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Ideas for storage needed

January 15, 2012 in general | 5 comments

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We have lived in our house for nearly eight years and for the first four it was a wreck, then we lived in it for a couple of years before extending.  We have it up for sale but without any luck so I think we now need to make it work for us.

The house is a bungalow in the country and as such we have furnished it with lots of old or made to measure furniture.  In order to keep it from looking really twee we have kept the decoration modern and without many ornaments etc.

I love the bedrooms, the kitchen and the main bathroom but need help in the living room and the shower room.


The shower room is too empty, we have no storage and I have no idea what will work in here, it is probably the most modern room in the house and has overtaken the main bathroom as being the one we use most.  I am fed up with everything being on the window sill and would love some ideas.

 excuse the mess on the floor these were taken before we moved back in after the work was done!

The living room is a large room and we put huge patio doors and side windows in which I often regret.  They let in lots of light but restrict what we can do with the room.  We have a multi fuel burner and a huge brown leather sofa with a coffee table at one end. A large farmhouse style table and chairs in the middle.  In order to break up the room we added a platform in and carpeted it and use this as the area for watching TV.  I think we are going to add a brown leather chair to the platform but haven’t collected it from my mums yet! On the platform or ‘stage’ as it is called we have a large beanbag, a child’s rocking chair a cuddle chair and a small table.

We have wooden blinds on the two windows and striped fake curtains which plain cream working ones on the patio doors.
We have nowhere to display things in here and have no shelves, sideboards or anything similar.  It has worked up to now but I really want somewhere to put candlesticks, framed pictures etc and somewhere to hide everyday things!

I have no idea what I am looking for and would love some ideas, I have joined Pininterest and will be pinning anything that looks suitable. The companies we used to make our furniture are no longer in business so that isn’t an option. I would love some ideas if anyone has any?

all photos are old as we don’t have a playpen any longer etc and are just there as an idea of what I am talking about

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Gardening SOS

July 4, 2011 in general | No comments

Think DIY SOS and you would be on the right road.

We bought our house about 7 years ago and at the time the house was falling apart but the garden was lovely, it had numerous flower beds and a small rockery along with trees, bushes and lots of daffodils and tulips in the spring.

Roll on 7 years and the house is thankfully no longer falling down and has been restored, rebuilt and extended.  The back garden has been made into a play area, a large deck has been built- with foundations that are not going anywhere, and lots of pink stones underneath the slats where no-one will ever see!

We have retarmaced the driveway and split it into areas- this was one of the major mistakes as the tarmac in less than a year started to break up and weeds are everywhere and the fight to get it fixed is ongoing.

But back to the garden… The lawn is now cut every fortnight and is starting to resemble a lawn with green grass rather than huge thigh high weeds. The area we had decided would be a vegetable plot is still out of control but the gardening man will be tackling that this week.

At the minute it looks like this…

So I think we will have our work cut out.  Does everyone grow to like gardening or will we be fooling ourselves? We don’t want/need lots of flowers mainly as we kill anything we try to grow but we do want a bit of colour and I would love to have lavender and daffodils growing again.

We have a huge Japanese Maple tree which we were bought for R’s first birthday.  The tree is still in a half barrel but will soon outgrow it but we have no idea where or how to replant it and don’t want it to suffer.  We once tried it in the front garden and nearly killed it with wind burn!

We also have one major problem or actually about a million of them; red ants  I really need help trying to get them to move on as the bite they give is sore and I don’t want the children to get bitten repeatedly.

Is there a gardening guru/fairy out there that can offer help for minimal outlay or is this just wishful thinking

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The Gallery: I’m grateful for.

June 1, 2011 in The Gallery | 4 comments

The theme at sticky fingers for this week.

Although I will often be found complaining and moaning I am grateful for a lot.
I am grateful for my husband, a man who loves his family and is not afraid to show it. He works extremely hard to give us the lifestyle we want and to keep himself healthy. He goes out to work for nearly double the hours I work (and I work full time!) and still finds time to tidy, clean and look after us all. he has been my rock and has held me together so many times. After being together for 17 years and celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary last year I still love and more importantly like my husband and even when I don’t say it I hope he always knows how I feel.

I am grateful I have a lovely house and a good job, supportive Friends and family nearby who are there for all our ups and downs.
Overall I am grateful for my children. I have had 2 miscarriages, an ectopic pregnancy and many years of unexplained infertility.
I am grateful to R my special little man who showed me what was and is important in life. He taught me many things and gave me 9 precious weeks full of extremes but overall full of love.
I am grateful for K my baby girl who will be 5 next week. we were advised at her 20 week scan that she was likely to die due to having CCAMs- more on this in another post sometime. K is a beautiful, smart, funny, opinionated but polite and loving little girl. She has little or no health issues apart from a large scar under her arm that shows where she had major surgery to remove part of her lung when she was only 2 1/2. K you put me to shame with your bravery and your enthusiasm for life.
I am grateful to Buster my little surprise. My baby boy who we didn’t think we would ever have and who survived a car accident when I was 20 weeks pregnant along with a bad fall the day after the accident. Buster you make me smile you can push my buttons like no one else and I never thought I would be having arguments and a battle of wills with a just turned 2 year old. But you are such a joy, you are so funny so loving and caring and you never fail to make me smile.
I am grateful to the NHS who kept me alive during a couple of my pregnancies and my children’s births. I am grateful to live in the UK where we have the NHS and a lifestyle where I know my children will not be faced with the extremes of poverty that many millions of children in the world have no option but to endure.

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