Showing off our little cottage to family
It has been a landmark week for us having guests to stay in the cottage. Luke has been desperate to be able to come up and stay since we got back from the US and his visit gave us the final push to get our worldly belongings out of the lock up. We had such a lovely weekend. We had warned him that we literally only had a toilet in the bathroom and newly plastered walls, so to have a shower before he came!
We loved showing off the local area and enjoyed a break in the weather to go on a hike followed by a pint in Settle and Giggleswick before coming home to cook in our new kitchen. Luke and Charlotte loved watching the lambs skipping about in the field at the bottom of the drive, it appears to be the nursery field and teeny little new borns appear every morning, it is just so cute! We also had to take them down to Hellifield to see the highland cow herd, there are so many young calves at the moment that are like big fluffy teddy bears.
We were also so happy to have mum come up and visit us with a friend. She was testing out the trains which was a bit of a disaster as the Preston to Lancaster train was cancelled which meant a 2 hour journey became 4 hours. The journey home seemed no easier, the trains from Giggleswick to Lancaster run about every 2 hours and because they were late arriving and we didn't really check the times earlier, they just missed one and the next one left 3hrs later and would have meant getting back to Crewe at 9.30pm. It was not really a problem as we drove them to Lancaster but a lesson learnt to check train times carefully and hopefully next time mum will be staying for a few days so it won't make it such a long day!
Train disasters aside, we had a fab meal at a local farm cafe that does the most amazing home made cakes and mum finally got to see our new home in the Dales without its lime green kitchen!
We finally have our much awaited wood burning stove
Tuesday saw the final part of the instalment of the wood burning stove that we have been desperate for all winter. We were so excited to be able to just sit infront of the dancing flames and feel the warm glow of the heat. Luckily the weather was pretty awful this week so we had an excuse to light it late in the afternoon every day. Richard is enjoying being all manly chopping wood and kindling. We are so impressed with how much it has transformed the living room. Following the advice from the installer, we opted for a ceramic oak beam that looks so realistic, proper wood beams need to be placed at least 45cm from the burner which meant it would have been floating halfway up the chimney breast!
The luxury of a bath and running hot water
It's week 2 of the bathroom renovations. For such a small room it is probably one of our biggest projects. Over the winter we realised just how cold and lacking in insulation the room was. The sloped ceiling had no insulation between the plaster boards and the slate roof and the back wall has no cavity insulation so we made the decision that to future proof the house for us, it was worth the investment having the roof and the wall lined with insulated boards as we had done downstairs.
Colin the plumber is amazing and such a perfectionist, we are so pleased with the progress so far. This week the plastering was finished, the bath and shower installed and most of the tiling done. Thursday was a good day - we could finally have a bath after 10 days of no bathroom! Hopefully we will have a fully functioning bathroom again by Tuesday.
Getting crafty
I finally plucked up the courage to have a go at making our lampshades for the living room. I bought some kits weeks ago but have been putting it off. We opted for quite industrial lighting in the kitchen area and either side of the chimney so we wanted something softer and more cosy as a contrast. I had seen the highland cow voyage material and fell in love with it instantly, I think it complements the room well! The tweed checked material was chosen specifically to make a kitchen blind and lamp shade - It has a lime green pattern as a nod to the iconic kitchen we moved into.
Richards mum is settling in to her new residential home
After quite a turbulent few weeks with Richards mum, she seems to settling into her new home. We visited her on Wednesday just in time to play bingo with all the residents, an experience that Richard is still recovering from but it was so much fun and great to see the residents enjoying themselves.
Photography fame
We were so pleased to get a message this week through our instagram account from one of our favourite magazines 'Wanderlust' asking permission to use one of our Arizona photo's in their next issue. We had purposely visited Horseshoe Bend in Page after seeing a photo of it in their magazine last summer, so it was a true honour that they have chosen one of our photo's from that location!
So that's sums up week 58 of our blog, I have to say, I am wondering when we will start being able to have long lazy mornings of retirement and quiet lazy days, we seem busier now than when we were working! But, the end is in sight. The floor fitters are doing the downstairs on Wednesday and the carpets upstairs the week after. Hopefully May 5th will be the last day of our renovations... until we move onto the garden project.
Have a great week
Jackie and Richard
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