A cycle through a typically French village

Today we're heading back over to the Loire and I'm sharing a post from our cycling trip from last summer, which seems ages ago.  And, well actually it is, as we were there in June 2016. Hmmn... where did that time go?

Anyway, back to that French village.  We cycled  through it twice, on the way and then later on the way  back from Villandry, which was definitely a highlight of our trip. And one that lived up to, and surpassed my expectations. 

Yes, the village again. We left Tours and headed towards Savonnaires and then onto the chateau. Of course the downside of leaving it so long to share these photos is that if I knew the name of the village, then it's long since gone from my memory. I could look it up and would no doubt find it in the end, but why would I when these photos evoke such powrful and vivid memories, so much so that I can almost smell it and hear its sounds.

It was a picturesque village that oozed charm:

Yes, quite mundane and operational items looked great to this tourist on a bike.  

Those roofs! Imagine trying to recreate any of those finishes and patinas, and how it would cost  and yet here it's the most natural thing in the world.

The same with the logs and tyres. Somehow even they look more attractive than at home - and that can't just be holiday rose-tinted specs, surely?

So breathe in the scenery, and know that you don't need to know a place's name to enjoy it. Or I don't at least! 

For me, I'm there. On my bike, scrabbling around to find my phone to take a picture. No doubt MOH has been instructed to get out of the picture and is either checking the map, or rolling his eyes, or both.

But it was worth it wasn't it? 

Would you sell your kitchen?

Or indeed, would you buy a second-hand or ex-display kitchen?  We sold our kitchen back in 2013 on eBay, and well, it felt odd. I mean, how do you put a price on something that's been in place for years, has had plenty of use and usually you'd expect to throw into a skip?

We didn't realise selling kitchens was even a thing, for all of the reasons I've just given.  But when our kitchen planner suggested it the idea appealed, not only to offset some some of the cost of our new kitchen, but also because there wasn't too much wrong with most of the units., and so if someone else could make use of them, then that was a good result for us.

If the units weren't that bad you might be wondering why we were replacing our kitchen at all.  A couple were starting to show wear and tear, and the inbuilt dishwasher needed replacing and we knew that as the years went on it'd only get worse.  We didn't want to be in the position of having to put in a new kitchen when the time came to move, that felt a waste, and well, we'd rather enjoy the new kitchen ourselves. 

That said we didn't have a clue about how to price this. As you can see there were a few units, as well as two tall larder cupboards that aren't shown. We quickly learnt that we'd priced it too low, when it was snapped up almost immediately on eBay. But it was a price we were happy with and we had time constraints on when it could be collected. Our kitchen fitters removed the old kitchen and our buyer collected it the same day. 

Looking back at these photos I'm struck by a couple of things. Firstly how tidy our kitchen was, but I think this is an illusion and we'd cleared the worktops to make it look super smart in the pictures, like you do and secondly how dated it looks compared to our new kitchen. We loved this kitchen though. I loved how it didn't match, and that's something we've replicated, but with lighter colours. 

From this kitchen we also knew that we didn't want tiled splashbacks and you'll know instead of the laminate board used here we've gone for a glass splashback instead. And one of my absolute musts was to have the boiler enclosed. It used to be, but then the boiler was replaced for a new model and the existing cupboard didn't work, that left us with a sparkling white appliance amongst a row of bottle green base units, and really jarred with me, e-v-e-r-y-t-i-m-e I saw it. 

I do wonder what became of our kitchen though. I know the person who bought it was hoping to use as much of it as he could, but that it was going into a smaller space. It's unlikely that it would end up in the same horseshoe formation, but I imagine there's so many combinations that would have worked, that it would be like a life-sized jigsaw puzzle. 

I've recently become aware of a company that could not only help people sell their kitchens, but also help people buy used and ex-display kitchens, which if you want to get value for money sounds ideal.  The Used Kitchen Exchange are a family business who specialise in just that and was founded after they purchased a pre-owned kitchen themselves. So they have first-hand experience of buying a kitchen online and also managed to bag themselves a bargain at the same time, and the realisation that enabling people to source quality kitchens at a cheap price from a sustainable source was possible.

The Used Kitchen Exchange also offers a free kitchen valuation for kitchens that meet their criteria, and as part of their service they offer free professional photography, free advertising, the selling part (obviously) and ensuring kitchens are professionally removed, packed and delivered to their new owners.  There's more information about the full process on their website.

And they've saved thousands of tons of carcinogenic MDF from going to landfill. You can't say fairer than that, can you? 

Oh, and if you see ever see a kitchen with bottle green gloss base units and cherry wood wall units, let me know as it could be my old kitchen, and I'd love to see it settled into its new home!

* This is a collaborative post, but all views are my own.

Storing logs in our gabion baskets

I'm on a roll with these gabion basket posts aren't I? Last week I shared our first pizza and today it's somewhere to store the wood.  And always one to go with an idea and see it through, our log store is also slightly unconventional and made from gabion baskets. When I ordered them I wasn't sure if we'd have a three in a row or a cube of four, that depended on how things worked out. 

As it turned out we could fit in all of the gabion baskets as per my hand drawn plan, with a few refinements along the way, so that left a row of three baskets for the log store.  Instead of clipping the lids off, we've simply folded them back on themselves so there's a double layer of wire on the top. 

Usually wood stores have a small roof to help keep the logs dry - ours don't yet - but they're also under the laurel tree, so they don't get too wet. My plan is to cover the top if we need to, most likely with a paving slab over winter, but we'll see how it goes.

This was one job that I left to MOH. I had an important date at the hairdressers!  I mean, priorities...

This no doubt left him in a quandary about getting them in the right place. But he needn't have worried as before I left I cleared a space and levelled it with a flip-flop clad foot. He was umming and ahhing and telling me it'd never be level, but later admitted he wasn't quite sure how I'd done it but it was pretty level after all. 

I'd hoped it was as I'd mostly done it by eye and by shuffling along the area compressing the soil.  Phew.

He'd placed the baskets on the last few broken paving slabs we had, so they logs are off the ground to avoid them getting waterlogged. And when I got back they were all in place, and the logs were ready to be added. That was definitely something he was keen to leave to me, and I didn't mind - it was quite therapeutic to fill and I soon got into a system to make the best use of the space. 

I think they turned out pretty well, and continue the gabion theme in our garden. I've one more use of gabion baskets to share with you, and that's not quite done yet, but I hope it will be soon!

What do you think?