Saving money is something I’ve always struggled with. I love a bargain and spent a lot of my wages in my teens on DVDs in the bargain bin at Woolworths… or Blockbuster (showing my age here! 😅). Since moving out of my parents house two years ago I’ve been cutting down on my expenses and saving money each month. Of course there are items that I have to pay for…
Home and Garden
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Restoring a vintage wicker shelving unit
This wicker shelving unit has been in my parents house for as long as I can remember. I’m not sure how old it is, but it was my Gran’s. It used to be in my parents living room, then when I moved out, made its way to my bedroom for storage. I’ve always liked it and was told take it or we’re binning it (!) – so I did. 🙂…
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Dining room chairs restoration
Remember the dining room chairs we reupholstered? We finally got around to re varnishing / staining them. 🙂 First we removed the seats from both chairs and sanded them down with a hand sander, we focused on the legs, front, back and sides. The details (e.g. the 3 planks of the chair back) were sanded with sand paper, which very hard and time consuming. It started to rain while we…
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Reupholstering a vintage ottoman
Our second project over the Bank Holiday weekend was reupholstering and restoring a vintage ottoman. The ottoman was given to us by my mum and has been in my family for at least 60 years, so approximately the 1940s. We learnt from the reupholstery we’d done on the two dining room chairs and I think we’ve gotten better at it. 🙂 To begin we removed one of the trims that…
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Wooden storage box restoration
Artur and I have been busy this weekend with two restoration ‘projects’. Here’s the first: This storage box has been stored in Artur’s previous garage for years, it was damp and cold. As a result, there was water damage! My mum nicknamed the box ‘Rover’. Before picture: First we removed the door and sanded down all the damaged areas. Both on the box itself and the door. Once sanding was…
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Reupholstering our Dining Room Chairs
Artur has had two dining room chairs for a number of years, the seat covers desperately needed maintenance and the wood needed a re varnish or staining. We got some quotes for the work on the two chairs (always best to shop around 🙂 )but ultimately decided to do it ourselves. Artur has a project in mind to build his own motorvan from a van and this is a good…
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Moving into our new home!
We’ve been in our new home for over a week now (nearly the end of the second week in fact! – We moved June 15th) and it’s starting to look homely. 🙂 Here are a few photos of the house so far which Artur took on his new GoPro. We still have some unpacking to do (so you won’t be seeing the spare bedroom 😉 ) but it’s coming along…
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Moving House!
Artur and I have been busy lately, house hunting mostly,still a rented property for the time being and we’ve finally found one that suits all his our requirements: House? – Check Garden? – Check Garage? – Check Two bedrooms? – Check Bath? – Check Shower over bath? – Check Dinner room? – Technically a kitchen come dinner but check! 🙂 We move in mid June! Haven’t actually started doing any…
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Grand Designs: What would I do?
For those that aren’t familiar with “Grand Designs” it’s a television show in the UK broadcast on Channel 4 which features unusual and often elaborate architectural home-building projects in Britain as the individuals attempt to design and construct the home of their dreams. The programme is presented by Kevin McCloud. I watch this show quite frequently and it has often made me think if given the chance (and with the…