Free Cycling

The weekend was not as productive as I had planned. I actually got nothing done! I had hoped to rearrange the hallway to put the wardrobe on a different wall but turns out it doesn't actually fit on the wall I wanted to put it on and looked stupid on the others. I also have about 30p in my bank account right now because last week I booked the flights for our holiday later this year, so no purchases or shopping trips either. All in all a quiet-ish weekend, housework Saturday then a night out for my sisters birthday, leading to a hungover Sunday with a trip to the climbing centre to attempt to sweat out the toxins then a sneaky kebab to replace them in the evening :)

I also spent the weekend attempting to get rid of our desk and desk chair. The ones I moved out into the hallway to get rid of 2 weeks ago. It looked like this for a week

Then like this for 2 weeks

It was a pain in the butt and I had hoped to get rid of them pretty much immediately via freecycle as stuff usually gets snapped up quickly. I know 2 weeks isn't actually that long to have some surplus furniture around, but we are limited on space. Certainly when we had a larger place and stuff could go into the garage or attic or spare room things hung around for longer than that before I got round to getting rid, but in a small place every square inch counts!

I listed the desk and chair on the Monday after the weekend of swapping the tables out (2 weeks ago today) on Cheltenham, Gloucester and Tewkesbury Freecycle groups. I had someone email me Tuesday interested, I said it was still available, after much emailing back and forth and sending photos etc it turned out she didn't drive so was trying to find someone to bring her, by the time she admitted this it was Saturday. I gave her until the Monday to sort something out then said I was going to have to relist it on Freecycle as I had been waiting almost a week for her, but if she did find someone to let me know. I've never heard from her again so am assuming she didn't. I'm not sure if she was expecting me to offer to deliver, but I don't have a car either so it wasn't an option.

Relisted it Tuesday last week, someone else emailed me, replied to them that it was available and when could they collect, no reply.

Another person emailed with days and times they could collect and then arrived on time to collect on Saturday, much more what I expect!

This is the first time I've had such a palaver getting stuff collected! I've had no shows in the past and people generally being unreliable/rude and that's just some people for you, but I've never had to send so many bloody emails to sort out giving away some furniture for free!

So it made me think about some guidelines for using freecycle and what to expect...coming Wednesday!

Office to Dining Room

OK dining room makes it sound grander than a hallway we use as a room but I switched around our office at the weekend, getting rid of the desk and trading it for a table.

I shared this in progress photo on Sunday

Sunday morning I managed to get the room completely empty and ready to reassemble. When reorganising a room like this I find that for me it works best to empty as much of it as possible and then piece it back together again, it helps you to rethink the layout. I also gave the floors a good clean while there was no furniture in here. I left the turtle tank in there as it's pretty heavy and bulky and I was doing this on my own (why do I choose weekends Tom's working to get productive??), I just put sofa throws underneath it so I could slide it around easily and without scratching the floor.

Can you spot all the furniture pushed into the hallway in this photo? I'll freecycle the desk and desk chair and if there's no takers they'll go to the tip (anyone interested let me know)

I had emptied the desk completely, the stuff on the shelves under the tank are the only things that were kept in the desk I thought we might still want access to like sellotape, pens, batteries, paper etc. The rest of the stuff from the desk like photos, installation CDs for various things, envelopes and stationary we rarely use went in a small ottoman on top of the wardrobe in the hallway (all 3 are now full after this kitchen reorganisation)

I had a suspicion that where we had the turtle tank wasn't the best place for it, as it was on a short wall but facing into the longest part of the room, if that makes sense? This room is pretty awkward as it's a small room with 4 doors into it and it's an irregular shape, with a random change in wall depth on the long wall (you can see it in the left of the photo above) and also the living room door juts out into the room, this photo is taken from the hallway door, the bedroom door is first on the left then the living room is actually a bit larger so the wall comes out into the room

So I set the table up where the desk had been and it looked like this

Not good. When the benches were both tucked right under they were just about out of the way of the bathroom door, but if someone was sitting at the table it would be in the way, and if you pulled it out to seat 2-4 people the door would be completely blocked. I'd had an inkling that the tank might be better in that inset part of the wall, as the wall with the bathroom door on is the narrowest part of the room so not the best place for a table.

I scooted the tank over and set the table up in the other corner and voilà, fits perfectly!

Sorry this room is so hard to get good photos of, there's little natural light an it is so small and awkward that I can never get a shot of the whole room! Anyway I hope you get the idea...

After refilling the tank and putting the room back together it now looks like this

The baskets under the tank are just for now, I want to get 4 matching storage boxes for these shelves to hold turtle food and the remaining stuff from the desk that I thought we would want easy access to. The cat litter went in the cupboard under the tank along with the tray liners, bin liners for emptying it etc. 

Our new little dining area, the table fits so well in that corner, like it was made for it!

Coasters, I made 6 of these last year, 4 are in the living room with actual words on and these are made from the excess tiles I had left over.

The benches tuck away underneath pretty well so when not in use can go out the way. I might even attempt a DIY sewing project (I cannot sew so it might be laughable) and do some seat cushions. You can see part of the old computer hidden away underneath the bench above. I dismantled it and the screen, printer, keyboard and mouse are all in the entrance hallway stored away but within easy access and the cables are all still plugged into the back of the computer so it can be easily set back up if needed, although I don't know how often that will be.

My idea is that when working on the laptop for short times I will just sit on a bench, but if I'm going to be working there for a while I can move the bench and sit on a dining chair instead. We have 4 stacked in the hallway and a chair with a back is more comfortable.

The litter tray is still in here as I couldn't find anywhere else to put it, but it can easily be scooted into the bathroom when we are eating (don't want to have to look at that during dinner!)

All in all I'm pretty pleased with in, well actually I am totally in love with it and am sat there writing this post now! We are yet to eat there because there were some bolts not included with the table that we need to attach one last part, the bit that goes between the 2 legs to keep it stable. It's still a bit wobbly without that but hoping to go and get some bolts and get that attached asap. 

A reminder of what it looked like before

There seems to be so much more space in here and it seems lighter without the tank in the corner, which is a bonus in a room with no windows!

Friday inspiration post tomorrow, I'm presenting an award at a ceremony tonight to the apprentice of the year in the category that I won last year and absolutely terrified of speaking in front of that many people so as you are reading this I'm probably pacing the flat practising, wish me luck!

Work in progress

Just a quick post today as I'm busy sorting out the office and doing a bit of work in the garden.

I'll share posts on them soon as they're looking very different than the last time I shared them.

This was a present from Toms mum and her partner Bob for our engagement, I hung it over the office door as we have the coat hanger on the other side that I could attach it to.

Thank you to everyone for all the presents and cards, the living room is covered in birthday and engagement cards and everyone has been so happy for us :)

I'm off to finish the office as I got to this stage yesterday before going to Dads for a barbecue

The desk is empty and ready to be dismantled so tasks for today are dismantle desk, empty the tank and push it back to the wall, refill it with water (they could do with a water change any way), clean and mop the floor where the desk and tank have been, find homes for all the displaced stuff from the desk and set up the table. Hoping it won't take too long and I can get out in the garden this afternoon as well!

New Art

I liked the look of this canvas on top of the tank in the office

But because it was hand painted and not sealed or wipeable I was worried it would get a bit damp on top of the warm tank (you can see in the picture above the water steaming up the tank a bit) so I took it off and was looking out for something to replace it.

I then got Groupon email a few weeks later with an offer to get a large world map art canvas for £35 (rrp £160) from here

I love maps, especially in an office space as they look very grand but I didn't want anything too dark as this is a small room with no natural light, so these were perfect as they are art prints of world maps in text, paint splatters, words, music notes etc all in the shape of the world map. I've not ordered self assemble canvasses before but this was actually very easy to put together, I just laid it all out on the bed stuck the bars down as instructed and then cut the corners. The hardest part was rolling the bars in to tighten the canvas as I would roll one and the one opposite would unroll but I was doing this on my own so I think it would be pretty straightforward with 2 people.

Here it is, I like that the background is white so it's a splash of colour in here but not too overbearing. I was torn between this and this other one but wanted to keep the background as light as possible. 

We have put the candles and photo frame back up on the tank in front of it that are on the desk below, we can still open the lid to the tank enough to feed the turtles with the canvas and the candles etc on there and just have to take it all off to clean the tank.

Some details, it looks pretty cool in person and as it's a print we're hoping it will be able to be wiped down (So far when I do the dusting I just run a cloth over the bottom of it) but if it does show any signs of getting a bit damp I think I could seal it with some spray sealer.

That's our new addition in the office, hoping to sort out a new desk at some point but it's pretty far down the list (After all the bedroom furniture). I'm leaning toward getting a table that we can use as a desk and also to eat at, as since I got my laptop I don't use the desk so much but it would be nice to still have one and we miss having a dining table.

Friday Inspiration

A collection of inspiring things I've seen this week, more on my pinterest

I've been thinking about DIYing something like this for ages, and I'd love to make some freestanding large art that doesn't need to be hung on the wall

I wanted to do this at the start of this year and forgot! It's a lovely idea though

I'm debating hanging something above our bed, suspended between the 2 wardrobes, after seeing this

I've started thinking about our outside spaces recently, and window boxes and planters

I'd love a chair like this for the office

Contemporary Dining Room design by Montreal Interior Designer Lux Decor

Have great weekends everyone, I'm going out for a meal tonight with work and also tomorrow night with Toms family :)

Office Additions

There were 2 small changes in the office recently, this canvas migrated into here from the living room

In our first ever post you can see it's just leant on the back of the sofa, but it kept getting knocked and we were having our housewarming party the evening after taking these pictures so I moved it out of the way. This is also temporary really as I think it will get damp on top of the warm tank.

I made this myself, I would do a how to post but I didn't take pictures back when I made it and to be honest it's so simple I can do it in 2 sentences. Stick wooden letters to canvas and paint over everything in your chosen colour to make the 3D word, or words depending on your quote. Write on the rest of the words using a narrow tip marker, I used a stencil and did it in pencil first because my handwriting is awful but you could freehand it if yours isn't.

Also I put our old bath mat under the litter tray becasue it had a hole in it (the mat not the tray, it's in the middle so hidden by the litter tray but made it useless as a bathroom mat), and I've wanted to have a mat to put under this for a while to catch bits of litter so it's not strewn all over the floor. Now if only I could train them to wipe their paws on it...

This room will have some more changes made to it eventually like:

• A new desk, larger than our current one, maybe a corner desk to maximise space.
• A new desk chair - probably without wheels as it's not great on the wooden flooring
• A new computer - This one was a hand me down and it works ok but it's massive (In the picture above see how the chair cannot fit under the desk because there is a monster sized computer there, also the desk is tiny) and OLD, seriously it's over 10 years old and until last year had never been connected to the internet, but it's keeping up just about. I'd like to get a laptop or netbook.
• Depending on the desk we buy (Hoping to get one with it built in) some office storage like a small filing cabinet, so we won't have to keep the paperwork under the bed.
• Some different art to go on top of the tank - As I like the look of the canvas there, but I think it needs to be something that won't be affected by the warm water underneath (Like in a sealed frame which I might DIY)

Although this room isn't a big priority as the stuff we have in here is functional and we have lots of other things to sort out first, so this will probably all be further down the line. Although you know I won't leave a room completely alone for long so there will be small upgrades along the way...