recent blogs

ikea krusning pendants

ikea krusning pendants

Lighting - and pendants - have been a big consideration in the renovation of our house. Initially, we'd thought that we'd go down the route of Moroccan/Moorish style pendants, but to get what we wanted, for all of the rooms, would have cost a small fortune. So, we...

heating the house

heating the house

We have no central heating in the house. We could have had it installed when the renovation was happening, but having experienced how the heat is retained over the spring/summer/into autumn months, we decided against the expense. We also decided against air con, which...

andalucian reno journey #3 : main bathroom

andalucian reno journey #3 : main bathroom

It's been a while since I've done a post about our renovation journey, because we've so busy since actually moving into the house - at long last! - on 26th August. The builders finally departed a week later (but will be returning to finish the kitchen), so we've been...

andalucian reno journey #3 : stairs

andalucian reno journey #3 : stairs

The stairs up to the roof terrace, from the first floor, were awful. Just awful. Steep, enclosed and dark. They were so awful in fact, that we gave our builders a bit of a head-scratcher and said we wanted to investigate accessing the roof terrace from the internal...

fabricoat fabric paint

fabricoat fabric paint

Yep. Another one of those things, like the butter bell, I had not heard of until recently. Fabric paint. Paint for your fabrics and furnishings. How this has passed me by, is beyond me, but here we are. Until I saw a post on Instagram, and started to investigate what...

andalucian reno journey #2 : main bathroom

andalucian reno journey #2 : main bathroom

Unlike previous renovations, when we've actually lived in the properties as they were being renovated, this time, we have lived in an apartment, by the sea, a good couple of hours drive away. Each trip over to the house, is over a four hour round trip, and so we...

andalucian reno journey #1

andalucian reno journey #1

The renovation - well, I say *renovation*, but what I really mean is demolition - started in earnest a few weeks ago. We are very lucky that we've bagged ourselves a gorgeous apartment to rent, in a lovely western coastal town called Sanlucar de Barrameda, meaning...

our initial advice when buying abroad

our initial advice when buying abroad

Finally, work has started in the house. We visited last week and arrived to the sound of chiselling and hammering as years of plaster was starting to be removed from the walls of the rooms on the first floor. The downstairs rooms were filling up with scaffolding and...

the start of something new…

the start of something new…

Although it still feels as if we are on a very extended holiday here in Andalucia, and will be returning to Istria and our stone house, we're going to soon realise that this is not the case. We actually completed on the Spanish house in October, but have only visited...

garden table upcycle

garden table upcycle

We have an old, rustic wooden table, which we brought out to Istria with us. It used to be a work table, so was stained with oil drops, paint splashes and cuts in the wood. We used it originally, once cleaned up, as a work desk, as being quite long and thin, could fit...