A huge renovation

A friend of mine has just bought an ENORMOUS house, around the corner from us in North London. He's going to be renovating it over the next few months (estimates from builders suggest it'll take about 5 months, but I can't see how it'll be that quick) and I'm going to try and keep track of his progress on this blog. The house really is in quite a state, and it smells very badly of damp and other nasty things. It will however, be amazing when it's done. It's 3 stories, plus basement, and is going to have 3 bedrooms, a study, 2 large bathrooms, 2 reception rooms and a kitchen (which he's going to extend slightly to the side of the house).

The first thing I'm going to tell him he should buy is this -



I can just see it hanging in the front reception looking very elegant!