We've never lived in a house before that has a private parking area. All of our previous properties have had on-road parking, and because we lived in busy Mancunian suburbs, parking could be tricky....
Renovation…
In the beginning, our blogs were mainly about destruction, demolition, debris, dirt, dust and sometimes, despair. It wasn’t easy, and sometimes, sitting in our new “home”, surrounded by boxed up belongings and builders’ tools and ladders and half built walls, we did wonder what we had done. But those walls do get built, the tools are finally dispensed with and the familiar belongings find new homes. We’re now able to document the “nice” bits of the reno project – the upcycling, the recycling, the repurposing. Making empty spaces into rooms. Breathing new life back into a house which needed a lot of TLC.
We hope that this journal will provide inspiration if you are embarking on a similar journey. We hope that it will give you the courage to just do it. And we hope that it will give you an unshakeable sense of belief that it can be done. Because it can. And guess what? We’re still doing it. The house may be finished – although we never say never – and so our focus has been on major demolition and construction work at both the front and rear of the house. Want to know all about our renovations?
Open a bottle of wine, curl up on the sofa and come and join us on our journey…
recent renovation blogs
entrance to our home
When we bought our house in Istria in 2016, it looked very different to how it does today. It was kind of quarter renovated. The roof was new. The guttering was new. Windows had been fitted. And...
garden vision realised…
Ever since I saw this photo, I knew exactly what the garden at the rear of the house needed to look like. And, luckily, our builder was totally on board and could see the vision we had. Now, four...
construction continues…
It seems as if we have once again, shared our home and garden, with builders, for a considerable period of time. But we haven't really - it's only been four months - but we've been so keen and...
secret garden progress
It's only called the Secret Garden because it's partly hidden from view and it sounds a whole nicer than the back garden. Since the weather broke and we've had lovely long days of hot sunshine, the...
and another garden wall is built
With a reliable builder finally working with us, we've decided that we can't let him go to waste, and so are adding jobs to his ever-growing list. The weather has been pretty dire the last week or...
pea gravel perfection
So, finally, the whole of the front garden area - the piece we don't actually own, but care for and improve - and the concrete patio, are now covered in a thick layer of beautiful white pea gravel....
demolition…
We've thought long and hard about how much current renovation we want to do in our Istrian stone house, as it is imminently going on the market, as we have plans for a whole new adventure. However,...
garden makeover : white stones
Way back in 2016, we viewed our house fro the first time, and this was the garden. Although "garden" is a bit of a stretch, looking back. A mucky, concrete patio and a patch of scrubby land, full of...
garden wall construction begins…
Having lived for six years now with the view out of our living room window being the small stone house we purchased from a neighbour,...
the start of the garden wall…
So, with the demolition of the small stone house of the way, and our boundaries having been established way back in 2020, and the securing of a local builder, we felt that finally we were on a bit...
the demolition of our small stone house
the story of the little stone house When we bought our house in Istria six years ago, this little tumble down cottage sat to the rear of it. There are lots of properties like this scattered across...
new year : new project : the house
Summer 2022 ended with a bit of a whimper of the house front, as we reluctantly made the decision to take the house off the market and give up on our dream of The Printworks - the property we had...
getting plastered…
Throughout the house, in most of the rooms - apart from the ones we have totally taken apart and renovated - there is still evidence of it being an original Istrian house. A lot of the walls are...
an anniversary…
Sunday 16th October 2016 saw us meeting up with the couple who we were buying our Istrian home from, and staying over in the house. With hindsight, all a bit bizarre. But then, not much about this...
changing our view…
Three, nearly four years ago, we were very excited when one of the tumble down, abandoned houses beyond our property was demolished and heavy machinery arrived in the village. We were even more...
small steps : reno update
Over the summer, when we were averaging two or three house viewings a week and had some very serious interest in the house, if someone had told me that by October, we'd have taken it off the market,...
defining boundaries…
If there is just one thing we have learned from the journey of selling our renovated house in Istria, it's that boundaries are number one priority for nearly every potential purchaser. To the point...
moving on…
The phrase "End of an Era" has been used a lot over the last 24 hours, and although not on quite the same scale, it's also the end of a bit of an era for us. In December 2020, we finally signed a...