The Project!

Over a year ago, Guy and I set out, with Cikka tucked in a sling on mummy’s back, to find us a little flat; one we could call our own.

Nearly two years, many signatures on official papers, frustrating meetings with important bank people, some sleepless nights, and many kilos (on Cikka’s part) later, and here we are seeing our dream evolve and slowly come true.

This is the major project in our lives at the moment…

This is the house as we first saw it. Call us crazy for falling for it but it actually looks much worse at the moment with scaffolding and construction equipment everywhere.

The entrance/sitting room. We are not keeping the chandelier!

Stairs to the future bedrooms

The courtyard. Here it is roofed over with a skylight but that’s coming off soon.

The dining room. Little did we know that this would turn out to be the most problematic room in the whole house!

The living room with doors to the kitchen (downstairs) and study (upstairs). As soon as I saw this room I fell in love with it; I think we both did, and it’s still our favourite room where we intend to spend most of our time… it obviously needed a LOT of work.

The landing upstairs from where you get to…

The main bedroom and…

what was originally a pink bathroom, but which we are turning into a stairwell with a huge glass window overlooking the courtyard. The stairwell will take you to the bathroom and Cikka’s bedroom and further up will take you to the washroom and roof.

This is the view of the courtyard (skylight which we are removing) from Cikka’s ‘bedroom’ which is still to be built along with bathroom and washroom.

This is the cellar or according to who you ask…it’s the wine cellar, it’s the pirate hole, or the future ‘den’. As you can see it's full of potential!

We’re using a lot of imagination to visualize what it’s going to look like, and no matter how many times we go to the house it still seems unrealistic to us that we will ever move in… guess it will take us a few days actually living there for this to sink in! 

We've come far from the idea of a 'small flat' and we do sometimes ask ourselves "did we bite more than we can chew with this one?" but in the end I think, it's our dream and we shouldn't let anything stop us.

To be continued... :o)

Here goes...

I’m starting this blog because there are so many things going on in our lives at the moment that it would be a pity not have them recorded somewhere, and not to share them with relatives and friends. When I say ‘our’ lives it’s basically Guy, my partner in crime (and all other things), Francesca (affectionately known as Cikka) our two-year-old, Tara our mixed-breed-with-a-bit-of-pointer-thrown-in dog, and me.

What led me to start this blog is not a very happy story, so I’ll keep it short. I had a serious health scare over the past few months. All tests, scans, probes, etc. done and all was found to be physically ok with me, but the waiting and the ifs and the fears, plus my phobia of anything medical or hospital-related, have left me somewhat shaken. I’m really surprised how with the last result I didn’t magically get back to my normal self, but I haven’t. I was only given the green light a week ago so I guess I have to be patient and let the healing take its time.

Looking at the bright side of this experience though, there were some lessons learnt; Be thankful and appreciate each and every moment you have with your loved ones, and always put family first because when times get tough they are the ones who will be there for you. I also learnt that Guy is my rock. I wouldn’t have been able to face certain things so well without him.

That said, there are other exciting things in our lives – we have bought a house and 2011 will hopefully see us out of our little flat and into our new home. The house is an old one which we are slowly restoring and transforming with the help of our brilliant contractor – Victor the builder, also known as Bob (by Cikka). So I guess I’ll be telling you quite a bit about this project.

Then there are the trials and comic moments which come with bringing up a two-year-old. Let me just say that I’ve discovered having, bringing up, and getting to know your children is the most amazing journey you could ever embark on, and even though it’s tiring and frustrating at the best of times, there is nothing that could compare to it.

So that’s us. This is where we are now, and I hope you’ll enjoy reading about our everyday adventures.


PS - These are just some pics you may not have seen if you know us, and if you don't... well this is us. I'll try to get a good pic of Tara soon.