At last - published photos!!!!

WELCOME - this is my front door we have just put up the Ikea hall rack on the right hand side and alan has cut off 4 inches from the depth of the radiator cover as it covered a storage heater before. He also added two top vents as he thinks we will lose a lot of heat using it! We want to paint the banisters cream and stain the handrail mahogany and the walls are yellow at the moment which I hate - so thats the next paint job maybe next weekend - just need to decide on the colour - which means sleepless nights ahead as I try and make a decision.........................There was laminate flooring in the hall but it was glued so it had to come up for the radiators. We will try and paint the paintwork over the course of the week at night so as to be ready for the walls on Saturday - will mention this to Alan tonight as he just drops off to sleep and by morning he might think it was his idea???

This is my new loo under the stairs it smells of lovely new paint. The other pic is my lovely old mirror that I have saved for a long time for the right place for it to hang - its perfect. We have five little blue tiles above the sink which were fitted whilst I was at Homebase as a surprise - except I spoilt it by phoning Alan from there to see if he wanted mt to get tile trim and he said it was too late to buy any as he had just that minute fixed them on the wall! PS THE PICTURE OF THE LOO HAS DISAPPEARED AND AS I AM LOSING MY HAIR THRO' THE MENOPAUSE! I CAN'T AFFORD TO TEAR IT OUT IN RAGE - SO BE ASSURED MY LOO IS LOVELY!!
My vintage mirror

This is the corner on the left of the kitchen where I hope to put my bargain painted dresser when I get one! and fill it with my vintage stuff - however at the moment I have put in place the old dresser bottom I painted in Bone some time ago - it was in the garden room in the last house. There is a lovely velux window above this which makes it a sunny corner

Well here goes - I have busy today taking photos in the lovely sunshine on our last day off work. W have had a lovely long break since Good Friday. I am so happy at home I was never cut out to be at work but I do find the salary comes in handy especially in this house!

I have taken pics warts and all.............remember the flooring all came up for the central heating to go in apart a lone bit of carpet on the landing. So please excuse the mess you can pick out in the background - that applies to all rooms!!.

We brought a rug from my Mam's to put down in our room to give us a bit of comfort as that will probably be the last room to be done. I bought a lovely bedspread and thought that although it was so beautiful I couldny use it with my Arundel curtains, so it stayed in its bag unopened. On Sat am it was sooo sunny in the room I thought I would try it - its so lovely I have left it on - see what you think. I will put on the photos bit by bit at least they will serve as 'before' photos for when I finally do the 'afters' .
We have been painting today so excuse mess in corner of kitchen as well. The table legs and base and 'cooking apple green' and the chairs are buttermilk. I already had two smaller versions of the chairs and the windsor is an old treasure - I may just paint the other chair but can' t see Alan letting me paint the Windsor . The other pic is of the kitchen as you come in from the hall. I am painting a little shelf unit for the new downstairs loo as you can see. We have just painted it (the walls) this week in Ringwod Ground for you F&B afficionados! Ihave intentions of painting the cupboards a taupe/maybe sahde and adding dull metal handles in the future - haven't approached this idea with Alan he is on overload with my ideas for this place! The tumble drier you can see is to be saved for my son as I have one my Dad got me - its a condensing one so it is in the utility. We are going to try and get a unit to match the others to fill the space but in the meantime it can stay there.

I cannot for the life of me get these pictures to go where I want so the blog is a bit disjointed.

Right I am off for an early night - we keep saying its going to be hard getting up for worl on Monday after a week off but I have been up at 6am on my hols just because I wanted to spend precious time at home here. Night night .

Hello from bay window land!!

Here it is then the house that we fought for!! Nothing monumental about it - very ordinary and very ours!!

Well I am finally sat in my newly painted kitchen - Ringwold Ground Estate Emulsion - is on the walls but not above the kitchen cupboards yet - thats tomorrow. We had a deadline today as the new table and chairs were being delivered between 4 & 5pm. so we were in Homebase when it opened clutching my discount voucher ( you need one for F&B paint!!) got New White for the paintwork and we will use that all over now 'cos its a nice cream.......??

Anyway here we are merrily cutting in and rollering when the phone goes - can we deliver at 2pm? Yes I said that is fine - HELP! We decided to concentrate on the main areas - hence the painting tomorrow 'up top'. I was just washing the floor when they arrived dead on 2pm. Ladies it is lovely - it is so long since I bought something that someone had done and not me and hubby. Its lovely and very well finished - here is an advert for them - Mary O'Brien Pine in Stokesley. They will make anything you want and paint it - they spray it with pigment so the finish is awesome. I still dont know whether I should have had Cooking Apple Green chairs - the cream chairs are a bit loud - should I have gone for a darker cream - anyway never mind I love it.

Now I need some oilcloth to go over the top of it for workaday days. Looked on ebay was surprised how much it was. Fancy Sanderson Rose and Peony or Willow Bough minor - rang my local shop and its cheaper there, and I can check out the LA Erin and Polka dot but it needs to match the base of the table. COMMENTS WELCOME AS I DONT DO DECISIONS VERY WELL ANYMORE!!!

Have been watching dressers so I can buy one for the corner of the kitchen that will become my little 'vintage heaven'. They are mostly north of here up to now which means a courier at £40-50, so I need to get one cheap to make it a bargain!

Well here in bay window land we are all very happy - the gas central heating is bubbling away and keeping us cosy, what a difference having lashings of hot water. Daughter Kate has announced she is intending to rent with her fiancee shortly - I am happy about that because they will find it very hard to live together and its better they find out if they can do that in a rented place. The trouble is I am sure she will come back (twice before!) so there is no point in moving David into her room...............

Remember the issues with moving well I could write a book about my hassles with N Power but will do that another day and this is a happy blog without solicitors or buyers or sellers...........

We now have a new flat roof and are £2k lighter which was my carpet and flooring money! so needless to say after having the heating fitted we have floorboards everywhere, but at least we will decorat now whilst they are up. With just the kitchen paintwork to do that is one room done. Tomorrow Alan will sand down in the new understairs loo (my favourite room for its convenience!) we will emulsion that - was going to put up some olvely bin end paper but as I havent found any yet it will be emusioned for now. It has window into the utility which will be blocked up tomorrow and little shelves inserted in the recess. If you imagine it was the pantry underthe stairs originally and the window would have looked on ot the drive but the garage and utility are there now. My utility now has shelving down the side of the tumble dryer and fridge and all my loo rolls, cleaning stuff, polish, cool box etc are resplendent on them I love it. I put the clothes on the airer in there and the sun comes throught the velux and dries them. There is now a door into the garage from there as well which means I can pop in there with my recycling etc. It is slowly coming together - the seller hadnt plastered the wall when he pinched the utility space off the back of the garage so the other wall is breeze block but I see it as a perhaps a nice duck egg laundry room. The shelves are all bits of wood we brought with us but Alan has made them nice and deep and they will be painted the smae colour as the walls eventually. We might tongue and groove it first to save all the plastering. We used the metal uprights and vrackets for ease and couldnt believe how much they had gone up in price. Alan reckons his B&Q trips are never less than £20 a go - he tries to buy on Weds as its 60+ day and he gets 10% off.

I shall endeavour to take pics of the table and chairs tomorrow, right now I am off to have a cuppa and bed. So night night to all...................xx

Hello - have given up waiting and gone on at work!

Well - no broadband yet - why am I not suprised - they told me it would be 21 working days from the 4th February so tonight I do battle on the phone! I need a prescription now for it as I am getting withdrawal symptoms - I have had no ebay for weeks!

Now - the house - we absolutely love it as I said on 1st February the house just opened its arms and wrapped them round us all.

There are loads of unexpected jobs to do now we are in situ but it won't detract from how we feel about it. It is turning into a money pit! The flat roof needs desperately replacing and that is costing an unexpected £2k! but it will carry a 25 year guarantee so once done (this week) we don't need to worry about it. It leaked the third day after moving in and it is like a lace curtain so due to be replaced. The gas central heating should be done this weekend by Kate's fiancee Ross and his friend Ben - hence me walking in the door last night and finding Alan piling up laminate flooring he had removed from the front room! the gas pipe has to come across the house so all floors will be coming up - apparently we have busy evenings ahead! The storage heaters have been a nightmare after having gch for so long - the lack of water is awful - we were spoilt before.

I love my kitchen - I was sat last week after work chopping veg and chatting to Kate and Alan at the table - its exactly as I wanted to happen, we all migrate to that spot and my lovely family are around me. Even David with his tiny bedroom loves the house - he also loves having the front room for him and Kate and friends. I had unpacked lots of book boxes at the weekend at several things found their way into the front room - Kate was away on hols and when she came back she and David wanted to to talk to us about some ground rules about what is put in the their room!!

The multi fuel is fantastic - not a good idea to put it on though - we just sit in front of it and don't move - its gorgeous. We are thinking of changing the back room gas fire for a real one as the kids dont like us vegetating in their room!

I am so looking forward to the better weather the garden is going to be lovely - it gets the sun for hours and hours and there are loads of things coming up now, hopefully if the weather is good this weekend we will get out and get some of the plants we brought with us into the ground. Whilst the boys destroy my house!

We have a toilet under the stairs now - it was hard to lose the lovely space where the dolls house fitted so perfectly but the toilet is wonderful and such a relief (!!)

Right - lots to tell but can't be much longer now as need to get back to the coalface............... Meant to take before pics under the stairs etc and forgot - the whole place is in a mess now but I don't care..........................