Cross Monday Week 53

This has to be the latest Cross Monday ever!!!  Monday was the day that the scaffolding was due.  As a terrace house with no back access, the only way to get scaffolding to the back of the house is to take it through the house!  Currently the only way to do it is through the living room window, through the double doors into the dining room and out of the back door in the dining room!  

We got up super early on Monday and moved all of the furniture and toys out of the way, and laid down dust sheets and waited... they arrived about 10 o'clock on Thursday!!!  So all week we have been stuck in the house without a living room! Add to that, my broken camera meaning I have to take the photo in daylight and today was the first time I had a chance!

That's also part of my excuse for not having stitched much this week... my other excuse is that I have started on another cross stitch project, which is top secret so I can't share it, but means I now will be splitting my time between the two... just when I thought the end was in sight...

Oh, and I'm still no nearer finding an alphabet the right size!  The book my mother in law lent me didn't have any, but she has found another two books so the hunt continues....

My Sunday Photo

Clyde Cat

Bathroom Layout

Papa Owl and I have started planning our bathroom layout.  We'd had a few rough sketches of how we thought things would go, but hadn't actually measured the room to see if it would fit.  The room is currently two room, which we will return to one.  The current three doors will be reduced to two, one to enter the bathroom from the house, one to enter the garden from the bathroom!

I did a bit of searching on the internet and came across a bathroom planner on bathstore.com.  It was a bit clunky but very quickly gave me a scaled layout and the ability to add baths, showers etc.  It soon became apparent that the only way we were going to fit in a toilet, sink, shower and bath was if the bath was to sit in the middle of the room.  We thought a free standing bath would be a luxury that we couldn't justify, but the extra door in the bathroom means we just haven't got the wall space to fit it all in otherwise!

I'm quite excited by this!  We currently have a shower over the bath so it will be fantastic to have a separate shower.  Having a toilet in the bathroom will make it so much easier with Little Owl.

While I was busy clicking away at the laptop, Papa Owl had dug out some square paper, a ruler and a pencil and had been busy creating a scaled diagram.

Papa Owl hasn't included the chimney on his diagram as we are planning on taking it out.  While it took a little longer to set up, Papa Owl's diagram is much more tactile and easier to change than the online diagram.  It took a bit of work looking up different sizes of baths and showers but it gave us a lot more flexibility.  Going for a central bath has also given us the wall space to have a large shower.  Another luxury but does mean it will be possible to take a shower with Little Owl.

I've been quite drawn by this style of shower which I have been told is an "off set quad".  It gives us the space inside the shower, but by softening the corner, allows more room outside to walk through what might be a pinch point between the shower and the bath.  

We are still very unsure of the style of bathroom we want.  Do we go with a Victorian bathroom which will keep in style with the house but limit us on some choices, or do we go with contemporary which allows us to add sunken spots lights bringing much needed light to a very dark room?

My Sunday Photo

Sunday afternoon fire

Small Changes. Big Difference.

Last weekend was one of getting jobs done, nothing too exciting, just small little jobs, but some of them have had a huge impact on our home!

Firstly the light had gone on  the first landing, which is a dark enough spot as it is without any natural light.  We put a brighter bulb in and a larger shade and its lightened the whole hall way up massively!

Second was a new toilet seat!  Little Owl couldn't get on to the toilet herself with her seat on there so we have invested in a 'family' toilet seat!  Little Owl loves it and again, the room seems brighter having gone from a black to a white seat.

Then it was the turn of the coat rack!  This came with the house and we've just carried on using it.  Little Owl's play kitchen sits underneath it, which didn't leave her much space to play as she grows taller.  The new bulb upstairs has helped to lighten another dark corner so we decided to raise the coat rack by about 6 inches.  This was going to mean a stretch for me to hang my coat but would really make it a nicer space to play for Little Owl (why can I hear all my teachers saying "there's no such word as nicer"?)

The trouble is, we took off the coat rack and our hallway suddenly felt light and spacious!  But we couldn't not have a coat rack... so we found another spot!  Just behind the front door! So obvious but we never thought it would fit there, the fit is actually so perfect that we think it was made for that space!  As an added bonus, it makes the entrance to our house seem so cosy and homely - love it!

There was one other small change this weekend - picked up my new glasses from Frames In the Lanes too!  So far only my mother and one student have noticed but I have had a few compliments on my hair!  

My old glasses had seen better days!  Love the news ones though!

Aren't they fun!

Our Bathroom

We're at the very beginning stages of planning for a new bathroom.  We've owned our house for just over 3 years and are slowly renovating it room by room.  So far we have completed our bedroom, Little Owl's room and our living room.  Our dining room is a work in progress, with an aimed completion date of Christmas 2015.  We are also hoping that our bathroom might be completed by then too.  To be honest its a bit of a dream, I don't dare to believe it could happen.

We started by sketching out the bathroom with all the details on like the window, doors (plural), alcoves etc so we could measure and record them.  This is by no way to scale!

So our bathroom is currently two rooms, our current bathroom has a bath and a sink and not enough room to swing a cat, not even little Bonnie.  Originally it would have been one room, I suspect the maid's room.  

Have you spotted the unique feature?  Yes, we have a door to the garden from our first floor bathroom!  What's more, you still have to go up steps to reach it!

The plan is to open this back up to one room, and probably remove the chimney breast to allow us more room for storage, and some wall space for radiators.

We hope to fit in a bath, separate shower, toilet, sink, and off course a shoe rack for our garden clogs! 

Silent Sunday

Our Dining Room - Operation Turkey

Behind these doors is our dining room.  Its hard to believe we have only been in our living room for a year.  The dining room is our next big project, Papa Owl and Grandmadad have been doing bits of work on it for, well, probably the 3 years that we have owned the house.  Things picked up speed this year though when Grandmadad announced last Christmas that he was "getting too old for all this cooking turkey business" and so Operation Turkey commenced!

   

This is the view from the other side of the door.  Operation Turkey isn't going so well.  We are now working on Operation Turkey +1.

And this is what the rest of the room looks like.  Actually, I took this photo this morning, this evening there is even less floor.  The plaster in the corner all had to come off as the damp was so bad.  That was ages ago now, possibly 3 years ago, and the damp has been solved and the wall is drying out.

The ceiling  fell down 3 years ago, not long after we bought the house.  The old central heating pipes ran above there and we think there was a slow leak over many years.  Luckily this fell down before we had moved in but until we get it fixed, we can't decorate the 'green room' above.

There is one bit of the room that we are happy with though - our fireplace.  The original fireplace had been removed decades ago and we were left with a blank wall.  We couldn't believe our luck when we found this! 

So that's our dining room, Operation Turkey +1 is well and truly underway!

In 5 years time...

We've just committed to a 5 year deal on our mortgage.

5 years

It doesn't seem that long...

And yet...

In 5 years time we'll be nearly a third of our way through paying off our mortgage! We've owned our house now for 3 years, and I must admit at the time 25 years on a mortgage felt like forever, but those 3 years have gone quick as I'm sure the next 5 will too. Paying off a third will certainly feel less pressured.

In 5 years time we'll have made lots of progress with out house, hopefully.  A new roof is planned for late summer.  The dining room and green room are current work-in-progress.  I'd really hope that we will have a new bathroom by then too.

In 5 years time, I might have a proper job!  Or not.  I've enjoyed the flexibility of doing supply, but I've been lucky all year of having long term placements.  But this month I have started doing day to day supply, and that's a little more stressful, getting up and ready for work in the morning but not actually knowing you have any.

In 5 years time, Little Owl will be at school.  Wearing a little uniform, going every day.  So many decision to make about going to school...

In 5 years time we might have another small owl in our nest or possibly two?! Who knows, but by then we'll have an idea of how big a family we are to become.

How exciting!

Small Garden Sandpit and Water fun!

I was loving the sunshine we had last week but Little Owl and I were exhausted! Knowing how fickle the British weather can be, I was determined to make the most of the sun while it lasted, but this meant we were out all day everyday!

You see, we do have a garden, a pretty big one, but its, well its not toddler proof.  Little Owl spends two days a week at her Grandparents while I'm working, but their garden is small, and while toddler proof, has a brick paved floor and no grass - not exactly idea for spending lots of time in!

Then a friend shared an idea of facebook for a small garden sandpit which I thought was brilliant, so I thought I would share with you too.


A quick trip to Tescos and I bought 2 plastic boxes with lids, £3.60 each, and two bags of play sand for £4 - a grand total of £11.20.

I went for two different colour boxes, not only because they are fun but also for their different uses.  The pink is to become a sandpit, while the blue box is for water.  The best part about using boxes is that the water can be tipped away, they can be stacked together and the lid put on for another day, much better than a purpose built table which would need storing!

Little Owl loved the sandpit, but she loved the water even more!  She spent hours playing with it, and then rushed straight to the back door next time she was at her Grandparents.  From what I hear, she's spending as much time as she can in their garden now which is great news.

I'm really please that I have found a way to make a small space a great space for Little Owl, I'm now inspired to find other ideas to bring the outdoors into our small space, and maybe even find a way to toddler proof our garden!

Little Owl's Wardrobe

I just wanted to share with you Little Owl's new wardrobe!

When I say new, I also mean only wardrobe she's ever had!

Its not very exciting is it?

Kids rooms should be exciting

because being a grown up lasts an awful long time.

So I popped to B&Q and bought some of their funky paint.

Aren't the colours great?!

But it gets better...

The deep blue and magenta colours are blackboard paint

So when Little Owl is a wee bit older

(and can understand the difference between her wardrobe and the walls)

She'll be able to draw and write on it.

In theory, the Neon blue is meant to glow in the dark

But we haven't seen this yet.

And it took about half a dozen coats and still doesn't look great.

 

 But the finished wardrobe looks fab!





Just as a kids room should!

The Tale of Fat Billy...

Now if you've been reading my posts recently or follow me on Twitter, you will have picked up on the fact that I am an Ikea fan.  I love their furniture for being so versatile, for its ability to personalise, and that you can plan and measure and pick from the comfort of your own home. 

A week or so before Christmas a large delivery of Ikea furniture arrived, including a book case, storage units and a wardrobe for Little Owl.  I was very excited and decided that I'd put the Billy bookcase together first as we needed to rearrange the furniture in the living room for the Christmas Tree anyhow. 

I enjoy putting together flat-pack furniture - its like Lego for grown-ups so it didn't take long to make the Billy, and I then asked Papa Owl to give me a hand to stand it up and put it in place next to the other Billys.  Well this is where it turned into the Chuckle Brothers with lots of "to me to you" and ended with

"push it back"

"it is back"

"it can't be..."

Did you know that Billys come in two different depths?  I didn't!

I was truly deflated.  Just sat on the floor, speechless!

I must have looked sad because Papa Owl put on his superhero cape and turned into "International Ikea Rescue", a few days later, on the first day of the school holidays, he got up before dawn, drove to Ikea and bought a Skinny Billy!

That's so much better!

And Fat Billy?  Papa Owl bought him a couple of doors and he is now proudly standing in what was an empty alcove ready to store all our rubbish behind his closed doors, and display our treasured possessions on his shelves!

 Papa Owl is my hero!

Curtains

No rest for the wicked, and as excited as we were to be in our living room we were feeling a bit on show in the evenings with no curtains!

I only learnt how to use a sewing machine this year, so was in no way up to the task of making them.  Luckily Papa Owl's mum is a bit of an expert!

I tried really hard to pay attention with the hope that I could one day make my own (hmm.... dream world) but fear I got lost along the way!

I do know that we started with 16m of curtain fabric and for an hour or more we measured.  We measured the fabric 3 times, we measured the height from the curtain pole to the floor, twice, each.  And then we got Papa Owl to measure it just to make sure.  We then measured and pinned the fabric before measuring it once more.

Finally it was time to cut!

Big moment!

And breath!

We now had 5 lengths of fabric that were all thankfully the same length and a bit spare for making cushions (back in my dream world....).

I was following at this point.  I can do maths.  And I know that 5 doesn't make a pair of curtains so next we had to cut one of the lengths in half. 

Then it was time to sew (well after lunch of course).  Two full lengths and the half width lengths were sewn together - we now had two HUGE pieces of fabric.

I'm a little bit vague about how the rest of the curtains were made...

Lining was added.

I did some ironing.

Tape was sewn on (this was quite complicated...)

We then hung the curtain to know how long to make the hem.

Somewhere about here my mother-in-law took pity on me, and took the curtains home to finish off!

Not sure I made a very good apprentice but I do know my mother-in-law made fantastic curtains!

What I would do with £20k...

What would you do if you won the lottery?  This is a game Papa Owl and I often play and so I couldn't resist the challenge BritMums set to post a blog of what we would do with a £20k win from the National Lottery.

So here goes...

£10k - Our Bathroom

This is our bathroom.  Yes - it has two doors and is currently two rooms!  Originally this was one square room which we suspect was where the servants slept.  When the fashion came for 'bathrooms' rather than a tub in front of the fire, the owners of the time didn't want to waste such a large space on a bathroom so they made another door and put a wall up cutting off a corner of the larger room.  Our current bathroom has a bath and a sink.  That is all.  I dream of a bathroom with a separate shower and a toilet in the same room...

£1k - A shed

The space that is not currently in the bathroom was sold to us as a "garden room" due to it having access to the garden.  The previous owner kept her garden tools there and Papa Owl is using it to store his tools.  If we do turn this into our bathroom then we will need a shed to store all the tools!

£4k - Mongolia and Hong Kong

OK - so they are not so close together but there is reason behind this link.  Papa Owl fell in love with Mongolia when we visited 4 years ago on our epic train trip to Hong Kong.  We would both love to take Little Owl there for a camping trip.  We would head to Jalman Meadows, a Yurt camp set in Mongolian wilderness.  You can't get a direct flight to Mongolia from the UK, so we might fly to Beijing and get the over night train to Ulaanbaatar which gives a great view of The Great Wall of China.  I haven't worked out the logistics but we would make a detour via Hong Kong on the way home.  Papa Owl's brother moved out there a couple of years ago and we haven't had a chance to visit him yet.  Little Owl's Godmother also lives in Hong Kong with her family, I miss her lots and her annual visit to the UK just isn't enough!

£1.5k - India

I love India.  I can't help it.  I have been many times but it is now 5 years since my last visit.  I would head to Sangam World Centre in Pune for 10 days, and would spend the time relaxing, shopping and catching up with friends.  I am a trustee for a charity called Friends of Sangam UK which supports the centre in India and in January there is a gathering of Friends from around the world in Pune. I would love to be there.

£1k - Ikea

Who couldn't spend a grand in Ikea? Little Owl could do with a wardrobe, we could do with a book case and it would be great to replace the sofa covers where the cats have torn them.  I'm also looking to furnish my new sewing room.  Yes, I could easily spend a grand at Ikea!

£500 - Cupboard

This corner of our living room is crying out for a cupboard.  Somewhere to store laptops and board games.  I don't know what I want or where I'm going to look for it but it would be great to have the budget to spend!

£500 - Tablet

I would love to have some kind of tablet that I could use to take photos, access the internet and maybe even read a book...

£500 - Family Photo Shoot

Without hesitation we would ask Steve Shipman to take the photos.  Steve was our wedding photographer and we couldn't be happier with the images he took.  I'm not sure how much Steve charges but I imagine the £500 pound would be able to include a bit of a make over for me and some new clothes for all of us.

 
£500 - Sewing Classes
This may seem a lot but after Papa Owl got me a sewing machine for my last birthday, I have really enjoyed taking classes at The Owl and Sewing Cat.  £500 would buy me all of the classes I want to do, and the materials to make more things at home. 

£500 - Waterproofs

Papa Owl says he could do with some new waterproofs and we don't want him getting wet now do we?

So there we are - £20k easily spent but a lot of fun had along the way!

This post is an entry for BritMums #Spend20K Challenge sponsored by The National Lottery, with more ways to win more money on the new Lotto game. Find out more about new Lotto, which starts in October, here – www.national-lottery.co.uk

 

Our Living Room

We have a living room!

Those words seem so normal, and yet mean so much to us!

For the last 2 years we have been using one of the bedrooms upstairs as a living room (and dining room), it was cramped, and an awful long way from the kitchen.

Carrying a newborn and a cup of tea upstairs was manageable, but as Little Owl grew and wanted her own drink and snacks it became more difficult. If Little Owl was upstairs, I could not hear her from the kitchen meaning I could not leave her for long.

But now...

 

It is bliss!

The other morning I finished my breakfast and carried my coffee into the living room to finish... I felt like I was in a holiday home!

The first evening we had this room, I was able to leave Little Owl playing while I cooked her dinner, just popping back every now and then to see how she was doing.  I was bursting with joy!

Today a friend will be visiting with her son.  I will be able to show her into the living room, pop into the kitchen to put the kettle on, pop back to continue our conversation, only leaving to make the tea... I can't wait!

Unlike on Grand Designs, we do not have all the perfect furniture ready to move in and are making do with what we have.  The sofas are covered in throws to hide where the fabric has given way or been torn by the cats.  The room still isn't quite finished, there are curtains to make and pictures to hang but we couldn't be happier!