30 August 2014

Little lunching ladies






We were trying to leave the house this morning. I was fishing for my phone and keys and dashing for the door where I found a small pirouetting figure. She was laughing and her daddy was watching.

'Careful sweetie, you're going to get dizzy.'

'My getting fizzy!!! OoooooooH! Ffffiiiizzzzy!!'

Love her. I'm going to start using this adjective on a regular basis.  'How's work?' Asks someone. 'Oh, it's getting fizzy.' How do you feel? A bit fizzy, thanks. What do you think of it? Totally fizzy man!

Let the fizziness begin.

26th August 2014

I should wait until the loft is finished, but we were soo excited when we could finally see out of what's going to be F's bedroom window!  Yes, that's Arthur's Seat over our neighbor's roof and the top of Salisbury's Crags.  Can't wait for the end of festival fireworks!

Calton Hill

The guys finished framing out the first dormer today.  They'll roof it tomorrow.

I don't know anything about building dormers, but I was impressed with how beautiful and solid the beams look!

There will be an identical dormer on this set of rafters too.

Too bad these beams will be covered up by insulation and the ceiling - they're amazing!

F thinks that climbing ladders is fun.  We won't let her climb this one!

Awwww....

25 August 2014

Text sent Monday afternoon to Simon about 4:30pm which he said made him laugh-

'There's a hole in the roof!  I have Crombies sausages! Katexx'

This side will eventually be our bedroom window.

The recessed square back there will be our dressing room/attic storage.

The first dormer going up!  This window will be in F's new room.

Our house from the front, with the blue tarp covering over the hole in the roof.

Completely weirdly, I decided I would drive out to Dunbar Monday night to check out a cabinet I found on gumtree.  I need a bathroom vanity/sink unit.  Unfortunately the cabinet wasn't right, but Dunbar is a pretty town and I enjoyed driving out to the sea via lots of white-gold wheatfields in East Lothian.

Dunbar town center.  I loved the back that you could see the stone, instead of harling, on the buildings.

Houses *right* by the sea!  The wind was blowing so hard, it was difficult to keep my phone still enough to focus.

Poppies are my favorite summer flower.  Electric and tough as old boots.

Dunbar High Street.

I could smell the sea before I saw it.  Very tangy.

24 August 2014

Our cat Fluffy has been staring disconsolately up through the gaping hole in the ceiling to the rafters above and meowing pitifully.  There is a 13ft wooden ladder that has always given us access to the loft - I wouldn't be surprised if it is as old as the house itself - and the builders are using it until the new staircase goes in.  My two 'F's' - Fluffy and F, discovered it was great fun to climb up, but now that it is no longer protected by a secure closet! I decided it was better to put it on its side, on the floor, where neither child nor cat, can break their neck falling off it.  (You may say cats fall on their feet, but you've never met maw wee auld daftie puss!)

Anyway, here we are and Fluffy is crying her heid off trying to figure out how she can climb 13ft of sheer wall up to the attic, and I say, 'Aw, I'm sorry Fluffy, you can't go up now' and to Felicity I say, 'Fluffy sounds sad, doesn't she?'

Next I hear, F is bending over the said ladder, reaching a little hand out to the cat saying so sing-song soothingly, 'Don't worry Sfluffy - my right ear-ah. (I'm right here). my righ ear-ah!  don't woorry.  See?  my right ear-ah!  SSssfluuuuuuuuffffffeeeeee!'

And then she finds a little pink fluffy handtowel and starts following Fluffy around.  'Sffluffeee, oo need a blankey?  Naaaaaaiice blankey.... Sfluffeee, ear-ah oo go!' (here you go.)

It loses a bit in translation perhaps, but it really was the most adorable thing (for me, probably not for 'Sfluffee')

Our sweet Edwardian house. Loft conversion - phase 1.

Our house was built 1903 and most of the upper flats along our road have already converted the loft into living space.  Our attic is a huge space, basically mirroring the floorplan downstairs, brimming with potential.  When we viewed our flat, I think we fell in love with the attic almost before anything else!  Literally the week after we moved in last October (2013) we started interviewing architects to make plans for a loft conversion.

It's been a lengthy process, getting the drawings from the architects, then waiting for Council Planning Permission, then waiting for the building warrant application negotiations, then interviewing builders, then negotiating additional funds from our bank, but here is phase one of the construction.  When it's all done, we'll put up befores and afters.

This is the livingroom door on the left.
The hallway wall *used* to be here.

This is the section of wall now separating the kitchen from the hall.

It's getting dark outside in this picture, but from the entraceway, you can see all the way up to the rafters in the attic!
I can't tell you how much dust was all over the house when we got home on Wednesday night after they had knocked through this wall.

Through the entrance door (with the stained glass), livingroom on left, kitchen on right.  If everything goes to plan, straight ahead is where our new staircase will continue up!

23 August 2014

Amazingly grateful last week went smoothly and so glad for time this weekend.  Summary:

House - didn't know Monday if mortgage would be approved, if builders were going to bail out on us or if the surveyor would even come this week.  Now, papers are back through, the kitchen wall is down, the chipboard floor in the attic is down and the builders are planning to build our new window dormers next week.

My little girl, F, - didn't know Monday if she'd settle at new nursery, if I'd get her heart medicine back from the pharmacy on time (again!), if I'd be able to find childcare on Friday morning so I could get into work, if she'd be okay sleeping in her new toddler bed this week...does the list of worries ever end?  Result - fantastic week all round.  Medicine came into the pharmacy in a record two days, nursery folks are lovely, she had an extra morning with G and S, and she's actually been sleeping sounder this week in her own bed than she had been the last few weeks, despite all the house craziness.

App - Simon and Pete have been working tirelessly on the new app.  Learning *tons* and working so hard.  Extra meeting before the app testing morning this morning, which went well.  (Thanks to K, R, A for lending us their kids!)

House again - trying to figure out decor, bathroom suites, color schemes ahead of the builders who will be wanting things to progress in the next couple of weeks!  F had an amazing nap yesterday (about 3.5 hours - what??) and I was able to go online and do a lot of searching around for ideas.  Getting right stuck on pinterest - wow, what a useful tool!  Especially when it comes to trying to describe to Simon what I think will look good.  Amazing.

I will wrap up with a few pictures.  One of them has been edited by google awesome!

In the botanics last Saturday again.

My honeys

Auto-awesome is alright with me!  I may zoom this in and frame it one day.

The walled garden at Floors Castle.

I think this butterfly is called a Peacock because of the 'eyes' on its wings.

It was a lovely day at Floors castle - walled garden in full swing.

We went to Floors castle the weekend before school went back (is it really 2 weeks ago already??).  It's in a small town south of here called Kelso.  The weather was beautiful and the walled garden breath-taking. 

Floors Castle, near Kelso

The front of the castle

The view over the surrounding countryside.

Botanics on Saturday morning. 

Where did this miniature teenager come from?

That jacket finally fits. Perfect timing as the weather is starting to turn.

 
Sunday morning - early morning escape to ocean T as we were letting Daddy sleep in.  Beautiful day, but too windy to play outside.

Life continues apace.  Plumbers, builders, surveyors, mortgage brokers. Clearing loft, improvising on the fiddle, playing harp, cleaning kitchen,  too many sofas in the livingroom. New nursery, new school, more work? Friends and salsa. Lots of prayer for my sisters and jobs. Happiness bewilderment pain and anchored with grace. Fall asleep listening to the narnia theme music still.

City girls getting down at the farm

Visited Craigie farm for the first time today and expect it to be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.  It's a working farm which has been in the same family for at least 3 generations, and they've done a great job of opening it up to the Edinburgh city-folk and young'uns.  Entrance to the farm is free and kids can see chickens, pigs, sheep, shetland ponies before visiting the playground for free.  You can pick up your own fresh eggs and in the summer there's a very nice pick your own fruit set-up. A good field laid out with blackcurrants, white currants, gooseberries, rasberries, rhubarb and STRAWBERRIES.  Much cheaper than the store bought ones and a great afternoon out.

The farm's set at the top of the hill near South Queensferry and from the cafe there are gorgeous sweeping views out over the Forth, the Pentlands and through the fields (right now golden waving barley.)  The weather was clear and we could see the islands in the forth and across to Fife.

Their butcher shop was great and had some great deals on the meat.  I bought enough meat for our family for at least 2 weeks for £26.  Butcher-bought stuff generally tastes better than store bought, I think.  For that price, it's also cheaper than the supermarkets for that matter.

Yey for time to explore and learn something new!

The secret shower place

I've had a vase of yellow roses and a vase of sunflowers on the kitchen table for the last week.  F saw Fluffy eating the sunflowers this morning and got interested in them.  She had her 'mommy cat' doll pretend to eat the flowers too.  Then she came over to me while I was eating my cornflakes, leaned over my precarious bowl of milk and gave me a huuuge hug.

'Don't worry, mommy.  Don't worry' she said (with uncanny resemblance to the inflection of my voice when I'm comforting her.)

'My ust hiding in da showers aday'.

Then she wiggled back and laid down behind the vases.

'My hiding in da showers! My hiding!'




I had to laugh.  'Oh, you're hiding in the flowers?  Okay, well, don't hide too long.  I miss you when you're hiding.'

'My sLeeeping!  My sLeeeping in da showers.

And she laid down her head and closed her eyes.

'In dee secret shower place.....'

And she was still for two seconds.

'MEEEEEOOWWW!  Mommy At said MMMMEEEEOOOWW!  EEEATS dee showers!!'

Up jumps the fairy with her feline companion and she is off again on more adventures.