Finally, we've had time to make some changes....

[PhotoLady]

Time to get that sloe gin going to fill your cabinet and to be ready for Christmas. Yum!

Sadly, neither of us are a fan of the sloe gin - it's stuck right at the back of our current drinks cupboard.... but we did find a rather nice quince gin last week

[PhotoLady]

Looks terrific. Like the colours.

I take it we're talking about the blue bench seat rather than the dark wood display cabinet, Lincoln? Otherwise, you may be in for a surprise when we've finished playing around with that new piece of furniture

We keep being told to start it up as a business but at the moment we're just enjoying seeing the difference in revamping what's no longer an "on trend" item. Much better to give something a new lease of life rather than just chuck it in the nearest skip.

[aphrodite]

Time to get that sloe gin going to fill your cabinet and to be ready for Christmas. Yum!

Sadly, neither of us are a fan of the sloe gin - it's stuck right at the back of our current drinks cupboard.... but we did find a rather nice quince gin last week

Depends if it is shop bought, already made, then it's yuk.........but to make it yourself, big difference. I used to go foraging for the sloes when I lived in Weybridge. It takes at least 3 months to mature. I also had a shed load of demijohns and beer brewing.

[PhotoLady]

You're talking to a woman here with very little patience indeed.... I found it once upon a time, somewhere in my late 30s but it didn't last long

[aphrodite]

A shame, you are missing a treat. I have 2 x 2 litre kilner jars on the go using dried sloes I bought on Amazon, will be ready in time for Christmas. I have the patience!! Enjoy your quince gin

[PhotoLady]

I've just started off a Blueberry Gin this lunchtime...... It's now hiding in the bottom of the cupboard where I can't see it. If I can't see it, it won't remind me it's there! I have the calendar on the wall to prompt me to do "stuff" with it instead

[aphrodite]

The blueberries sound interesting, I might try that.

An idea, if you haven't already thought about it, when you have decanted the gin, why not freeze the berries and enjoy gin infused blueberry ice cream.

[PhotoLady]

Ah, well there's the rub..... my other half just doesn't appreciate sweets, desserts etc - he says there's no need for that stuff when there's savoury to be had. Me on the other hand, would much prefer to start with the dessert and see if there's room for more afterwards

He's the one in charge of the kitchen too! Except when I get a bee in my bonnet about trying something

[PhotoLady]

Update on our "Gin Palace" - it should be finished today....

I wanted a blue and silver theme for the cabinet although my husband thought I'd lost my marbles when I told him my plans. But, we finally found a paint we both liked and the transformation has been taking shape since last week.

All we have to do now is wait for the silver paint to dry where we had to repaint the brass screws on the detailing on the bottom cupboard doors and then we can put the leaded glass doors back on.

The waxing has been the most difficult part of the project....

Brass coloured metal decals:


Now in silver:


Changing from dark brown to navy blue:


The start of the waxing yesterday. We did the silver distressed look on the front edge of the shelves by finger painting it on with a dishcloth:


Leaded glass doors:


Decals screwed back on, had to paint the brass screws once refitted using cotton buds. We laid it on the floor for this part:


The final photo will come when it's fully completed and will be with my camera rather than my mobile phone. It's just so much more convenient to use my phone and I wouldn't want to be getting paint on my Nikon!

[PhotoLady]

Thanks Lincoln I've only got a phone shot so far - my camera is residing on top of the wardrobe after its' visit to Kendal yesterday....

The colour of the cabinet is actually a deep navy blue but my phone doesn't quite pick up the richness of the colour on indoor shots:



It does actually dry to the colour it shows on the paint tin (not the lid) in the image through the link below. It's from the Colour Courage range of paints by Lars Contzen and is a matt emulsion, which dries like chalk paint. We've then waxed it so it has a fine sheen:
http://www.larscontzen.de/colourcourage ... rf-46.html

In fact, we bought a bottle of Boodles last Saturday which more or less perfectly matches the colour scheme of the cabinet:



It's been an eagerly awaited project completion by my facebook followers who have been taking in the progress since we first brought it home exactly 4 weeks ago today In between, we've been adding bits to the side yard and we had days out planned with friends, so the cabinet got put on hold for a while.

We've just got a couple of twiddly bits to sort out as well as perhaps looking for a little bit of moulding to put on the top arch and maybe some door knobs in the same theme for the glass doors. We will know it, if and when we see it..... but overall, we're very pleased with the effect we created.

Will be interesting to see how the kitchen all turns out when we get around to remodelling that...... but, the back garden is the next big project on the list!

[JimX]

Lovely pictures Jules apart from that real tide, it reminds very much of my old home in the UK ...

Oh and I think the blue cocktail cabinet is a winner for me...perfect, I do not drink but even the Gin looks good.

[PhotoLady]

It's a very old piece of furniture which we picked up for £25 in a second hand shop. It has a few faults, only to be expected because of its age. The catch is broken on the top right of the glass door - that's one of the twiddly bits to fix as it also has a slight warp. A new catch will help to keep it in line....

We had no intention of doing a loving restoration job but the gin bottles are all being chosen now with the cabinet in mind. Our other wines and spirits will never appear in the top part of the cupboard

Thanks for the approval of the colour Jim but I think for the foreseeable future we shall have no more competition with our respective tides

[PhotoLady]

A few more photos now things have settled down in the front garden and the side yard:

These 2 photos are taken through the trellis by the front garden wall. We've added the trellis to the front of the house (painting is now finished), a new and very heavy planter with a couple of climbers and the final piece of furniture, the metal sage green garden bench arrived last week:




And here at the far end of the side yard is our latest addition of the pink sentry box and a few other bits and pieces:







Did you spot our little piece of Cyprus?

We now have a few weeks to enjoy it before havoc breaks loose again and the "boys" arrive to do all the big jobs. The summer house (I call it the Wendy house) will have to be moved into the bottom right corner on an angle, there's another shed at the opposite side of the back garden to be removed and a larger one put into place - but none of that can happen until we emptied them both - yep, everything will end up back into the conservatory which we've just got back now my sister-in-law and hubby have moved their stuff into their new apartment.

One day soon, we shall be free of belongings without homes to go to......

Meanwhile, we're looking forward to a couple of nights in Liverpool and a bit of Beatlemania to take our mind off the upcoming turmoil

[PhotoLady]

In case you were wondering this is why I haven't been quite so active on the forum recently.

During the last week of September, we managed to get the boys round again to do all the manual work on our back garden....
They had to dig out part of the grassy area, lay down membrane, flag over using our reclaimed paving flags from the front and the side yard plus a few from the back and then they brought in another half dozen reclaimed paving flags to complete it.
The main patio area is now raised up with a slope at the edge leading down to a drainage channel.

My husband then joined the drainage channel to an existing pipe to our main drain which also incorporates the overflow from the upper part of our water butt.

This has now resolved our main headache because the back garden had very poor drainage and no access to a main drain anywhere nearby. Each time we had heavy rain it constantly puddled all along the length of the conservatory so we wanted to make sure it was sorted out before the winter sets in.

After the guys finished their part of the job, we've since rearranged the position of the summer house (several times) and given it a lick of paint - there's a bit more to go on inside there so that will be another post when it's finished. We rejigged the plastic shed around and have installed a new 8' x 6' wooden shed where the plastic one used to be.

We still have to paint the new wooden shed but it's all weather proofed so not the be all and end all if we don't get it done before the end of the year and we will probably add a few more plants in the beds as we go along after we see how they all progress. We had to heavily cut back the Camelia bush and the Clematis because we also replaced the wooden panels along the left hand adjoining fence.

Some before and after photos....
Before:










Halfway there:


After - you can see the drainage channel here below the upper level of the paved area:


Instructions on how to put the shed together from the Brompton Joinery delivery man:
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Construction of the new shed (my hubby and brother in law at work)


It took 3 of us to get it this far as we were putting it together on the tail end of ex-hurricane Ophelia:


Not quite finished yet:


Sunday Event 22 October, poor Lynne wasn't ready for this shot:


12th birthday celebrations - our Great Nieces (twins) and their younger brother visiting from Essex.


As the evening was drawing to a close:

[PhotoLady]

Thanks!
Yes, we really love it now and have so much useable space. We sat outside with a brew several times while we were doing the painting and fencing. The sunshine passes across the whole of the back garden throughout the day - a shame we couldn't get it done sooner but we had the front done first then it was all down to getting a slot when the boys could come back and funding, of course.

However, the front, side yard and the back garden have all added to the kerb appeal, which was our aim as the previous owners had done only a halfhearted attempt and made a right shambles of it.

We got it done in time for the twin great nieces 12th birthday so had a bit of a do for them and invited friends and neighbours too to join the unveiling of our work.

The Gin Palace was well stocked as was the fridge and two tables in the kitchen were groaning under the weight of the buffet. It was a windy day but we managed to get our Cyprus BBQ out and that caused much commotion - all 26 guests had to go and have a peek and the odd poke at the coals.

Next summer is going to be fun, we reckon

[Cogs123]

Well done Jules, fantastic job, I absolutely LOVE the colour of your Gin Palace, what a transformation!

[LouiseCastricum]

Thanks again for sharing !

[PhotoLady]

Thanks all for your kind words and comments

A mixture of feelings over the last few days for us as today is our wedding anniversary and also my Dad's birthday. However, in this same week last year we attended the cremation service for my Dad so today has been fairly low key with some ongoing painting of the new wooden structures in the back garden and tonight me and hubby celebrated 18yrs of marriage with a pink gin, blueberries and prosecco. We've spent 27yrs of life together and are currently chilled out on the sofa.

Next week it's my Mums' birthday so we will put a bit more effort into that and will spend the afternoon in Blackpool watching a fabulous trio perform in town followed by a chippy tea...

Thankfully the outside work is almost done and we're now ready to sit back and relax for a while with a couple of planned holidays between now and Easter

[PhotoLady]

The Gin Palace is full.... it's time we got on with drinking some of our collection now



Our latest addition was the German created Blackforest or Needle Gin being supplied in UK by ALDI - just trying it out now with FeverTree Clementine Tonic and Cinammon.
Very nice indeedy!

Cheers everyone, have a great weekend

[PhotoLady]

Cheers
Room for a few miniatures only now.
Definitely no room at the Gin!