Our current journey started in 2017, when we sold our home in West Didsbury, Manchester. We’d lived in the mid-terraced, three bedroomed house since 2000, but had recently renovated it, creating a very unusual, completely open plan space. This gave us a craving for more space. To be somewhere which didn’t have houses to each side of us and to the back and to the front. To be able to see the sunset, not other roof tops. We took a complete leap of faith and sold the Manchester house, buying a stone house, high up in the hills in northern Istria, Croatia and set off on a very new journey.
We really hit the ground running and from day one, had to get our heads around not only sourcing tradespeople and materials but also considering what we wanted our new home to be like. Underpinning our thought processes, was the constant idea that we wanted to create something which was unique and bespoke – and as far from the traditional interior of an Istrian house as possible. We wanted to get to know our new environment and feel the house and understand the space. We wanted space, light and clean lines. We wanted our style, but we knew it would evolve. It would take time. It would become Slow Design…
Renovation
Interiors
Lifestyle
Travel
Latest Blogs…
Summer Garden ’21
After over a year of lockdown and travel restrictions, we've finally been double jabbed and now that we can access the EU vaccination certificate, the prospect of travel is on the horizon. Not immediately, but the prospect is there. In the meantime however, we're...
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Les Jardins de Villa Maroc, Essaouira
It’s always great having friends in-the-know when you travel abroad, as they often give you top tips that you don’t find in guide-books or through internet searches. Because usually you don’t know about these places and so don’t search on them. One of these gems...
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Red Lentil Dahl
It's not a difficult dish to make, but there are many, many recipes out there for dahl. I think however, we've found the perfect recipe, because of the balance of flavours and texture. I found it on this website, but the author of the recipes/blogs goes into so much...
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Brondo Architect Hotel, Palma
Over the last few years, we’ve been very lucky to be able to pack in a huge amount of travel – as well as actually move abroad, relocating from Manchester to Istria, in northern Croatia. We’ve spent the last couple of years renovating a stone house and exploring our...
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Spring Bathroom Makeover
This rather lovely rustic, wooden A-frame ladder, hinged at the top and held together at the bottom with thick rope, hasn't really been utilised in our house as well as it could have been. It's usually covered in throws, which as the weather warms up, are discarded...
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Lluna Aqua Hotel, Sóller, Mallorca
When we last visited Mallorca, one of the hotels we booked was the Lluna Aqua Hotel in Sóller. Housed in a traditional Mallorcan townhouse, which we were told had been empty for over eighty years, the renovation had only recently been...
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Pistachio Pesto
OK, if you have a nut allergy, DO NOT - and I repeat *DO NOT* - try out this recipe. If you don't, and you are a fan of the pistachio nut, DO try it out. Because not only is it stupendously delicious, it is beyond easy to make, takes very little time, very little...
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Mallorca : One To Avoid…
It’s hard to imagine that there could really be anywhere to avoid on Mallorca. We’d discounted Magaluf, as unfortunately we’re no longer in our early twenties, and so, when booking places to stay, we were pretty confident that every place we chose, would be a winner....
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Garden Renovation
So, the exterior renovation of our house for sale, continues apace. We've largely completed the interior renovation - but we never say never - and so our attention has been turned to the garden area around the main house and the little abandoned house to the rear....
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A Bit of Bling
In the olden days, when I wanted to up-cycle something, out would come the paint pots and brushes. Faffy and fiddly and usually waiting ages for the paint to dry. And because I am ridiculously impatient, I'd try and pick up or move...
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At Last…Online Grocery Delivery!
We're very used to getting in the car and driving to the supermarket. We're not lazy - it's just we've had no alternative. We live in a small village and although it has four very renowned restaurants, it has no shop, Once we'd arrived here, four and a half years ago...
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Vrbnik, Krk Island, Croatia
This was originally posted in August 2019, so all pre-Covid, when we could all travel much more freely... As well as family and friends coming out to visit us in Istria, we now have the opportunity to meet up with people who come to Croatia on holiday. We still find...
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Spring Project
We knew we had to tackle this part of the garden, because it was overgrown, messy, full of stones and rubble from previous renovation works and the trees were literally being strangled by vines and brambles.The little stone wall was falling down in places, and in...
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Window Shelving
One of the things that we've always meant to tackle, but never got around to it, as there always seem to be other jobs which take priority, is the levelling of a number of our window sills. Some are level, but some, including one in the...
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How To View Our House For Sale…
So, you want to move abroad. Istria could be the place and we’ve whetted your appetite, with our property for sale website. What now? We could be wrong, but we’re assuming that you don’t live here already and that, like we did, you will want to view the house and the...
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Lluna Aqua Hotel, Sóller, Mallorca
When we last visited Mallorca, one of the hotels we booked was the Lluna Aqua Hotel in Sóller. Housed in a traditional Mallorcan townhouse, which we were told had been empty for over eighty years, the renovation had only recently been completed and the hotel only...
read more