The Bathroom Project at No 8

We return from Bunnings with toilet roll holder, collapsible wash basket and a new soft-close loo seat. Peter fits the last item. We now have 2 towel rails, a hook, and a toilet roll holder to fit. Toilet brush and holder on order, so we might wait until we have that and then get Chris back to fit the lot. Options for a drip-dry rail still being explored.

Peter and I try the new walk-in shower together in the morning and it's great. The European-style mixer tap with one knob for temperature and one for pressure means no more fiddling or adjustment. And despite the lack of a door and two bodies in the shower recess, hardly any water fell outside the shower limits.  We did some washing today as well, so all aspects of the revised bathroom-laundry now tested. So it's finished? Well, almost... We still need to: fit a towel rail and a hook on the back of the bathroom door (purchased but not yet fitted) fit a toilet roll holder fit a toilet brush and holder sort out where to store a laundry basket and an airer. We used to keep the laundry basket on top of the dryer and the airer beside the washing machine. Both looked untidy, and we don't want them there in the new arrangement. We are thinking of tucking them behind the washer/dryer, but need to do some work to make that possible fit a long rail across the shower and trough for dr

We work all day Sunday, mostly rehanging all the pictures in the hallway (eighteen of them, but who's counting). Helen has the job of sorting the boxes of stuff from the old bathroom cupboards and putting the contents back into the new and old cupboards in the bathroom. Quite a bit of aged stuff finishes up in the bin, which is all to the good. It's twelve weeks since we moved into 1A, and over time more and more stuff has crept from one house to the other, more clothes, more food, more books, a computer, a desk chair, assorted cat equipment. We trek back and forth all day between houses, carrying rubbish to the bins, retrieving items from 1A. We stow the spare tiles in the roof, and some of the residual paint in the garage. Tools come out to fix things and hang pictures, then go away again. We sweep, vaccuum, mop, dust, mop, dust and mop again. The fine sanding dust covering everything seems immovable. If we were starting again, we'd make sure we covered everything beforeh

First step is to move the washing machine and dryer back into the bathroom. Fortunately neighbour Cam is mowing nature strips (as he does regularly, such a good bloke) and is happy to come in and give Peter a hand to raise the dryer into position on top of the washer. Everything we move is absolutely covered in dust, so much cleaning goes on. Even though the bathroom was cleaned by both the carpenters and the painters, it still needed another sweep and floor wash, and basins and benches needed going over. We have to then connect the washing machine to power and water inlets and outlets, ditto the dryer (out only). This is a finicky job requiring water off water on again exercises. We had asked if the toilet could be moved a bit to the right as the washing machine and dryer take up less space than the old shower recess. The toilet was moved quite a lot to the right, and we were fearful that it would feel cramped, or even that it would be just too close for comfort. To our relief it is O

Painters work flat out on Thursday, Olsi returns on his own on Friday to do the last coats on the woodwork. It all looks so good freshly painted, especially the hallway which has had an unpainted ceiling since the cornice fell down and had to be replaced about two years ago. And they've done a great job colour-matching to the Bellessi panels, so the bathroom is now much more integrated.

 Armando and Olsi arrive and start prepping. By evening we can see what a perfect match they have made between paint and the Bellessi panels.  And they reckon they'll be finished by Friday. What could possibly go wrong now?