I Have Concrete ... Again

I remember about this time a year ago getting excited about concrete. I don't know what pleased me more, the concrete getting poured or the pourers getting so hot they took their tops off.

Ok, enough smut for a Tuesday morning ... I now have concrete footings poured for my back wall and front fence. This is exciting stuff because today the boys should be starting on my planter boxes. I should also have the paving delivered and things are moving forward!!!

I can't believe how happy I am now that things are moving ... well things were always moving but this time they are moving because of us!!!

I'm still waiting patiently for the glass to go in on the staircase and voids ... that is going to be my next big moment because I agonised over that but .... yay!!!

No really .... yay!!!

PROGRESS!!! Walls of It Actually!

 

Ok so maybe not walls but footings at least. Oh yes, although we have not quite been given the keys we are starting on the big wall to the right (of your facing the house) of the house. Its going to be 12 courses high and our side will eventually be rendered. I'm actually really excited to finally be starting to do things ourselves. Its rather hard to sit back and watch someone else be in control of your baby. Its much easier to take the reins yourself and be it good or bad you have control of your dream.

This is the beginning and even hubby is excited over finally being able to DO something.

We have also started on the front planter boxes and as you can see, they are going to look even better in real life than they did in the pictures the builder drew up!!!





My Latest Purchase

Sometimes with all the purchasing you need to do with a new house you lose that little bit of excitement with a new and brilliant purchase.

I have to say I struggle to get excited over bricks but my little splurge at the Portobello markets had me almost giggling as I swiped my card!

I found 4 amazing round / oval gilt frames to add to my wall. I laid them all out on the floor just to take a quick peak and I still love love love them. My biggest question is ... do I leave them empty or fill them with landscape picture done in sepia that I have taken on holidays?

I think this is one question I am going to have to answer once I see a few with the pics but for the moment ... appreciate the beauty that is round frames???

I also added a couple more I picked up .... sales everywhere in the UK!!!!

Heaven is ... Portobello Markets BEFORE The Crowds

I don't know ... sometimes when everything becomes too much you have to retreat to your happy place. For me, that place is Portobello markets.

A relatively new find on our weekend away to London I fell truly in love with this place straight away. Obviously the trick to avoiding the crowds is to get there early. Whatever your pleasure when it comes to second hand or Antique this place is sure to give you a nice big warm cuddly feeling.

I am flying back to Australia next week so wont have much time for posting but I can't wait to show you my purchases .... so exciting.

Oh yes .... this is my new happy place .... Thank god I live so far away or this place could be very dangerous on your wallet.

Updates

My wonderful hubby came home last night and I was lucky enough to get some picture updates of the house.

We have been told PCI is going to be next week which means I will be getting the keys in days as opposed to weeks or months.

A couple of things that were issues have been fixed - the bath spout has been moved forward so it now actually pours water into the bath

I am loving the undermounted sinks and the lovely stone tops. For me the tiles just keep getting better and better and I just can't wait to actually live in this bathroom!!!

Heartbreak Is .... Losing Your Best Friend

Oh yes ... stupid fraudulent charges. I have just had to cut up my favorite item in the whole world....

Poor Poor Credit Card - May you rest in peace and the person who thought it would be funny to charge $1 to my card illegally .... I hope Karma gets you!

Nothing Changes

I'm sure you are looking forward to seeing more of my house purchases and after a beautiful long weekend in London with my mother I'm sure to have stack to show you .... however today I wanted to show you something funny.

It doesn't seem to matter where in the world you are some things never seem to change .... I had to write one of these yesterday and stick it up in the kitchen. Let us hope that the Scot's have a sense of humour!

THE INVENTION OF THE DISHWASHER

The first reports of a mechanical dishwashing device are of an 1850 patent in the US by Joel Houghton for a hand-powered device. This device was made of wood and was cranked by hand while water sprayed onto the dishes. This device was both slow and unreliable. Another patent was granted to L A Alexander in 1865 that was similar to the first but featured a hand-cranked rack system. Neither device was practical or widely accepted.

Modern dishwashers are descended from the 1887 invention of Josephine Cochrane who invented a new advanced dishwasher, also hand-powered, which she unveiled at the 1893Chicaho World’s Fair. Cochrane was quite wealthy and was the granddaughter of John Fitch, the inventor of the steamboat. She never washed dishes herself and invented the dishwasher because her servants were chipping her fine china.

I’m not sure if you are aware but we are lucky enough to have a dishwasher in this office. In order to promote modern invention might I mildly suggest everyone has a go at embracing modern technology and put their dishes in this wonderful and obviously very useful device?

This is where it gets funnier - one of my engineers tried to get smart and added the following - please bare in mind he is French and his English is slightly broken ....
 
Oh Miss V
 There is some French humour in you. Totally agree with your reminder

 I’d just like to point out few things from the picture telling the true story of the washing machine

 Every man initially thought they could have a woman to help them doing home stuff

• They rapidly were disappointed
• Men were tired to wash the dishes when their wives were dreaming/talking/thinking/sleeping (as you can see on the picture)
• They had to create something that would save them from this hard task (women failing to the initial hope of the men)- So did Joel Houghton !

 Conclusion of the story: If I get a washing machine at home, do I still need a woman ??

Obviously I had the last word......

Sebastien Darling,

I am afraid you should have read the entire text before trying to “tell the true story”

If you read it you would see that men both tried to build a dishwasher but since they had no idea on how to actually wash dishes they got it wrong. I believe the words “Slow and Unreliable” were used … quite fitting really describing both men and their inventions.

It took a woman to make one that worked …. Alas….. Your story is more fairy-tale than truth.

As for your concerns over the idea that you would be spoilt with both a “dishwasher” and a woman, I would advise you that its probable you won’t get the second unless you know how to use the first!

Happy Washing Mr X!

Glad to see we still have our sense of humour in this office!

Life Can Be Short

A close family friend passed away over the weekend, he was young ... much younger than me and on the other side of the world it occurs to me that life can be short. We all seem to plan our lives for years to come but does that mean we disregard all the wonderful little things that are happening now.

What if you didnt have a tomorrow - what if today was it, would you live it differently?

The truth of the matter is no one knows just how long we have left and although I am guilty of wishing away weeks until hubby is home, the house is finished or even the next pay day I need to realise just how short life COULD be.

I have a challenge for everyone reading this blog. Live your life today like you dont have a tomorrow .... saying that, may you all have to many tomorrow's to count, but make sure each today does count just in case!

Front Of House

So by now you would know my most adorable, lovely and very talented husband doesn't have an imagination bone in his body. Oh yes he is totally stuck in the here and now and cant picture anything at all even if I go on and on about how something is going to look.

While for him its taken a great amount of courage ... see more brownie points, my courageous husband ... he he he.... anyways, a great amount of courage to trust me with the house design I do breath a sigh of relief when I can actually show him something before it all happens.

For months now I have been trying to explain how I want the front yard to look and how I want to use layers and garden boxes to make a horrendous sloped site usable but he just shakes his head and says he will see it when its built.... god knows how that's possible since he is building it but still!

Now this is the brilliant bit - a minor issue with the builder potentially having to move the meter box means all my front yard plans have come to life. If you can ignore the little wall on the side (No longer needed) this is how I want my front yard to look?

The garden is going to be fairly formal in design, lots of casual hedging type things and two lovely ornamental trees taking pride of place.

Down the side of the house towards the front door there will be a screen of bamboo helping give us some more privacy from our neighbours.

So What do you think?? Will it work, does it look good??? Its all starting to come together and I'm more nervous now than I ever was before! This is where I start taking design risks and although I'm confident that I can do it ... I'm sure there will be plenty of mistakes along the way!

Going For GOLD!!!

Well its actually not an Olympic inspired post but I just couldn't help myself. So you all know that I'm back over in sunny Scotland but one thing you may not know is that I have spent the last 3 trip collecting. Oh yes, I am collecting gilt frames.

I have this plan in my head and this one I am slightly unsure of how it will turn out. I am collecting these lovely old wood gilt frames (I currently have six or seven different sizes and shapes) and I am going to remove the old print and replace them with black and white photo's of different destinations we have visited. Its a risk to take something very old and try and add something very new but I'm hoping it will work. I'm then going to put them all together into one big wall of photo's.

I'm still not 100% sure if this would work but I'm determined to try ... I have been googling for images of people who have already done this but am coming up empty .... do you think it will work? Do I need to add some dark wood frames to try to balance out the copious amounts of gilt?

Am I crazy? ..... All valid questions I just don't have an answer for.....

Its all Coming Together

So now that we are getting so close im allowed to start thinking about furniture.

Have a look at this amazing bed I found from Freedom. It feels like it was made for our room so im looking forward to getting back home and ordering a nice king sized version. Hubby's only stipulation was that it had to be king size so he could roll over and over and over and still be in bed!

My stipulation ... I wanted a headboard and a foot board. Old fashioned ??? Perhaps but dont you think it will look amazing with my bedding???

Kids Bathroom

Ok so I don't have kids but in my head this is the kids bathroom .... so shall it be named!

Anyways everything is coming together nicely now, it should be a few weeks before I get the keys and although I am in Aberdeen again.... oh yes I thought I would give you updates as I could on how the progress was before I left.

The shower screens and all plumbing is in, the stone looks amazing (under the very glamorous blue plastic) and the bench space is huge ... it almost seems to big for a bathroom but hey .... the more room the better.

I am really looking forward to seeing it all clean and pretty. The plan is to put white plantation shutters on the window and some really bright coloured towels.

I am just trying to decide if it needs s print over the bath next to the river or if plain white tile is ok?