Saturday 26 November 2016

Black Friday SALE


The Black Friday Sale madness continues all weekend, over in our

Not on the High Street.com store

If you missed our Birthday SALE you can get a bargain 

Monday 21 November 2016

46% off EVERYTHING!


Before the Black Friday madness begins, we're offering you a birthday bonus. 


To celebrate my 46th year, we're offering you 


46% off EVERYTHING  


 Offer ends 11.59pm on Wednesday 


Tuesday 15 November 2016

Closer to 50....


So another year has passed - closer to 50 than 40!


I celebrated with cake - the first mince pie of the year!
Think that could become a good new birthday tradition x


We agreed not to buy much as money is tight this year but I was treated to Take That tickets for the Summer, a 'moan free' trip to Ikea, Jeff hates Ikea and a little money to do a little guilt free shopping in Bath one day. The children bought me some lilies and I had lovely gifts from the family, so I was spoilt, on what was otherwise just an ordinary day. 

Saturday 12 November 2016

Sofa time!!!



The Sitting Room

This room has been a long time coming. We loved this room when we viewed the house, with it's view out onto the garden. It was slightly bigger than our previous sitting room in Shepton and it had a lot of potential, with a fireplace (not to our taste) and lots of natural light and views out onto the garden.


We put our temporary stamp on it when we moved in and initially, it had to double up as the dining room too - bit of squeeze but doable!


Then in February as the build progressed, we had to move the kitchen into this room too for about a month or two, now that was a squeeze.


So when the new kitchen was done, this room felt spacious all over again. We styled it the best we could but there was no moving away from the horrible carpet and fireplace.


Sophie and I had researched and tested many sofa's in the hunt for our new one. The old sofas were from Next, were about 8 years old, still comfy but had 'bobbled' terribly and were just looking a bit tired now. I'd saved a 'sofa fund' that hadn't got swallowed up in 'the build' so we had a bit of money put aside. We choose the Dillon sofa in 'iron' cotton covers from Sofa Workshop and ordered them in August, with an arrival date of early November, to spur us on with getting the room done!


We temporarily moved the sitting room into the front room, which had been our bedroom and will become Jeff's study/extra TV room eventually, whilst we got on with transforming the sitting room.


There was a lot to do. The whole room was wall papered - walls and ceiling, so that all had to come off, walls stripped, prepped and painted. The fireplace and hearth had to come out and we replaced it with the recycled floorboards, rescued from the old summerhouse floor. We used the leftover kitchen floor tiles to finish the hearth. The old carpet came up and Jeff laid a wooden floor, which I then painted. We saved up enough money to replace the old sliding doors with one large door, which will hopefully be useful in the Summer months. 


Before and after fireplace pics.


So for the last couple of weeks the room has been ready, awaiting the arrival of the sofas, so we could start using that room and yesterday, was 'sofa day'! I had to stay in all day and you've guessed it, they arrived at 3.30pm but it thankfully was dry and they were the right ones!



We went for the 'snuggler' a small sofa/over sized armchair for this corner. It will seat 2 people but doesn't take up the space of an actual sofa. As it's normally just Jeff and I sat in the sitting room in an evening, we thought this was a sensible option but for the first time last night, we had company - the lure of the new sofa's enticed the teenagers down!!



Then along this wall, we went for the medium sofa, which more than comfortably accommodates 2 but could easily seat 3. Again, it doesn't take up the space of a large sofa, making the room feel spacious still. We've waited until the sofa's arrived, to decide on whether we need a rug, coffee table, footstools etc as we don't want the room to feel crowded.


 The pictures are still to go up , when Jeff has a moment to get his drill out and we are still to decide/save up for a fire but the room is 'done for Christmas' which was always my goal. For the first time in well over a year now, I feel I have a room I can now relax in and enjoy.

Saturday 5 November 2016

Birthday Girl


Birthday girl in the house!


A certain someone has turned 17!!!!
Yep! time to learn to drive! 

It's an expensive business, the cost of the provisional licence, insure the car, lessons at 10 hours for £240. She has had a block of 2 hourly lessons for her birthday and another block for Christmas and her grandparents have very generously added to the pot for her birthday, so when they run out she's got to earn the money. So CV's have been written out and handed in to a few local shops, on the hunt now for a little job - suddenly all very grown up stuff x


I took her out for her first 'go' in the car this morning. We got into first gear and reverse along the little road in front of the house and both came back smiling, so we're off out again to find a bigger, quiet space this afternoon - time to find 2nd gear!

Wish us luck x