Friday 19 February 2021

Woken by cats and some photos of rooms at our new home

 

Theo on the favourite windowsill spot (Alfie is sat there as I type).

Butter wouldn't melt would it?!!The little wretches managed to open the door between the kitchen and the stairs to the bedrooms about 4.30 a.m. this morning.  I know who did it - Alfie! He who is always opening cupboard doors in the kitchen at night and letting them slam shut again (poor Tam - her bedroom is over the kitchen).  Alfie came on our  bed, and laid, purring like a grampus (very pleased with himself!) just where I wanted to put my legs.  Then someone else started to scoot up and down the hall.  Then Theo (as it turned out) decided it would be wonderful to make a nice snug pussy-cat bed in the discarded sheets of newspaper outside our room (waiting for someone - it is bound to be me!- to take them downstairs for disposal.)  Then Alfie went into the hall and I could hear him retching with a fur ball.  That was the bit that got me out of bed . . .


Alfie reclining in Tam's room.  I thought you'd like to see how the rooms are slowly evolving.  It's a lovely light room, with a dual aspect (and shutters!)  The whole house is so light, which is wonderful after the gloom of our last home - in the kitchen you had to have the lights on all day long in winter.  Turn them off and you couldn't see across the room.  I don't miss that.


Little Whale across the lane (he had to be dissuaded from going exploring down the lane . . .  He wants to go out in the dark, morning or evening, he doesn't care.  We haven't put the cat flaps in yet - Keith will have to instruct Tam how to use the jig saw as he is finding bending down low difficult (hands and knees job this one).

Ghengis in his favourite spot, the steps up to the side garden.  He likes it over here.  He was out helping Tam and I in the garden a couple of days ago (when it stayed dry long enough).


This is the Guest Bedroom (or Garden Room as Tam likes to call it).  Still a work in progress, but much LESS of a work in progress than it was first thing yesterday morning!  More boxes have gone upstairs, and the two small chests you can see are now full of my patchwork fabrics, and four empty fabric boxes which used to clutter up the pink bedroom have now gone up to the attic.  When our new Emma mattress arrives next week, our current mattress will go on this bed and then I can make it up and the use of 4 pillows, a duvet, a bedding set and a quilt will empty the coffer you can just see a corner of on the right . . .  That will then free the coffer up for more storage for stuff from the pink bedroom.  It is a slow old process.


Our new bed made up using the repurposed carved headboard (below).  It is fastened to the wall and the new bed base made up (a MUCH quicker process than the rather flimsy - but cheap! - pine bed now in the Guest Bedroom.)  Not quite a half hour job but only ten mins or so more - the other bed took most of an afternoon!  My favourite bedding set on it (William Morris's Strawberry Thief) and a quilt I was given after my friend Annie died.  She had never used it and her daughter gifted it to me.  It's a single but is big enough to dress our bed.





The Library is where Keith has his favourite pictures and his old muskets on display.  Several things have come out of stock, since we can't do Fairs (we wonder, can we ever again?)  The big burr walnut bowl on the yew wood table is one of those things, and the bobbin-back chair against the back wall.  You can't quite see it, but beside that chair is a Tramp-Art bow, also from stock.  The bits on the windowsill (below) are two ancient candlesticks and the central piece of treen once jammed a door shut in around the 17th or 18th C (probably from central Europe).  It has a well-worn scooped out centre which held a length of wood which slotted into a recess in the wall/door frame.  There was a set up like this in one of the houses we viewed (and which was a real contender until I felt a presence (ICY cold) near a blocked-in doorway.  It was NOT a welcoming presence and I couldn't have lived there.






Finally, Theo and Little Whale helping some cushions of Tam's to "be aired".  I think this means they are now cat beds . . .  This is the pink bedroom, which has a lovely deep windowsill, south-facing, and just perfect for seed trays.  I think the cats will have to find comfy new nests when we get the seeds started!

    Right, that's a quick roundup anyway.  Now I have to do some baking as I promised our next door neighbour a cake for mending a small hole in the stable roof (two or three new tiles).  He didn't want paying, bless him, so I promised a cake, and will do some biscuits too.


One final photo of the back of the house showing my kitchen window at the same height as the back lawn!  Great for bird-watching  :)  You can just see a bit of the view of Aberedw hill between the trees.

23 comments:

  1. It looks lovely! I agree with you about large windows and light, it's really important to me too. Cat flaps - my husband's most hated job!

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  2. Poor man has two to do! Or perhaps, Tam has . . .

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  3. It's all looking wonderful. I just love old wood, there is something about touching it that seems to connect you with people from the past. Your house does look lovely and bright, I would love to live in a nice bright house as like your old one ours is very gloomy and we need the lights on all day in winter.

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    1. Even on a grey day it is still quite bright (Library is the darkest room but we'll live with that). One of my main wants in a new house was light and bright, and good sized rooms.

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  4. Looks a lovely house - I am sure you'll be happy there - that the cats like is a good sign.

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    1. We are indeed happy here Pat. The cat LOVE it - no Big Fat Sam to chase them around and bully them!

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  5. Lovely, hard to believe you just moved in.

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    1. Well, the first 3 weeks were a bit of a whirl and quite stressful, but now we are just rehoming stuff that was out in the room, and can now be hung on the wall or put on the bed or whatever!

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  6. You have accomplished so much and your new home looks so settled and beautiful. I love how the cats have taken over with such confidence.

    Maybe you need what we call a handyman for those hard on the knees and back jobs?

    lizzy gone to the beach....

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    1. Hi Lizzy. Glad you like it. The cats are happy as long as there is somewhere warm and comfy to sleep and regular meals!!

      There was the number of a handyman left in notes with the house, but when we phoned to see if he could come and help with the water, he apparently was booked solid up till June so we called a plumber! Will find our own handyman I think, especially if the other one was responsible for some of the jobs done here - how about a loo roll holder on the wall BEHIND the loo?!! No good for us ladies . ..

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    2. Never a handy man when you need one, hahaha

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  7. Absolutely lovely. Love your cats.

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    1. It is nice. Have you still got that stray cat you are feeding?

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  8. The cats seem very at home:) The rooms are starting to look lovely as you unpack more possessions. Good to know it is so light and bright.

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    1. They love it here. Haven't explored very far yet (I'm relieved to say), but LOVE the house and the south-facing rooms at the front. The house is starting to come together but only when we've redecorated will it be properly "us". That said, we feel very at home here.

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  9. Love the William Morris print and colours on your bedding.

    Good luck getting the cats to give up that lovely, large south facing window seat area for seedlings! If i were the cat(s)...that would so not happen! You have some wonderfully unique items. The house seems 'happy' to absorb them. :)

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    1. I wish I could afford the wallpaper Mary, just in a couple of rooms, below the dado rail. We'll have to measure up and see what the pattern repeat is and work out how much it would cost.

      Cats and seedlings don't mix so I think they would have to make do with the Guest Bedroom!

      We like the way our belongings seem to fit in, especially in the living room.

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  10. How lovely. It looks peaceful and serene. You are managing to get everything unpacked nicely.

    God bless.

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    1. It is lovely and peaceful here Jackie. We definitely made the right choice. It will come together better when we can get decorating, and I can't wait for the new bathroom to be in, post Lockdown.

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  11. Of course I enjoyed the cat saga--what cat can endure its humans sleeping when its time for a cat-romp? the sound of a hairball about to be deposited will have me out of bed from a sound sleep. do I detect a pot of lavender wintering over by the steps which Ghengis has appropriated? Several of my potted ones are looking as though the winter has been too much for them.
    I'm glad the cats have acclimated--once over the terror of a new place, felines are so good at finding their favorite spots--no matter what your plans may have been for that windowsill. The library has the look of a cozy retreat.

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    1. The Library has an armchair too, by the window, so I can sit and read when I have time - even managed 10 minutes there recently!

      The cats of course have us totally under their paws! It's good to see them so happy here though - they had 18 mths of hell with that bully Sam who was HUGE and wanted to be Top Cat!

      Yes, that's Lavender - needs a trim. We have a bed of it in the back garden too, and I have started to weed and trim that. I am going to probably pop a couple of roses at the back of that bed, as there is room and there is already a stout pillar rose in the middle. I hope your Lavenders will recover.

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  12. How exciting it must be to now be living in such a lovely home filled with so much light and wonderful bits and pieces. Have a great weekend ~ FlowerLady

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    1. We love it here Lorraine. We waited an awful long time to get it, but worth the wait. Spent yesterday morning gardening - roll on spring.

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