The Summerhouse

I am not actually sure what to call this little room that joins onto our home. It was built with the property in the 1960's and I guess you could say it was an early type of conservatory made from wood. It reminds me of the summer houses you can get for the garden so that's what I'm calling it!

Words can not describe it!!

Basically it has 3 sides and a roof and was built over the kitchen window and back door. When we first moved in, the walls were damp, roof leaking and the carpet was filthy, thread bare and musty. 

Whilst my husband carried out other jobs, this room became my project and I decided to paint the walls white to make it lighter. I spent ages painting it, ripped up the carpet and put a tile effect floor down. The finished result? Hmmm. It looked nice for about a day! The damp was causing mould to grow. I was horrified. The glass windows were soaking wet every day. I was using my karcher window vac every half an hour! 

The damp was horrifying!

So, I spent many hours on the internet trying to find a solution. I read that vents could be installed to help with condensation and that the walls could be insulated and then covered with plaster board. 

So after much research, my husband re felted the roof and I sprayed dettol onto the wooden walls. Once it had dried out and the mould had disappeared before my eyes I began to paint it cream. I used Cuprinol garden shades in Country Cream. I used this paint on the wooden garden benches last year in the shade Willow and it's fantastic. Lovely to paint with and looks like it was painted yesterday. It's weatherproof for 4 years. I painted the outside of the building in Willow.

Already starting to look much better!

Once the walls were painted cream, I bought voiles in Ivory for the windows and made a window seat using two wooden blanket boxes. I thought that they would be useful for storing wellies in. I added seat pads and cushions to complete the look.

The voiles help to create a softened look and the wooden boxes that make the window seat are useful for storage

Finally, I found an off cut of a wooden effect floor which has finished it off lovely. I solved the wet window problem by using a dehumidifier! It's amazing how much water it collects over night. I love this little room now. It's so bright and clean and such a transformation!

Cushions, baskets and vases help to create a country feel

New wooden effect floor to complete the look

 
 Storage boxes make an ideal window seat 

I really can not get over the transformation! I love sitting on the window seat with a cup of tea looking out into the garden. When the weather is nice and warm I can have the doors wide open but it is also lovely to hear the sound of the rain beating down on the roof. Especially now as since the roof has been refelted it is actually waterproof! 

Dreaming of a Garden

I love a pretty garden so I was quite disappointed to discover that we only had slabs. Not one flower bed to plant flowers, no lawn for my dog, no trees, plants or shrubs, nothing! As soon as the weather began to warm up I set about creating a garden.

The garden was such a mess!

My husband, at my insistence started by lifting up slabs where I wanted a lawn to be. I debated whether to sow grass seed or buy turf and in the end I went with the latter. I knew it would be impossible to keep my dog off the patch whilst waiting for the seed to grow and didn't much fancy muddy paw prints in the house. Instead I ordered rolls of turfs and before I knew it the day arrived to lay our lawn! 

Once the lawn had been created we started work on the flower beds. We had to lift up chippings and then a black liner before digging over the soil. Lots of weeds too! Along the garage wall, mounds of soil had been placed against it. Well above the damp course. It took ages to remove it all before we used left over slabs to cover it up. 

The rubbish by the garage wall!

I'm so pleased with the transformation and the garden is well on its way to becoming established. Dog loves the lawn and spends ages lying on it. Trouble is, he also likes to dig parts of it up! Oops. Nothing that a bit of grass seed can't fix.

A Smashing Time!

I never liked the frosted window that was between the lounge and the kitchen. I suppose the point was to bring more light into the kitchen but as soon as I saw it, I knew it had to come out!

The frosted window and hardboard door in the lounge

I visualised French windows so I could open both doors in the summer and close them during the colder months. I knew I wanted wooden doors that I could wax or varnish, with obscured glass. 

I spent ages looking at different doors, waiting for offers and finally I ordered 2 lovely wooden ones, just like I pictured. Before my husband could hang them, he needed to take out the frosted window and wooden panel underneath it so we could work on the frame. The frame was painted with white gloss and I wanted to strip it back to the natural pine to match the doors. 

Dog and I were confined to outside whilst my husband put masking tape on the window before literally smashing it to pieces. I was watching through the kitchen window in great satisfaction. Once the glass had been cleared up, we could start stripping the frame back to natural wood. We used a heat gun to peel the many layers of gloss before sanding it. It looked really nice but we had a problem.

After the door and window was taken out

Trouble was, the frame was not built for French windows and we were left with a gaping big hole in the frame work. My husband threw some ideas around before realising that we needed to replace the door lining.

The door lining and frame was too bad to repair

After many visits to DIY stores, we realised we couldn't find a lining wide enough. A neighbour mentioned a local wood yard so we paid them a visit. The man in charge was so helpful and made us a custom lining to fit in the gap. Two days later it was ready for collection. 

My husband had never hung doors before and found videos on the Internet to be very helpful. After much measuring, sawing, plaining he finally hung the doors and fitted the hardware! I lightly sanded any rough edges and coated them with a clear varnish. 

The doors!

Of course, it didn't stop there! I wanted all the doors replaced. I chose another glass panelled door to go inbetween the hall and the lounge and then wooden panelled ones for the rest of the rooms. We're so happy with the result and proud of my husband for hanging them all and replacing all the linings and architrave.

It is so nice to have these doors 

Home Sweet Home

My first blog post! Hi, thanks for dropping by. I'm Nikki and I can be found nestled amongst the meadows in my little home. My husband and I moved into our home 16 months ago and have been renovating ever since!

Our home over looks meadows so I feel very lucky to live here. It's very peaceful and the views are breath taking. Our dog loves living right by fields and enjoys lots of walks through the long grasses and wild flowers.

The view from my garden

The property was very run down when we first moved here so many improvements needed making. So far we have replaced the kitchen, bathroom, hung new doors, decorated the hallway and created a lawned garden from scratch. 

By writing this blog I hope to create a record of our journey into making our house a home and gain inspiration from other blogs out there too. Please drop by and say hello! I would love to visit your blog. 

Have a lovely day! 

Nikki x