Finishing touches......

The finishing touches are being done today and tomorrow, at the moment Lovely Hubby is putting up some shelves in this alcove in the living room....

... and this one in the kitchen.

He's taking full advantage of the lovely sunshine streaming over the patio for some outside work.

Staining the wood for the living room shelves, with the warmth of the sun it was dry in twenty minutes and ready for another coat, it's looking good and closely matching the shelf unit that's on the other side of the fireplace.

The dogs were running around enjoying themselves,  the big black Labrador is from next door and already one of the pack, and he makes himself very at home.  Sophie is delighted she has always had a penchant for large black dogs, she's running round with a big grin on her face....... the little hussy!!  Ollie will no doubt be back every day for his daily dose of  adoration.

Me.......  I've just finished spraying the double oven with a nasty chemically cleaner, it was no good, nothing kind on the environment was going to shift the years of grease and grime encrusted there, so it's been sprayed with two cans of Mr Muscle oven cleaner, just this once, then a wipe down each time we use it will be much better both for the environment and my lungs!!

I'm missing the Aga already with its wonderful self cleaning ability.

Off to see if the wonder chemicals really have shifted the grease, hope you're doing a nicer job at the moment.

Sue xx

Final painting job....for now!

Well this is it, the final painting job....for now, then all the paint and brushes will be going out to the shed to make space for the final tidy up of the house.  What am I painting ......

... this mirror that was bought from a charity shop about eight years ago (when I was the Manager there).  It started life mahogany coloured and was painted cream when we moved to Jointers Farm.  Now it's being painted in the slightly whitened 'Cookie Dough' to match the wall it's going on in the living room. 

Not bad it's in its third re-incarnation, I wonder what colour it will be next time?  Not bad for a mirror that cost me only £10 originally.

First coat almost done.

While I'm doing all the little homely things in the living room, Lovely Hubby is hard at work in the bedroom assembling the wardobe and then when he's finished that the bed frame. 

It really is beginning to look a lot like home.

Sue xx

On the final straight.....

Well this is it, we're on the final straight, ALL the decorating will be finished by the end of today and then comes the nicer slightly easier job of moving the furniture into position, putting the last of the curtains up and generally turning this house into our home.

While Lovely Hubby painted the walls, giving the living room two coats of silk emulsion, I did all the woodwork with Satinwood, it's looking good.  I admit that I had my doubts initially about going down the 'all white' route, they were definitely unfounded.  It looks brilliant.......brilliant white in fact!!  Everywhere is fresh and clean and this dark little bungalow has come alive.

The only wall with a different colour is the chimney breast in the living room, we decided in the end against doing the whole room with 'Cookie Dough' and opted instead for a diluted version of it just on the one wall, we're very pleased with the resulting look.

The whole bungalow has been done with two large tubs of Silk emulsion, one large tub of Matt (for the ceilings) and two tins of Satinwood for the woodwork. The Cookie Dough and the green paint we already had and these have been mixed with some of the new white paints to get paler shades that were right for this house.  So a very cheap way of decorating, and what's really good we have loads of each tin left for touch ups and to paint any additional purchases we may make to fit in the overall colour scheme for the bungalow.

While we painted two little mischief makers took time to bask in the sunshine pouring in the living room window and have an afternoon siesta.

I'm off now to clean up the floor ready to move the living room furniture into place, it's beginning to look a lot like home.

Sue xx

No Spend Days - Update

Last month I managed a total of 20 No Spend Days, not bad in a month a that contains only 29 days to start with.

I kept my purchasing to the absolute minimum and the food cupboards are looking healthily slimmer, there's still lots there though and I have some brilliant bulk buys  that will last us for ages (huge boxes of pasta from Approved Foods and loads of Cous Cous and rice, so the base for lots more meals.

Last month out of a total housekeeping budget of £200 I was left with £141.48 to add to my '£2012 in 2012 Challenge' coffers and ALL of my personal money went there too, I also sold three old mobile phones and managed to add another £18 to the grand total of  £239.48 for the month. 

You can always follow my progress in the '£2012 in 2012' tab at the tob of the Blog.  I can't wait for the Car Boot season to start so I can really start to earn some money each month.  At the moment I am selling little bits and pieces on Amazon and Ebay to keep a trickle of money, and therefore inspiration, rolling in.

Sue xx

Brown Hares, Brown Hares, Brown Hares

Yes......I know it's the 1st of March and I should start the day saying White Rabbits, White Rabbits, White Rabbits (I did in fact, very lucky and for once I remembered).

But this morning when I was walking the dogs through the heavy Oxfordshire mist, in the distance I could see three little mounds, as we approached they took off, gracefully one by one and ran across the field before the dogs even got a scent, sometimes it's handy being 5' 6" instead of merely doggy sized.

  I also spotted a nervous pair of eyes watching us from the thick hedgerow, a beautiful Roe deer managing because of the heavy mist dampening down the scents of the morning to avoid being spotted by my three usually on the ball doggies.

A lovely way to start the month of March.  Spring is definitely on the way and now the sun is shining and there's a welcome warmth in the air after our chilly start. I feel another doggy walk coming on, watch out wildlife their visibility is back!!

Sue xx

All pictures courtesy of Google Images - thank you.

It's all white.........

It's all white.....if you're Jonathon Ross you'll read this slightly differently!!

Seriously, we are painting everything white at the moment, it's the cheapest paint there is, even the 'big' names work out relatively cheap if you buy big enough tins, and they do seem to have greater covering powers.  So we've gone for quality over cheapness this time.

It is having the desired effect and with each room painted the bungalow is taking on a brighter hue.  We are also relacing all their turkish style punched metal light fittings with simple centre lights, shades and brighter long life energy efficient bulbs.  This hopefully will be our home for at least the next three years while we save like mad, so spending carefully and sensibly now will make the job we are doing last.

I'm even being very good and taking care of my paint brushes, I used to buy the cheapest and throw them away at the end of a days painting, not frugal and certainly not good for the environment.  Now I carefully clean them out using white spirits only for the really stubborn paint, a spot of detergent usually does a brilliant job of cleaning both handles ,bristles and rollers .

Because all our surfaces are white and washable it should be relatively easy to wipe down after the dogs and cats have done their usual tricks of brushing against walls and wagging muddy tails just in the wrong spot.  When wiping down no longer has the desired cleaning effect a quick touch up with saved paint will freshen up areas.

I will say I thought that all white surfaces might look a bit stark, like a minimilist house in some of the interior magazines you see, but it seems to be just fresh and calming at the moment.   Adding even a little bit of colour, like the fireplace in the kitchen, makes the whiteness look even more crisp and we have decided that the 'green' of the fireplace will be our signature colour for this home, with little touches of it popping up in each room on picture frames, painted chairs and in some of the soft furnishings.

 

We can almost see this......the finishing line now. 

Once I have finished on this post I am doing the woodwork in the Hall, then we have just the Living Room to do, and guess what colour that will be......NOPE sorry it's not going to be white.... that was a bit cruel after an all white post...sorry couldn't resist!

We have half a tin of Cookie Dough paint which we will mix with whatever white silk emulsion we have left and it should turn out a nice shade of biscuity cream, it was paint we bought and used in diluted form for all the rooms at Jointers Farm and we thought it would be a nice touch to bring a little bit of our old home in our new home.

Sue xx

All photos courtesy of Google Images.......my camera is at the other house!!

It's going well.....

It's really going so well at the new place at the moment, over the weekend Lovely Hubby managed to finish off the spare bedroom while I was in Manchester with my folks, and then on Sunday when I was back we did all the finishing touches to it, cleaned up, and then......

... I moved all the boxes from the living room into it and completely cluttered it up!!  Oh well, it's only temporary and it is the Spare Room,. once we're in it will be a calm and uncluttered oasis for visitors.

I did have second thoughts about all the 'stuff' on the mantlepiece and we are left with this, much simpler and more pleasing on the eye.  A couple of the bits and pieces that were on there are now gracing my EBay pages, time to start making money again for my £2012 in 2012 Challenge.

One of the first things to go on the wall is this sign, something I bought ages ago on a lovely day out with LH and fortuitously a perfect match to the green of the fireplace.



Next we are finishing off the paintwork in the Hall and then there is just the Living Room to do and then it's time for us to up sticks and actually move in. 

 Last Friday the tractor and all it's attachments was picked up by a huge low-loader and delivered to the new house, so back on the farm it's looking very sparse, I think I'll take the camera home with me and start snapping away at all the space there.

Oh well back to my mop, it's a cleaning up day today ready for painting the woodwork in the hall on Wednesday when I'm back here.

Sue xx