We have two big sliding glass doors and decided to go for motorised blinds to cover them and two other windows, with a hand held remote for their operation. We scoured the internet for possible suppliers but found that a lot of suppliers were franchises or agents and we wanted to work direct with a company that could supply them for us to fit, as there would be lots of boxing in with Western Red Cedar to conceal them.

 We found a company on the web called Trade Blinds Direct, who said they installed blinds and could supply us with what we needed and provide any technical help we needed. Well with the usual instruction sheet in 10 different languages for the motor but with mounting brackets totally different to the motor manufacturers drawing, we ended up needing technical help. At this point we got put on to the manufacturers UK agents direct (Somfy) who could not have been more helpful, but over 30 e-mails with Trade Blinds Direct failed to resolve who would provide a replacement motor due to an installation problem with the non standard brackets which wrecked one of the motors.

 Life’s too short and for just over £100 the helpful people at Somfy UK supplied a replacement motor, but I have to say Trade Blinds Direct are one of the few suppliers we have used that I would not recommend.

 To create tiled splash backs behind sinks when tiling on to the log walls rather than internal stud walls, we have to fix some 3/4″ ply with slots so that the log stack can slide down behind the tiling with out cracking the tiles.

 This is how we are getting all our services between the two floors of the house. The tall larder fridge will sit in front of this when it is done, concealing foul waste pipes from the bathrooms above, wiring etc.

We have made it quite generous in size so that any repairs can be done more easily.

 The main bathroom is finished, with the mirror cupboards above. Lots of fiddly detail work but worth it in the end.

 When planning our house we got a lot of ideas from magazines, TV etc, but this one came from an old family friend who had bathroom cupboards that were sunk into the stud wall and had mirrors as doors. So we made MDF carcasses to fit into the stud wall with flat MDF doors, and faced them with mirrors. The MDF parts were spray painted, glass shelves fitted with stainless steel shelf pegs into holes pre-drilled in the MDF.

 Stainless steel beading from our local Travis Perkins builders merchant was used to get a tidy finish against the plastered surround. You can see this in the detail shot here.

We made 4 cupboards, two in each bathroom and I guess we did not get any change from £1000 for the four but they do a nice job and keep the room lines very clean.

 We have two showers, one in the bath for the bathroom and one in the walk in shower for the ensuite. The Hans Groehe mixer units drop into their “I box” whichis sunk in the wall. A good feature is the button on the fatter lower knob which controls the temperature. This has a middle default “upper limit” position to avoid scalding yourself or children.

The upper knob is the on/off control and diverter where required for the bath/shower, or just the on off control in the case of the shower.