Update on this (June 2015): Yup, those ceilings have not changed one bit!!! I finally manned (womanned?) up and broke out some Annie Sloan chalk paint last night and tested a corner of my office (pics to follow). Dear Husband and I have not swatted each other with much of anything related to this roof or the walls. We have however assembled quite a lot of flat pack furniture and hold a MOUNTAIN of moving rubbish to the tip at this point. 1. If going for the flat/professional look, I fail as a painter, caulker, sander, and...yeah. The job would require what my painter quoted me (to the tune of 6,000+ USD). Total sanding, caulking of all joints (note the hundreds of them....), shellacking and individual knot treatment, 2 coats of paint, coat of sealant....let's just say a car would cost less. I tried - knots bled through. So chalk paint is out but important lesson learned with little pain/cost. 2. I am going to try out a few more techniques on a tiny, small corner of my office. Whitewashing with 2 types of paint, trying to locate some milk paint and gel stain. Not keen on the liming wax. Husband is still convinced we can do this ourselves. We fixed some of the wiring in the downstairs - it's still mentioned at all cocktail parties with photos. 3. We found a builder! We found a builder who talks more than I do and takes QUITE A WHILE to arrive at a conclusion. My back-up is to plaster between the beams and stain the exposed bits. But not ideal. My back-up back-up plan is to get pregnant quickly and thus remove one of our 'painters', necessitating hiring of (qualified) replacements! Back-up to THAT back-up is run away from home...(yes, you do feel like you are sleeping in an orange pine coffin if I'm honest) 4. Still no closer to making this place look decent but lots more ideas! Next on list...find someone to make a headboard to mount to wall Swiss German translation - Ich verstehe nur Bahnhof! Happy Summer!! Any comments or thoughts are WELCOME!

in the living areas, yes. bedrooms, bathroons? noooo! even in the living areas, id need curtains to provide some privacy, or one way glass, or a high fence, or no neighbours for miles and miles and for the world to forget that telescopes and binoculars were ever invented... in short, i want to watch, not to be watched.

Well, the chippies van was up the drive when I got home from work - a little unexpected. At first I thought that he was sleeping with the Mrs, but then I remembered that he needed to finish the skirting boards. He's done a cracking job - quite a few tricky internal/external corners, plus the corners not being exactly 90 degrees he was back and forth to his saw all the time. He really did a stirling job. It was 13 meters of skirting in total - which took him 4.5 hours in total (over 2 evenings) and it cost me £90. Considering I was origionally going to do it, it could well be the best £90 I've spent on this whole kitchen. I need to get a lick of paint inside the alcove that's pictured. Our little fishtank will be returning in there, but as it's out I may as well do it. When we get the bar stools, and dining room table & chairs I will update again. So: What would I change/add/remove ADD - Somewhere to hang the tea-towels. We have some on the inside of a cuboard, but they keep falling off. Maybe I need some slightly more expensive 'hangers'. The space where they could have gone we put a spice rack/draw thingie - that's probably better though. ADD - We forgot about the bin! Now we have our pedal-bin basically kicking around the kitchen. The Mrs has already filled the cupboards to maximum capacity so I'm having trouble getting an internal cupboard one past her. I think I may just fit one then deal with her later. The bin has gravitated to a semi-perminant place, but with the kids trying to be *cough* helpfull the wall is already beginning to get the odd splatter of 'stuff' where they just throw their food in the general direction of it. Last night I said 'Well, why don't we just put it in the utility room' - She shot that idea down instantly as she obviously isn't happy about the extra 4 steps that it would take to walk all-that-way into another room. Poor thing! Typical woman lol. ADD - At the start of the project I would have got the electricians to chase in another mains wire from the fusebox so that it comes out of the kitchen wall centrally to the back garden, then I would put a PIR Security Light in. I know that it's not a big job by any means, and I could, and probably will, do it myself over the coming weeks but if I could have had it without a wire on the outside of the house then that'd would have been perfect. Also, thinking about it, I would have actually got him to do it at the front of the house as well as he re-wired the whole downstairs with new fusebox etc.

I have to admit that I love it! Roughly painted bricks can add a beautifully rough touch to an otherwise very clinical space and act as a feature in and of itself. Solidly painted walls can add that subtly needed touch when you can't quite go all out in naked brick, but as several people mention above - it's all about the space and getting the right feel for where you are and who's going to be living there in my opinion.