the project - site visit

Stairs from 1st floor to mezzanine

Things move very slowly then suddenly speed up. The past few weeks has seen a flurry of emails to sign off the final-final-final plans for the kitchen, bathroom and flooring. It is amazing that you can think you have thought of everything and then suddenly there is a teeny tiny detail you missed that is incredibly important and must be agreed, like, right now.


Beam reaching up from 1st to mezzanine floor, wee bit of dining platform

The big jobs are also being done - the inside is now all plasterboarded with wires poking through and plug socket spaces appearing. It is at this point you realise that there isn't a plug socket just where you will need one because seeing it 3-d is very different to a paper plan.


Andy standing at the bathroom door, down the corridor towards the two bedrooms

We are also beginning to see the space and get a better feel for it now the windows are all in and the house is a lot lighter. This means the mezzanine seems huge but the bedrooms smaller. The dining platform is taller than we imagined and the garden a bigger space. It is like Alice in Wonderland - sizes and shapes change with every visit. But luckily, so far, we haven't thought 'oh my God we don't like it' - more 'oh my God why can we not move in tomorrow'!


Andy in his hard hat and fetching yellow vest...

However, it is a conversion which means the secret hidey holes we had in the old place and our current rented accommodation will not be available. Two challenges for me - to be a lot tidier and to not hoard. Those who know me well will understand the challenge this poses. The clear out we did a year ago needs to be repeated with an even harsher edit. So I need to see this as a fresh beginning and a chance to declutter rather than a hard and emotional break up with shoes I haven't worn since university and 'archiving' every single card, postcard and letter I have ever been sent.


Where the stained glass window will be put back in as part of the internal wall that encloses the dining platform - as you walk down from the mezzanine or sit at the dining table you will be able to look through the stained glass

And if I manage to do this, and perhaps make some ebay money too, then I can invest in this lovely simple but quirky Keith Brymer Jones 'word' crockery...I particularly like the 'what comes first the chicken or the egg' egg cups and the 'porridge' bowl.