do you mind if i knit

We're a team!

One dust sheet from our weekend of painting and decorating, hanging up to dry. Flip flapping away in the wind. I noticed it's got a few rips in it, when I was hanging it out. I'll get the sewing machine out at some point, and give it a new lease of life. Make do and mend, I say. These are the legs and feet of someone who is feeling tired, really very, very tired. It's me, it's my sore feet and weary legs. I never put my feet up on tables, (must be the way I was brought up), but here I am, saying I'm pooped, and I'm going to bloomin well put my feet up. And here are my legs again. This time I'm contemplating the remains of yesterday evening's little fire in the brazier. We stopped about seven thirty in the evening, unable to do any more DIY. Hugo lit a fire in the brazier from all the off-cuts of wood he'd been using for shelf building. I made us both a shandy, poured some crisps into a bowl. We then sat outside, warming ourselves in front of the fire, and made a little toast to 'us', and being a good team! Today I've taken the day off work, to do some more painting, time is running out, as my Mum and Dad arrive tomorrow afternoon. I'm sorry this post isn't very up-lifting.............. I've got more photos to show you, but I'm so tired I haven't got the energy to upload them............... And the little teeny weeny bit of energy I do have left in the tip of my toes, draining out fast, has to be preserved for that last coat of paint on the shower room walls. Hugo is working late tonight, and I want to give him the nice surprise of a finished bathroom when he gets home. Maybe I'll go and make myself another cup of tea to fortify myself. I polished off the biscuits earlier, but at this moment in time, a cuppa might just do the trick..................... Cheerio!

Messy business, this painting and decorating.

If you're worried your house is a mess, there's always someone elses house which will put your own perceived untidiness into perspective............... Today I'm volunteering to make you all feel great about your own homes, however tidy or messy, by showing you the state of my home recently. There is a lot of painting going on at the moment. In the above photo is one filing cabinet, destined, once finished, for my studio. This is a bit of a long drawn out project, because my first choice of colour, Lilac, was abandoned. It's now painted over with this Duck-Egg blue, as are the standard lamp base and the flower pot. After all, I might as well use up all my paint, mightn't I? There's that lilac I was just talking about, on the set of shelves. They were originally used to hold C.D.'s in my old studio, their new purpose in life is going to be shelving for nick-nacks. But I have to do something about that lilac,it's not going to work against the pink walls of my studio. Maybe I'll paint the sides green, leaving the edges lilac....................... And here is our bedroom............... which we're not sleeping in at the moment! The floorspace is piled high with books, which have been sitting there for a while, waiting to find homes on shelves. I have good news about that, because they are soon to get a new home, in my old studio. Shelves, glorious shelves! That's what Hugo and I have been doing over this last weekend. And I don't know if you recall me mentioning a rat problem? Well, Hugo opened up the wall, and there were no rats to be seen, they'd packed their bags! I can't tell you how relieved we were to just find the remains of an old nest, which has all been cleaned up now. There's just this one bit of wall to seal up again. Hugo did all the carpentry work, I was his helper............. He's done an amazing job I think. Hugo, you're wonderful! Hugo also made these shelves in the house for magazines and his cookery books. They're not quite finished, but I'm painting them anyway. There isn't a room in the house which isn't being used for something to do with painting, building shelves or repairing, it feels slightly crazy. While Hugo was building shelves, I busied myself with stripping the paint off this garden bench. It had got in a terrible state, and I found that some of the slats were a bit rotten. Gosh it's a laborious task, this D.I.Y.ing, isn't it? But I suppose once it's done, it's done. We'll be pleased we've spent our time on this when we see the finished result, which I'm DESPERATE to see! Actually, we have a very good incentive to get this work done, books shifted, house tidied.......... (house relaxed).............. My mum and Dad are arriving on the seventh April, to stay for a week. They've said they don't mind camping, and they don't mind mess, but there's just one little problem, I'm house proud.............. I want it to look welcoming and comfortable for them. Plus, there's nothing quite like the imminent arrival of guests to spur me into action. All those things that needed doing, get done, which is a positive thing in my book............... So I hope you don't mind, but I'm just going to take this week off from blogging so I can make a concentrated effort to get all the jobs done, as the only time spare to do them, is after work each day. But I'll be back next Monday with photos of a neat and tidy house. I hope! Have a good week and take care............. Love Vanessa xxx

The window seat that was.

I promised in yesterday's post that I'd show you what happened to our window seat. This is what it was like at the very beginning................ ............This is the middle of the story.............. ............And this is the 'almost' end............ The joiner still has to put in the 'cheeks'. What-on-earth are the 'cheeks', you might wonder........? They are the 'side bits', but I think I prefer the joiner's terminology of cheeks. There's something quite charming about the window having cheeks......... don't you think.......?

The Details.

Sometimes, there can be beauty in the details.......... ........ You just have to look ........really..........really.........hard........... ..............Then again.......... ............This beauty thing........... ...........is............as they say, often............... .............In the eye of the beholder..............!

Closed doors.

This was the door into our t.v. room............, the room also had our computer in it........... .......... so we ended up spending a lot of our time there. It was the sort of room that should have been a store room, because it was a bit dark and dingy. By blocking up the door, and knocking down a wall, we're hoping this will make a great kitchen. The process of making this happen seemed painfully slow at the time............ but fascinating. Have you ever watched a wall being built? We did lots of staring, and marvelling........... and not only was it great watching that doorway being closed up, (also kind of weird), there was the added interest of a wall being knocked down............. double the fun! Life is just one excitement after another at the moment.................

Wall no.2.

So the time came when the builder was able to take out the second wall. It feels strange to see this photograph of how the kitchen used to look. The yellow that the previous owner of our home chose to paint the kitchen walls was revealed, when Hugo dismantled the kitchen units. Going, going................ ........Gone! I was in the house when the wall came down. There was a thunderous crashing thud........... and the whole house shook............... dramatic stuff. There was a lull in my blogging last week, because suddenly everything got much more complicated with the build......... something we had not anticipated. We had to call in a structural engineer, and he gave us bad news based on how this old Georgian house was built. We're still waiting for the full report. The problem can be solved, we think, the bad thing is that the works will be held up untill we know what the next step is, when we get the structural report. Hugo and I were outwardly very stoical about it all, but we felt as though the wind had been taken out of our sails.............. a side effect being that we both feel jaded and tired. Never mind, in the grand scheme of things, this is a very little happening............ and builds are always unpredictable.............

The battle of the slippery pond liner.

It's quite impressive when you don't know what it is................. Imagine receiving a gift this size.................. Except it's not a gift, it's a pile of heavy furniture and kitchen goods..............patiently waiting to return to their homes, inside the house. Oh, and if you've ever tried to cover a large pile of whatever with thick pond liner plastic, on your own, then you'll understand the small battle I had with the stuff........... it did not want to do what it was told to do......... it just slipped......... slippery slipped, slide slipped, slippery slippery, all over the place. In the end I subdued it and won the battle by holding it down with a victory chair, and three victorious plant pots. I won that battle.

Wall art.

One of the things I enjoyed doing before the building work started, was gazing at all the incidental 'art' that had been created, in the first stages of the 'dismantling' of the basement. What can you see in this abstract piece? This section of the wall, and........... this too, reminds me a little of the work of Cy Twombly Could this...........? .........this?............and.......... ..........this?........... be by the hand of Antoni Tapies? Well, if they are..........(!)............. they are no longer. Shame. This is my piece............. or you could say, my discovery............ or observation.

Open Sesame!

Yesterdays post showed the dismantling of this wall, but the photographs were taken from the other side. For these photographs, I was standing in what was the kitchen, boring through the walls with my eyes into what used to be the t.v. room. The power of one's eyes can be quite startling, don't you think.............. ..............it's as if I had laser vision............. ............... like something out of Star Wars. I just have to look at a wall, and.............. .......openings appear. Yeah, this power isn't something I like to boast about. It just makes building work so much easier........... You are now looking into what will be the kitchen............. Gosh, it really isn't some kind of weird dream......

Two rooms becoming one.

This is the wall that divides what was once the kitchen and the t.v. room. When I took this photograph, I was standing in the remains of the t.v. room............ willing that wall to disappear like magic and be done with, no mess preferable........ .......no magic wand was waved here.......... ........just the reality of sheer hard labour. These posts seemed painfully slow to take form at the time........... ............... or maybe I was just being unreasonably impatient............ ...........and how tantalising can the prospect of one small remaining section of wall ...........going away......... be? Sometimes it's difficult to keep things in perspective. It was worth the wait in the end. This opening up of space thing............. is ......................MAGIC!