A Quick Walk Through

 

My new wardrobe arrived the other day.  

I had ticked the box for 'All Day Delivery' which meant delivery was free of charge ... how was I to know that I would be first on the list and it would arrive in two huge boxes at 6.35am!!

I got a text the day before to tell me my delivery slot was 6.30am - 8.30am, which usually would not have been a problem but obviously as I don't live in the annexe yet, it meant setting my alarm for 5am to give myself enough time for me to drink two cups of coffee and let my painkilling tablets kick in before I took a slow drive on deserted streets to get to the new place.

The next day Alan assembled it for me, and he was so pleased with it he's ordering the same one for his house as it matches the king-sized bed and bedside tables that we already have.  With this one the drawer section was already put together in one large box and the upper section was in five parts ... top, sides, back and doors already fitted into their frame with the hinges already on, all very carefully packed for a safe delivery.  It made for a relatively easy assembly job, which would have been even easier if I had been able to help, but the early start and travelling the day before had finished me off for the weekend 😓

Anyway I love it, and it matches the doors and the curtain poles perfectly so I have a very co-ordinated bedroom developing.

I've been asked a couple of times for a walk-through film when the annexe is all finished and I will do that I promise, but yesterday while we were there checking out Alan's decorating progress I decided to do a quick video tour of the annexe while I waited for him.

For those of you who need it - 

(195) Annexe Walk Through 1st June - YouTube

It's a bit rushed as Alan burst in at the end to ask me a question and I instinctively stopped filming but it does give you a little glimpse of things as they are now.

Sue xx

The Fence is Finished - Tick

 

The fence between us and next door is finished, and it's looking really good too as this photo taken from the first floor window shows.

This is it from our side ...

... and this is it from theirs.

It felt a bit strange going down their driveway to have a look into their back garden, but as they were away I wanted to check what they would find when they got back home.  I thought they would be pleased, and they really were.  They rang us to let us know as soon as they saw it.

Good fences make good neighbours.  

Over the weekend we went to Daisy Clough garden centre to pick up some bags of compost, some plants and an apple tree.  We might also have partaken of a cup of coffee and a sausage bun while we were there, it did seem strange to be out and about and eating out again, strange but very nice.

Although I love the neatness of the neighbours garden I need colour and greenery in mine and I am itching to get things planted in the ground.  But first I just have to wait for a ton of top soil to be delivered, while I wait I will sow a couple of the Courgette seeds that I also picked up from the garden centre into a plant pot here at the flat, I know it's late but they should romp away and maybe give me a little taste of homegrown by the end of Summer.

Sue xx

My 50p Marks and Spencers Jeans

We got this £10 gift card the other week from the company that were our former solar power installers in Wales, they had sent us a brochure and accidentally put unknown to them forged stamps on the envelope.  This meant that all we had received via the redirection service was a card from the Royal Mail asking us to pay postage on an unknown large letter item.

We weren't going to bother sending back the stamps to retrieve this mystery item anyway but then the next day we got a letter from the solar company apologising and explaining what had happened ... and sending us a £10 gift card as an apology, which they had had to send out to everyone who should have got the mailings.  Their buying cheap stamps had backfired big style!!

Then my quarterly M&S vouchers arrived.

 With £19 in the form of a gift card and vouchers for £9 and some extra points for ordering online, it made sense to order something that I really needed.  So with one of my last two pairs of jeans giving up the ghost only the week before I decided I would buy a new pair of jeans for just 50p ... so I bought myself a t-shirt as well  😁

Sue xx

Fences, Sheds and Sticky Backed Plastic

 

Yesterday the fencing guys came, and in the space of one day almost completed the fence in the back garden, quite a feat considering that they had to jack-hammer out the concrete blobs that had held the last fence in place.  

Our neighbours have been brilliant in letting us remove one of the fence panels from the old fence during all the works, which enabled us to take everything we needed to the back of the house and remove everything we didn't need via their driveway and back garden.  Having the annexe attached to the house means that we have no access to our back garden from the front ... which is great from a security point of view but a bit of a hindrance when you are completely renovating both a house and a garden.

So to thank them for this we are paying for the new fence at the back and they are just sharing the cost of a matching but lower fence at the front.  Very fortunately, and completely coincidentally they have been away all this week, so when they get back tomorrow all the fencing will be finished.  The guys have been very careful not to disturb any of their garden on the other side ... which is mostly grey stones anyway, but it is nice to see how carefully they peeled back the membrane leaving the stones ready to be raked back into position once that final panel is in.

The old fence panels are not being wasted at all as they are going to form the back and sides of my new tiny shed ... and Dave our handyman has been steadily acquiring used pallets to form the front.  I really wanted it to look rustic after finding this photo online ...

... so hopefully it should look a little bit like this once it is done, minus the side window and the raised front porch.

While all this was going on yesterday and Alan was busy working in the office I spent an hour lining the drawers of my bedside cabinet.  I used the Radio Times to make a template so I didn't risk wasting any of my precious wallpaper.

It turned out quite well, and once the paper was cut to size it was covered in clear sticky back plastic that I had found in the charity shop at just £1.50 for a whole roll, just to give it a little bit of longevity and make it wipeable.

It's the little touches that make a home feel complete isn't it ... even if it isn't quite complete yet!! 😄

Sue xx

Wallpaper Up, and Boxes Cleared

 

The wallpaper in my new bedroom is up and I love it.  

The decorator has done a brilliant job, you can't see or feel any of the joins and the match is perfect.  The colour soothes my soul ... exactly what you want in a bedroom ... and it and the kitchen cupboard doors will be the accents for the whole annexe.

The tape on the floor was there to see if I could fit a double bed and two bedside cabinet in, now that plans have changed the tape has been pulled up. There will be just the one bedside set of drawers and a small double bed to give some more space at the other side.

Talking of bedside drawers ... the hall back at the flat is looking very cluttered, so yesterday we took three of the biggest boxes to the annexe to start getting things up. 

Two of the boxes contained these.

I was originally going to have a chandelier in each of the two rooms, but I just couldn't find any that I loved enough so I changed tack and found these lightshades instead.  I'm thrilled with them.

And while Alan put new fittings and cables up for them yesterday, 

I oiled the bedroom door.

Just look at the difference one coat of the Linseed Oil makes, it brings out the beauty of the wood wonderfully.  A very satisfying job even if it was a bit too much for my poor old back 😢

With the tape gone off the floor and the light shade up the bedroom is starting to come together nicely.

Door finished, and the living room light fitting also installed by my very handy hubby.

While he had the ladders here and was getting used to working at full stretch he decided to take down the bathroom light fitting and add a much longer cable for me, so while he did that I gave the lightshade a really good wash.  It turned out it was cream coloured not the dirty mustard colour we thought it was!!

Once that was done we put up the new mirrored bathroom cabinet, which at the moment is the only storage in there.  Luckily it has three good shelves with lots of space for toiletries.

A good few hours work and it's coming together with the simplicity that I love and that I had hoped for, but I'm paying the price today.  Time for a rest on the comfy upright chair, a few cups of coffee and a good film methinks.  

Sue xx

When Centimetres Matter

 

Seriously addicted to ... Ercol  💖

I was browsing the Vinterior website again looking at possible options for bedroom furniture when I found this little beauty.  My initial plan, as I think I mentioned a while ago, was to treat myself to new bedroom furniture, just one wardrobe with a drawer and a couple of bedside tables in oak to match the new bedroom door.   Indeed I had placed my chosen pieces in my Shopping Basket at furniture 123 but before I pressed that order button. I wanted to check out other alternatives ... and I'm so glad I did.  I found this little beauty that is by the same designer and made in the same year as my new to me Ercol sideboard.

In my basket at Furniture 123 were two of these and a wardrobe, but I was debating just buying just one as I only need one and I have a plan that might work out for the other side of the bed.  I noted down the measurements, then discovered that they were very similar to the bedside tables we already have and that Alan will be having in his bedroom in the house ... they match the oak bed perfectly so this was always the plan.

So I had a closer look at ours with a tape measure in hand.  

The overall piece of furniture is almost the same size as the Ercol one but the drawers are so much smaller, and when you are living in a small space all potential storage space matters.

The drawers in ours, and therefore potentially in the new one,  all measured 24cm x 29cm internally which equals 696 sq.cm.  Multiply that by three drawers and it is 2088sq.cm. of storage space.

As the drawers on the Ercol bedside table went right to the edge of the cabinet I knew they would be bigger.  And now that it is here I can show you just how right I was.  They each measure 38cm x 37cm, which equals 1406sq.cm. multiplied by three and it is 4218sq.cm  

So I have more than twice the storage space in my new bedside table than I would have gotten in my chosen new one and I also have another piece of furniture that has lasted 60 years already and will no doubt do at least the same again.

When you are about to live in 336 square foot of home an extra 2130sq.cm of storage matters 😃

Today's nice little sit down job for me is to line the drawers with the left over bedroom wallpaper, not a vitally necessary job as they are in perfect condition, but it will make me smile when I pull them open and there's that little bit of colourful co-ordination.

Sue xx

Colin, the Painters and No Blotches

 

As requested here is an update on Colin.

He almost took another tumble the other day, so I decided to re-pot him into a much larger and heaver pot.  Obviously here at the flat I don't have any plant pots, and as there's no more raiding the polytunnel every time I need something for a houseplant I carefully removed some almost hibernating Snowdrops into a plastic pot where they can await their transplanting into our new garden, and gave Colin the nice heavy terracotta pot that they had been in.  He seems to have settled in well to life in my kitchen with his new friends.

With Alan driving I managed to get to the annexe last night to see how the painter had gotten on.  The whole place is painted now with a matt finish on the ceilings and an acrylic on the walls for longevity.  They had left everywhere nice and neat with just a little collection of pots by the door ready to be picked up by the boss who is wallpapering the bedroom wall himself one day this week.

I dreamt the other night that the wallpaper had shredded as they tried to put it up and they presented me with a bucket of wallpaper coloured papier mache ... fingers crossed this doesn't come to pass 😄

Alan had tried out the Linseed Oil on one of the doors, and it looks beautiful.  He did the edges of both doors before they were hung and then carried on to do the whole of the bathroom door.  

I will do the edges of the bathroom door again as it will be in a steamy environment and then finish off the bedroom door once my back is a bit less painful, but in the meantime I can admire them now that they are in situ.

This is the now whiter than white bedroom, and do you notice  something missing from all these photos?  Well I've been photographing white things over and over to check it out but my new to me camera does not have the blotches my old one had stuck on the lens.

I have held off for years buying a new camera, I liked mine as it was just a simple point and shoot type with settings that I rarely changed and it really did the job, was nice and small and light to carry out for days away and well it was just a good camera ... apart from the blotches it developed a few years ago.  Which seemingly are a known fault with this model.

Then the other day after photographing white walls with their dark spots and realising that I was sick of explaining, mostly here on the blog, that the blotches were the cameras fault and not on the wall or door etc I decided to bite the bullet and see about getting myself a new camera.  I looked for a new similar model and the cost ... well WOW!!  I might be splashing the cash on my new home but over £400 for a little camera seemed a bit steep.  Then I decided to look on Amazon for my exact model and found a couple for sale secondhand.  One day and £99 later and I have exactly what I needed, and I will hang on to my old one for spares.  Apart from not having the blotches it makes me happy that it's one less thing going to landfill and I am making good use of something that has been reconditioned for reuse.

Sue xx