The current big renovation projects, requiring workers to be in the house, are all but completed and we’ll wait until spring to start on the next phase. So, apart from a some smaller, more specialised jobs which will need the expertise of our builder, it’s down to us at the moment. We’re mostly at that lovely stage, in quite a few areas of the house, where we’re finally able to put things back together and make rooms more homely and comfortable. Wakening up this morning, the light streaming into the bedroom was gorgeous – we’d forgotten to close the shutters so we woke up to the sun rising just about the church steeple in the village, and sunlight starting to flood the room. Everything just looked so lovely!
Sunday morning sunlight flooding into the bedroom…
IKEA Maskros pendant lightshades work a treat in the high ceiling – and cast very pretty shadows…
Here little fishy… I *knew* all of the cushions I’ve been stockpiling would be used…
Now that the interior stonework is painted white, the house, especially upstairs is so much lighter & brighter and more able to accommodate pops of colour…
The upstairs bathroom is one of the winter/spring projects, but now that the downstairs one is completed, it doesn’t seem quite as awful as we once thought it was. Probably because we now have a choice and don’t have to use it. But we’ve tried, in the short term, to make it as pleasant as possible – and hopefully, we’re creating somewhere that in the interim is calm and relaxed. Helped by some bits and bobs brought over from England…
Our very serene Buddha…
Hamsa hand & trailing faux ivy…
In the grand scheme of things, there’s still an awful lot to do in and around the house. We need to experience this coming winter (last year’s deep freeze was apparently very out of character) to decide how we’re going to go, heating wise. Maybe the wood-burners will suffice – there will be three when the final one is fitted, but there will still inevitably be cold-spots, so a decision will have to be made about the most cost-effective way of heating the house, bearing in mind that for seven/eight months we’ll generally not need any form of additional heating system. Both the inside and outside cellars need to be tackled – the one under the living room will become a den/snug with, hopefully, a new door leading up & out into the piece of land we’re in the process of acquiring behind the house, to create a secret courtyard. The outside cellar, once cleared of junk will become much needed storage space. A new boiler needs to be installed. A utility room needs to be carved out of the internal cellar space so that the washing machine & dryer can be hidden away. Floors need to be painted. Two sets of internal staircases need to be radically improved and beautified. More beams need be give the TLC treatment. Bathroom #2 needs to be renovated. And, then the outside space needs to be tackled. For a house which was structurally sound when we purchased it, and apart from a paint job, OK to live in, we’ve created a mammoth task for ourselves! However, it’s not every day you have such an amazing blank canvas to work with – and it just means that every DIY day is a day nearer to our dream home. Which, if history repeats itself, we’ll obviously then sell and start all over again…
