I was planning on writing a post about the massive changes that have taken place chez moi over the past 6 months. Said post was going to be written once the changes were complete. It has dawned on me, however, that the list of home improvements still to be made is vast. And I don’t want to wait until they’re done. I want to show you the progress made so far. Because I can. Sadly, I am lacking proper “before” photos. By the time I moved in, the living room had already been pretty much pulled apart and it hadn’t felt right to take photos as it wasn’t yet “my house” so I can’t show you the terrifying wall to wall stone fireplace (installed in 1980) that we ripped out – but I have got a few phone snaps showing the ugly as can be carpet that was once burgundy and orange but had faded to various shades of poo and a hint of the crazy ass over-sized blue sofas (two of) that my boyfriend had filled the not all that large room with. It was bonkers, quite frankly.

In this second set of pics we were in the process of cleaning 17 square metres of reclaimed Teak parquet flooring, salvaged from a town hall.

I had always loved parquet flooring and was so excited about having this century old teak laid in our home. We bought it uncleaned, just as it was salvaged, and spent weeks scraping off the dirt and chipping the bitumen away from the bottom of the blocks. It was tedious and at times agonising work. But well worth it. I love the finished floor, and that we personally played a part in making it a reality. Those hours poured lovingly into making this floor happen may not have been pleasant at the time, but I remember them fondly.

The hallway hasn’t progressed at all since those pics were taken in December. It’s our next project. But thankfully the living room is nearly finished now. The pics were taken at Christmas when we had an Ercol 2 seater sofa & armchair and my fab leather chair (like the one on my website homepage) in the room. It felt a lot homelier than it had a year previous. But still not quite there. Next week I’ll be able to show you the finished room, hopefully. The blinds are due and there are a couple of fab pieces of mid century Danish furniture (gotta love eBay) arriving very soon. Eeeek. I’m so excited to be able to call this home. I love it. LOVE it. Yay for the practical comforts of mid century style.

This post was brought to you by Calixico : Algiers.