Renovations

Last Tuesday we went to Stirling to visit our friend who is renovating his late 19th century cottage. He has fixed the fire place which I showed on my blog some time ago. He has painted the room and cleaned up the chandelier and it all looks very light and pleasant. The carpet will be put down as soon as the heatbanks have been installed. It has all been a lot of hard work for him but it is all very satisfying to see it starting to look ready for furniture and his collection of paintings all still in storage.

 The light fittings look great , those that are up at present. Some of the old ones are lovely but they do look odd having the modern energy saving globes we all have to have these days.

The light on the left is in the kitchen which also has a great old fashioned  wood stove , a replica but it will cook and keep the kitchen beautifully warm in that cold Stirling climate.
He has installed an Ikea kitchen (shock, horror!) but it actually looks very nice and blends in well with the feel of the cottage. The lino is so realistic it was hard to realize it wasn't timber flooring. He had some lovely Persian tiles as features in the walls above the bench tops.

 I think there is nothing better than a woodstove for cooking on and for a general feeling of well- being on a cold and wet winters day to have the warmth of a wood fire there to be near.Food cooked in a wood stove always tastes so much better.....

He has also started to plant his front garden after first having some huge trees that were blocking the light , removed. Ivy is a great nuisance and difficult to remove but he is slowly getting on top of that as well.He found the tree ferns under neath the trees and since they have had plenty of light are re shooting with those wonderful curled new buds. He has also planted masses of bulbs which will show up next time we come to visit  to see further progress.