OneGuyFromBarlick

You are very lucky!

Families are strange and sometimes unpredictable..... That's life and we have to deal with it! You can choose your friends.......

New year and a new kitchen Wendy! I hope both work out well for you...... It's not a bad start!

Thank you Stanley. We have visitors for the weekend and we raised a toast to the new kitchen. Colin cooked us a lovely meal!

Colin cooked.
( Where do folk get a man like?)
Today we dismantled the huge, hooded "Beefeater" BBQ that was on our outdoor deck. We inherited it when we bought the house and have used it once ( because hubby doesn't like barbeques).
The dismantling involved spanners/ropes/rubber gloves, and we had to lower it down in bits over the balcony to the lawn below. I am just glad it is now gone. What point is there having some huge gourmet Barbeque when there is just the two of you, and your hubby won't eat anything barbequed?
It will be given away.

He prefers cooking to socialising!
We had a sort of moussaka made with celeriac rather than potatoes and instant berry ice cream.

( I am actually suffering neck pain tonight from holding the weight as he undid screws, and taking the rope as it was lowered off the top deck. It was a big brute of a thing. Good riddance!)

Are you enjoying your new kitchen Wendy?

Loving it thank you Moh, I'm sitting in it now having a cuppa.

Lovely..... I Col at peace now or is he plotting the next project?

Still a bit of fiddly finishing to do around Stanley Stove, then there is recovery work to be done in the entrance hall where he took the wall cladding down to do plumbing work.
The problem is that we badly need a new outside door, and there are serious changes needed to the doorway which is really just a small old entrance to what was a pantry/cellar...demolished in the seventies. The current door hangs at an angle, making it slam shut. Now I am trying to talk Colin into a new porch plus pantry, which is a bit of a major project if he insists on doing it himself!
You can see what a mess it all is here...that's the top of our outside door.



This is a photo given to us by the people who knocked the pantry down in the early 1970's. Before this the only entrance was on the south side of the house.

I'd love a pantry - never had one.

That all looks rather frightening, Wendy.

I love my walk-in pantry. It's not huge by any means, but I can just do a quick scan and know exactly what I need when I go shopping. I even find places to hide treats from Hubby...because I think it is a well documented fact that men never bend down and forage at the back of low shelves!

He'll want to do the whole lot himself! Any plans about the towel rail on the beam over the stove? In that old pic, could that gate stoop be the one you showed me where we sat looking at the view and drinking coffee while Jack harassed the hens? Looks about the right size from memory.

No plans for the towel rail yet....I need to dig it out and strip the paint off it first. I've studied the gate posts in the old photo and both of them are the wrong shape and rougher than my seat stone, though it was dug up in that area. I think those two posts are in my back garden.

House archaeology can be fascinating can't it. I have no doubt you are right.....
If you fancy a custom made towel rail have a word with me, I have some heavy copper condenser tube that would be fine......

Actually just a tip for those who are deep into DIY home decorating. We are currently doing up our 'breakfast room' that is a fancy name for what used to be the kitchen and bottle washers room in old houses. Surfing the internetty thing we saw that Grahams & Brown had a factory outlet at the Shuttleworth Mead industrial park. For those who don't travel very much its located on the old Blackburn Rd out of Padiham or at the end of the Padiham bypass. If you are looking for wall papers this is the place for you. Very extensive stocks, in fact their whole range at about a third less than B & ?. plus another 15% off for wrinklies. Well worth the ride out plus a very good bistro just opposite the factory outlet.

I used to work in the offices just up the road from there, Fagan and Whalley are in there now. Graham & Brown's gave us all a 20% discount card, I wonder if it's still valid? Most of my old house on Montrose Terrace had G&B wallpaper

The fiddly bits around Stanley Stove are now complete, and here he is cooking last nights dinner....note the convenient wine glass shelf! I know, there is no sign of a towel rail up there, give me a year or two....

You must be so pleased Wendy. Col has done a wonderful job and I am sure that in the end you will prevail in the matter of the towel rail! By the way, I love the as yet unpopulated shelves.... Plenty of scope for comfortable clutter!

Looks beautiful Wendy. Even better that Colin cooks there!!

Lovely, very cosy looking. While you're waiting for the towel rail just stick a couple of those self-adhesive thingies on the wall that you push the corner of your towel into. If they don't stick well enough put a blob of PVA on them.

I don't actually need a towel rail, Stanley Stove has one already!

That's not the point! They look right! You need somewhere to hang your Xmas stocking!