Back to the drawing board!!!!! I have accepted defeat. Our bathroom cannot accommodate the bathroom I had envisaged when the Stuff Doer said we could fit in a seperate shower. In fairness, he had thought of a way to fit one in, we could even keep the old bath! On paper it looked great and […]

We have recently returned from the first part of our summer “holiday”. Obviously, getting my priorities in order, the first outing with the youngest two was a visit to the local auction rooms (it was the last few hours of viewing before the sale!)  Among the things of interest was a pair of books entitled […]

I really don’t know where all the time goes. The six week holidays have flown by in a whirling dervish of full family Whitby visits, kid’s birthday parties, kids’ flying visits to Congleton (thanks B&G) and Stuff Doer’s lone weekends at the cottage making it safe for us to visit. There have also been numerous […]

Another weekend at Whitby and I’ve peeled back some more layers to reveal more of cottage’s past. First on the list was re-bodging the plumbing in the bathroom so it will still function, toilet, sink and cold tap as we do need a minimum of on site welfare provision. These I can strip out again […]

If you’ve read the previous post from the “other half” you’ll know we’ve got plans for the bathroom in the cottage.  After the last weekend’s investigations, I’ve got other things to keep me occupied.  The details of a finished bathroom are far from my mind.  I’ve discovered there’s not a lot holding the floor up and […]

When I made these fixes I was think the roof would last another few years. However there are so many problems with it and weak points that about to fail, we going to have a re-roof in the next few months.  Quotes are coming in and it’ll be decision time shortly. The full details of how to […]

This is the day we really need to go home. The Stuff Doer needs to do some work (the type he gets paid for). There’s so much more we want to investigate but, hey lets pace ourselves. We’ve cleaned up the worst of the muck and done a couple of dump runs shall we have […]

We’re really interested to know  the history of the cottage we are renovating.  We need this information to inform the decisions we have to make.    We’re prepared to put the effort in to getting this done right. This will involve loads of research and investigations.  CAN YOU HELP?     Any thoughts, comments, advice, […]

Sunday dawns. I know, I saw it. I have decided I’m too old for sleeping on a flat airbed. But waking up here is a joy, it’s like we’ve always been here, it’s home already. So after coffee on the patio taking in the stunning views, I drag myself away to the kitchen to prepare […]

 When we put in the offer for the cottage, we didn’t tell the kids. The youngest two had viewed it with us and had fallen for its charms. We didn’t want to jinx anything. Our own disappointment, had things gone wrong, would have been too much to bear (never mind crestfallen kids). Then child number […]