Running the Showroom Gauntlet

Because we felt like we were making a bit of progress with the kitchen planning, we decided to go and see some in real life. Armed with our plan, our first stop was Wren. No real reason, they just had a good sale on, had a country style that we thought was alright, good colour options, and it’s not too far.

Well. We made the mistake of going just as it opened, and I have never been inundated with so many helpful people in such a short space of time. It was overwhelming. I swear to God, they were popping out of cupboards as we walked round the showroom. We then made the further mistake of loitering at the kitchen we’d actually come to see and Barry cracked when we were approached for maybe the tenth time. That’s a modest estimate.

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Let’s talk kitchens

The kitchen’s been a hot topic over the last few days – it’s the first biggie from our list of things we’d like to do in the house this year. Because we’ve done this before, Barry’s confident about fitting it himself again, and we have lists of absolute must-haves, would-likes and get-rids.

Putting flooring aside for now, the first thing we’d do in the living half of the room is to get rid of the corner sofa from the old house and put in a four-seater sofa – I’m eyeing up some yellow beauties like this one from Chesterfields, which Jude will no doubt trash within a day, but… look at it.

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Well hey there, 2018

Happy new year! We’ve got quite a few ideas cooking for the house – most of them for downstairs – which won’t all be achievable in 2018, but we’re enjoying the planning process anyway.

Extension planning

Back in November, Barry contacted the local planning department about whether we would be able (in theory) to extend the house. The idea is that you pay about £50 and submit a vague plan, and they come and have a look to see if it would be at all viable. Saves you getting an architect involved if it’s a big fat no.

It was an as-it-stands no. We were looking at knocking down the current garage and building another one attached to the house, putting more bedrooms above, which would provide a bigger bedroom for Jude, a spare room and a craft room for yours truly. Continue reading

Goodbye, sycamore

We’re having to say get a 300-year-old sycamore tree at the bottom of the garden felled. It’s right on the boundary between our house and the church next door, and we knew nothing (Jon Snow) until someone cutting the church’s grass noticed it was bleeding sap on that side.

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A celebration

We had Jude’s Christening and birthday celebration last month, and every spare minute we had went into preparing the house and garden for our family and friends to come over. Many hadn’t seen it and we’d taken the leap of organising a garden party and just hoping the weather would hold.

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One year on…

Right, I’m a day late. But it’s been a year (and a day) since we made the big move back to East Yorkshire. To village life. To family.

I went for a run this morning – no need to drive to the canal like I used to – I can run a perfect 5k route straight from the house. While I was being advised to Work Bitch by Britney, I was looking around and thinking about how much our lives have changed in the last year.

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A catch-up with the spring garden

It’s been a bit crazy since I started back at work after maternity leave, and while I think we’re just about managing to keep up with the garden, I’m not doing a very good job of writing about it!

Before the weather totally changes again, I thought I’d just share the photos of the garden that I’ve taken over the last few weeks when the weather was just turning warmer.

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Covering Jude’s lampshade

I was keeping an eye out for a lampshade to match the grey and white stars theme we’ve got going on in Jude’s room (you know, the theme that extends to his curtains and changing mat).  It’s the last thing that really needed doing to finish it off after I painted it a couple of months ago.  Of course, there’s more I want, but this definitely stood out as “wrong” in the room.  None were quite what I was looking for, so I decided to do it myself.

Having a quick google, I found the perfect instructions for me – covering a lampshade that already has white or cream fabric covering the frame.  The shade that was left by the previous homeowners was a three-tier cream pendant shape – think upside down wedding cake.

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Babyproofing

We’re a lot more relaxed about babyproofing this time around.  Not that we don’t want Jude to be any less safe than Scarlett, obviously, but we know what was worthwhile from doing it all last time around.

Everything dangerous is clearly out of reach.  There are a lot of extra cupboards in this house that we didn’t have in the last house, which is handy.  They even left us a lockable medicine cabinet.  Plug covers are contentious… we bought them last time, and then threw them away after reading that they actually make the plug live, so we haven’t got those again.

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Creating the orchard

The trees arrived for the little orchard Barry’s creating – this one’s all him – all I’ve done for this is water a couple of trees. He’d allocated an area for it where the chickens are, near to a plum tree, and he’s chosen to plant them with an imaginary path running through there, for when we can get that down.

I was a bit surprised that five trees could be delivered packaged like this, and survive.  They seem ok though, kudos to UPS!

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