Steady progress & first visitors ..

So we are feeling really settled now. We do still have a mountain of things to do but have had the chance to sit back a little this last week! 

We had our very first visitors from Germany -  It was really worth it as we had a fantastic few days and I was so pleased that Richard finally relaxed! Here are Georg & Milo in Broadway

We spent the evenings beforehand manically cleaning and trying to organise the guest room!! We had the carpets fitted during the day on Tuesday & our guests arrived on Wednesday ...

The carpets are a greyish beigey colour - I'm calling it 'greige'! We've had the same throughout upstairs & it looks superb!

Richard finished the tiling in the guest room ensuite - we think it looks amazing! 

Georg wanted to make a contribution to help & so he and Richard chose to complete the kitchen - they fitted the oven and fridge units & fronts which now look fantastic! 

Our dressing room is carpeted & fitted with shop rails - a few shelves to fit yet but it feels like such a luxury!! 

One of their wonderful gifts; sunflowers from Scotland 😁

So the plan now as we are recharged is to try & prioritise the jobs that will get us the sign off as this will greatly enhance our finances!!! But we also need to consider that autumn/winter is fast approaching (sorry I know it's still sunny outside!) and we should get the jobs done on the outside of the house to protect it; this includes guttering & facias, wood trim around the windows, the wood burner & solar panels & air source heat pump installed....

So long for now,

Wendi x

Textiles etc

I spent a wonderful day yesterday teaching at Littleheath Barn for Ineke Berlyn - it was a 'Play & Print' day using discharge paste, fabric paints and thickened dyes to print using thermofax screens. 7 lovely ladies (who were expecting Ineke as their tutor & got me instead!) were very enthusiastic and printed reams of fabrics! Some lovely images and patterns.. As it was my first ever time teaching I was apprehensive but I LOVED IT!! It felt very natural and I certainly can't wait to do more..  

http://www.inekeberlyn.com/colour-and-print-play-days.html

I promised I would put the recipe I use for Bakewell tart here too so here it is: the most delicious recipe - it's certainly in my top 3! 

If it's not easy to read, please let me know & I'll email the recipe to you..

I'm off to organise my studio and to find some work that needs to go to our group exhibition this coming weekend: it's a lovely event that raises money for charity. Oh and did I mention cake?! There's lots if it...!!! 

Building site luxury!

Hello

I always start my blog with an apology! It seems time goes by so quickly and I'm always surprised that I haven't blogged for a month!!

We are settling in albeit in a constant dust cloud - we are concerned about the floor screed breaking down and are trying hard to get the floor tiles laid as quickly as we can - Its a mammoth task though and we've had to leave other jobs in limbo..

I thought I'd take some photographs to show exactly how we are actually living - upstairs looks a bit of a mess, thats because we are living out of bags and suitcases!! Downstairs I do have the luxury of beautiful appliances and my stunning kitchen quartz worktops. The sink which was a gift from our friends Richard & Dinah (hbgroup.co.uk) is a bespoke sink with the house name 'Maple Barn' laser cut to be the overflow!! How cool is that? 

Its so nice to sit at the table and eat a meal, and to finally start entertaining my family &friends again!

The integral vacuum cleaner is now fully installed and in use; its a bit weird wrestling with a 9 metre hose but its very efficient. I just have to plug it in to one of 3 points in the house, the main unit (which holds tonnes!!) is stored in the garage. I just vacuum away - almost silently!

We have decided to try and do the jobs now that will get us to sign off  - this list is fairly long and costly!

On that list - the stairs were this weekends achievement; a while ago I blogged about gorgeous glass balustrades but sadly the budget wouldn't allow it so we've opted for traditional newel posts and spindles & I must say I love it! This weeks job will be painting it; and that may take a while....

The front door windows are in finally & have made a massive difference - we love the opaque glass, we get so much light in the hall way now.

Fingers crossed the electricians will sign us off this week & most of the house is wired & working. 

My amazing Moooi light arrived last week but can't go up until the stairwell has been painted. It weighs a ton too so we have to think of a way to support it:

We do need to sit down & invest some time organising ourselves! It helps to have a break & recharge but there just aren't enough hours in the day.

Richard & I continue to work flat out, we do really enjoy it though & always sit back and look at our achievements every day! Very satisfying...

As always I promise to try and keep the blog updated, 

Thanks for reading

W x

Leaks, Sewage and Cake!!

Im fitting in a quick blog update - 

We moved in without incident, well thats not strictly true.... on the first night the bath leaked and we had water coming through the study ceiling, 

On day 2, I noticed, shall we say not the nicest smell coming up from the dishwasher waste pipe in the kitchen, as the dishwasher hadn't yet been plumbed in, I thought it was a tad strange? - I couldn't understand why there was toilet paper coming up in the kitchen? YUK!!! 
Well it turned out after much vigorous rodding by my Dad that this culprit had managed to find "his" way down into the waste pipes and blocked the whole system!! God knows how it ever got there? We'll always wonder.....

(for those wondering - its one of those painting suits?!!??!!)


Its full on here- when I'm not working, eating or sleeping i'm painting... Door after door after door! A little tedious but we are working to a schedule to finish upstairs before we have some friends to stay from Germany in July - that is only 6 and 1/2 weeks away!!!

Meanwhile our kitchen appliances are in situ, My lovely series 5 Neff aqua assist oven and its matching oven/micro combi and warming drawer! I couldn't resist making my first cake as baking is something I've particularly missed doing. It has a steam injection function which makes the cakes more moist! YUM!

Our worktops are fitted on Thursday morning this week and the induction hob will go in after that, sink will hopefully be ready before then. I think therefore I may have a finished kitchen by the weekend!!!!

Electrics are still a work in progress although we are managing as most of what we are using is turned on. Our underfloor heating is coming up to temperature gradually and the houses insulation is proving to be amazing, really warm with very little heat input and staying cool on these lovely sunny hot days 

The bed fits into the space we created really well; a lot of people expressed concerns about the length of the room but we definitely wanted to feel as though we are 'in' the view. Its amazing to wake up and look out over the garden and trees. Certainly makes us realise we have to really consider the view form the master bedroom when we finally landscape the garden. (We have a new bed and headboard on order so pics when this is done.)

And so I must abruptly sign off and pick up the paintbrush..someones gotta do it ;-)

Wx

Moving in...

...Well the day has finally arrived and I've hardly slept as I'm so excited!
Today we are moving in - I say this very lightly as it all still looks like a building site. We don't have any carpets, curtains and such like but the bathroom is fully functioning at least! So we are moving in in a fashion - It will probably take us at least 2 weeks to get things looking close to normal

We have made real progress this week; the kitchen units are installed and look great. They are blue in the photograph but thats a protective film and all will be revealed soon. We have been back and forth to Ikea a number of times to mostly take things back as there were more drawers in this kitchen than I could manage - how many does a girl need??!?!?!
Appliances come tomorrow (Monday) and Granite Planet have templated for our quartz work tops. Its silestone 'Gris Expo' - We are in the diary for Thursday to be fitted. Our friends from HB are making a bespoke sink & there will be a little surprise here so watch this space!

Our electricians Rob and Alan have been working flat out to get us connected for our move in and we still have a way to go here but all sockets are working so we can have lamps at least!
Its all looking good and I'm happy with the sockets and switches choice, the spotlights which I lost hours of my life trying to find look great and so far the lighting configuration is great - I suppose it will all take a while to get used to? incidentally Rob thinks we have too many sockets?!! Is this possible? :-)

The Big Bedroom Wall - we decided here that we wanted to paint one of the walls a dark colour; I have painted many houses, many colours in my time, red, blue, purple.. to name a few! We've never lived in an all white environment before and now having spent weeks and weeks painting white walls to suddenly paint a wall dark grey?! It feels brave anyway!! I chose Farrow & Ball's 'Downpipe' and painted a patch on the wall (see previous blog) but I decided it was just too dark - Richard thought it looked like a school blackboard! So we just kept adding white until we got the 'shade of grey' we wanted (yes lots of comments about 50 shades of grey!!!) Once we got past battle ship grey (!) we decided we'd got there! Anyway I do think the doubters need to wait until the full picture is revealed; A nice big upholstered headboard and a large piece of artwork & it'll fade to grey... (sorry - cheesy pun!)

Our front door is finally installed and is looking exactly as we hoped - we have opted for a thumb turn inside and a long pull handle on the outside. We are just waiting now for our window man Richard to come and fit the side windows which will replace the lovely chipboard!

Add caption

So thats it for now - I think for us its a matter of getting organised, emptying boxes and slowly being reunited with our 'life in boxes'!

Wish us luck........


X

Positivity and Restoration..

....Hello

I promised last time to write a more positive blog and well - here it is!!

We've had a breakthrough and have some excellent news - For a while we have been really concerned we would not be able to finish the house due to finances - we were caught between the building society wanting us to finish it before giving us any more money and us not being able to finish it because we'd run out of money!! 

The joys of the self build mortgage :-/

So after spending a month wondering and worrying what to do, we decided to write to the building society and ask for an advance: (One of my mother's proverbs is "if you don't ask you don't get") - So we asked and after much debate by the powers that do - they agreed!!!!???!!@£$%^*****

So armed with hopefully enough money now to get us to sign off, we have to decided very carefully where to spend it. 

It's still just Richard and I working on finishing the house and boy there's still a lot to do! It's also quite difficult watching Richard who is incredibly skilled and able but only has weekends and evenings - there are just simply not enough hours! 

I really appreciate him being able to do these jobs; frankly where would we be without it? 

And so we are making progress in the utility room - it is nearly finished; the cabinets are in with worktop and we are really close to having hot water as the thermal store is finally installed.

I am still building kitchen units and the massive Ikea box pile does not seem to be diminishing - there is certainly a lot of kitchen!


Last bank holiday weekend I restored a table - long story but I acquired the table some years ago left it in the garden for a few years, finally brought it into our barn with glass roof where the sun then proceeded to bake it for a few more years!  then it was in my sister-in-law's garage now for 18 months:I don't know why but we decided to bring it with us


I decided to have a go at restoring it as we can't afford a new table - quite honestly I'm thrilled with how it's turned out!
It might only be a pine table but it does look a lot a lot like some of the tables I'm seeing in very nice interiors magazines!
It will do for us for a while and is certainly the right size for the living space, we have a mismatch of chairs but I think it'll look ok?

I used Annie Sloan clear wax to seal it after sanding - I liked the 'greyed' look as it was being sanded back and certainly didn't want a yellow pine, the wax is really nice as it seals it and leaves a gorgeous satin finish.

I also used the Annie Sloan chalk paint and dark wax on a mirror. I hated the mirror and was about to put it out for the charity shop when I thought I'd have go at this effect: as you can see from the before and after photographs it is a nice process and has certainly felt good to be doing some of the finishing touches!

And so the next few days and coming week are very exciting - This weekend we have some very kind volunteers (you know who you are and we LOVE you!!!) who are going to come over and help us push towards our finish - this will involve more kitchen building, (there are a lot of drawers!) a lot of painting: skirting, architrave and doors, as well as the wall behind our bed: we have chosen 'Down Pipe' by Farrow & Ball - I must say it's getting a mixed reaction but i'm hoping the finished result will be worth the risk? here's the 'sample' I've painted on the wall...
 


There are shower doors to fit, and the front door is hopefully going to go in too.. The electricians are coming tomorrow and are doing the 2nd fix so hopefully we'll be able to have hot water...that lovely bath is calling me ;-)

Appliances have been ordered and are being delivered next week from Porcelanosa in Solihull a lovely shop which most people will think of as a tile shop - it's a very inspirational place; their kitchens and bathrooms are amazing and they are very competitive with their prices and will price match - so it was a no-brainer to go there. The service is excellent!
We are having Neff and Siemens appliances and I must say I'm really excited about this delivery!!

We have also got Granite Planet coming next week to template for worktops and they are coming back to fit them the following week! We are having Quartz : this is one of the most eco-friendly worktops you can have and it looks very similar to Granite - we are going to have 12 mm thick worktop in a grey ish stone colour - EXCITING!


And so finally the best news I have is that we plan to actually MOVE IN next weekend!!! - its my Dad's 70th birthday & we do have a party to organise, cook for and attend but thats just a minor detail!!.. 

....Fingers crossed it all goes well this weekend?!!

I'll be back soon to let you know

Wendi x

Easter approaches

So here I am again - I don't want to write a negative blog I really want to write a positive blog and I promise I'm trying...
Of course there are a plethora of reasons to be cheerful; weekends away, spring lambs, tree blossom: the list is endless and I do love this time of year as its full of promise! 
Talking of promise though my hubby did promise me we'd be in our house for Christmas, then end of Jan, then end of Feb.. Looks like Easters going pass us by too! "Sigh...."






And so to the house update:

The internal doors are slowly being fitted and look really good, the thermal store which is a bit of a beast as you can see from the photographs is slowly being installed - this is quite complicated and no mean feat! It will use power generated from solar panels or the air source heat pump or the wood burner we can't really move in until we have actual heating and hot water so this has become a priority. We laid the floor tiles in the utility room first so that the boiler could be placed on it. Here's Richard laying the 1st tile - It may take a while only 85 square metres to go...





















We got all our stuff out of storage as we had the garage floor concreted and couldn't justify the monthly storage cost when we have this enormous empty space. It was so nice to get all my 'stuff of life' back - I still keep having a peek in boxes almost daily and still it makes me smile when I see my pots and pans, photos etc

The storage unit final day!

Paul has completed the cladding but there are some finishing bits to be done around windows etc- I think you'll agree it looks stunning - I love the almost mirror reflection in the glass.  Paul has now finished & left site :-( - there are jobs we still need him to do but we have genuinely run out of money. Now day by day the site is deserted and it is a bit eery without him ...

We are finding it difficult to find the funds to pay for the finishing. This is very frustrating as the finish is the culmination of all our ideas; all my research on mood boards and all our dreams of how the finish should look is now compromised due to our finances - very sad but I'm sure in the future we will be able to implement some of those ideas we had - fingers crossed 

In the meantime we are trying to do the rest of the work ourselves but with Richard working a 0630 to 19:30 everyday we only really have weekends.

I'm limited myself physically with doing some of the things but have built kitchen units and attached skirting boards etc. My next big task will be painting the doors, skirtings and architraves

I've also got an old table that I need to sand - this will be our main dining table for now but it spent quite a lot of its life outside in the garden & isn't in the best condition but it is quite an attractive table

We are going to spend this coming Easter weekend working hard on the house but first we will spend half a day preparing our caravan for sale as this will give us some much needed revenue and will help go towards our finish and an added bonus it will add to clearing the site as at the front we have a huge mountain of mud, roof tiles (I moved these today!) wood, pallets, piles of spent floor screed (I also moved this today!) amongst other stuff
I can imagine one day it being a normal drive - it will be so nice in the future when we can drive up and actually turn around in front of the house - luxury!!

So I've realise another milestone of the year goes by that is Easter and still we haven't moved in! Honestly we are very comfortable in the studio but perhaps a little too comfortable? Maybe if we were actually still in the caravan things would be going at a faster pace? who knows?

I suppose I can't complain although I feel I want to and yes we will be in one day and we will look back and laugh ...

I/we have had two consecutive weekends away one in Munich spending three days with our lovely friends Georg and Milo for their 50th birthday celebrations and last weekend I was in London with my daughters celebrating Chloe's 21st birthday!

It is lovely to come back to the house and see with fresh eyes as I don't have this privilege often I think that as I'm here all day long and look at a ghost site and all the things that needs to be done is probably why I get a bit down

And so I sign off again with a sigh but ever hopeful (this seems to be my permanent disposition) I promise to write a more cheery & positive post one of these days but hope that the photographs of our progress will be even more advanced 

but for now here are some pictures of fluffy bunnies and Easter chicks:

Happy Easter!!!

Wendi x