Livingroom progress

The builders have left our living room, so we're repairing the damage.

Starting on the far left is a new bookshelf that the architect persuaded us would give a better visual effect that the free standing book case that was there previously. She may be right in theory but the €1000 bespoke bookshelf made from MDF is not nice and quite frankly I would have preferred a Ikea Billy bookcase instead.

We've then a blank section of wall, with an electricity box at the top. This used to have the Ikea Billy bookcase in front of it and an old video cabinet. Once it's papered the TV will go there, we've had the electrician add Ethernet, power and sockets for terrestrial and satellite hookups.

Next there is a new hall into what was the incomplete extension started in the 1920s. When we bought the house it was just a hole with stone walls and a leaking half built upper story. Now there is a staircase to the upper floor, a loo and a small utility room.

Next there is more wall where the TV used to be. The current Billy bookcase is going against this wall and we'll buy another one, which will hold a lot of our books. The current Argos black ash bookcase will go somewhere else.

Then there is the awful sliding windows to the garden, they let in a lot of light, too much to watch TV where it used to be, and at the moment mostly look out onto scaffolding and building rubbish. Underneath them will go some low bookcases/storage units. Sadly the Ikea Billy range is too tall to fit, so we'll have to get something shorter - probably some cubes.

To the right out of shot is a new wall, with an internal window from the living room into the new vestibule. In shot is the sliding door into the vestibule. This vestibule has the garden door and the street door. The door to the street was bricked up when we bough the house and we've restored it. The garden door was part of the extension rebuild and matches the sliding windows.

Where I'm standing is where my wife has a new office niche, she may share my office, but having a second one gives us flexibility. Like the TV point it has Ethernet and several power sockets.

The floor is the original distressed oak engineered wood. It's a lots more distressed than it was before the builders walked all over it and it's now quite badly stained in places. My wife has washed it gently with water and vinegar solution which has removed an inordinate amount of dirt but it's still pretty dirty. We think the previous owners didn't pay to finish the floor properly, so may be untreated oak, so it probably needs oiling...!

Finally there is the ceiling, it needs some patching and then repainting. At the moment there are two bare light bulbs, but I'll reinstall our Poulsen PH5 light in there once we're ready.

This is a back blip - and as I type wall paper is going up on the wall to cover the acres of bare white wall...