Modern Rustic...

Another school holiday has crept up on me. I could have sworn I had another week of peace and quiet. Oh well. There was only one thing for it... stock up on inspirational reading matter. I just love this latest offering from Country Living. Modern Rustic. I think I've always been a fan but never realised it had a name. 

It's a thick publication and costs a little over twice what the magazine costs but it's jam packed with photographs to inspire. M has already spotted a rustic chandelier (of all things) that looks like it's made out of old chair legs. Perfect project for our mountain of odd chairs in his workshop.

Plenty of kitchen ideas. Not that we need ideas (no, we need action!). On the spur of the moment last week I got a bit fed up with having four cupboard doors cluttering up the place and decided to fit them myself. How complicated can it be I thought...a little as it turns out. I was pretty chuffed when I worked out how to use M's complicated looking drill. So much quicker after that, though Riley was not very impressed with the noise.

Bit of a dark photo because it's rather overcast today but you can just about see the almost finished cupboard. The handles were salvaged from our old kitchen, the hinges were a bulk buy on the internet (very cheap). The wood was completely free except for the worktop timbers which are hundred year old roofing timbers from an old theatre. It all needs more sanding down and several coats of wax, but in the meantime it feels rather civilised. Doors that open and close! What a novelty!

Thrifting...and risotto...

On our recent wood gathering expedition we took a detour to one of my favourite small towns for charity shops (there's 8 in total!) M is pretty understanding and cooperates willingly as long as he can buy a coffee and newspaper and sit it out in a cafe.

I'm pretty certain there have been meetings and notices from head offices over the Christmas period because they all seem to have put their prices up. I mean, who buys shirts at £14 from a charity shop? No thank you Oxfam. I did however spend the highest figure I've ever spent in a charity shop for the above little beauties. Eight whole pounds, but they are totally new, never worn and black and white converse hi tops have been on my wish list for quite a while. Actually, it is here I must make a confession. They've been on J's wish list too. He takes a nine and whilst I am an eight, I like my Converse one size bigger. So I unashamedly said we'd share them! Actually I think he's had a bit of a growth spurt lately if his school trousers are anything to go by (perfect a month ago and now swimming two inches above his ankles) so maybe his feet have grown too.

We've been making the microwaveable gf sponge pudding quite often. M couldn't quite believe that we didn't own a proper pudding basin. Could have something to do with the fact that I'm no Nigella. New ones seem to be about £5 which I refused to let him pay knowing that I could pick them up easily for much less. We are now a two pudding basin family and for just £1.50.

The next purchase is slightly at odds with my taste in colour. I'm really not a bright red sort of person, though I did really like my £1 vintage suitcase and use it for the odd night away, so it made sense to snap up the little red vintage vanity case for £3.99 too. Seen here on top.

The lovely old lady, who might have donated it by the sounds of things, wanted to know whether it was for decoration or to use. Decoration!? I totally intend to use it. These suitcases were made to last.

Meanwhile, look at the side of my first kitchen unit! Woohoo. Love it. This is the double one that will sit underneath the island worktop. Just needs a coat of clear wax, a base and doors. M works at the speed of a snail. Though to be fair, I did cut his working hours by suggesting a nice risotto tonight knowing he would never trust me to make it.

Finally, a rubbish photo but one that gives the general idea. This is one of the floor joists sanded and coated with clear wax. No colour applied because it is pitch pine which is a good deep colour anyway. Four of these joined side by side will create our worktops. If I hadn't been forced to do traditional girl subjects at school (home economics and textiles) I could be building this kitchen too! As it is, I'm chief wood stacker (piles of wood with spacers in warm locations next to radiators) dog walker and tea maker. Actually I feel we've made some progress in our marriage as of today; M admitted this morning that I make a very good project manager. This was when I narrowly diverted a woodworking disaster as he was building the first unit without allowing a cavity for the back panel. We've had plenty of similar occasions. Even M recognised that it was a rare occasion when he is prepared to acknowledge I'm right. Just so long as I keep complimenting his risotto all will remain balanced!

Where there's muck there's brass...

Taps! Oh my, this is serious progress. These were green with grunge, almost mossy. We waded through lots more mud and leaky portacabins and finally dug up this retro pair of taps. If truth be told, we had in mind a mixer tap but when we saw these it was love at first sight. A bargain at £20 compared to the ones we'd seen which were already polished up. Another £60 for a bit of elbow grease? No thank you.

Talking of elbow grease, I now have an 'after' photo of the sink. It came from an old school and still had quite a bit of purple paint on it. The plug hole seems to be brass which is nice. We thought it was literally made of rust and might need replacing.

You can see it is perched on a strong wooden unit that M made yesterday. It weighs a tonne so it took a bit of huffing and puffing to get it up there.

I've picked out all of the nails from the stool and given it a wash down. M will repair the missing spindles at a later stage. I don't want him doing jobs like that when there's a whole kitchen to be built!

A nearby pub is being demolished and the very friendly demolition guys are putting timber to one side for us to collect tomorrow. They salvage all the metal and usually burn the wood! The are floor boards, roof timbers, panelling... how criminal to burn it all!

salvage yard shopping...

We popped a bread mix into the breadmaker this morning and went off in search of a butler sink. We discussed sizes and tap mountings and plumbing parts and most importantly, budget. I suggested we be patient and not buy the first one we see if it was battered and chipped.

Our nearest salvage yard is only a small place with most things looking past their best and everything a bit wet and mouldy. The perfect sink was sitting in the entrance so we thought it would be ridiculously expensive. I let M go in to the little shack (office) to do the negotiating. £25. Wow! About a third of what I'd thought we'd have to pay, and M negotiated a fiver off his original price of £30. As it happened we spent the fiver on a solid wood stool which had seen better days and was missing two spindles, which m can easily repair.

Underneath this ridiculous attempt at upholstering a seat is a lovely wooden seat. It's not particularly old but it's very solid and looks lived in. It's going to get a thorough clean, light sanding and wax finish.

With a bit of luck I could have a plumbed in sink within a week. Happy days.

modern rustic...

One thing is for sure... I never take the easy routes in life, but that's not to say it's always a negative thing. The kitchen is proving to be one of those occasions I wish would just hurry up and be over. I want to get on and bake cakes for heavens sake!

We recently had a family day out to IKEA. We are now the proud owners of a family card and M likes to make use of it. He can hardly believe we have been paying for tea and coffee when all this time it's been free with a family card.

When the children were small we often went to IKEA for a day out. Easy parking, play areas, cheap food, cheap art supplies, and they were happy with whatever pocket sized cuddly toy was going at the time to befriend on the way home. They are now as tall as me and teenagers but some things never change. We still came home with a new friend each. Alfred and Brocolli are the new members of the family. You really have to have been to Ikea to know what the heck I am talking about.

Neither M or I have been very enthusiastic about any of the kitchens we have seen, including those in DIY stores and private kitchen companies. We ended up in IKEA because the planning tools were user friendly and they've been voted best value for money. When we first started knocking through we had no idea what kind of kitchen we wanted but we did talk of styles that would really be more at home in a cottage, farmhouse, barn, warehouse... not a bungalow! However, there are some homes that defy the outer shell and reflect the personality of the owners regardless.

When I first met M I was much more of an eco warrior, recycler, make do and mender... I had notebooks stuffed with great 'up-cycling' ideas long before they started using the word. Somehow, in the drive to be 'sensible' and act my age, the scaffolding plank and house-brick bookcases have fallen by the wayside (you should have seen the look on the faces of the removal men when they loaded up crates of bricks and my precious planks!). My mismatched junk shop armchairs have been unceremoniously dumped, my toolchest coffee tables used for tools (oh the horror) and oh hell, I've become boring and middle aged.

All of this was discussed at length on the hour and a bit long journey home from IKEA and we've decided to go with what my heart desires and try and make a new kitchen using entirely reclaimed timber. Hooray for scaffolding planks I say! It will be our version of the above ideas according to the stuff we've got and the space we have. I feel much happier knowing that we won't be buying new appliances just because we wanted them to be integral or hidden. I feel much happier recycling the twenty or so brushed steel handles that we salvaged from the old kitchen. I feel extremely happy to have an excuse to go rummaging about in salvage yards for a butler sink and to auctions for some random wooden stools. I'm pretty happy that we can bash it about a bit and not worry, and that the dogs can't wreck it, or the cat for that matter.

As an experiment M has put one unit together and I love it. I'll take a photo when it has doors and handles affixed. M loves the challenge of woodwork and finds it therapeutic after some of the gruelling court cases his work involves. Just as well because it will take him quite a while!

One step closer...

Things have been getting to us lately. The kitchen. It's a dirty word round here. Literally too. Dust, dust and more dust. It gets everywhere.

M has not enjoyed the process of tiling the floor, in fact he aches so much he took it upon himself to count the tiles he'd laid just so he can say, 'that's 168 tiles I've laid, no wonder I'm aching!'

The above pic is when all the appliances had to be shoved into the middle of the room. The whole floor is now complete and our temporary layout is back once more; with a bit of swearing though, because I had the audacity to suggest we retrieve a small piece of old worktop from my workshop so that we don't have to use the top of the washing machine as a work surface. You'd have thought I'd asked him to lay another 168 tiles!

The grouting still needs a bit of tidying up but all tools have left the building which is fantastic as we had more tools in the kitchen than crockery.

IKEA here we come! The kitchen needs to be ordered now and although we are aware that it will take weeks to arrive we have plenty to do in the meantime. I'm a great believer in fate. What will be will be. M wants an island and I'm hankering after a long farm house table instead. He will probably win on account of us needing the cupboards and drawers that will go under the island.

Hopefully some time this year I will have the 'after' photos to go with they 'before's'. Can't wait.

One down and three to go...

Yep still looks like a building site. Ah, but there is progress, albeit painfully slow...

That front wall is now plastered! Not only that but it also has a brand new radiator! Woohoo. It's connected to our bedroom radiator so we've not had heating in our bedroom for a week or so and it's been flipping cold.

Mollie is not impressed with this at all. She is quite disturbed that her little food corner is splattered with plaster; this is the view of one of the unfinished wall which is opposite. That's Mollie waiting patiently for her dinner.

Riley turned out to be a not so helpful builder's mate this morning. He stole a tape measure, chisel and packet of plumbing clips and stashed them in his bed. What a magpie! I did try and tell him off but it was difficult to keep a straight face with him lying on top of his little haul.

I did a spot of charity shopping this morning, just to get out of the way for a bit. I came home with some very random purchases. A brand new, still in the packet, navy superking valance for £3.50. It just so happens that we have a superking bed and no valance since M put his foot through ours and ripped it. Don't ask me how. I've always hated valances because they are a bit too close to frills for my liking but this one has simple box pleats at each corner, so not too fussy. What a find, just as we needed one as well.

I added two more pottery mugs to our collection. I go for hand thrown so each one has a character of its own. I try and stick to the matt glazes but sometimes the shiny ones are quite nice too. They were more popular in the 70s so I find them for about 50p.

Lastly, a top by Brora. Quite an expensive make new (I sometimes get their pamphlets in Country Living) but a bargain at £2.50. It's a jersey material, with a thin jade and grey stripe. I'll wear anything as long as it goes with jeans!

I also bought another packet of sugar. The guy doing our plastering takes three in his black coffee! Blurgh.

Breezy, wet weekend waffle...

Aw, Harvey finally decided to let Riley share some sofa time. Note that they are sparkly clean for this thanks to a spot of pebble bottomed river splashing (as opposed to our mud bottomed river).

At the end of our very long garden to one side lives a woodturner. From time to time we find fish carcasses, chicken bones and various bits of pig thrown over his fence into the back field. Apart from attracting rats and goodness knows what else it's a bit of a nuisance for our dogs. Apart from the dubious age of the food, things like chicken bones can be a choking hazard. Harvey has been trained from a puppy to leave it all alone but Riley thinks it's bonus dinner time! This morning I had to wrestle half a pig from his mouth, ok, well I exaggerate a little, but it was a large strip with extremely thick skin on it and hairs still on it, urgh, gross.

We had the coarse plaster applied to fill all the big holes and channels where the new wiring has been fitted. The kitchen really doesn't look all that different hence my lack of kitchen update posts. Once the smooth plaster goes on, which starts on Monday it will begin to look like progress is being made. Once dry we plan to paint everything white and then lay the floor. The thought of having a proper floor that is not bare concrete is pretty exciting. It is a bugger to sweep mud from concrete I can tell you!

So this is how the far wall looks. The new fuse box will be hidden in a wall cupboard. The rather strangely placed double socket is for the microwave and coffee machine.

This pic shows the ceiling rough plastered over where the wall came down. The whole ceiling will be smooth plastered next week too so that will mean removing most of the contents of the kitchen once again. I've lost track of how many times stuff has gone out and come back in again.

The rest of the room looks pretty much the same as these pics. We are having fun deciding where to fit two medium sized dog beds. There's the hall or the kitchen, but I don't really want the two enormous plastic beds we've acquired because they are a bit of an overkill, neither dog needs the space they provide and we will no doubt keep tripping over the darn things. I will show you the ideas we've come up with in my next post. From the sublime to the ridiculous!