First of all, an apology for the lack of post on Friday! We’ve been working really hard on the office remodel and then smack in the middle of it, I decided to head on off for a fabulous weekend with my bloggie mates Alex and Maria for a whirlwind weekend in Dublin so things have been a little crazy! Hope to share that with you soon but in the meantime, on with today’s post…

So while the whole project of the One Room Challenge is going on, we also have another project brewing! I know, I know, we are absolutely mental but the best thing is, we actually aren’t doing the physical work on this one so it’s not so bad!

You may recall me talking about working with Original Style to completely revamp the front of our home, replacing the very sad and ugly concrete paving with beautiful new Victorian tiles.

Catch up here:  Intro to the Project and Before Pictures / Deciding on a Tile Pattern Design

Well, I’m happy to report that the initial work of laying the tiles has begun! Yay! We were hoping to get it done by the end of last year but thanks to the rubbish weather that set in, it made more sense to wait until Spring arrived and it wasn’t quite so wretched outdoors.

As a reminder, here’s where we started… yes, it’s totally grim and horrible!!

And here’s the gorgeous 3D rendered design that was created with the help of Original Style to help us visualise the final design.

A couple of weeks ago, the tile installers came to rip out the paving stones and start preparing the ground for the tiles.

They laid some hardcore over everything a couple of days later…

And created a new step because the old ones were broken and in rather bad condition. The new tiles will be laid right over the old tiles.

And finally, they came back stamp down all the hardcore and then to pour concrete over the whole thing as a solid base for the tiles to sit on. So this is what it’s looking like now!

I have to admit, the installers have been great. So friendly and efficient. We had a new shed delivered recently (another project going on that I’ll share with you soon!) and when it arrived, Wayne wasn’t at home so the tile installer actually volunteered to help the delivery driver offload the shed! I mean, how nice is that?

It’s so nice to finally have work  on the house done that we haven’t had to worry about doing ourselves. This is the very first time we’ve ever had a trade come in the whole time we’ve been here and I have to admit, it’s been great to just let someone else get on with it! Ha! All I’ve had to do is get them tea and biscuits. I mean, I could get used to this… (okay, not really, we do love doing our own work but this time, it made sense to leave it to the experts!)

The concrete needs to set for a couple of weeks before they can lay the tiles but I’m hoping I will have another update for you soon to share the results of all this work. While the concrete is just plain, I have to say, it’s already looking better than my before pictures, even if it is a bit dusty out there!

Are you doing any work to the outside of your home this year? Do tell…

Disclaimer: *Please note that Original Style does not supply directly to the public but works with carefully selected and incredibly talented retailers to bring the same kind of personal service that I’ve received straight to you locally. To find your nearest retailer, please visit Original Style.  I am working with Original Style on this latest project but as always, all words and opinions are completely my own. Thank you for supporting the businesses that allow me to bring you new content here on Swoon Worthy. That said, I only work with companies I really like and think you might like too!