Sidetracked

Been laying low for the last 2 weeks. We have had three new cyclists arrive here in the last week, so we had to take some time to get a few small projects done in their rooms before they all arrived.

Now that the house is buzzing with all our new guests we can get back to the big project of drywalling...dun dun dun! Pleased to say that we are nearly there, but going to hold off on photos until we can check that box done, and write up a whole post about the process.

Planning out that garden of ours is the other consuming task of the moment. At times I feel like i'm planning out the seating plan for our wedding all over again....only worse! And yes a full big ol post will follow on this as well.

So all in all this post was just a little tease - just a promise of  more to come (and hopefully within the week).

TTFN

Holly

Our Empty Plot

It's Crocus Vakantie (Crocus Vacation) in Belgium! 

 So in anticipation of milder temperatures and more day light, I thought i'd reveal some of our plans for spring.  Not only do we have a blank canvas to contend with up in the attic, we also have a big blank back garden (for the most part). Last summer we did make a dent by adding in a small garden shed, a place for all the cyclists to wash their beloved bicycles, and put in some clothes lines. 

We (Belle mostly) did enjoy having the vast space, especially since our last place had a tiny garden. We spent many hours chasing Belle around, and playing games of "Bellie in the Middle" (our take on monkey in the middle), but we feel that it's time for our garden to start working for us. 

Our mission is to dig for victory, get rid of as much of that boring lawn as possible, have a bountiful harvest (however possible that is for first time gardeners - our tiny gardens in the past don't count), create a rotation plan for our garden, and do it all organically. 

With that it mind we did get a bit of a head start this past autumn. We spent a good afternoon digging up a large plot just behind the garden shed, enlightened it a bit with some pages of the world press, and gave it a good covering of compost and earth. So here's hoping that the plot will be left well nourished after the harshish winter that we've had here. 

In the meantime while our compost and newspapers were working their magic we've been studying up on information and more importantly inspiration. Been reading a great blog You Grow Girl and picked up two great books The Gardener's A-Z Guide to Growing Organic Food, Grow Great Grub: Organic Food from Small Spaces (great read, even for our not so small space!). Oh and just picked up a pair of pink gardening gloves, so far have only gotten to use them to carry up the wood floor planks. 

And because i'm a little impatient to get my hands dirty, I have already began to sow some seeds inside; more for experimental purposes than anything really. So far i've sowed some tomato, aubergine, pea, and  some radish seeds. All but the aubergine seeds have begun to make their presence know - here's a look...

Well that's it for now! Next time: Drywall - Lets Get 'er done!

Cheers
Holly

Crowning Glory

Here to report through dust filled eyes that as of last Thursday our old 1970's butcher shop/row house now has something to brag about. Thats right she was officially crowned with the shiniest roof on the block! Yes officially - we were given a plaque to commemorate our achievement from the city council...... yeahhhh no not really, but at least we know it right!?

But honestly don't she look purdy? 

Of course we waisted no time in commencing the celebrations... that's right we got right to laying down the sub-flooring. All 81 square meters of it! The floor space actually takes up roughly 90 square meters, but we left out 9 for where the bathroom will go. The bathroom will have to be built up slightly to accommodate for the plumbing.

Here's a photo of the sub-flooring going in midway. Gregg sprayed on some red paint where all the existing electrical wires were just to be on the safe side when it came time to screw the boards in place.

Once we finished with that it was time for a trip; hummm France perhaps???
Yes haven't been to France in a while, and not much else to do anyways.
You think I was joking, don't you? Well unfortunately nope, dead serious... we - went - to - France, and it was everything we dreamed it would be. Big, and bright, and *sigh* full of endless possibilities! Oh and I can't forget the prices, yes those prices that are unheard of 10 minutes to the North. Just thinking about it makes me want to shout "VIVE LE CASTORAMA" from our shiney new roof!

Not to build it up any further, Castorama is a hardware store much like a Home Depot or Lowes. So nothing really special if you live around the corner from one, but if you knew all of our other options Castorama would have you shouting too. I was almost embarrassed walking around the store, just knowing that it had been there the whole time while we struggled to find selection or prices that we could afford.

*** Side Rant: The "hardware" and DIY shops in Belgium present you with a few options; usually one poor quality and low cost option and then reasonable quality with an inflated price tag - nothing in between.  If you want other options you go to the specialty shops - and no doubt you will over pay there too! Saw an idea that you liked in a magazine? Forget it, chances are you wont find what you need. Might as well stick to the same modern and minimalist design that all Belgians are going for these days! Don't get me wrong, I like their style, we just don't see ourselves going in that direction. ***


So Castorama first came under our radars whilst on a quest for flooring. We were originally planning on installing laminate and indirectly pump some money towards the Quickstep Cycling Team (hey we love them!) but some last minute nerves changed our minds. Luckily the one local DIY store had their wood flooring on sale so we thought heck yes, thats what we want! Long story short the sale price in the shop was listed next to the nice wood, when it should have been placed next to the sorry excuse for wood flooring (Surprise, they only had 2 options available). So after that disappointment we headed off to all sorts of home improvement stores (including ones targeted towards contractors) and came back with a single option - and it was still a bit of a budget stretch.
Jokingly I said "I bet if we lived in France we could find the wood flooring that we're looking for".
Both of us in agreement that joke turned into an internet search, which came up with 3 major hardware chains within France. We chose the larger one, punched the address in our gps, and didn't look back.
Two hours later we were on our way home with a van filled with 88 square meters of Maritime Pine, and huge grins on our faces. Can't wait for our next visit!

The van was saying ouch at the time, but so did we after carrying all those up 2 flights of stairs! 

Whats Our Style?

Now that work on our space has commenced we have started brainstorming how we want it to look.

Just to make sure that the two of us are on the same page, last week I had Gregg take an online style quiz on Sproost (www.sproost.com). The quiz takes you through a series of home interior photos that you rate on a scale from "Love it" to "Hate it", and in the end it defines your style for you - either defined by a combination of styles, or it under-covers a definite winner.

Greggs result - 100% Vintage Modern

For scientific purposes I took the same quiz (actually it wasn't exactly the same as the photos adjust depending on your previous answers) to see how my style compares to Gregg's.

To throw us a curve ball I scored 100% Vintage Modern!

"Flea Market anyone? You know you are drawn to modern furniture and interiors, and yet you really don't like a space that feels cold and sterile. And who could blame you? And that's why Vintage Modern is so appealing to you. Though the backdrop of the room, the walls and windows, are many times white or monochromatic, the furniture and accessories have the color, shape and texture to bring the warmth into the space. The great thing about Vintage Modern is ease of mixing different styles in the one space. You can have a new modular sofa mixed with a great pair of chairs that your grandmother purchased in the late 1950's and the new and old work appear as though they were destined for each other. What's great is that even if you don't have time for swap meets and garage sales, so many of the pieces from the mid-century were so great that they have been remade and mimicked year after year (www.sproost.com)"

I will take these results to show that Gregg and I are both steering towards the same general idea - but will leave it at that. Speaking for myself my "vintage modern" is a little more "vintage" and a little less "modern". The word modern scares me to an extent, I would prefer terms like "clean" "simple" and "timeless".

Discover your own personal style over at www.sproost.com , and see if the results compare to your own personal style.

Holly

Our Back Story

After reading the first post we realize that you might still be a little curious as to why we are converting our attic into our "home within a home".

You may have noticed from the last photo that our home in fact is quite large (ten points to you if you noticed this).

Here's that photo again if you didn't catch it the first time.

Now here's a photo of the front side of the house, taken during the roofing process last week.

So the house was built in 1973; we're sure it was very "modern" at the time. It was originally used as a butcher shop with space for all "butcher duties", and attached living spaces.

It had been many years since the property was actually used for it's original purpose so we knew we had to snatch it up - after all it had exactly what we needed loads of unused space, 5 existing bedrooms, and a great attic space.

And why did we need all that you ask?

Well one of our passions in life is cycling (think bicycles and spandex), a sport which happens to be huge in Belgium. Gregg coming from the US, had pursued racing here - and long story short found living conditions for the average poor foreign cyclist to be quite difficult to say the least.

So after retiring from racing professionally in Belgium, Gregg decided that his next step would be to create a comfortable and adaptable environment in Belgium for other foreign cyclists.

So all that unused space has allowed for 2 extra bedrooms, making a whopping total of 7 bedrooms - enough space to house 10 cyclists! And there's even loads of space for the riders to do all their bike mechanic work inside (and in a room that was designed to get dirty too).

So bringing us back to the original question. Why are we converting our attic into a "home within a home"?

We love the cyclists we really do, we just need our own space now and again so we don't feel like we're living the life of university students in shared accommodation. Once everything is said and done we'll enjoy our own space with a full kitchen, bathroom, bedroom and living spaces... but of course we'll still spend plenty of time sharing stories and learning all about the riders sharing our home with us.

- Holly

Our Big Blank Canvas

This is the story of Gregg and Holly a pair of loosely experienced diy'ers who have been blessed or cursed (depending on how you see it) with a big blank canvas to build their dream "home within a home". Together with our Supervisor Belle (our 2.5 year old English Cocker Spaniel, named after Holly's absolute favorite Disney movie) we plan on tackling/struggling through the conversion of our attic. Along the way you can expect many conflicts over proposed paint colours, debates over how to incorporate our exposed brick walls, and maybe even a rant or two about how we would so love a Home Depot or Lowes or something of the likes - you see we are doing all of this in tiny little Belgium. A great country if you're looking for chocolates, but home improvement stores are ding dang darn expensive or filled with zero selection. This could be fun...right?!

So here's a look at what we started with over a year ago...

Taken during one of the home viewings before we actually

purchased our home, we knew this could potentially

become a great space for us!

Within a month of moving into our home this is what we had accomplished...

Even though we knew it would be about a year before we

could start serious work on our space, we got the messy demo

work done first. We were happy that we did, because it

took months to getthe last of that demo debris under control!

No more hatch steps, we're climbing these babies now!

Gregg extended the rafters so that we could place insulation.

And this is where we are at now...

The stairs are still "under construction" and are in dire need of some tlc.

As you can see towards the right side of the picture the

drop down stairs have been removed and the gap filled in.

Windows and insulation have been installed.....ahh glorious daylight!

The new roof is currently being installed, and should be

finished by tomorrow- so long as the rain holds up.

So that brings you up to speed on where we started out, and where we currently stand. We will post again shortly about some of the spaces highlights, and of course our progress.