Sun, Stone & ..... Stags !

What a beautiful day!  the sun shining and for once, ...at last ..  we have had a lovely bank holiday weekend! ...

Once our lovely B&B guests left after a hearty breakfast, to further their travels around the UK, - Eilis and Matt heading towards Ironbridge,  and Suzette and Jim onto York  - Paul and I drove off in the direction of Cotswold Reclamation, - Little Rissington, - a mind boggling world of old and new stone, and all sorts of things to inspire us with the decoration & finishing touches of Crafty Cottage!  ....  this is my kind of place :-)   .....

.... perhaps we should change the name to Skyfall ??!

I want the lions, the pillars .... I want I want ! .......

      

I just had to relax, and kneel on the nearest table :-)   !

We were supposed to be looking for stone to finish off the top of the river bank wall,  undecided about things my mind couldn't help but wander away from Cotswold Stone options, and inside the Aladins cave of bits and pieces!  -  not too much Arts and Crafts it has to be said, - but nevertheless I did enjoy browsing around the different bits and pieces they had on offer.

Content with having just had a look around,  we decided to head off back to Chipping Campden, - to The Eight Bells for a sandwich and a pint!  ..... when we left the pub, the day was still glorious so we decided to head off to Dovers Hill a week ahead of the Cotswold Olympicks http://www.olimpickgames.co.uk/  .

It was a bit windy on top of the hill but it was a nice brisk walk mingling with the sheep !

  

Another great day,

Hopefully work continuing on the Cottage later this week.

Will keep you posted !

  

Today's blog dedicated to 

George who appears to be a regular follower of our Crafty Cottage blog

- it was nice to meet you in Joels the other night !

no doubt, - see you again soon !!

-S-

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Sure is some fancy dresser ...!

Rob, my lovely shabby sheek man came round today to tackle the oak dresser which I recently acquired "Flog it" style!  ...  for weeks it has been gathering dust in the garage, - and each time I have passed it en route to the chest freezer,  I have grown to love it more and more !!

I just had to take BEFORE and AFTER photos :

"Before"

"After"

Rob, - you are so clever ... it's lovely!

click this to visit Rob's facebook page

I know exactly where it will be placed in Crafty Cottage, - and can't wait to decorate it with lovely china !!

- ... meanwhile at Crafty Cottage..... -

The River Bank rebuild is coming along nicely,  - ... looking good guys!

Although, according to Paul the stonework is a lot higher than this now, - this photo was taken yesterday!

Today's blog is dedicated to

Nancy & Jane!
it was lovely to meet you both

thank you for your interest in the cottage

-S-

Messing about in the river !

Just got back from the cottage, - Paul and I had popped down to make a few decisions on plumbing and electrics - what was going where again etc!  -  this also gave us a good opportunity to take Max and Tom a coffee each (& cake of course!) for a well earned break as they had been down re-building the river bank most of the day.

.... and it's looking good :-)

 

 

The weather today is getting better and better,  - after a slow start, the sun appeared - and hooray, another dry day! which is great for the guys and doesn't hinder their stone laying.

Max holding the wall up !

Paul and I walked to the "One Stop" (120 steps from the front door of Crafty Cottage!!)

where the necessary daily paper & weekly lottery was bought!  -  handy tho for future guests at the cottage to buy provisions if they happen to run out of milk, bread, ... or heaven forbid wine!

- will be keeping you up to date with things of course! -

-S-

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It's electrifying!

We couldn't have chosen a better day for ARC to come to the cottage to begin "first fix electrics" ..... as it poured with rain for most of the day !  .. 

Things were happening pretty fast, and by the time I got down to the site there were wires all over the place ! ... coming out of the walls, and hanging from the ceilings...

Local electrician Paul Hopcraft was doing an excellent job (as usual!)

and I made him stop and pose for a "blog photo" !!

Other works were going on too at the site,  -  the trench for the gas supply had now been filled in, and a temporary gravel pathway now leads up to the cottage door, and to the rear of the other cottages.  

Repairs to the river bank wall were underway, but such a miserable damp day weather wise, - I was glad to head off home to search the internet for lighting ideas!

Will of course be keeping you posted :-)

-S-
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Apples & Pears now in plaice !

Paul and I managed to grab 10 minutes to zap down to the cottage - for me it was the first time i'd seen the staircase in situ, - very pleased it looks great!

It also gave us the opportunity to start planning electrics, - where to put what, and how etc....

Decisions made :  where TV going downstairs & upstairs ! (always a priority for Paul :-)
where to put the washing machine and dishwasher (sadly, always a priority for me :-(

Outside it's all dug up again, - with the gas being sorted out at the weekend.   - nothing much to report so just leaving you with some photos of the progress.

The perfect ceiling for a chandelier :-)

Landing window

Discussing where to put the bed !

Paul planning on spending some time at the cottage over the weekend hopefully, and fingers crossed Trude can visit on Monday to measure, - we may even have to discuss curtains over another pub lunch :-)

Will keep you posted !

-S-

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"Apples and Pears ....!"

... such a busy day today with one thing or another, but managed to dart down to Sheep Street for 12.30 to meet with the "kitchen man" to share ideas on how to get the best out of the space we have in the Crafty Cottage kitchen...

Between the two of us we managed to decide where the microwave, oven, dishwasher etc... would go ...

In the meantime Paul had been down at the Cottage most of the morning as the stairs had been delivered and they were sorting things out, putting them together etc , - can't wait to finally get upstairs - will be on the phone to Trude soon to measure up those bedroom curtains !!

a well deserved mug of coffee :-)

Things are starting to look really good! - ......  although I was beginning to feel a bit in the way, so left the guys to it, - if time allows, perhaps i'll call back later to officially declare the staircase open :-)

On the way back to the car and with camera in hand, - I couldn't help but take a few photos of the town ...  the sun was shining it it all looked so lovely! 

  

So everything seems to be going according to plan!

.... will of course keep you posted :-)

-S-

Totally floored ...!

The weather spent most of today deciding just what to do, and we seemed to pick the right time to walk down in to town with some old friends who were visiting us with their lovely Labrador "Dexter", we wandered down the High Street to show them the cottage.

The underfloor heating is now in place, with the flooring firm underfoot - it was good to see the rooms beginning to take shape - although Dexter was far more interested in what was going on outside!

Paul gave a demonstration of "whats going where" - the stairs have now been ordered  and until they arrive and put in place - upstairs appears to be very much off limit unless there's a ladder around.

Things were happening outside the site today, as volunteers were clearing the river bed (Cam River) which runs alongside the cottage and underneath the Old Silk Mill.  We stopped for a while and chatted to the guys who had spent most of the morning dredging the river bed to help the water flow under the bridge.

The sky was beginning to look stormy, and we were on the verge of popping into the Old Silk Mill for a coffee to shelter from a shower which looked as though it was heading our way, - but luckily we seemed to escape and the dry weather held out, conveniently giving us enough time to head back down the High Street and make it back to The Eight Bells for a quick pint or two on the way home!

http://www.eightbellsinn.co.uk/

Corbs (Paul Corbett)  has been a friend of ours for the past 30 odd years, 

- having worked with Paul many moons ago when they were both young free and single !! .

He had a particular interest in the Real Ales at the Eight Bells as he works in the Hops industry supplying many of the Real Ale producers in the area

http://charlesfaram.co.uk/

We now have the stairs ordered,

Rob's coming around tonight to talk "shabby sheeking "!

I have accumulated a collection of curtain poles for the cottage and we are now starting to plan the kitchen.

The process is in place for lowering the kerb to enable parking access 

.... and we need to sort out a Cotswold Stone fireplace.

...... most things now on track,  ............... will be keeping you posted as usual :-) 

-  S -

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