When bought the cottage had damp (which literally seeped out of the walls and left interesting black mould patterns), rotten windows, some extremely interesting cracks (which let in even more interesting gusts of wind) and was powered by one little coal boiler which was rather childlike and required constant feeding with coal to omit any heat at all. I promptly lovingly christened it the hovel. It was not unknown in Winter for me to retire to bed with a woolly jumper over my pyjamas and a nice warm pair of woolly bed socks. I know, the glamour of it all, but what is a girl to do when she can see her own breath in the cold and has icicles on her window?
I embraced it of course as a "Design Project" as I'm a girl who likes to muck in and get involved. I'm the sort of girl who likes to get her hands dirty and doesn't really care if she has paint in her hair rather than the sort of girl who has to dress up like Tweetie Pie at Ascot and ponce about at the Opera. I'm quite capable of doing some plastering and tiling to and planned to actually. Al got lucky really, doctors orders not to do too much so I couldn't be quite as hands on as I had planned. Though that didn't stop me from doing all the painting and decorating even though I got a severe telling off about it all.
Hovel no more though. Oh no, now I have my house with my very, very funky kitchen which is the heart of any home.Here it is below complete with cosey corner for Scruffbag to cuddle down in and my chilli pepper lights which nestle in the corner. The back wall is still left white, ready to hang a selction of pictures, who says you can't have a gallery in your kitchen? I intend to anyway.
It's lovely with the sun streaming through the french doors, Scruffbag loves to sunbathe there, flat out on the floor as we have breakfast with the Sunday papers, head raised only to clear her bowl of any sausage thats offered. The plan is to complete a walled garden behind it with a collection of herb pots and maybe some fruit trees trained across the walls, but thats a work in progress.
And yes, I do cook, well bake mainly, a few of my recent efforts are on here of course, the chilli chocolate cake, the banana cupcakes with blueberry icing and of course Scruff's favourite brownies. I'm planning to make something for Easter of course, not quite decided yet between another chocolate extravaganza complete with chocolate bunnies or a raspberry and lemon cake with lemon icing and a sprinkling of mini eggs.
I also have a really rather lovely en suite bathroom complete with luxury double ended bath complete with bath pillows. Then there's the showerroom, with a very lovely walk in shower with the biggest shower hear we could find, just like my own little waterfall on tap. All very boutique hotel stylee even if I do say so myself. The picture below was taken before the finishing touches were complete buy hey gives you the general idea.
The bathroom is simply perfect for a big deep bubble bath, surrounded by candles, I'm still on the hunt for some suitable accessories for the ultimate bathing environment but love hunting for them in the most unexpected places. The old bath, which is a rather weighty cast iron one is another project, planned to be made into a pond possibly for fish, though Cooper is possibly untrustworthy in the fish department so that may need to be considered.
Finally the sanctuary of a new bedroom, with dual aspect its a very sunny room. Although I'm not a bimbo glamour girl type I quite like having my little dressing table, though I couldn't resist adding some blue fairly lights just to make it a little bit more funky.
At the moment it sort of feels like someone asked me to house sit a proper grown up house, silly but I do expect them to walk in and ask what I'm doing there, like some modern day Goldilocks.
Anyway, there we go. It isn't easy living on a build especially when you're a bit poorly like I have been but it's a job done great. For all the unfortunate mini digger incidents and mishaps along the way Al is the best builder ever as far as I'm concerned.
Well off now, really do need to decide what type of Easter cake to make, stop by sometime, there's always a kettle ready to boil, or a glass of wine ready to pour and cake to be eaten and laughs to be had. You can laugh at me dancing in the kitchen with the dog if you like or you might even find yourself wanting to join in.
TTFN
xx
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