During December we left the house in the hands of Misko and Sergio, the plan being for them to get as much of the dirty work done in the kitchen as possibe while we were away. Although they kept in contact regularly and sent photos of progress, we quickly realised that they weren’t going to […]
A few days on from the last reno update and a lot has happened, kitchen-wise. The stones from the kitchen window hole have been saved and the red bricks which were below the chimney have been taken out. These will be replaced by the stones which have been removed, meaning that the front of the […]
Today, the scaffolding arrived. It was brought to us by Edo, a lovely Dutch guy who has really helped us ease into Istrian life, as he did the same thing 12 years ago. He brought the scaffolding to us because he was already going to Sergio’s, as he was taking hay for Sergio’s horse. Which […]
After yesterday’s excitement of taking down the false ceiling – plus removing a dead mouse, numerous critters and a hornets’ nest – today was always going to be a bit of anti-climax in terms of progress. However, in the short time that Misko and Sergio were here, they achieved an awful lot. In order to […]
It seems like no time – although it’s actually nearly four years ago! – that our West Didsbury home was being smashed to bits as we renovated. And, now we’re doing it all again – but this time in Istria, in northern Croatia. When we first arrived we knew no-one apart from the local go-to […]
When we’re not working and running our business, we seem to spend a lot of time doing the jobs around the house that we can do ourselves. It would be lovely to have a limitless budget and get people in to do everything, but we don’t have such a budget and even if we did, […]
We’ve done IKEA kitchens and while they’ve largely been great and just what we wanted/needed in the past, schlepping to Zagreb or beyond Trieste (the two nearest stores to us), just seemed a bit far, this time. It’s OK to do these trips to buy beddings and candles but we needed somewhere a bit closer. […]
The summer has been a time for travel, seeing family and friends and lots of white-washing of walls. The house feels much more light and airy, now that the bare stone walls are much softer. And now, as autumn starts to take a hold, our thoughts are turning to the bigger renovation projects. The ripping […]
A busy summer of visiting family and friends has meant a busy time in between visits, doing what we can do ourselves to make our house as comfortable as possible for guests. Some things we just can’t tackle ourselves – new kitchen, new bathrooms, new stairs, new boundary wall – and frustratingly, we are reliant […]
It’s nearly four months since we arrived, shortly followed by every single thing we owned in the world, in our new home, in northern Istria. It’s been a whirlwind four months, filled with new places, new friends, bureaucracy, incredible weather, amazing food, new languages – and getting to grips with a stone farmhouse, parts of […]
We’ve never had huge outdoor spaces anywhere that we’ve lived previously. In our last house in West Didsbury, we managed to create quite a funky little haven, out of scaffold planks. But it was still a bit of a tight squeeze and although we loved it, we never had a feeling of space. Well, we’re […]
The House, until we bought it, had been empty for quite a long time. It had been used as a family holiday home, but was in need of an immediate injection of warmth and a bit of TLC. Although we do have renovation plans, these are a bit further down the line as we work […]