Bathroom Progress...

I mentioned the other day that we had at long last (6 months since we bought the place) bought ourselves a bath. T'husband put in a mammoth effort and trekked over to Durham and back on Saturday to collect it. He also collected me on his way back and got many a look and comment when he rocked up at the supermarket with a bath strapped to the back of a pick-up. Think that mobile baths or 'Tub Tours' might be the future. If it had been a rocking chair I would have totally rode it home, preferably sucking straw and strumming on a ukulele. Anyhoo, here is story of the bath room so far.

This is how it looked when we bought the house...

We were given a fireplace for free by t'husband's sister - gotta love the free (thanks Marie and Bri). Here is a glimpse...

As the fireplace is quite ornate and pretty I thought I would go for very simple, modern, masculine bathroom furniture as t'husband has informed me that this is 'his' bathroom so I thought he may not fancy a feminine 'Powder Room' despite him spending much more time in there than any girl I know. So we bought the sinks and WC first (on sale of course!). Here they are...

And last but by no means least the new addition.

Isn't she pretty? I even bought her some flowers to welcome her to her new home. Although not plumbed in, I am still admiring her sculptural quality and think I am getting as much pleasure from looking at her as I will actually using her. If she's not good to go anytime soon I guess we could always use her as a beer cooler for t'husband's upcoming birthday.

So here is how the bathroom looks now...


Still to do: tiling around sinks, filling holes, re-grouting shower tiles, new flooring, plumb bath.

As well as all the bath excitement we also got up to a fair few other things including...

Seeing relatives...

And spending time with siblings...

With whom we obviously share a fashion sense...


Eating food...


Burning it off...


And enjoying Ramsbottom...

Weekends rock...

Glamping....

I am not a fan of camping but this looks beautiful...

Coveting...

I know this blog is mean't to be about the house but I have been looking for a boat necked long sleeved shift dress for a long time. I was even thinking of trying to get one made but then I saw this....Pretty ain't she?

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....

A purchase for the house....

Currently, we are without a bath which in the majority suits me fine but I think t'husband really misses the, especially when he is aching after biking....so he has come up trumps on ebay again and has purchased this for a bargain price.

Now all we have to do is source some flooring, have a creative session with some old picture frames, tile, fill holes and that room's done...

Decorating with Emerald Green and a bit of black...

Part one - Dublin...

Okay the title may be a bit misleading. There has been no decorating, and especially none in Emerald Green. The excuse this time....a trip to Ireland! Not only did that take us away from The Money Pit for a week (time continues to slip through our fingers - June? Already? Really?) , but also all that Guinness, the 'craic', not cooking for a week and having a menu of foods you could choose from willy nilly by using the phrase 'well, we are on holiday' and those hostelries took our money like the most charming pick pocket you could ever hope to meet. So no house progress but a really good holiday. A few things that caught my eye...

Trinity Capital hotel and its crazy chairs ....exhibit A


And exhibit B....

Local colour...even the graffiti is attractive

More colour...

A place to worship...at the altar of Guinness. A bar (or is it a Church?) where they combine the institutions of religion and drinking...

Oh and how can we forget that other institution Rugby or is it football of the Irish variety? Think I switched off around this point....

Twas only a flying visit as we stopped over on the way to a wedding in Omagh....so more excuses when I post about that!

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