Bathroom

The last room in the house is the upstairs bathroom. Actually it is a shower room with pink carpets that measures 5x6 feet. Our plan is to remove the shower and sink, put a cast iron tub (and shower) in that spot, turn the toilet to face the tub, and put a smaller sink next to the door and toilet. We are thinking of white brick shape tiles for the walls, a black and white Victorian tile floor, and a feature window above the door going into the bathroom. I have already sourced out a cast iron tub at a great place in the UK that has all sorts of reclaimed antiques. I cut this picture out of a magazine and we might mimic the floor tile pattern. I like my dad's idea of an electric heat grid under the tile. Here is a picture of the bathroom from the hall. You can see the window above the door. We would like to fit something like this above the door.

Bedrooms

Traditionally these houses have two decent size bedrooms on the 1st floor (2nd floor for all you in North America) and one very small room/office/nursery. The master bedroom is traditionally at the front of the house and has the bay window that continues up from the living room below. Beside it, also facing the front is the small bedroom which can range as large as 9x6 feet to as small as 5x4 feet. I think ours is 5 x 8, but we may lose a few feet if we extend into the loft. The staircase takes up a bit more room. The second bedroom I have always found the nicest in these Victorian terraced houses. They look out onto the backyard and always have a peaceful feel (no cars). Our second bedroom has a nice built in closet (with a boiler inside!). Facing the door. The bedrooms will be the easiest rooms along with the living room to redo. The floorboards need exposing and recovering, the windows replacing, the walls stripping, and the original fireplaces put back in. The chimney from both the dining room and living room extend up into the two large bedrooms where many houses still retain the original coal fireplace facade as a feature. These bedroom fireplaces are smaller.

WC

We have a little toilet and sink under the stairs in this house which is actually very unusual in this style of house. We think it is a feature so are going to try to make it look very Victorian. We will keep the little sink and perhaps get older taps. The toilet looks to me like it used to have the back bit up high with a cord, which we would like to replace. Other than that it is all trim, tiles and wallpaper. If anyone remembers that wall paper we hand printed...you may see that go into this bathroom! Here is a view (looking through the wall) of how we would like to make it look.

Kitchen/Diner

I am realising the photos I take all make the house look dark inside, while it is quite bright. I think the bright windows don't work well for my camera exposure. This is the dining room. You can see the extension from where the walls jut in a bit on both sides. The original dining room fireplace has been replaced by the gas stove above and in the chimney space there is a back boiler. This isn't something commonly used today. If I back up far enough to the end of the dining room you can see the kitchen door off to the left. The kitchen has no appliances (fridge, stove, dishwasher, washing machine). They were all condemned so the previous owner had them all removed before we took possession. We are going to keep it minimal until we fix this area. The 60's folding kitchen door. This kitchen view from the sink. This is our grand plan...to knock down the wall between the kitchen and dining room, arch the ceiling of the extension up towards the second level and put in 2 skylights, put in french doors to the yard, and fit a whole new kitchen. (click on picture to enlarge). Amazingly these keep coming up for cheaper and cheaper on Gumtree (similar to Craig's List).

Lounge

This is our lounge...or living room. Thankfully most of the original features are still here...the picture rail and the skirting boards, and the original floorboards are below the carpet. Unfortunately the original fireplace has been replaced. The original sash windows have also been replaced with slatted windows. This is the room from the other angle, looking towards the hall. It seems to me we have nice 10 foot tall ceilings. Here is my sketch of how we want it to look in the end. In fact, that sketch was probably largely from this picture I found of a living room in the same area and loved the look of (minus the grey carpet). Nigel wonders if red is too common. Nigel found a place we can get original reclaimed Victorian fireplaces. For the living room we like the ones with the tiles (see red living room).

The Hallway and the Crowbar

We enter the house and step into the hallway. As you can see there is linoleum "wood" flooring, a plush 60's carpet on the stairs, and a boxed in staircase. We hoped when we bought it that we would find spindles encased in the railings and original floor board planks under the carpets and flooring. We saved this picture above from a house who had a hallway we liked. We think we can recreate this look once everything is uncovered. (Note the original floorboards and spindles!) Here is the hallway from the other angle. Unfortunately the owner also replaced the stained glass that is featured in most of the front doors in the area. Here is another house we viewed which has the typical Victorian stained glass door. A view from the top of the stairs where you can see more boxed in banisters. This is my new friend: Mr. Crowbar. I was trying to figure out how to get the particle board off when a friend from Canada visited and told me a crowbar would change my life. Thanks, Andrew! Sure enough our suspicions are confirmed...SPINDLES!!!!! Mr. Crowbar is amazing! Of course the question I first asked when we were surmising what was underneath was, "why would anyone cover up spindles?" Apparently that was the thing to do in the 60's...along with taking out original features. Unfortunately you can see that the nice edging of the stairboards that should protrude from the spindles an inch has been sawed flush with the banister. But we can fix that! I rip the other side off the railings. Then I get carried away and rip the particle board off the door. Hmmm. Although there is a nice feature under there it has been smudged with some dark brown glue. Nigel asks why I did that. Because I am crazy? I am not sure that satisfies him. And then there is the mess to clean up. But with nice spindles exposed! We also find original floorboards throughout the entire house and wonder if they are in any condition to restore.

We Own a House

We bought a little Victorian terraced house in London. Yay! It was owned by an 81 year old man who lived in it for 40 years. I suspect he last updated it in the 60's. It has quite a charm of its own and Nigel and I are looking to restore it back to a lot of it's original features. The property is 17 feet wide. It is a great neighbourhood where you can't help getting to know your neighbours (due to proximity). These are our floor plans and the standard layout for a 105 year old terrace house (although the back bottom level has been extended). There is potential to also put in a loft. I suppose I might be blogging this in the next while...

Antoinette

My solo show opens tonight at Bloc Projects in Sheffield, UK. You are invited to a preview of an exhibition on Friday 9th October, 7 - 9pm at Bloc Space Bloc Projects presents  Antoinette 9 - 24th October Bloc Space There are similarities between cooking and painting, both of which I use to explore the way food influences community. Painting seems as much about creating sensations to please the senses, as does cooking. It is a material process that transforms the ‘raw to the cooked’ for the consumption of a viewer. Each in turn have a ‘picture’ to create, a fact to influence, and an idea to contribute. Both utilize the seduction of ‘hunger’, bringing a delicious quality that inspires desire, and is consumed or digested by being physically incorporated into a processing audience. It is no surprise that both cooking and painting are both culturally loaded symbols that we use in a variety of ways in relating to others. Michal is a Canadian visual artist. Based in London, UK, Michal received her MA Fine Arts from the Chelsea College of Art and Design, London, England. Her work has been exhibited across Canada, the United States, Africa and Europe and can be found in a number of collections including Ernst & Young (UK) and The Artists' Special Book Collection at Chelsea College Library in London (UK). Michal is a recipient of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts Grant. OPENING TIMES Bloc Space: 71 Eyre Lane, Sheffield S1 4RB, UK Preview event: Friday 9 Oct, 7 – 9pm Opening times: Wednesday – Saturday, 12 – 6pm Email: info@blocprojects.co.uk Phone: 07799 270777 Website: www.blocprojects.co.uk Bloc Projects (office) 4 Sylvester Street, Sheffield S1 4RN Bloc Projects is supported by the Arts Council of England and Sheffield Town Trust

Metal Heads Unite

With my MetalHead exhibition showing in Vancouver, Canada it was coincidental to find another "metalhead" on the BBC Web News today entitled: Man Grows New Skull After Decades. The severely damaged skull of a Northumberland (UK) man involved in a car crash 50 years ago has regenerated itself, a process thought to be rare. Mr Moore said the plate had never bothered him, but he was relieved he would no longer "set the alarms off at the airport". If you have not yet seen the MetalHead exhibition, it is on until October 29 at the Lookout Gallery at Regent College (UBC campus). For more details go to the gallery website. I have put the exhibition up on my website now too although you can't enlarge them yet. But soon! www.michal.ca

French Women Don't Get Fat

Someone recommended the book "French Women Don't Get Fat" to me describing it as a cultural eating comparison between France and the United States. It is written by a French woman who describes gaining 10 kilograms on a school exchange to the States when she was a teenager and how it made her look closely at the differences in both cultures' approach food. Previously I had thought it was a diet book and avoided it. But really the subtitle is what sums up the book: "The Secret of Eating for Pleasure". The book can be divided into three: an anthropological comparison between France and the States, a cookbook, and as an ideology for real foodies. It is also a "diet" book, but only in the sense that it preaches less vast amounts of crap on the run and more savouring of smaller portions of quality cuisine. I really love the book. It is the ultimate "diet" for people who love their food and can't bare to give up good food at the cost of being thin. Yet it works at getting you into a healthy body as well!