It's a couple of years now since I first decided that we really needed to do something about our outside dining area at the mill. After all we spend most of our lives out there from April through to October. (Not just eating and drinking you understand!) We'd been so busy renovating the inside of … Continue reading From factory floor to lush garden oasis – the terrace challenge
All the houses I have ever lived in have had stairs, and at the top of those stairs was a landing. (Actually, all except one, where the stairs just ended up at the door of the only bedroom). Every landing has posed a similar DIY challenge - how to make the most of a tiny … Continue reading The landing that designed itself
At 3 am on Thursday morning the alarm on my phone roused us to start ‘Operation Kitchen Collection.’ I’m really not bad at getting up early in the morning (just don’t ask me to stay awake after 9:30 pm!), which is just as well as we were booked on the 8:15am ferry from Caen to … Continue reading Operation Kitchen Collection – and it’s ‘Go’!
Hi! I’m back – did you miss me? I’m not getting any better at regular blog posts, am I? So much has happened since the spring and in subtle ways, although we are in the same place, doing the same things, life has changed quite a bit. But that’s for a future post. First let … Continue reading Bathroom Numéro Deux
Total make-over of upstairs bathroom – tick! Oh, if only it were that easy! If you've been following this blog for a while you'll know that we started this project, part-time, back in February. Ever since we first moved into Moulin de la Roche, last October, we’ve been intending to totally re-do the main bathroom … Continue reading The bathroom is finished!
Given that it’s nearly five months since I last did an update on our renovation progress, you might be wondering what we’ve been up to in all this time? Although it’s been a long time since my post in March, we’ve actually only spent 3 weeks in France between then and our current visit. So … Continue reading Back to the building site
It’s quite some time since I last posted. It’s not that we haven’t been to France in the last 4 months (Goodness, it really is ages since I did a blog post!) rather that every time we have been out the weather has been marvellous, we’ve had friends and family to stay and we’ve been … Continue reading School’s out – for everr!!
Follow my blog with Bloglovin I’ve decided that renovating an old property is an organic process. You can plan, work out your Gantt charts, costings, source materials and expertise to your heart’s content - you think you are in control and then the building just says ”Nah!, You don’t wanna be doing it like that” … Continue reading The best laid plans…
Back in the spring of 2016, when we first saw our new house advertised, we were fascinated by the description of an ancient water mill with a working wheel that the present owner had adapted to run the central heating. When we first visited the mill in April the owner was ‘asleep in bed’ and … Continue reading OMG, we have heat!
I’d just parked up my push-bike after riding up to the village to collect fresh bread for breakfast. (‘up’ being the operative word as it’s 10 minutes uphill all the way – but the return journey is fun. I’ve decided that French bread is a super food as I’ve got to be burning off as … Continue reading Natural diversions
