I got laid.
A good, deep, thick shag.
My first carpet.
Well, the first carpet I have had to order and arrange for the installation thereof.
This had become 'the deadline'. The biggest deadline since 'Absolute Completion' of the bathroom. Obviously, there was a delay between 'Substantial Completion' of the bathroom - where pretty much everything was done, save for some touching up and the bath panel. The bath panel was actually quite a substantial touch-up. But the bathroom got done, and now there aren't even any 'niggles'.
So, since recovering from the appendix in January, the major project has been the spare room.
The spare room was already started. When I didn't have the money to do the MASSIVE jobs in the bathroom: tiling the floor; and installing the shower cubicle; then I set to doing stuff in the spare room that could be done at no cost: chipping off the plaster. Then the bathroom got done and I could spend money.
For a bedroom there actually isn't that much you need to spend money on. It's not as though there is any apparatus in there particularly. To get the room to "move in" stage, it is simply a case of:
- Electrics. Sockets that is.
- Lighting
- Plastering
- Painting
- Woods: skirting, architrave, doors
- Carpet.
But it's never that simple.
Shall we take each one at a time...
Electrics
This one looks nice and simple. How hard can it be to wire a socket? Well, it isn't. It's very easy. But how many do you want? Where do you want them? What colour? What style?
Colour? For sockets?
Yes.
Do you want simple white? Stainless steel? Satin nickle? Brushed chrome? Polished chrome? Brass? Iridium black? Are the rockers to match or contrast?
So, you already need to have your colour scheme in mind for the whole room. Afterall, if you're having polished chrome handles on your doors, you don't want satin nickle sockets. And if you're having gilded cornices (for example) then you don't want a tacky white socket.
And where?
I already knew a lot about what I wanted for the room. From the start, I knew where the bed was going to be. This was dictated by the window and the door, although the door is potentially a slightly fluid consideration - in my room I know that there is a possibility that I will calve off a section in order to make a corridor and part of a third bedroom, should I wish to make a quick amendment before selling. So I know the door may move a bit, but even if it does I know the position of the bed will probably be one of two places.
So, I wanted a double socket either side of the bed. This is to plug in a bedside lamp, a clock or radio, and a mobile charger or (if I were poorly and staying in bed for the day) a laptop.
Then you don't want to wake up looking at a wardrobe. So at the opposite end of the room needs to be the - if a bedroom is to have one (thought it is much more refined without) - television. If the room has enough room, mounted on the wall with little surrounding; however almost certainly this will have to be placed on a chest of drawers; with the wardrobes as discretely as possible on the window wall.
So I needed a couple of double sockets down that end of the room, for the television, computer (no-one has a dvd player these days) trouser-press (yes, people still have them) and a spare - vacuum, maybe.
So, there we go. The colour of the sockets - distinctively 'mocha' (or brown as I like to call it) - was chosen to match the colour scheme I had planned since I started thinking of the room. And this was a major thing - yes, even when coming down to the sockets.
Since buying the house I have lived in one bedroom. When I first bought the house I slept in a single bed. Around 5 years ago I got a bonus at work and decided to buy a bed. A KING-SIZE bed. There wasn't really such a thing as a super-king at the time. But I was upgrading: I might as well go all the way. Ignore the fact that at least 4 of the 5 foot of bed have been untouched for the majority of time as I tend to occupy a tiny sliver of bed down one side.
But, this wasn't to be a disposable bed. So this bed needed to be kicking around for a while. And it was at that stage - five years before the room even really started - that the 'room' started to take shape.
Or rather colour.
The bed was a very nice, large, brown colour leather. Well, it was brown or black leather; or wood of some sort, or steel.
And the brown leather was more luxurious than a steel frame, all of which eventually work loose and wiggle and squeek. And the main problem I have with most luxurious wooden beds is that they have to be 'sleigh' beds in order to encompass a proper headboard. And that usually means they have a 'sleigh' bottom. Which is a problem when you are 6'4" and the standard double length bed is 6'3".
I have slept in beds with either steel or wooden slats protruding above the base of the bed and during the night one of my feet has slipped between the slats and whilst tossing (steady) during the night I have nearly broken an ankle. So I knew when buying the bed I couldn't have a 'sleigh' end or a slat end - I had to have a fully open end for my feet (and legs) to protrude out of, yet still wanted an integrated headboard - otherwise I could lose pillows down the gap.
Hence the brown leather bed ticked the boxes. There probably were wooden beds that may have ticked those boxes, but they were few and far between and probably more expensive.
Then, because I had a huge new bed I needed a new duvet, and new sheets and covers. And they had to match the brown of the bed leather. So I went with brown and cream. Or ivory and chocolate or whatever they were called. But I wanted something other than 'beige' colours, something to 'set it off' in the terms of those people that use those terms. And there's not much that goes with brown and cream, save for red - something which I'm sure interior designers call an autumnal selection.
But that was the colours selected, dictating the colours of the sockets. Iridium black couldn't work (and to be fair I think will date quite quickly); white was nasty; the silvers of nickles, chromes and steels could work, if I knew what else they were to match with; but then I found these lovely, amazing 'mocha' (or 'brown' as I like to call it) sockets, switches etc. which suited the long-since-selected colour scheme perfectly.
And that's just the sockets sorted.
Lighting
Well, where to start?
How many? What style? One rather dictates the other, but which one? Do I go for wall lights, in which case I probably need around 4? Or do I go for uplighters? Or downlighters? Or spots? Or a simple ceiling light? Or a pendant? OR a more lavish chandalier? Or a couple - one at either end of the room?
I'm quite take with spots I have to say. Simple, discrete, if one goes you still usually have quite a few others so you can see enough to replace it. Flush with the ceiling, so no weird shadows. And - when you're as tall as I am - no risk to your scalp.
But how many? In the bathroom I made a slight boob. I don't think I put quite enough in. No, that's not right. We're going with 'subtle'. I went for 'subtle' lighting. You can see perfectly well enough to shave on a dark winter morning, so they are fine.
But this was a bedroom, and quite a large bedroom at that. I wanted to be able to see what I was doing clearly, to dress appropriately in well-lighted conditions. Actually, that's probably a bad thing as now I have lost my "I was getting dressed in the dark" excuse for my fashion faux-pas's.
So I plumped for 10; but with the two above the bed being independently controllable so that I could either have the one above me on for reading; the one above the guest side on if my guest was reading (yeah, right, but I have to think about selling on the house) and then the eight 'main beam' lights for the rest of the room.
Only 10 didn't fit with the beams in the ceiling, so I had to either go with eight or twelve. So I went with twelve. Blinded by the lights.
And then switches. Obviously the two spots above the bed need to be controllable from the bed. The last thing you want is to be getting out of bed to turn them off. But the main light also needs to be controllable from the bed - you don't want to be stumbling round in the dark to get to bed because you forgot to turn the bed-spot on before turning the main beams off. So why not go the whole hog - make the two bed-spots controllable from the door too; afterall it would be so annoying to have to walk all the way over to either side of the bed before leaving the room when you realise that you've accidentally left the bed spots on.
Now, I'm rather proud of being able to say that I did all the electrics myself.
I'm a rather nervous chap when it comes to electrics, I have to say. And it's daft, because it is only 240v here in England. It's not going to kill me. But I still managed to do all the socket spurs; and all the lighting - even with the many switches and even more spots.
The nerves when I first flicked the switch... with a wooden spoon (just in case it was live)... were quite something. I actually, honestly, expected something to pop, or fuse, or smell of burning, or not work at all. But it was done.
And it's surprising how long the wiring can take.
To start with, you sit down with a piece of paper, work out what lights you want, where you want them, and where you want your switches. Then you get lots of coloured pens and draw the various different cables: main ring, lighting circuit, switch cable, link cable etc. That of itself can take an evening, before you even think about touching the cable cutters, strippers or tiny little screwdrivers.
Anyhow, the electrics and lighting having been done, it's then onto...
Plastering
It surprised me when I was ready for this, to the extent that I nearly ended up with some 'dead-time'. Because plasterers have a lead time of a couple of weeks whilst they finish their other jobs off. Despite the light wiring taking so long, it still crept up on me quickly. Particularly as there are a surprising number of plasterers who don't return calls or turn up to give quotes.
It also surprised me how much a plasterer costs. I had my three quotes (eventually) and one of them was 'mates rates'. But even then, just the cost of the raw materials was expensive.
And then there was scheduling. I had managed to get myself organised so that dead-time was limited, but then you have to factor in that it either has to take place at weekends, or else take some time off work. And for a two-day job, it would either have to take two weekends (because no-one works on a Sunday) or a day off as well. Fortunately my dad is retired and was willing to offer his services so it could get started on the Saturday, and finished off on the Monday.
Painting
Again, timing was key here. Fresh plaster needs to be left for at least a week to properly dry out; so during that week I had to buy the paint.
Basic colours had already been chosen, as previously discussed: cream, red and brown. Only that's obviously far too simply.
White ceiling. Obviously. No-one has a coloured ceiling. That was easy.
But brown is never just brown, nor is cream cream or red red. I had to scan through around two dozen different creams; and the same numbers of brown and red. So I've ended up with something called 'Liquor', 'Cocoa Bean' and 'Kings Red'.
But then do you go with matt? Or satin? Or gloss?
And, of course, timing was critical: I had to get the main coats on before going on holiday: my dad had kindly offered to do the skirting board whilst I was on holiday, and the room needed to be painted beforehand. I was on a very timescale. I had only just over a week, which needed two coats of paint on top of the base water-coat. When painting on top of new plaster the first coat needs watering-down considerably so that the plaster takes the paint. So, I needed to get three coats on the walls and the ceiling, in the small amount of time I had of an evening after work, in a week. But I managed it somehow.
And that was just the basic layer. I had intentions right from the very first thoughts of the room, way back when buying the bed linen in the electrics paragraph. I knew that I wanted red and brown stripes. Random stripes, a bit like a barcode. But that was decided years ago. So when I returned from holiday these had to be done. And quickly - I ordered my carpet the weekend following my return, and had to have the stripes done by then; which involved two coats for each of red and brown; and then a final whip round 'touching up' any last bits.
But, again, I managed that.
Woodwork
This isn't of itself a massive undertaking; and was made a lot easier by my dad dealing with this aspect whilst I was away. The skirting and doors were pre-determined by the same in the bathroom (indeed, the door had long since been done by myself a good two or three years prior when there was an offer on them).
Carpet
Ah finally! Aside from furniture, this is the finishing touch. Once this is done, the room is complete. It is a room that I could sell.
So, the carpet had to match the colours in there: red, brown or cream. Or Kings Red, Cocoa Bean and Liquor as is more appropriate. And then there is timing too: you have to order when the sale is on. And I did, which was what put the pressure on the stripe painting.
But this was the first time I had ever bought a carpet. What do you go for? When you first walk in, the showroom is daunting. There are many many many stands with piles and piles of samples on them.
What do you want it made of? There are man-made fibres, but I was put off these for two reasons: static, and staining. They generally show the dirt up a little more. They are more durable, for use in places of high foot-fall; but despite my various weekend shenanigans my bedroom really isn't falling into that category. 80/20 wool is generally regarded as the softer, easier standard. So that cut down the number of stands by well over half: well, down to four in fact.
The four stands actually contained pretty much the same colours, just in four different qualities. So I simply went for the stand on the best offer and had a feel - it felt good enough for me.
Despite the room being very well lit, I wanted a nice, light colour. The closest to Liquor. I'm not a fan of reds or browns for carpets: they make a room look a lot smaller and a lot darker. So, having chosen the quality of carpet it was simply a case of selecting the closest colour. Which isn't as easy as you would think. But I just had to go for it and accept it.
And it actually looks perfect. I was so happy on Saturday, rolling around like a child in an astoundingly empty room, with just the carpet under my feet!
Amazeballs.
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