non-hoose

not house related but thought i'd post some pictures for you as it is stunning.

located up in the remote wilds of north west scotland (past ullapool and keep going) we attended a friends wedding - aka the dodgy ceilidh dance shots.

enjoy...

and on

good news - secured our mortgage today - relief. on the decorating front time is marching on and, despite my continuing research (in between attending a fabulous wedding up north in the beautiful achiltibuie - will post pics shortly) we've still not nailed down a definite style for the kitchen. this could be a worry in that, according to the helpful chappy at magnet, if you want a kitchen in time for christmas it really needs to be ordered in the first two weeks of october. apparently a new kitchen for the big xmas day-do is a popular choice. who'd have thought. we're looking to get an early visit into the house before we get our keys (end of oct) so that we can have an engineer check out removal of the kitchen wall to make a big dining kitchen at the back of the house. for the interior wall to be removed we just need a ceres approved engineer to put it to the council, who should approve it within a couple of weeks. i would love to get french doors out to the back, but this would involve knocking down part of the outside wall - i am presuming that this is likely to be exceedingly expensive and will require additional planning, thus more time consuming at the council, but will research further... handily my brother-in-law is a builder, so he will be taking the lead with this ~ unhandily like all builders it will be at their pace which doesn't quite match my own enthusiasm / patience. and so we wait.

purchase

so we finally managed to secure our dream home. we were on holiday at the time, having left instructions with our solicitor that we would like to place an offer on the closing date. our offer was reasonable and at the valuation, but from our previous experiences of people over paying we weren't too hopeful. having left the mobile in the hotel room, we returned to a message from Ali, our solicitor, who informed us that we had been successful. elation and joy! followed by ~ uh oh we've bought a 'project'. we'd not meant to buy a project, previously we'd been admiring houses [as others had as well, clearly] that had been beautifully done up, nothing needing doing but a small stamp of your own. but 'kingarth' had commanded smiles the minute we walked in the door. it had a good feel, was not too big or small and, most importantly, had a dining room carpet any vintage-lover could not fail to love. that and the cupboard with a secret spiral staircase to the attic. immense.

where to begin

research is never ending. i'm taking inspiration from all areas - the 20s (when the house was built) to french styling to vintage. loving it all. this blog http://bit.ly/90gi6w - showing jeeves & wooster 1920s stylee - is tops.

but the first thing to address - the kitchen: not been changed since ???

so have been reviewing them all - from b&q to fired earth. the first one a no-no on style, the last one a no-no on expense.

its proving tricky. love the french look, as in painted wood cabinets (fired earth do a good range) and have drawn inspiration for this look through the original wall cabinets and larder that remain in our kitchen at the moment. though also liking more modern gloss and the striking dark colours. at the moment i'm thinking it could be amazing to do both.

and what is it about wooden work tops? they look lush but kitchen sales staff we have spoken to have described them as a nightmare, having to oil every week to keep in condition - though on line it says 2/3 months. which is it? hate hate hate laminate (?don't know why?) not keen on granite (having already smashed a plate on the ones in our current rental) but have found a possible alternative which is 'corian' by dupont (can be found almost anywhere). a man made material it can be shaped any way, and i love the way the white one looks like it has been poured across your cupboards and sink...

at least we're settled on tiles. retro metro, fired earth all the way. absolutely gorgeous.