Tunnel vision

Renovating a home is not easy full stop. Renovating over a very limited time (four months), with a limited resource makes it tougher. When you are doing most of the work yourself whilst writing and making a second book, working on the launch of the first plus other important work - well ridiculous. 

I've ripped out walls (thank you pilates), built kitchens, filled, sanded, painted, drawn electrical and plumbing plans, fired cabinet makers, delighted in my super electrician, plasterer and plumber, bought more furniture (some new,some old, some rickety) than I thought we would ever need - and somehow we are almost finished. I was very happy when the leaking roof stopped leaking into the studio and euphoric when we actually had a downstairs roof - although the company who put in the glass roof had me in tears most days. Simple things such as 25 cracked or broken panes of glass have been replaced and suddenly the rooms stop looking so shabby. F's room has changed colour three times - the last I mixed myself and it looks like a beautiful mill pond.

We have a beautiful large bedroom with glass doors, which I created from two small and vile rooms and we delight in our simple linen curtains (yes I made them) and our working fireplace. We have a dining conservatory where we eat under the sky and this makes me ridiculously happy. We finally have special pieces of art on the wall that had nowhere to go before and of course all the books are out.

So, I'm almost done, and then I'll be back in a week or so and I'll be wearing a dress instead of filthy t-shirts and combat trousers.

We've got a beautiful book to launch, another lovely one to shoot, our first patterns coming out and a new website - oh and a holiday!

What I really want to know is why am I looking at dilapidated farms on the internet................