And she's in!

I know! It has been months since I have blogged! Life has just been too busy but today I thought I would share with you some final pictures of Penny's annexe. She finally moved in at the beginning of July and is now truly settled.

The first room to be completely finished was the bedroom. We had a slight hiccup when I bought the extra tall wardrobe from IKEA by mistake but it fitted and Penny was thrilled to have the extra space so all was well! This is looking into the room from the hall.

And this is taken standing by the window.

The bathroom is compact and bijou! But it has everything that is needed and is just what Penny wanted.

Even down to the litter tray for the cats when they go to stay with her!

Hugh and I are very proud of the living area as we feel we really got the design perfect (well actually we are very proud of all our designs!). We spent ages with scaled down pieces of paper moving things around to make the most of a small space. This is taken standing at the doorway looking into the living room.

Penny did really well with all her interior design choices - it is really light but at the same time warm and cozy. She also has an air conditioner which has been perfect this summer!

The kitchen has so much storage space - we really have maximised every inch of space we had available.

And lastly the hall. This photo is taken standing in the living room doorway.

This photo is from the bedroom. The bathroom door is next door to the bedroom, almost opposite the front door.

So, after 5 months she is in! At times it felt like it was never going to be finished and yet at other times things happened really quickly. We were extremely lucky with our builder - he and his crew/subcontractors were superb and we could not fault any of them. Penny is extremely happy with her little home and we are too!

Country Living Spring Fair

Last weekend I spent a very pleasant day with Wendy and Sue at Alexandra Palace at the Country Living Spring Fair. I had never been to one of these shows before – Sue suggested it as they get Country Living magazine at the chiropractors she works at and they got an offer for reduced price tickets! Ever ones for a bargain we quickly booked up 3 tickets! We had been to Ally Pally before for craft shows so we knew where we were going and that it was quite easy to take a packed lunch to eat!

Sue and Wendy arrived at my house at 10am and we jumped into my car and I drove us up – it only took about an hour to get there which was not too bad! Parking was easy and we took the shuttle bus up to the exhibition hall.

The whole exhibition was very sedate compared with a craft show! It was very relaxing walking around – there was a brass band playing and lots of lovely interesting stalls to look at. There were a couple of stalls with animals – some chickens and some lambs.

We meandered around for about an hour and then stopped for a  coffee and to people watch! After our coffee we attacked the stalls again! There were stalls selling jewellery (many unique designs which was nice), clothes stalls, furniture (I’ve found Penny a nice step stool to buy for her annexe), antique items and food stalls with quite a few samples to try! Most of the items were a bit pricey if you weren’t looking for a special present but it was fun to look at everything and chat to the stallholders. We decided it would be nice to have a photo in the arbour on the Country Living stand and a very nice man came and did the honours for us!

After eating our lunch out in the Palm Court area we re-entered and mooched around for a little longer before leaving just before it closed at 4pm. We were trying to take a selfie by the huge magazine cover when a lovely lady offered to take our photo for us.

Would I recommend it? Yes, it was a lovely day out but do not expect to get any bargains! There were definitely some lovely bits and pieces to buy but you do need to have deep pockets. Oh yes, and all the staff at Ally Pally were absolutely lovely – very friendly and chatty, which made the visit all the more enjoyable.

Annexe update

There have been big strides in the build since the last update!

Firstly the windows have been put in….

The front of the annexe as you walk up the drive

The back of the annexe looking towards the back of the house

Meanwhile all the drive has been dug up ready for the installation of the new block paving which is going from the front of the house, up the drive and then half way down the back garden to the patio.

 Of course Hugh had to mess around on the pile of rubble....

And Penny had to have a go at pretending to drive the digger!

As did Hugh!

  There has been work going on inside too, with studwork going up to make the rooms…

Standing in the bedroom looking towards the bathroom/hall

Standing in the living area looking back to the bathroom

Electrical cables and pipework for the central heating has all been installed too but there isn’t much I can show you for that! And then last week the door was installed and now it really looks like a little house!

We have had the plasterers in this week and so now we have to wait for the plaster to dry and then the bathroom can be installed and we can start decorating. 

Hugh and Penny in the living area

Penny and I had the kitchen designer in from Wickes last week and this morning we are back at Wickes to see her design and to (hopefully) order the kitchen. We will be coming back via the flooring/tiling showroom to order the flooring for the living area/hall/bathroom and the tiles for the bathroom. I am slowly beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel! Penny is getting more and more excited and cannot wait to move in!

Oh yes - one more thing ... Penny passed her driving test this week!