Tulips and paint

Why hello there…it seems like months since I last wrote a post, but it’s actually only been three weeks.  In the meantime, the weather has warmed, my tulips have died down and I’ve been taking a few rides on my bicycle.  It’s been delicious!  I picked the last of my tulips and brought them indoors as the wind was blowing the beautiful petals off and I couldn’t bear to watch them all bedraggled…a bit like how I look when I’ve been in the wind and the rain!

(does anyone know what these little white flowers are...I've forgotten what they're called, someone said they might be wild garlic, but I don't think they are)

The little house project is just about finished, although we had major issues with a leaking roof and lots of damp as you can see in the pics.  Although the front door has been painted and the new knobs and knockers fitted, I haven’t taken pics so I’m going to show you some before and during photos.  The house is going to be rented out, so it needed to be practical.  There aren't any fancy bits in the renovation project but I had fun doing it all.  The paint colours worked out really well.  I wanted it to feel light and airy and most importantly I wanted to get rid of the magnolia paint that had yellowed over the years.  I went with a very lovely blue/grey for all the walls downstairs, stairwell and upstairs passage way as I wanted to create an even flow and we carpeted the lounge with beautiful grey carpet with a deep pile which feels quite luxurious underfoot.  We laid laminate floors in the hallway and the small room off the hall, much more practical than carpet and it looks pretty good for laminate flooring.   The bathroom has a shower unit instead of a bath so we fitted a new electric shower, replaced the old radiator with a new chrome radiator and matched the accessories to the new toilet and wash hand basin.  It would have been lovely to have replaced the ceramic tiled flooring, as I didn’t like the colour too much, but again weighing up the restraints of a budget and bearing in mind it was for rental, the client decided against it.  The fireplace has a huge gaping hole, which really needs to be fitted with a lovely cast iron fireplace, but I'm still searching eBay and it probably won't be fitted any time soon.  I also thought about adding a mirror for decorative effect like the one I posted here

I mentioned in an earlier post that the house looked like squatters had moved in, and as you can see from the photos, I wasn't exaggerating ...there was so much cleaning up to do before we could even start the renovation work.  It took days just to clear up the rubble the tenants had left in the house. 

Hope you all enjoy the weekend, the weather is going to be sublime here in the south...might even dip my toes in that freezing water down at the beach...

on second thoughts...a cycle will do!

Sharon

xxx