Christmas visitors and a walk in the rain...

Pete and Dulcie popped round for a cuppa before heading off down to Wales to drop off Great Grandma at Rhos-on-Sea and then heading down to Sarn for a mini-break before their major-mini-break in France (its a hard life aint it?)!


After being grey and dull but dry for the last few days, the weather finally decided to break and
bucket it down raining for the rest of the day. This coincides with Maud being on tip-top baby form again after her less than healthy start to her trip in the UK, meaning that we can try and get back into routine and go out for an afternoon walk. Got to wrap up nice and warm.

Boxing Day

Matt, Silje, Maud and me went to Uncle Petes in Bramhall for Boxing Day whilst Grandma was at football and Great Grandma stayed at No.3 and played poker on the internet. You will have to visit Matts blog on the RHS links as he had signed an exclusive photos deal with the party organisers to cover the event. Uncle Dick popped in to join in a hand of poker and managed to convince her to pop into the party round at Petes for an hour or two. When we returned after a long day of partying, buffet eating and chewing the fat with my cousins we found Uncle Dick and Dan here too. Sorry for not composing any better shots but I couldnt bring myself to budge out of the chair.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

These are a few of my favourite Christmas 2006 memory highlights...


Bollinger, babyfood, nibbleys and a big bird to carve.....



Seeing Maud's little face at the mountain of presents under the tree...




Seeing my face at the mountain of washing up we had to do... Uggg!

Priceless!

A good day was had by all and between entertaining Great Grandma Williams, Maud, cooking, cleaning, eating and drinking we were all kept thoroughly busy. Just like Christmas should be.
Maud is now sleeping soundly and seems to be feeling much better.
More pictures coming soon.
Tata, Tim x

Christmas Cheer

Merry Christmas one and all! I thought I would start the day with a great video that has done the internet rounds for a couple of years already but I still think is brilliant. The original is always the best. This is what I wanted our house to look like this year... but I only got to put up some tree lights that blinked a bit.... maybe I can get around to it next year?



If you like that you might also like...
***Another light up house with the same music
***Or this one which is a bit different...
***Or this one... these people must have more money than sense to spend on Electricity... only in America!

Countdown to Christmas

Matt, Silje and Maud arrived safely yesterday. Unfortunately Little Maud is a bit under the weather with a cough and a nasty cold but put on a brave face in the afternoon to hold court for her Uncle Tim and Grandma.

All Change!

Cant believe time has flown so fast. It only seems like yesterday that I was back in (not so sunny) Manchester, eager to start redecorating Mum's house and looking for a job. Now Christmas is nearly here and my new job is just around the corner: ALL VERY EXCITING!
Most exciting of all is that Matt, Silje and Maud arrive TOMORROW! This explains in part my 10 day absence from blogging (sorry folks) due to frantic house preparation and being in readiness for MS&M to arrive. Fingers crossed that all the nasty fog and bad weather does not cause any airport disruption, but all being well they will be here for 2 fun packed weeks from 10:30 tomorrow! Cant wait! So now my Matt Silje and Maud Ticker has expired I have put up a new one, counting down the days until I start in Southampton... watch this space for plenty of Xmas blogging and of my new adventures 'daarn Saarf' in '07. Tim

Clean Sweep!

Finally the renovations of Phase I and II are complete! It has taken many hours of hard labour but it has definitely been worth it.

Before...
And After!



OK OK I know there is nothing back in there yet... but you have to show the room off at its minimalist best... Actually the room is not quite finished yet due to IKEA being "Temporarily Oversold" of a few items... but all the main bits are there...

Final furlong...

The final stages of our Phase II redevelopment are finally here. A few shots below of the current state of the room a few days ago just after the final push for the office was made. As the new floor went in and half way through the "build".

Officially an Office

Ta Da! Everything is moved back in and working so it is now the official centre of the universe again. There still seems to be plenty of storage left even after everything has returned. Some would say that is a bad idea as it encourages more of the hoarding tendencies, but I think this mantra is being replaced by a more calming a space clearing one. I begrudgingly reconnected the old Laserjet 1989 which does not conform to the designers initial concept for "the space" but unfortunately the client insisted! I hope you will agree it is a bit of an improvement on the past look, even if it is just to replace the faded wallpaper and paper carpet.

From the archive...

OK so thinking about it, I've not spent a birthday at home for a good 10 years... seems a bit strange really... hoped those of you playing at home noticed the deliberate posing of the cake photo from yesterday to look like these ones from the archive... aren't we clever?

This is December 2nd 1980 we think... lovely dungarees with that famous paunch being filled with cake... bring on that gluten intolerance!

Here is 1981 when i turned the big 0-3!

These next two photos are 1982 so I was 4 years old today! Dad must have been busy decorating in those two years with new wallpaper and shelves up in the kitchen! Not sure what I wasnt happy about here... probably not being able to play with the matches or something?

I just noticed that I am wearing dungarees again? Perhaps that's why I have such an aversion to them now. I wonder who my fashion consultant was back then... I really should have been questioning these dressing decisions earlier... although I don't make much better choices now I might add?


This was just one I found in the same album and put in for fun. Out and about in the boat that Dad built, I assume at Nefyn beach! Classic.

Build-a-thon

Some people might find it a bit strange that I spent most of my birthday building IKEA furniture, but actually I find it quite therapeutic. I knew that I was going out for a nice curry and a drink later on with my mates so I had a goal to keep the decorating wheels moving.

This was the heap of boxes that were delivered. Doesnt seem that much when its on a little photograph, but trying to steer it round the aisles of the shop was quite difficult.

These desks are a bit of a pain to assemble... when you realise that youve done something wrong you have to almost take it completely apart and start again! D'oh!
Here we see finished desk, cupboards on the wall and happy Mother... she will soon be back in her life control centre and be able to find all her stuff again! Not long now! The rest of Sunday was spent putting the doors straight on the main wardrobe in the corner. This took many hours and nearly drove me insane but thankfully its done now and we can move on. Phew!

My Birthday!

I love 'de cake!
Mmmmm!
Now this candle is possibly even older than I am. It has been in cupboards and drawers and has recently made it out into the daylight. Its high time we set it on fire so with a glass of champagne in hand we set forth fire onto the owl's head. Burn baby burn!




My latest birthday toy from lovely Jeffrey in Australia arrived in the mail. Its a new baby iPod shuffle and its brilliant! It even has my name engraved on it! Thanks Jeff you're the bestest! Its tiny and had a brilliant design (of course its an Apple) and will be brilliant for going to the gym or running around and not having to have Mr Big iPod in your pocket... cool!

Getting there...

Carpet is down and looks great. Of course nothing is that easy and no sooner is carpet down than the door has to come off and have 4mm taken off the bottom... Uggg! Light fixture is also up to improve on the prison style lighting of previous Skype chats. Ready to receive the 26 boxes from Ikea tomorrow and start putting it all together! Double Uggg! Should have the nerve centre back up and running soon.

About bloody time!

Ikea are about to launch online shopping with HOME DELIVERY! Fantastic!

Progress update...

All is going to plan. Carpet coming tomorrow. IKEA stuff delivered on Friday. Did a mammoth shop in our favourite Swedish shop today a good 4 hours worth! These are the times when you wish you had a spare hand to take a picture of Mum pushing a regular trolley stacked full to overflowing and me following behind with a stacked up flatbed trolley. Priceless! You can imagine it I'm sure. Actually it was very smooth operation as this is the third time that we have done such a skilled operation, we have it down to a fine art now. Obviously they didn't have everything in stock so I will have to make a return journey to pick up the last few bits. Pictures will follow shortly as we near to the final reveal... watch this space!

Ready for painting ...

Seems like this little room took longer than the last but thats just my mind playing tricks on me now... i will be having nightmares about wallpaper paste for the next few months i think... yuk! Ready for the regulation order paint job and then its almost done. The Ikea job on this room is easy peasy, no building just brackets on the wall and slot it on... fingers crossed. Floor is getting delivered and installed a week on Thursday. All plans are coming together.
The new blinds are being delivered tomorrow to replace the transit-damaged previous ones... they dont want the old ones back so looks like it will be "Two slightly damaged perforated venetian blinds" for Ebay!

Phase II Day... err... i've forgotten now!

Couple of days since posting but I have pictures that actually show progress now rather than all the stuff you cant see. Nearly there now...

No news...

To address current blog comments, the office is waiting for carpet and a trip for Ikea before any more interesting photos will appear on this site. Sorry but you will just have to wait!
There has been lots of painting and sanding and repainting of the windowsill, siliconing the window back up, all the boring stuff that needs doing. Carpet was ordered today and will be down on Thursday!

The laundry room is getting the tried and tested paint and paper routine that has worked so well in all the other rooms followed by a lovely Ikea installation that was built exactly for our room dimensions. For those of you playing at home with an Ikea catalogue turn to page 315 (2007 ed.) to see the general gist of it. Lots more storage, nice work top and bags more hanging space. Perfecto, for less than £100!

I have finished getting the wallpaper off today. Lots of sanding and preparing of surfaces to do tomorrow, the worst and most boring yet completely critically important bit!

Phase II Project II

Project one (the Office) is now up to speed with only the last coat of gloss on the windowsill drying, waiting for the carpet and then IKEA installation.

Day one of the old laundry room renovation can therefore begin. Say bye bye to blue tac covered old wallpaper. Hello beautiful new storage filled contemporary utility workspace!



This paper is coming off a lot easier than the last lot... just glide the steamer from top to bottom and the whole sheet comes off in one go. Hardly have to scrape at all! Unfortunately have to work around the equipment in this room that is too big to house anywhere else...