Snood Dog

Forget the rapper Snoop Dog, this is Snood Dog!

I came downstairs yesterday evening to find the dogs playing with something wild and woolly.  Bobby cannot resist the lure of slippers or anything that resides within shoes, like socks.  Or in this case, inside my wellies.
They were playing with the legwarmers Janiepip knitted for me, and which I wear inside my wellies on winter dog walks.  I'm not entirely sure how Bobby managed to extricate one from the depths of my welly, but he certainly managed it somehow.

When Bobby finds something wondrous like a dead legwarmer, he will prance around the room tossing it in the air then growl at it at it lies defenceless on the floor, before pouncing on it like the mighty predator he undoubtedly thinks he is.  When he tires of this solitary game, he will attempt to entice Frankie to join in by dangling the prey in front of him as a lure, before snatching it away with a low, teasing growl.
This inevitably results in Frankie eventually succumbing and lunging at Bobby, jaws open, and pinning him to the ground by the neck.  Just because he can.  Then, in a complete volte-face, Frankie will roll over submissively on his back - a signal that the tug-of-war can begin.
Due to Bobby's extreme camera terror, I am unable to show you the long drawn-out process of the game.

I am however able to show you the aftermath.  The legwarmer is fine, and has found an alternative use - a dog snood.  Frankie is a born poser, and loves modelling, so we decided he could wear the legwarmer.

Yeah, look at me smilin' in ma snood...

Yawnin' in ma snood...

And just chillin' wiv ma homies in ma snood...

Forget Snoop Dog and Pitbull - this is Jack Rascal!

He spent quite a while strutting round the house his 'hood feeling totally pleased with himself givin' it large in his new snood.

Sadly, Frankie is so naughty that I can quite imagine him fitting seamlessly into the hoodie culture.  He is funny though.  Respect!

Upcycling

I must confess to a slight weakness for handbags (and to a much greater extent, shoes, but that's another post).  One of my colleagues at work loves crafting, and she's extremely creative, coming up with uses for clothes, belts and earrings that I would never even have contemplated.  Recently she brought some bags that she'd made in to work to show us.  They were fantastic, and I bought one from her.  Here it is:

It's made from an upcycled jumper, beads, ribbons and buttons, and lined with a pretty floral fabric.  The little pocket at the front is perfect for my Blackberry.  Jane's made lots of other bags, a couple of which I've been sorely tempted by, but have managed to resist.  Jane is amazed that all of the bags she's made have been sold straight away.  I was really surprised when she old me this, as I think they're fantastically creative, and very unique, and I can totally understand why people snap them up!  They look great with a casual top and jeans.
You can take a look at some of the other bags Jane has made on her blog here.  Jane's quite new to blogging, but she's already an addict.
So there you go, I could have pretended I whipped it up myself, but anyone who reads this blog regularly would know that's simply not true!

February

I'm not sure where February went!

The last bits of floor tiling - in case sparks fly onto that parquet flooring!

Candlelit romance and a bit of Valentine's day fun...

Lots of painting and watching paint dry, waiting for the next coat...

And today, when we had a day off, and I really, really wished I had a camera rather than my phone to capture this wonderful window view from the place we stopped for drinks.  They had beautiful gardens...

... and a magic tree

Men at Work

A very belated happy new year to you!  I've been away from my blog for a number of weeks, and have much to catch up with on the blogs I follow.  I resolved to spend less time on my computer in 2012, and spend more time doing 'hands on' things that take me away from the screen.
That said, this blog has been a fantastic record of our renovation, and I don't want it to stop becoming so.  It's time for an update.

We didn't get in for Christmas.  Looking back, it was never going to happen, though thank you for your encouraging good wishes.

The past few weekends have been filled with woodwork and painting.  The skirting boards are fitted, ready for priming and painting, and the painting of the rooms continues.  I never realised that the painting would take as long as it has.  I spent several hours in the kitchen yesterday, doing all of the 'fiddly bits' ready for the roller work today.

Last night my camera went a bit doo-lally and downloaded 170 pictures which I'd deleted ages ago, but which it had somehow managed to keep stored in its internal memory.  Looking back through them, it again became apparent how far we've come, and why the renovation has taken so much longer than anticipated.

Here is the kitchen as it looked when we bought the house.

And once the cosmetic features had been stripped out...

The floors were dug out and properly damp-proofed before being relaid.  We suspected that there was something in the top right-hand corner of the room under the floor, as the floor tiles were different, and were starting to subside somewhat.    We found an old sewer.  That had to be filled in to avoid any problems in the future.

Before Christmas, the room looked like this:

Hubby was building the surround for the cooker hood.

It has now progressed a little further.  We have the tiles up, and painting has started.

I have chosen to paint the kitchen in the same colour as I chose for the living room.  Partly because there was plenty left over, but mainly because I absolutely love the colour.  It's 'Snowfall' by Crown.  It's a beautifully warm, light grey.
Here it is on the living room walls...

The house has been painted almost exclusively in neutrals, so that I can add colour through accessories.  After all the manual labour and stress of the renovation I wanted the house to be light and airy, but above all, a peaceful sanctuary.  But... we couldn't resist a splash of colour somewhere.  As I dabbed the first brushstrokes onto the wall, I wondered if we'd made a mistake with this one, but there will be a large dresser on this wall, so the colour will only be visible around the edges.  The 'middle' will be rollered on today.  I think it'll add a touch of brightness to the room, and will perfectly match the two red chandeliers we'll have on the ceiling.  Courage in the face of colour!

The colour hasn't photographed particularly accurately.  Imagine if you puréed raspberries and threw them at the wall - you get the idea.  I think the colour will be the perfect foil for the big white dresser.

There's still a lot to do in the kitchen, with the painting of the small pantry and the kitchen units themselves, but I'm loving the way it looks so far, and it's very much the largest kitchen I have ever had.  I'm looking forward to spending a lot of time cooking in it.

We found this old picture on the camera too.  We agreed that this picture epitomises the renovation.  Lots of unexpected surprises which lurked under the old plaster, and which have turned the last four years of our lives into a building site.

We found this horrendous damp in the roof, carefully concealed under a makeshift repair of a large roadworks sign (indicating that men were at work of all things), which acted as a rigid board to hold the wood underneath in place, and provided a sturdy base for the plaster to hide the problem underneath.  Men at work?  You betcha!

Some Christmas magic

Thank you very much Rose for this lovely award!

It's been quiet on the blog lately, with a lot going on in real life, and not enough time to keep up with everything that needs to get done.  This award was a great surprise and a real lift.

One of the terms of the award is that I have to choose five more blogs with less than 200 followers to nominate for the award too.  That's the hard part!  I follow a lot of blogs, and really enjoy reading all of them.  However, if I had to choose five that I think are deserving of this award, here are the ones I would choose:

1. Me and 2 Veg - my friend's blog about her new vegetable growing project and ways to be greener.  I love it because it's realistic and honest, and I can't wait to see what she does with her plot in her first veg gardening Spring!  She also makes some pretty fine soaps.  (I know, it's a shameless plug, but I wouldn't recommend them if I didn't enjoy using them myself.)

2. Sam Stewart Photography - amazing wildlife photography.  This blog contains my favourite photograph of 2011, though there are so many great pictures on here, and a notable absence of Photoshop!  A really talented photographer.

3. Brookwood Letters - a new home built from scratch in Scotland, and a beautiful collection of photographs that capture the essence of the landscape.  Annie's blog is a fantastic record, and one I'm sure she'll enjoy looking back on.

4. Melody Lorraine - Mel's illustrated mice and rabbits give me so much pleasure, as do her beautiful dogs.  I enjoy reading about new furry additions to the family and seeing new paintings and reading about her opinions, outings and ideas.

5. A Good Snapshot - Karen's photographs of beautiful skies and buildings make me look forward to seeing what she's going to post next.

All of these blogs are open, honest, genuine and enjoyable - that's why I think they deserve an award.  If any of the blog owners don't accept awards that's fine, I won't be offended.  If they choose not to pass it on, that's OK too - I'm just following the rules!

The Secret Garden

"One of the strange things about living in the world is that it is only now and then one is quite sure one is going to live forever and ever and ever. One knows it sometimes when one gets up at the tender solemn dawn-time and goes out and stands alone and throws one's head far back and looks up and up and watches the pale sky slowly changing and flushing and marvellous unknown things happening until the East almost makes one cry out and one's heart stands still at the strange unchanging majesty of the rising of the sun--which has been happening every morning for thousands and thousands and thousands of years. 

One knows it then for a moment or so. 

And one knows it sometimes when one stands by oneself in a wood at sunset and the mysterious deep gold stillness slanting through and under the branches seems to be saying slowly again and again something one cannot quite hear, however much one tries. 

Then sometimes the immense quiet of the dark blue at night with millions of stars waiting and watching makes one sure; and sometimes a sound of far-off music makes it true; and sometimes a look in some one's eyes."

A journey across continents, a secret garden uncovered with the help of a robin, a sick child, a grieving widower and a poor but happy family... did you read The Secret Garden as a child?  

I did, and then forgot all about it until I watched Kirstie Allsopp try to craft her way to a best in show by using it as a theme on her Handmade Britain TV series.  The illustrated version really grabbed my attention on the programme, and I found the book in the library.

I find that when you revisit books you read as a child they are either truly magical or pretty disappointing.  This one was the former, not least because of Frances Hodgson Burnett's inspiring words, but also its intensely beautiful illustrations by Inga Moore...

What a clever little robin to understand the value of friendship and acceptance.

Garofalo

No, not you!

I know it sounds the same if you say it slowly, but brown, hairy monsters have absolutely no relationship to pasta whatsoever!

Since I stopped eating meat and dairy, I don't have the slightest bit of guilt at spending more on the base ingredients I rely on these days, they're always cheaper than meat dishes per portion.  Before I tried Garofolo pappardelle, I thought pasta was pasta.

I was so wrong!

Although I've been working this weekend, I've been enjoying myself in the kitchen over the past few weeks.

More gooey brownies...

The last tomatoes from a friend...

And some romanesco from Riverford.

This was the best bread I've ever made...

...and the best soup.  I know it's green, but the sweet broad beans and lettuce combined with nutty spelt was just fantastic.

Going back to the Gruffalo -  why is this apron only available in children's sizes???

Varnished!

Firstly, a really big thank you for your lovely comments on the floors.  It was a really great boost to read so many positive messages.

The downstairs floors are finished... almost.  Apart from a small area in front of the woodburner which is going to be tiled, we no longer have any areas of concrete in the entire house - another milestone!

I loved the sanded look of the downstairs floors, and thought that the varnishing process might lose their natural look and darken them to a yellow shade, but I needn't have worried.  They look beautiful.

I think their age is reflected in the colouring of the wood, I still can't get my head round the fact that these blocks are over a century old.  Thank goodness the blocks weren't simply thrown away when their former home was stripped out and refitted. It's wonderful that something so old has been given a new lease of life.  Aside from being so labour intensive, I'm sure that bringing old wood back to life must be a really fulfilling way to earn a living.

Wall to wall

When I look from the 'dining room', I can see what was a concrete floor hidden under blocks of wood.

The floors are being sanded.  The dining room floor that I showed you last time has been buffed back to its natural colour.

The tiny hallway was too small for the herringbone pattern, so it's been laid like bricks.

The side extension already looks amazing with a wooden floor, and it hasn't even been cleaned.

I can't believe we got these blocks so cheaply.  Even with the labour intensive process of cleaning, laying, sanding and lacquering them, they were still the same price as good carpet, and yet they will last so much longer.  I absolutely love them.

Recycled floors

Work has started on laying the woodblock floors.  We got a small amount of teak and lots of maple.
These blocks were bought from eBay and from one of hubby's work colleagues.  They had a fairly undignified entrance...

All of the blocks had to be cleaned by hand to remove the old adhesive, luckily this wasn't a job we had to do!

They were packed into old banana boxes and taken off to someone who obviously has the patience of a saint.

The study floor was done first.  This floor is teak.  The man who's laying the floors thinks they are at least 100 years old.  It's amazing how the blocks are transformed once they have been sanded and lacquered.

The grain in the wood is beautiful.

Downstairs is still a work in progress.  Here's what the blocks look like before they're sanded and lacquered. These blocks are also around 100 years old - at the moment, they look it!

We've also finished painting the radiators.  This was a real job and a half.  Painting them with a brush didn't work, so we resorted to cans of spray-on radiator paint.  How many cans do you think we used?

Today we made the most of the glorious Autumn sunshine to visit some trees that are still standing.  My camera doesn't do them justice, the colours in the forest were outstanding.