Before I start with the new, I thought I’d sign off with the old house. It’s been so long since we put it up for sale, and then accepted an offer, that I think I’d lost all feeling I’d ever had for it. Of course, I’ve said before, it was the house that we brought Scarlett back to (and Jude, for a mere six days), but it’s been too long.
Category: The archive (Bradford house)
Spring cleaning
We took full benefit of the crappy weather this Easter weekend and went a bit mad cleaning, tidying, listing on eBay and binning stuff. So cathartic!
We’ve tentatively sold (simultaneously crossing fingers and holding breath as we don’t have a date through yet), and with a baby due in June, we realised we need to clear out the old to make space for the new.
Hanging baskets: not just for nannas, yo
I’ve avoided hanging baskets until now in my life, as I, yes, had the recently realised misconception that they are for nannas. And granddads, let’s not be sexist.
Following our harrowing Homebase trip, we ordered some brackets from t’internet and then drilled big holes into our house to make it all pretty like.
In the meantime, you can see that Scarlett dedicated herself ostensibly to keeping them alive (see exhibit A), which was negated by the armfuls of pink blooms she wandered inside to bin the following day.
Pretty, colourful flowers
We visited Homebase last week, a harrowing trip where we lost Scarlett for a full five minutes and found her in the outdoor bit, presumably returning to a plaster of Paris sheep that had taken her fancy. I actually ran round with a full trolley balanced with flowers without thinking to just abandon it. Great cardio.
We managed to gather ourselves enough to pay for our purchases: lots of flowers for the long planter in the back garden, and two hanging baskets which were on offer, presumably because Britain is not likely to see the sun again this decade.
All change
I am not a patient person and the lack of control in house selling is driving me crazy.
Following a challenging six months with our original estate agent, we’ve cut the apron strings and moved onto another. There was some miscommunication, and we’d come to the natural end of the contracted period, so we thought we’d take the opportunity to get bumped back up the Rightmove ranks and try a slightly different market.
Ashley, how I love thee
Back to my Ashley Thomas addiction now. I’ve been mostly hanging fire on buying anything for the house (like these flowers), but I’ve had my eye on these storage tins for months, and I decided not to wait any more. If they don’t suit the next kitchen, I’ll put them in a cupboard and look at them covertly.
Purple haze
There’s this wall that has been the bane of my home and my blog and my mind, I’ve brought it up for at least three years, and at last it’s done.
After painting the tester of Twilight Mist (again, whaaaaat?) on the wall in our bedroom and disregarding the opinion of my husband (spoiler, it turns out alright), I decided to go and buy a full tin and a cheap roller set from Wickes and just do it. When I say just do it, I meant for Barry to just do it, but that didn’t happen, and it didn’t paint itself, so I did it as it turns out.
Testing, testing
This is the wall that just refuses to paint itself.
Following the slathering of a hot pink tester on our bedroom wall, in, ahem, March 2012, we’ve had to look at the crime scene every time we walked in our bedroom door. It had got to the point where we didn’t see it any more. And when I did see it one day, I painted over it in white to make it easier to cover when the whole wall was painted. There was probably a year between these two events.
Ready to move in
We had another viewing this week (about time too, it’s been weeks), and this wall really jarred as soon as I showed the visitors through the door – it’s right opposite the doorway in our bedroom. Continue reading
Fresh bedding
There’s nothing quite like new bedding. I love it. I’m also more than slightly addicted to the At Home with Ashley Thomas range at Debenhams at the moment. Santa brought us some eye-catching Heirloom Ashley Thomas cups (which are also the optimum size for my cup of tea) and this beautiful Lorna bedding, which I had my eye on since painting our bed blue. Santa was especially generous because he also upgraded us to Superking sized bedding, quilt included. It’s huge! Continue reading