The final straight. Fireplaces and wardrobes .

It's been a while since I've posted. It's been a busy, busy few weeks. We're running a few weeks behind  so to help thing along I roped in a few friends to help with the easier jobs like painting. Thanks so much Stef , Kate and Asid. The whole bungalow has had the first coat of white paint . The entire lounge has had it's ceiling painted in a white sheen too.

Ceiling of the 3rd bedroom/study.

Moving on to what's been going on. The fireplace was installed today.

I contacted a local fireplace store called www.hertsfireplacegallery.co.uk a few months ago. They conducted a site survey free of charge and explained what fireplaces I could choose from to fit my chimney. They also recommended a chimney sweep to sweep the chimney. 

We had to build out the chimney breast. This was done in concrete block where the fireplace would go and plasterboard above. The area was recessed so I can fit a new TV.  With the TV being recessed heat shouldn't be a problem from the fireplace. The reason we had to do build out the chimney breast was because our hole for the fireplace wasn't central to the chimney breast. To keep the chimney breast from protruding too far the builders of the bungalow made a back to back chimney breast. This meant my chimney breast would extend into the neighbours lounge , on the left of the chimney breast and the neighbour's would come into my lounge on the right. The old fireplace was positioned central to the breast but the flue it self was actually located on the left .  A new one would have have to do dead centre to the hole which would mean it would go to the left of the chimney breast. 

I would have to build out the breast to centralise the fireplace. To keep costs down Neil at Herts Fireplace Gallery recommend I get my builder to build out the breast.

If you look above you can see the old breast which wasn't plastered at the time this picture was taken. The old breast won't be obvious as the wall has been made out for sound proofing.  I sent Neil photos of the build as we were making it and he was pleased with it all.

If you look above the fireplace a recess has been cut out for a in ceiling projector screen.

Neil sent one of his guys round today to fit the fireplace. It took just half a day to install. Finally the finished product. Very pleased. The heat doesn't come directly above so I am not worried about the TV at all. 

The pebbles glow a lovely red when the fire is on.

Really pleased with the end result. A big thank you to Neil at Herts Fire place gallery.

Upstairs I have had built in wardrobes installed. As we have lost the walk in wardrobe I had originally planned for due to lack of space we had to have wardrobes in the bedroom instead. I opted for built in to maximise the space.  I chose a local firm called Spacemaker. They came round conducted a site survey and over a cup of tea we negotiated a good price which wasn't far off Ikea prices.

For the interior I have had two rails behind each door apart from the central door which is full height rails for coats, it also has two shelves here too. I opted for white glass sliding doors.

For the other side of the door I opted for mirror doors. I have also had 2 rails put in here to maximise hanging space.

The quality of the wardrobe is second to none. The rails are reassuringly smooth and have a nice soft close mechanism. The carcass is over 30mm thick and feels very , very solid.

Will update throughout the week with the rest of the build.