'd leave their partner if only they knew how to work Netflix.

Onwards

So 2018, its a rather worrying year at the penthouse as Mr FF and I will be 70 in August and November respectively.    I don't feel that old but I am, I've no idea how it happened and what the coming years will bring, there's nothing I can do but get on with it. 
We continue as usual.  We've just moved ourselves into the spare bedroom and cluttered the beautiful new bathroom with our lotions and potion because tomorrow Jim is back to start stripping out the second en suite bathroom.

Today it looks like this with everything moved out, the layout will basically be the same as we've decided that having the sanitary ware built into cupboard arrangement works well, I have a lot of toiletries and I love a place to put things down.  We hope to have a walk in shower and have sourced some interesting tiles but talking to Jim I got the impression he was a bit disappointed we weren't installing another all singing all dancing bathroom.  Maybe we are starting to act our age, we'll be putting in grab rails next.

I'll keep you updated as things get worse before they get better, meantime happy new year to everyone.