A bathroom refresh update

Back in January I shared our plans to refresh our bathroom which was booked to take place in February. On the day our plumber arrived, but only to ask if we would allow this to be rearranged. It was one of the snowy days in February, and many of his other clients were suffering broken boilers. It was a cold day and not the day to be without heating or hot water, and so we rearranged, knowing that we would want other people to do the same for us.

So last month the plumbers returned and the work could start in earnest. But first a couple of before photos:

The sink, the toilet and the shower were all being replaced. The tiles on the floor and walls, the cabinets and the shower enclosure were all staying. This may have made it trickier but we’re not ones for replacing things that continue to work perfectly well.

Like many refurbishment projects, quite often it gets worse before it gets better. And ours was no different. This was taken at the end of day 1:

The day hadn’t gone well. The sink refused to come off the wall. It had been glued and bolted to the wall, this could have been a contributory factor to the stress veins in the photo above. In the end a rather large hammer was taken to it - at one point the second plumber asked his boss, if he needed a bigger hammer. Yes, it was that kind of day.

The replacement shower had different fixings, even though it looked as if they were the same, and that wasn’t easy to remove either. They were loathed to smash the tile until they were sure we had a replacement tile. We did, and I knew exactly where they were - in our gabion baskets of course. Thankfully not under the pizza oven, but in the seating alongside it. Not in the shed like normal people! Though that’s unfair, they had been in the shed until we put these together and in an attempt to clear the shed some more, we used these until the slabs in the smaller baskets. That did mean one was easy to rescue, and I think the plumbers were slightly bemused by the fact too.

But it did mean they could do this.

They left for the evening, and after an afternoon of hopping about waiting to use our second loo (which they thankfully did sort for me) you’d think things couldn’t have gotten any worse.

And then they did.

The second loo, our spare loo, failed. It wouldn’t stop filling up and so they came back. But the mechanism failed and so overnight we didn’t have a flushing loo, one of the most stressful nights we’ve had in a while, I can tell you. By now I was making contingency loo plans, trying to work out where my nearest loo would be, apart from our neighbours, and in a pandemic.

But thankfully it wasn’t needed, as at the end of day 2 it looked more like this. It needed a clean, but it all worked, and so did our second loo. Phew.

The shower and the replacement tile were also in place and working. There had been much discussion amongst the plumbers on which colour grout to use, which was entertaining and welcome, as it showed the pride they had in their work and in doing a great job for us.

We’ve a few more things to do, including painting the shelves and built in useful cupboard, but it’s good to see the changes so far, which have brought it up-to-date, provided extra storage and reintroduced hot showers!

More to follow, but first I need to find paint to complement the very dark navy of the unit above, to transform our dark brown/almost black handy storage cupboard, and then to buy it and finish the job. Small steps, and all that.

A tale of two desks

It’s only taken us about a year of working from home, but finally we’ve sorted ourselves out a desk each. Up until then each day we’d based ourselves at our kitchen table, and it worked well for us and our circumstances then. With MOH starting a new job we knew that having us both on the phone, or on Teams calls at the same time wouldn’t work so well, so we needed a new plan. But it needed to be flexible. We are fortunate to have the space to set up work areas outside of our bedroom and living space. I knew that I needed to avoid working in the craft room/study as there would be far too many distractions, and it’s the room where our wifi has the worst reception.

MOH opted for our spare room, we have futon in there and he has a dartboard and records there - he has much less of an issue with distractions than me, clearly - which left me the top bedroom, which was more than ok with me, as it’s a light and bright room and somewhere we spend very little time. We don’t have the space for two desks to remain in place all of the time, alongside our other furniture and so one of the desks needed to be foldable. I was keen that they were both something we liked, would use again and could be repurposed - and not look out of place - in other parts of our home.

Not quite the mission impossible you might be thinking. The folding desk was the easiest to source, and by looking at many desks I learnt a lot. The desks were mainly a metre wide, the depth more variable. Compared to our kitchen table most of the desks were about 10cm wider, depth at the kitchen table wasn’t an issue. In our spare room the alcove is 110cm and could take a deeper desk, so our plans were on track.

Then I saw, and fell in love with, the desks on the Hairpin Leg Co. Smitten. The sizes didn’t quite work though, so I researched custom made options. I knew I could buy the legs on the hairpin’s website, so I looked for laminate tops, and I found many which involved varying degrees of assembly and drilling. Then I struck gold on Etsy, finding The Laminate Top Company - given the company name where I started, the irony on where I ended up isn’t lost on me.

I ordered my desk and it was delivered within a couple of days from one of the larger delivery companies that sells just about everything. I ‘sold’ the ply and orange legged desk to MOH, who didn’t take much persuasion - as “a desk’s a desk” - and I impatiently waited. It arrived on schedule, though given our current troubles with deliveries I was keeping an even closer eye on this one, and at one point one of the parcels (it came in two consignments), according to the online tracking had had a failed delivery. Thankfully in the end it was pain free, and I couldn’t wait to check it over.

The ply top. The chamfered edge - oh, just look at that edge. The legs. Perfection.

MOH was impressed too, even more so when he put it together. And so his desk is in place - and in use - too. The original plan was to put it in the alcove by the window, however with the change in weather - and the WFH coldness setting in - sitting next to the window isn’t the most sensible thing. When we make use of the futon it will move into the alcove, and in the warmer weather being closer to the window and overlooking the garden will work too. I bought a throw for the spare room, and put it handy so MOH could make use of it. I never thought he would, but today he let on it had come in useful - but only after he laughed at me for having a blanket over my lap…

It suits him, he’s minimalist. And as he says, a desk is a desk.

It may just be a desk, but it’s gorgeous - and longer term I’ve got my eye on it for my craft room. But sssshh, don’t tell him.

My desk isn’t as gorgeous and stylish as his, but it’s just as useful and has the potential for future use too.

You can tell our different approaches just by looking at our layout can’t you? I have headphones, a notebook and plenty of pretty stationery, and a lamp from the bedside table which has temporarily been displaced. I left it there to save unplugging it, as the plug is behind the bed, but actually it’s great to have a table lamp for those duller times of day.

I read recently that the view from your desk should be inspiring, in both our cases neither could be called that. In my case the wall slopes and if I’m honest it’s not a view I spend much time looking at. With the amount of time I spend on Teams calls and in meetings, the view behind me is one I see much more often - and that one’s pretty stunning. A few weeks on, it’s still receiving comments from the people I meet.

So a year on, two desks later and we may just have cracked this working at home malarkey. Some things still don’t change, and MOH is still the chief tea maker in our relationship, now he has an extra flight of stairs to deliver it - or occasionally I get a call to collect it, either works for me. The only challenge? When the door bell goes, the front door is much further away, but I’ll cope…

Eight years (and 1 month) blogging

It’s late to mark my eighth year of blogging, but even so, I’m not passing up the opportunity of a list. Last year my list was of seven gardens to visit. Well, that didn’t work out so well, did it? Though it was only the Yorkshire and Cumbria gardens we didn’t get to visit, if we’re lucky we’ll be able to at least visit the Cumbrian ones on our rearranged cottage holiday in June.

We’ll see.

I’ve not yet managed to write a reflective post for 2020 - how is it the end of March already? So I’m going to use this post to reflect on eight things that have changed in the past year. I am purposely looking at this through the lens of how my life has altered rather than reflecting on the pandemic more generally. It goes without saying that many people’s lives and families have changed in ways they never expected, with so many losing loved ones in often the most terrible circumstances. This week we’ve had a National Day of Reflection and reflecting on the past year as part of that, and as we continue to hit a series of ‘first’ milestones will I’m sure bring me the full range of emotions.

1 Working at home

I started to work from home on 20 March 2020 and haven’t been back to work in my office since. For an organisation where working at home was far from the norm this is quite a change, and one that I’ve enjoyed on the whole. It’s harder to keep the boundaries, especially when based at the kitchen table, but it’s only almost a year on that we’ve bought a desk for each of our spare bedrooms to help with that delineation.

I think like many, we thought it wouldn’t be for quite this long. In my calendar I’ve kept a note of how many weeks it is working at home, to start with I’d announce it Big Brother-style each Monday. I’ve just looked to discover that this is the first week that I haven’t added it to my calendar (I stopped announcing it a while back).

My role has remained busy, if not busier, and will continue like that I’m sure. It is never one that’s very samey-samey, and that’s been even more true this past year, but even I’m amazed at some of the things that are now just normal working life. I’ve recruited a team of two who I’ve never met in person and they’re great. In fact our team has almost doubled in the past year with our new starters all starting since lockdown. I’ve organised an hour-long staff celebration event remotely, coordinating self-filmed content and while it was a lot of work, and there were more than a few fourteen hour days, it was great to see how well this was received by colleagues.

Working from home used to be a time to think and get some headspace, but over the past year it’s become the norm. It’ll be interesting to see how it changes over the next year, I’ve a feeling that it won’t be quite the same as before.

2 Eating (almost) every meal at home

This has been the next most noticeable change, and lunches have been our challenge. We’d usually take lunch into work two or three times a week, so it really shouldn’t have been that hard. But somehow, lunches at home presented a challenge. We quickly learnt that leftovers from dinners would come in useful, a handful or two extra pasta can be a pasta salad, some chilli can be a jacket potato topping and fishfingers are great in pittas.

In the summer salads and grains became our staple, and now it’s chillier soups feature regularly. We need something quick to prepare and have discovered some new favourites, lovingly known as ‘fridge tapas’ and ‘fridge medley’ which as you may have guessed make good use of our leftovers, but can bring together some strange combinations. Leftover pasta with vegetables in an omelette was surprisingly good.

Cooking ourselves an evening meal from scratch isn’t new to us, but we’ve done that more than ever during the various lockdowns. There’s been less eating out, well almost none, but we have managed some restaurant trips when they’ve been open. We’ve had less takeaways too which probably isn’t such a bad thing for us (for takeaways less so) but it’s a definite change and not quite the same after a tough day.

What we have done is support local restaurants and companies by ordering meals to have at home, as they’ve looked for ways to generate income. Most have been cook at home type things, so we’re still cooking, but a lot of the prep has been done for us. They’ve been really good, and a couple have come with plating up instructions which brings an extra level of challenge, and at New Year receiving someone else’s delivery brought a whole new meaning to a mystery box.

3 Missing friends and family

Something we can all relate to I’m sure. Last year I only saw my parents three times - in March, July and October - and that’s not been so great. I’ve seen my brother once, but haven’t seen his new house and nor have I seen my grown-up nieces or even met my new great-niece. At all. We’ve had calls and zooms and Facetimed, but they aren’t the same, are they? Hopefully it won’t be much longer before we can meet up with them, and with friends. Though I think that socialising in pubs and restaurants will feel a little strange for a while when they reopen, and it’ll be great to visit people at home again too.

4 Haircuts, or lack of them

I’m an every six week kind of girl, and my last haircut was booked for the second week of January. It’s now approaching the end of March and I’ve another three weeks to go yet, and I can’t wait. My last colour was in July 2020 when hairdressers first reopened and I’ve the full works booked for the middle of April. My hair is longer, it’s also greyer and my pink and orange will be mostly cut out on my next visit.

My hair has a tendency to grow fast and out, so for the shorter side, the back and my fringe I’ve had to tackle that myself, and with no apologies to my hairdresser. By the time I see her it will have grown again and she’ll be able to remedy it (I hope!) though like a lot of hairdressers I’m sure she’ll have her work cut out, and will no doubt see some interesting attempts.

5 Postponed trips

Unusually for us we had a couple of trips booked for 2020 way in advance of when we’d usually book, and neither happened. Both have been postponed, but I’m hopeful that we’ll be able to get to the holiday cottage in the Lake District this June. That was supposed to be a week after a family wedding, which has now been delayed until 2022.

It’s not all bad though as we were able to get away in October and had a lovely few days in a beautiful cottage just outside Holt in Norfolk.

We will hopefully get to the Lake District this June, and I may even be able to get along to some of the Visit Seven gardens I chose last year. We also have a weekend in Kent (just down the road!) booked in July, which I think will be pretty special too.

We’ve no desire to go abroad just yet, but hopefully we’ll be able to see some more of the UK too this year.

6 Shopping, online and locally

While we’ve continued to use our local greengrocers, butchers and local vegetable delivery service we have been purposefully supporting more of our local businesses. We’ve discovered some great boulangeries whose Madeleines have become a favourite with our mid-afternoon cuppa. The stall holders in our local farmer’s market also welcome the custom and we regularly leave laden with bread, cakes, vegetables and even kimchi.

We’ve also continued our less-often-than-monthly grocery shop online, and supplemented that with trips to our local supermarket. We’ve had the cook at home boxes I mentioned before, as well as some great cheese deliveries - who knew these were a thing, even before the lockdowns.

We’ve had wine deliveries - though that’s currently a sore point. Our most recent delivery has gone AWOL with the delivery company saying the driver’s SatNav shows he was here. It may very well do, but there is no evidence of the parcel being delivered - they say they left it in our front porch and put a card through the door. We don’t have a front porch, and of course there was no card either. The worst of it is, we have no wine, and have paid for the privilege.

In the first lockdown we ordered a new barbecue and were rewarded with some great weather and a few charred edges, and many evenings sitting outside. This week we’ve conceded that we do actually need a printer and a new one is due to arrive; my desk arrived, his is on the way - his is the one I’m most excited about, so I can’t wait to see what that’s like.

We’ve not been to a garden centre, but have had plants delivered - lettuce and chillies last Spring, the lettuce was a great success, the chillies less so. I’ve recently had some hydrangea, dogwoods and cistus delivered and these are doing well in the conservatory waiting to be planted out.

I have previously been referred to by a colleague as the Queen of Online Shopping, but this past year, even I have been surprised by how companies have adapted, and have needed to to survive.

7 Slippers not dresses

This one’s related to working at home and not going out much. My wardrobe has drastically changed - or rather, what I wear has. My office-wear was generally a dress, but I’m not sure when I last put one on. Generally my outfits are much more casual, which isn’t surprising, and my new work shoes are my slippers. Never before have I worn out slippers, this year I have - but of course I don’t like any of the ones online, so I’m biding my time when I can make the move to mules when the weather warms up.

Heels? Nope, not this last year - not even mid-height heels. So that will be interesting when I venture back into those. I will at some point, I have too many not to - I just hope I can still walk in them!

8 Appreciating what we have and each other

For me this past year has been one of rebalancing, even though my work hours are crazier than ever. I’ve not had quite the time I thought I might, or the time that the media makes out that everyone has, but I have had some. I’ve learned new things, like rag rugging, and baked banana bread and sourdough like everyone else. I’ve spent less time here on my blog which is one of the things that’s a negative for me, but I’ve needed to do that to have some time away from the screen and at times to just have a break.

I’ve found I’m doing more crafts, which is great. I’ve several crochet projects on the go and several that need finishing off. I’ve picked up my patchwork quilt again and am making real progress with that, and definitely more than in the previous few years. I’ve made some masks, and have plans to make some more, as I’m bored by the ones I have and I don’t think we’ll be rid of them just yet.

While at times MOH and I have probably driven each other up the wall, I know I’m lucky to have him and hope he feels the same, and actually there’s no one else I’d have wanted to spend lockdown with.

Photo by Scott Rodgerson on Unsplash

That ended up being a much longer post than I anticipated, but it has been quite a year. While we have a little way to go yet before we can start to resume parts of our life which have been almost on hold, hopefully that can soon start to happen and I’ll have another year of blogging under my belt this time next year.