Renovation Man

I went round to the other house yesterday to do some tidying up and paint a couple of window frames. I really, REALLY didn't want to go but I know we won't get many more nice days and it's a job you can't really do in the rain! I took a couple of instagram photos and the lovely Poppy explained how to make a collage out of them. I'm such a techno-dunce!

Clockwise from top left
Paint samples on my new office wall
A very bored dog sitting in the kitchen
Man in a hole - Matt back filling the sunken lounge
This will be a beautiful garden one day ... so I'm assured!


It was a beautiful day yesterday and I really struggled to get myself motivated to do my jobs. We're both feeling a bit down about the whole project - this happens periodically. We have a run of being really positive, walking around the house and planning how we will use each room, the furniture we will buy, and feeling incredibly lucky that we're able to do it at all. This is usually followed by a comedown where we feel completely overwhelmed by the enormity of the project we've undertaken and can't imagine that it will ever be finished. Working on this house has become a way of life and the light at the end of the tunnel sometimes seems to be getting further away, rather than coming closer. We talk about the time when we won't have any work to do at home and we can spend our evenings and weekends relaxing and watching the world go by but I don't think either of us really believe it's going to happen.

We've decided that Matt should ease off a bit - he's literally spent every spare minute this year at the house, no exaggeration. He's incredibly dedicated, to the point of obsession in fact, and has made so many sacrifices in order to keep the project in motion. Coupled with running and growing his business, it's been a tall order and the strain has started to show in the last month or so.  

We're lucky enough that we have a beautiful house already and there's no rush to move out of it. We were pushing to have the new house finished in time for Christmas but we've decided to abandon the idea. There's just no need to put that sort of pressure on ourselves.

So for the first time in a long time, we both had a lie in today. We had dippy eggs and soldiers for breakfast and have spent the morning on the sofa with the dogs, watching bike racing and drinking tea.

And I am quietly pleased that we'll have another Christmas in the cottage. I love this place and it will be a real wrench to let it go. It really comes into it's own in the winter and I feel like we can give it a proper send off now, before having to hand it over to it's new owners.