Despite my recent post about looking for a house, we’re still trying to make improvements to this house – let’s face it: it could be years. Our bathroom on the middle floor has had a hand held shower but tiles only a foot high around the bath since we moved in, oh… six and a half years ago. We never really used the bath until recently (to bathe Scarlett), but I always felt a bit sorry if guests used it. If they wanted a shower, they would have to sit in the bath – which seems something like a punishment – or use our ensuite. Continue reading
Category: The archive (Bradford house)
Ikea kitchen: a quick review
No, we’re not revamping our kitchen just yet! Our main Christmas present for Scarlett this year (well, last year – happy new year!) was this Ikea kitchen.
We went full circle when we started looking. She showed an interest in this Duktig in Ikea, so we went home and started researching bigger, fancier (and yes, pinker) kitchens online. My bookmarks are still full of expensive wooden masterpieces. But we got a grip. She’s not even two, she already enjoyed playing with this one, and it does add up with the pots, pans, utensils and food. This was a fantastic £49 total for the two bits (they split it into the bottom bit and the top bit), not including the accessories. We did buy it on sale – it’s normally £65 for the two parts. Continue reading
Nursing chair: after the hiatus
Wow, this nursing chair has taken a while to complete. I was given it in late 2012, and spent much time the week before I gave birth in February 2013 on my friend’s sewing machine, reupholstering it with grey fabric – you can follow its progress here, and see it with the matching footstool here. Continue reading
Bed: a mini project (stage two)
Stage one of overhauling our bed was hacking the top off, opening up the lines of our bedroom again and giving me less things to bang my head on in the middle of the night.
Stage two involved sanding as long as I could be bothered (not long), inhaling yellow dust (I know because when I sneezed, it came out of my nose), wiping the sanding dust with a teatowel which really shouldn’t have been used for that purpose, all to get it ready for the paint (which I got on the carpet). There’s a reason I usually let Barry do all this. Continue reading
Bed: a mini project (stage one)
I mentioned a couple of months ago that I wanted to attack our big yellow Ikea four poster because it was ruining the lines in our room. For once, we didn’t just talk about it for months and then throw it onto the pile of other discarded ideas, Although our time and money is stretched at the moment, this was a fairly straightforward project, which Barry really kicked off when I came home to see that he’d already gone ahead and sawed the top off our bed. Continue reading
Plans for bed
I have an idea for our bed. Put those thoughts to one side, this is a house and home blog.
The reason we fell in love with our house was the master bedroom. And the reason we fell in love with our bedroom is the light that comes from both sides of the house; it fills the space and makes it feel twice as big. Continue reading
I got sunshine
…on a cloudy day.
That’s what I think when I look at the sunflowers in our flower bed, anyway. Scarlett was sent home with a tiny green shoot in a flowerpot for Mothers’ Day, back in March. And yes, I did cry. A couple of my friends (you know who you are) think it’s hilarious that I cry whenever nursery give me anything Scarlett’s made, painted or planted, but it makes me so happy! I digress.
So, we left it in its little pot and set it on the kitchen table near the window, where it started to grow. I’ve never been very good with plants, but I tried my very best with this one. You know, because my then 12 month old daughter planted it with her own fair hands (with help, granted) and such. Continue reading
A study in sewing
My desk in the study, which I don’t think I’ve ever shown you, is looking rather busy at the moment. Since my sewing machine arrived on my desk, I’ve been sewing project after project.
Other than Baby Brain creations, my machine’s been whirring away on bunting recently. I have a trip planned to Ikea in the next week, to have a look at some storage solutions – as you can see, it’s overflowing with buttons, fabric and paperwork!
Plasterific
Thanks to Barry, the holes in the ceiling in the living room and kitchen are now filled in and the living room lights are once again a-go-go. It’s nice to see his lovely face again. Whilst it added ambience, the light from the one standing lamp dragged from upstairs wasn’t excellent for eating tea by.
We now have many huge grey patches of plaster that need to be sanded and repainted, but that’s going to wait until after Scarlett’s tea party when we are permitted to have a dusty house!
Sorry for the awful cameraphone shots! If you looked down, you would see a hungry baby sat on my foot in this one.
There’s a hole in my ceiling
Dear Liza, dear Liza. Our living room lights decided to stop working last week. If you’re a regular reader, you may already be in possession of the very useful fact that we have 13 lights in our living room.
These are the holes that poor Barry has had to saw into the ceiling that he painstakingly plastered after putting the lights in.
He’s decided to forgo sourcing the problem after we lost count of the holes, and has instead run another wire from the kitchen into the living room, bypassing the problem area before the ceiling fell in on our heads.
Barry’s mum and dad are visiting at the end of next week (for Scarlett’s first birthday, already!), so the pressure’s on to make it right!