Doors and music room

I've been stripping some reclaimed doors today.  We've had them for a couple of years and we're finally at the stage of being able to use them.  It was a very low-carbon reclamation process - we spotted when our neighbours were getting rid of them and carried them down the street to our house!  They've been sitting in the garage ever since, getting really dirty and grubby.  This is what they looked like when we brought them in:

A couple of washing-up bowls of black water later, they looked like this:

A bit better.  Today I started stripping them with the hot air gun.  I love removing paint, it's nearly as enjoyable as peeling nail varnish off.  I used Nitromors for the metal bit where the handle goes (there must be a proper name for that, is it escutcheon?), I love using that as well, especially the sound it makes when it starts blistering the paint.

This is what they look like now

One is going to be the door from the kitchen to the music room and the other is going to be the door to the understairs cupboard.  There's still quite a lot to do to them, but I quite enjoy this kind of job. 

Talking of the music room, this is what it looks like at the moment

 

Not exactly beautiful but believe it or not this is significant progress as it's now ready to be re-plastered.  

I love looking at houses on estate agents' websites; I call it property porn.  It's a brilliant source of inspiration, much better than magazines as I can see what people have done to houses similar to mine.  I was struggling to imagine what the room would be like when finished and how much space we would have, but then I saw this on Right Move.

This house is in the next road over from mine.  Shows how slow the housing market is - you can see a fire burning in the grate!  Can't wait until my room looks more like this.

Hope you've all had a nice weekend too.

Versatile Blogger Award

 

Lovely Cuckoo so kindly gave me an award a few weeks ago and I've finally got round to doing what I have to do.  I've linked back to her blog so that's the first thing.  Second thing is to pass the award on to 7 other blogs which I like - I think some of the people I follow have already had this award, so I've tried to avoid doubling-up, but apologies if I have and don't feel you have to do it.

Little Tin Bird

Violet White 

I Heart Cupcakes 

Sandiart's Blog 

Cake Journal 

Madelief 

The Wool Sanctuary 

Finally I need to post seven facts about myself.  On reflection I think these are more like seven random ramblings, but I'm sure they'll do!

1. I was born in Worcester and lived in Evesham until I was 3.  Then I lived in a small village called Whimple (my sister was at school with the folk singer Jim Causley), near Exeter in Devon until I went to university in Cardiff.  As part of my degree I lived in a town in the north of France called Amiens (don’t bother!).  After I left uni I went to live with Mr D in Bristol and nearly eight years ago we moved to Weston-super-Mare.

2. I am fascinated by the Mitford Sisters.  A few years ago I read a book about them and ever since then it seems that everything I watch or read has a link to them.  There were six sisters in this aristocratic family; Nancy was an author and wrote Love in a Cold Climate and The Pursuit of Love; Pamela married and divorced a millionaire and lived quietly in the countryside; Diana married first into the Guinness family, then the fascist leader Oswald Mosley, and was the mother of Max; Unity was friends with Hitler and shot herself when war was declared; Jessica ran away to the Spanish Civil War and became a communist in America and the only surviving sister Deborah married into the Devonshire family which owns Chatsworth and was sister-in-law to JFK.  Their story covers such a fascinating time in history and because of their position they were connected with so much.

3. I love Ribena!  I don’t think I could live without it.  With cold water it’s refreshing and with hot water it’s lovely and comforting.  Of course I mean the “full fat” stuff, not that reduced sugar rubbish which is full of aspartame.   

3. I have researched the history of my house at the Somerset Records Office, online and at WsM library.  Nothing terribly exciting has happened here but the original architect’s plans are really interesting and useful and it’s lovely to have a list of the names of the people who lived here.  It’s incredible to think of people living here through two World Wars and all the changes over the last 103 year.  When my house was built they didn’t even have the internet – imagine! 

5. I am allergic to horses!  I discovered this when I was a little girl; after stroking a neighbour’s horse my eyes went red and itchy and I had a rash like a nettle sting all over my face.  Actually I haven’t been near a horse for about fifteen years so I may have grown out of it by now, but I don’t think I’ll take the risk.

6. This one is more of a confession; I struggle to tell my left from my right!  I often have to look down at my hands – left hand has my wedding and engagement rings and right hand has a mole.  I don’t know why I can’t just remember it; maybe I wasn’t taught at a young enough age or maybe it’s just because my spatial awareness is nil.  Maybe there is a link between this and fact number seven….

7. I’m a nervous driver.  Until a couple of years ago I was too nervous to drive the car at all.  I was fine in all my driving lessons until I sat my first driving test and I was shaking with nerves, so much that my hand went weak and I couldn’t take the handbrake off!   I had never been so nervous in my life, exams, job interviews in French, playing in concerts had given me butterflies but nothing like this.  I managed to pass – on the fourth attempt! – but then I was too frightened to drive on my own.  When I had a panic-attack whilst driving with Mr D in the middle of Weston, I decided I couldn’t rely on him to give me lifts for the rest of my life and it was time to do something about it.  So I got hypnotised!  I couldn’t swear that it was the hypnosis that made the difference; it may just have been determination, particularly as the sessions were expensive!  Either way, I then had the confidence to drive.  I was still very anxious at first and used to get very frustrated with myself, but eventually it got better and almost became second nature.  I’ve got my own little car now and I don’t know how I lived without it.