Coveting...

More chairs. Button back. Grey. Reasonable price....bet they're not that comfy but I am still liking.

Coveting....

I saw this image in a brochure for leather Chesterfield sofas. I love the style of Chesterfields (and button back chairs generally) but always felt leather would be too cold. So when I saw the grapic above I thought..if I could just find a grey fabric version of that chair....well looky here!

It's button back, it's grey, it's Chesterfield style...what's not to love! This is going on my list of things I don't really need but want so much it almost counts as a need....

It's curtains....

This blog seems to be becoming a list of excuses rather than developments on the house. We had lovely guests to stay this weekend so we were playing host rather than interior designer / builder.

Our lovely guests (hi Aly and Jol) also brought us a fantastic house-warming gift - a vintage typewriter! I love it and it goes beautifully with the awesome phone t'husband bought for my birthday (photos to follow). When we eventually get round to sorting the office they will look lovely together on my desk and I am also envisaging a shelf of other vintage stuffs such as a camera, lots of books and perhaps a globe or two...

Image from Oh Happy Day

Anyway, although we were having too much fun drinking wine, walking, talking and eating curry to get much house stuff done. I did get round to replacing the temporary curtains with the longer term temporary curtains. Eventually I want something really thick and warm with a strong graphic pattern. Was thinking about these....

I really like the material, the background colour (I have a thing about grey at the moment) and the pattern but the pink is just that bit too pink. Wanted something more raspberry and something that won't cost me an entire months wages for one window! So it was a trip to Ikea to see what they had. The bedroom ones we were using were too neutral to really work in the room. The good thing about having a light house where everything is painted white is that I am being a bit braver with the colour choices. But I think I may have been a bit too brave....

Although I love the contrast between the white walls and the shock of raspberry, I sometimes think my living room now looks as though it could double as a bordello! Think I will leave them for the time being (especially after the time it took to hem and hang them - I am not gifted at such things) and because they look much more cheery than these....

Other projects included a cloakroom area.....

And some 'investigative' sanding on the stairs.....

So we now have a random semi-sanded panel that will probably remain this way until we can pay to get someone to decorate the stairs. T'husband has said he thinks it looks like a little bit of art. I keep thinking I may attempt to strip and decorate the stairs myself and then I remember I HATE sanding and I am not brilliant at glossing. No patience = lots of drips....so I am going to also keep thinking of this as a little bit of art too and reminding myself it's not about the finished thing but the process you go through to get there! But when we do get there I want stairs that look like this....
Or like this....

Stair images from Living etc

Baby Steps

Very little to report on the house after the weekend. Mainly as on Friday and Saturday we were a little preoccupied by this:


This....

And this.....

But mainly this....

Despite the lack of house action, we had a lovely time with the above, riding on trains, decorating the furniture with Pollock-style yoghurt art and becoming the target for a rather violent human coconut shy. Owww Denise! Stop throwing it so hard...I mean it...quit it....let the kids have a go....

Up very early on Sunday morning for the first Brownbacks race at Lee Quarry. T'husbands mate, Dave, was at the door soon after the sun came up and t'husband was in the shower (yes I know t'husband up early - amazing how he manages it when he wants to!) so I had to answer the door in a state that wasn't really suitable for guests. Dave was very kind though and rather than telling me that I looked as you'd expect at 6am on a Sunday said in his slight Brummie accent 'What's with the mismatched jammies?'. Jammies is now my new favourite name for my night attire....however, I think he is hardly one to comment when he spent the day looking like this...

Dave's on the right and someone described his get-up as a hip hop bin man. I shall now be mainly calling him the Notorious B.I.N. The above photo is for Jenny who has long suspected t'husband sometimes feels the need to wear a high-vis vest. In this instance he is not wearing it for pleasure or to ensure people listen to him. Look again....this time he means business...'official' business...

Anyway, it was a beautiful day and once I had got over the shock it was wonderful being up as I love the light at that time in the morning. So after a strong coffee, I headed off to meet the gang at Lee Quarry for the race.

Walking up to the the race course was really exciting and I felt really proud to be involved in a small way with this new race series. It all looked great, the weather was marvellous and there seemed to be a real buzz. I think we had nearly 100 entries which for the first race is fantastic and the feedback seems to have been really good so far. Only a few falls and one incident, as far as I know, that required the help of Mountain Rescue. Of course, the fall happened close to the stretch t'husband was on and as he had recently attended a first aid course he was on hand to help out. Although according to some spectators reports, he was last seen dabbing pathetically at an ear that was bleeding profusely!

As well as the excitement of the race, we also got to hang out with lovely people...

Admire the views...
Visit the pub for post race celebration feasting and still managed to get a few things done including this...
And at long last these, although these are only doing the job short term until I have put up the longer term temporary ones....


So a lovely, busy, fun weekend.

Living Room - Fireplace project...

So one of the rooms that was least affected by the house being repossessed from the previous owner (for least affected perhaps read cheapest to get sorted) was the living room. Here it is prior to repossession and what it looked like when we moved it ......

So as you can see the first project was to put back the fireplace. Th'husband managed to put all that time that he spends surfing the net to good use and scored a fireplace for a great price on ebay. We didn't like the original tiles so replaced them and job's a good 'un. Here's a preview of the new tiles...

And here the fire is installed and plastered. Unfortunately, we couldn't wait until it was all finished to light it as we missed having a fire. Especially on those cold evenings.

Yes that is a bottle of yummy red wine next to it. Well we were celebrating the fire lighting. Not sure if the warm glow created was the achievement of having completed something, the heat from the fire or the rosiness caused by a few glass of warming red. Probaby a combination of all the above.

Oh and here it is after a few coats of paint in the light of day. Just now need to re-fix the picture rail and skirting boards and this project is done. Will post a final picture once joinery is all complete!

Hours taken: many if you count all the time it took to find the fireplace and the time it took our great friend Al to go and collect it. (I swear the address said Northants Al, I swear). But one day to install, sweep, fix chimney plus a few hours painting.

The work begins...

....after all the excitement and ups and downs we went through, albeit in a relatively short period of time (due to the vendor insisting on a 28 day completion), we finally got the keys to our dream house.

Although the house itself is beautiful, due to it being a repossession the guts have pretty much been ripped out of it. So although you tend to take before and after shots to show that the after shows an improvement on the before in this case it is before and after repossession!

Bedroom

Kitchen

Living room

Main bathroom

So we have quite a job on our hands but I can't wait to get started. I think project 1 (phase 1) is to get the Living Room back into shape. It's probably the room with the least investment required and I am talking time and money (and if you don't think about re-sanding back the floors and revarnishing) and I need a refuge and somewhere relatively comfortable to retreat to when the dust / painting gets too much. First up..buy a fireplace!