simple is as simple does

Hey there,

Sorry it's been a while, but we're been busy working hard and now we can share with you, what we've accomplished.

We've been working on our bookshelf/office space and it's all gone swimmingly well.

Here's how it started out.



Below you can see the frame for the desk and filing cabinet space starting to take shape.



The mess below is me oiling the box/book shelves - you can see all the brackets already on the wall waiting for the book selves to be fitted. We made all the book shelves out of rough cut chestnut from our local fella.



This is what the bookshelves look liked when they first went up - empty. You can also see the pull out fling cabinet draws (which are on wheels) below the shelves and of course the desk too.



The desk in all it's glory. The actual desk top is a piece of oak that our good friend Ben Yank gave us a long time ago - thanks dude. We built storage space underneath at the back and also the three draws. The lowest draw is on wheels and houses the scanner/printer - handy no?



The bookshelves full and looking lovely. You can also see the light that Monkey Boy made, we still need to make the glass a little more opaque but it already looks great.



Here's the overall look - can you tell we're pretty pleased with it?



Whilst the office space was project managed by Monkey Boy, Gairy has been heading the team for the new spice rack. What, I hear you ask have I been doing? Well, I have been working on both projects as have the others too, I'm just not quite ready to be in charge of a project just yet.

Anyhoo, this first picture shows the stone wall which the base of the spice rack is attached to. We drilled holes in the walls and fitted metal rods which then slotted into the chestnut shelf.



We routed out a space for each spice jar to sit in.



And then made eight more shelves that are secure with rope.



I particularly love this spice rack. It looks so great especially with all the beautiful different colours and textures of the spices.



We're also going to fill a few big jars with pasta and other such things.



Müca has recently found her way into our new house. The other day Monkey Boy snapped a very cute shot of her snuggled on the couch.



Below is a picture of the pair of gloves I knitted for Naah - the lucky bugger. I hope she receives them before she sees them on here.



Very quickly, as this has been LOOONG.

Other news with us: last Friday we picked up two Guinea Fowl from our architect Ronold and welcomed them into our family. But on the very same day it seems a fox got lucky and killed 5 of our chickens! Obviously quite sad news, but what can you do? Now we have 4 chickens and the two guinea fowl and we're hoping the fox doesn't come back.

I've got to go and eat my din dins.

Cheers
Nikki

Another Simple Success!

Hello Folks,

Today we finished our kitchen/dining table and we think it's pretty sweet.

Follow the photos below to witness the magic.....

We started off with rough cut planks of Ash wood that we bought from "Roger-the-wood-dude", up the road.

We put them through our thicknesser and they were incredibly beautiful.

Below you can see how we made the frame. We routed out grooves in the legs to put the frame together so it holds the legs nice and tight.

Here's the frame put together.

Then yesterday we moved everything from our workshop to upstairs - it's all very very heavy indeed. Below you can see the table top starting to take shape, just needs the end pieces now.

Here you can see the tongue that we routed in the centre pieces and then we routed the groove in the end pieces so they all fit together.

Here it is in all its glory, having been oiled.

And some close ups of the grain.

The Ash is such strong and beautiful wood.

I don't want to brag, but we rock hard.

We're having a day off today, we feel we have deserved it.

Nikki

stove unit - done!

good afternoon fine people,

we haven't found much time to update things blogwise recently and so we hope you all enjoy this latest offering.

the unit we built around the stove has been mostly finished for some time but only actually finished for a couple of days (and we still haven't built the door as we're waiting for the chestnut to fully dry/acclimatise before we build that).

here are a couple of shots of the stove in place before we started (note the untidy pipework that needed to be covered):



and:



the frame was then built (with a sheet of fermacell to shield the frame from the heat):



and:



here's how it looks finished:



and from the other side:



close-up:



and:



finally, loaded with our pots and pans:



we're much happier with it than we thought we were going to be - it mighty fine.

it's another success!!!

one more thing.....here is a shot of the view from the patio windows out over the vegetable garden.

after well over a month of solid snow/ice and nearing a point of almost being able to use the road to get the car out (upwards - at present we're having to head down the track which is pretty tricksy) it snowed again!

about 10cm since yesterday with more forecast - no early spring for us.



later, gairy.

Our Kitchen!

Hi there, hope you all had a very happy, fun festive time over the holidays.

We, here in Mars have been working quite hard, and having fun too of course.

There are lots of pictures to show you, so I'll keep the writing minimal.

This is what we started with - a beautiful (non-straight) stone wall. We started by building a pine carcass.





Below, you can see where the wonderful double belfast sink will go.



and the sink in place..... along with the first chestnut side panels (we got our chestnut "rough cut" planks from a friendly guy down the hill, and we put our thicknesser (I know it sounds like a made-up word!) to real good use and made our own planks.



pine carcass taking shape



with back panels in place



Here it is with the chestnut shelves, but no top so far.....



After we had cut and sanded and oiled and waxed the walnut (table that Ben gave us all those years ago) - we attached it to the top. I think you may agree - it looks bloody great! Oh and the tap looks pretty too.



We love the sink!



We also laid some tiles in the middle of the work surface as a place to put hot pots, surrounding a chopping area.



Here it is with all the doors on, draws on.....



In this close up you can see the inlaid walnut strip down the right hand side of the chestnut door, along with the matching walnut handles - obviously all made right here, by us!



Below you can see the basket area that we built into the kitchen - these baskets we didn't make ourselves - but in the future I plan to replace them with homemade ones. Also notice the nice double cupboards - such nice storage.



This is the lovely cutlery drawer, that Monkey Boy made with a homemade, chestnut cutlery divider.



You can see the kitchen in use (I was making lemon drizzle cakes). It is such a joy to use, it makes me want to cook all the time! We better make sure we don't all become super fat!





So that's it! You've seen our new kitchen and it's bloody brilliant! I must just mention this was a very good collaboration between the three of us - with Monkey Boy leading the party and me and Gairy close behind with lots of ideas and hard work.

Just in case you feel like you've been looking at our kitchen for far too long now - here are a couple of cute snowy dog pics from a couple days ago.

Taco - you can't help but love him!



Taco and Rudie hanging out together.



Rudie loves snow - but not as much as she loves stick.



Oh yeah, Monkey Boy made us a fire grate out of an old bed - clever chap, hey?
So, we had our first open fire last night. Yay!



That's it! I have to go and admire our new kitchen. Yes, I'm feeling pretty smug!

Later.
Nikki