Light the fire...

lucielle

Wow you have been busy.  Like the sound of the breakfast bar and stools
L

woodfired

What a fabulous day we had yesterday.  The nicest day I can remember for a very long time.  We gathered our friends together and headed to the beach at Lytham St Annes for a game of cricket, some paddling and a picnic.  The weather was gorgeous and we hadn't seen some of our friends properly since lockdown, we had such a lovely time I have been smiling all day because of it.

Today has been back to normality; a short shift in the shop as I had a gap in the rota, some washing done, the house tidied and DH has painted a lovely chunky coffee table for the lounge.  It was one of those orange pine numbers but he has sanded the top back and painted the base a chalky white which now looks lovely with a ceramic jug of pink peonies sat on it. 

My bar stools are here along with the new breakfast bar oak, which is still waiting to be fitted.  Our builder has made a fab job of removing some nasty exposed stone walls that half enclosed the snug.  The stone was cheap reproduction which looked awful.  We were expecting to have to replaced them with block walls that we could plaster but he has managed to build the replacement wall into the outer wall of the house instead of having a 'pillar' so it has opened the snug area up so much and improved the work we had already done.  The sung is a narrow (10ft wide) room off the dining area and was painted dark green with black windows and curtains and lots of dark exposed stonework when we moved in.  It was ok in the evening but as it is part of our main living area, it was really dark and depressing during the day.   I immediately pulled down the curtains when we moved in, painted the windows a blue-grey and all the walls white.  We have since opened up the fireplace (it was just a tiny hole in the chimney before) and put in a new woodburner, taken down all the stone 'features' and opened it up more as part of the kitchen diner.  It has transformed the whole area, all of it feels bigger and lighter.  We will hopefully have it plastered this week then it will be painted white once again and a new carpet down.  I will try and share some pics once it is done.   I can't wait!

Moneyfordreams

It all sounds lovely.

greent

I agree - all sounds lovely, woodfired - really making the place yours x

savingholmes

Sounding really fabulous. Great that you have been able to enlarge the space too.

woodfired

Quick post from my phone to show before & after of the snug.x

woodfired

Oops, missed these! Apologies that the images are MASSIVE! 😂

Mrs_Money_Penny

Looks absolutely beautiful Love the colour scheme x

woodfired

So pleased with how it has turned out, the carpets were fitted last week and the space is transformed.  You can see from the agents photo how dark and cramped this room felt when we moved in, its so much brighter and feels so much bigger now. We are currently sat in front of the woodburner with it roaring away. It's not warm up this way. Brrrr.

Today I have used my homemade comfrey fertiliser on my plants and I can still smell it now!  It STINKS!!
Hopefully it will do the trick and save a bit on plant feed, every little helps as they say. 

In money news, DH's business is not doing too great.  He is yet to have any orders post-lockdown and we are worried we may have lost one customer altogether which isn't good news.  We have decided to use a bounce back loan to pay off the finance on the machinery which will give us some breathing space for 12 months.  If it is not viable after that period then we will sell up and DH will have to find a 'proper' job.  Not sure how that will go, he has always worked for family/himself so it will be a bit different but he is adamant that he is not going back to that, he wants a fresh start which is fair enough.

With that in mind I didn't make the final £250 OP, its sat in the bank whilst we are a little more careful over the next few months.  I will make some OPs but need to keep plenty in reserve, just in case.

Meals over the last week have veered from salads and sandwiches through to roast dinners and comfort food as the temperature dropped like a stone.  Tonight is mash, roasties, cauli cheese, sprouts and corned beef with gravy and yorkshires.  We had this with braised steak last night but only a little left so some of us will have corned beef which I love.   Proper cold weather food. 

WF.x

woodfired

Mrs_Money_Penny said:

Looks absolutely beautiful Love the colour scheme x

Thanks MrsMP, we are pleased with how it worked out.x