The Sunday Supplement: June 24th

Huge progress on the Moregeous terrace this week. HUGE. I want to pinch myself, it feels like a very nice dream. For so long we’ve stepped out of the beautiful bifolds onto crappy concrete, that even with the tiles sitting patiently in the garage, it still didn’t feel like it’d ever actually happen. Dave the Brave has almost completed a most excellent and a most challenging job. You might call it extreme tiling. He did. Especially when the thermometer hit the late twenties today and he’d been going full pelt for six hours to get away for the England kick off. The poor lad ended up with Mama Si’s Factor 30  and a tea towel on his head in a valiant attempt to prevent third degree burns. No, that’s not Dave. Not Dave the Brave. That’s Dangerous Dave, aka my dad. He pootled last week for a nosey. Not really one of those DIY dads, mine, more a pop over for a gander and bring a bottle of wine dad. Which can be very handy when all your wine money’s being used to pay a tiler.

Looks quite straightforward in the photos, doesn’t it? Easy. That’s cause the dips and bumps don’t show. Even with the excellent Pro-50 levelling compound, Dave still had to build up certain areas with slightly more adhesive to get the tiles level and then a slight fall to the linear drain.
It’s not all finished yet, still the grouting to complete and a really good clean to get all the dust off, but it’s looking BOSS! I’ve yet to brick acid clean – carefully with a paintbrush – all the lower reclaimed bricks nearest the tiles, then pop some masking tape on ready for the grouting, so the grey grout doesn’t creep up the quite porous bricks. Yes, I know, I’ve had forever to do it. But am still doing it tomorrow. You know me, nothing was thrown away. ‘Just in case’. Partly due to Steptoe tendencies and partly due to the next picture. Mr Moregeous is incapacitated! No tip runs. No right hand man. Literally no right hand man. My poor DIY King had his right elbow operated on just before the weekend as all his nerves were trapped inside the narrow nerve tube (I have no idea what it’s actually called) and needed freeing up. Ouch. Looks happy doesn’t he? Rocky can’t get his head around the relaxing comfortably in the day thing, though he agrees it’s a very good idea and often* does it himself.

*always
Once again that bloody awful, still here three piece suite comes to the rescue as Mr M left-handedly spills drinks, melts ice packs and flicks food for the next few weeks. Might postpone that sexy velvet statement sofa 😉

A mere operation didn’t stop him keeping this week’s Airbnb Experience guests entertained whilst I took photos prepped lunch however. What a trooper. And what a Saturday it was. A house tour, lunch and trouble shooting session with Tiler Dave’s adhesive paddle and angle grinder firing up every few minutes. Keeping it real as ever here!!Unusual to end with calm I know, but let’s have a change shall we? Up in the Pavilion bedroom, all spruced up for the tour, I grabbed a shot of the ensuite for Instagram. It’s getting a bit easier to take ‘nice’ shots of the house now, as rooms start to emerge. We give lots of tips on the tour and ideas of how to pull interior schemes together on a practical and a design level. This ensuite, with it not-all-the-way-to-the-ceiling walls, is a great example of a Moregeous signature look and we’ve done it in several of our rentals over the years. Helps a room to flow, maintains the proportions and keeps the space feeling airy.
Just need a new door now 😉

See you in the week for a a great gardening grow your own idea and an exclusive on some amazing new tiles x

As mentioned in last week’s Sunday Supplement, I’m working with Norcros Adhesives as our terrace is one of their case studies this year. We bought all our tiles and are paying our amazing tiler, but they’ve provided me with some of the materials used. Materials I’ve previously bought and have previously recommended to clients. I’ve never used the Pro-50 leveller however, but we’ve all agreed on site that it’s bloody good.