An accidental collection

The work on our house is nearing the end, can't believe I'm saying that after all these years! The foundations were laid for the extension 7 years ago and my "to do" list at the time was -

build extension

decorate and furnish new rooms

decorate the rest of the house

and to re-do some of the things we did when we renovated the house the first time around,

20 years ago.

 

The first time we renovated the house it was to convert 2 almost derelict cottages into 1 three bedroom house, we were on a very tight budget and some of the things we'd have liked to have done were just too expensive. So we (and by that I mean I) started to make a list of things we could tackle the second time around. Unfortunately during that 20 year period, 3 children arrived and I began to work part time (for a while not work at all) so money became tighter and life generally got in the way a bit!

 

After we'd finished the house the second time I thought we'd tackle the garden which is very messy (neither of us have even 1 green finger between us!) and then lay a nice cobble driveway and then live happily ever after - the whole lot should take about a  year shouldn't it?

So 20 years after we started and 7 years after phase 2 we're actually seeing light at the end of the tunnel! And it's looking good. The laundry room now has a replica pamment floor, we re-installed the belfast sink but now with a solid wood worktop which I'm in love with. There's a new fridge freezer which dispenses ice - probably the best toy the kids have ever had! and the 200 year floor bricks we'd stored outside for the past 20 years have been cleaned and laid at the entrance to the extension.

a little niche in the wall we found





please excuse the washing hanging up!

It's a little hard to photograph as it's a long narrow room, but I'm really pleased with the results.

There are still a few more things to do - put the cupboard door on, finish the painting, oil the worktop etc - that's my weekend sorted!

I also unpacked my old bottle collection and arranged them in the entrance

 

 

 

my favourite conical shaped Schweppes bottle

 

This is not an intentional collection, I try not to collect anything as I think I may have an obsessive tendency and wouldn't stop until I had a full set of anything! These are all bottles we dug up in our garden, and there were many more than just these ones too! We have quite a long garden and along the left hand side is a row of farm cottages who's gardens back onto our boundary. It appears that many moons ago everyone buried their rubbish, and mostly they threw it over the fence into our undergrowth - that or the previous owners of our cottage like a drink or 10!

The bottles range from earthenware beer bottles from the local Steward and Patterson brewery to torpedo shaped glass bottles and my favourite is the conical Schweppes bottle shown in the last photo, I really ought to do a bit of research to learn more about them, I may have one worth millions!

Sorry for the random positioning of these photos, they seem to re-arrange themselves when I preview or publish, why is that?

Have a lovely weekend everyone - I'm trying to catch up with all your blogs as we're 2 missing this weekend. The builder is away on a music (read drinking) weekend and number 2 son is on an RAF cadet weekend sleeping in a tree most probably. I'm off to the cinema with number 1 and Little Miss later, feeling very guilty that my other child is sleeping rough for 2 nights wearing heavy and probably damp army issue clothing and only armed with a pot noodle for sustenance!!