Sunday, April 17, 2011

The smell of an oily rag



We're renovating our Bed and Breakfast on the smell of an oily rag. By that I mean we're not spending serious amounts of money paying someone else to transform our house into an architectural magazine marvel (I wish). No, we're doing it DIY, one room at a time, at the rate of approximately one room a year.


Using recycled materials where ever possible, we're renovating, decorating, furnishing and styling everything ourselves - juggling the ever-growing B&B business, our freelance work, family, pets and other commitments behind-the-scenes.

It can be pretty daunting living in a house as you recreate it around yourself and we have been doing this for a few years now. Sometimes I get the panicky heebie-jeebies and have to breathe slowly, close my eyes and try to picture just how fabulous I know the outcome will be. Luckily, I'm good at imagining the mind's-eye 'after' pictures and there is no shortage of scary 'before and during' photos to remind me how grim it all looked to begin with.

Apart from the trusty plumber and electrician, Handy Husband does almost everything (I mostly sand, paint and point), so not an evening goes by when I don't thank the milky-way that I was lucky enough to find such a wonderful, generous, practical man - even if he does, quite often, smell like an oily rag.



I've linked this post to Maxabella's grateful space.

5 comments:

  1. love your blog! your verandah is beautiful, love the white pots with bouganvillea!
    cheryl x your newest follower

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  2. Thanks. Love yours too! Am finding it hard to concentrate on other jobs with all this bloggy excitement! Back to work now...

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  3. what a fab blog and good on you for doing it all yourselves..
    we pulled down an old house that was going to be demolished about a year ago and we're trying to use all the materials for our little projects such as my soon (hopefully) to be studio..

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  4. Hello Kate, I am visiting from the Rewind. You'll get there! One day your own spaces will be as gorgeous as the guest rooms.

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  5. @kasiabear - HH keeps promising to build me a 'writing gazebo' in the garden made with all the off-cuts. Nowhere to hide and write in this house.
    @Seana I keep on dreaming. (As of last night we have moved into the sunroom for a few months over winter- can only live in the unrenovated servants' corner for so long...and, isn't the clawfoot bath the same not-green colour as your kitchen? xx

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