Cornish Cottage

Hello Blogging Friends.  I have something a little different to share in a post today.  

I have met so many wonderful friends all over the world since I started my blog.  

Still to this day amazes me the connection you can make with someone even if you have never met.  

I have found so many friends that I have connected with and have shared a friendship with over the past 8 years.

One of the sweet friends I met lives across the pond and has her beautiful cottage up for sale.  

I asked her if I could spotlight her sweet cottage and let her tell the story of this special place.  

I hope you enjoy getting to know Gilly and her sweet cottage home for sale.

If any of you are looking for a beautiful English Countryside Cottage here it is!  

I used Gilly's words on most of the pictures to describe this sweet cottage.
I hope you will enjoy learning of the history of this special home.




Cornwall
English unitary authority

Description

Cornwall is a county on England’s rugged southwestern tip. It forms a peninsula encompassing wild moorland and hundreds of sandy beaches, culminating at the promontory Land’s End. The south coast, dubbed the Cornish Riviera, is home to picturesque harbour villages such as Fowey and Falmouth. The north coast is lined with towering cliffs and seaside resorts like Newquay, known for surfing.
Love the sweet blue front door.  So welcoming.


The history of our cottage:

"It was built in 1842, and was originally a farm worker's cottage.  
This belonged to the Earl of Edgcumbe, being part of his huge estate.  

We have been told that the Earl of Edgcumbe gave our cottage to his mistress, because she became pregnant - with the proviso that she never contact him again!

We bought it in 2000.  It was meant to be a holiday home for us, until we retired and then we planned to move there from the Midlands (where we lived at the time) which is about 280 miles away from Cornwall.

Fate took a hand, and in the middle of that year I became ill, and was eventually diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/M.E.  
At that time Neill had his own business, which he could continue in Cornwall - so we took the plunge and moved down full time in December 2000.

The cottage was in a poor state when we bought it, and we had to have it rewired before we could move in.  
Initially we just decorated it and had carpets put down."  




Me:  I love the history of places like Gilly's.   Who lived there and what kind of life they had!


Swooning over that Shed.  More about that later.  The grounds of this cottage are spectacular.  Swooning!!!!

"Over the years we have had the garden restored to it's former glory, which revealed a small pond and we have got many shrubs and trees.  
We would class it as a traditional Cornish Woodland Garden."  

"Lastly, the cottage is situated up a narrow lane - originally leading to the farmhouse - which has now been divided into 2 cottages.  
It is in a truly tranquil setting, being unknown even local people.  
We are fortunate to have a paddock and an orchard next to us, on one side."

This is where I would be hanging out all the time.  Is this shed not the cutest!

Just swooning!!!
If I owned this sweet shed I would put in a little bed or hammock to sleep out on cool summer nights!  Ahhh love this sweet shed!

"However, we then began to restore it and we started in the lounge, where we discovered the traditional Inglenook Fireplace (complete with a cloam oven at the side).  
The original fireplace had been smashed and bricked up and then a wall built along the room, which covered the cloam oven.  This oven was used to bake bread."

"Our builder restored the Inglenook Fireplace and we sourced a beam from a reclamation yard, which had originally been in a church.



"In the early days, we decided to remove a cupboard which had been made under the stairs, because it was damp.  
When we had done that - Neill noticed that there were bricks under the first step.  
He removed them and a couple of days later when he went upstairs that step gave way. 
 It turned out that the stairs were rotten - hence the need for those bricks."

"We then had some new stairs made - exactly the same as the others.  
Later we had new doors hand made. 
The door going from the lounge into the porch, is a stable door.  
This is wider and lower than normal size doors. 
Also the outside door of the porch was handmade. Again wider than the normal sized doors".
"The kitchen and bathroom is an extension to the cottage, done by the previous owners. We have had them refitted in recent years, and decided that modern was best for the extension.  We did have a modern stable door fitted to the kitchen".




 Then our builder put in new handmade window frames and built a window seat (with storage below).

The previous owners had taken up the original slate floor in the lounge and used it in the garden - such a shame.

So we decided that we would put down the original cottage sized floor boards - which are considerably wider than those of today.

  We found just what we needed from another reclamation yard and they had originally been in the waiting room of Exeter railway station.  Exeter is a cathedral city in Devon."

"Last year we had the cottage painted, inside and out and had to have some internal plastering done upstairs". 


Hope you loved learning about Gilly's sweet English Cottage that is up for sale.  I love all the beautiful restoration they did to keep the cottage true to it's previous style.

If you would like more information on the sale of this sweet cottage you can go here.

Thank you Gilly for letting me spot light your wonderful English cottage for sale.

Enjoy the new week ahead.
Always thanks for stopping by for a visit.
Hugs,
Kris

German Pantry

Hello sweet blogging friends.

I had to leave my sweet German Armoire that we made into a pantry for JCC#3.   It unfortunately was going to be too big for the new house.  
:(

I found a good home for this beautiful piece so that made me feel good.





Terry and I found another German made Armoire on Offer Up.

This is the armoire when we purchased it on Offer Up.




Terry took the armoire apart and cut it down to fit in this space in the back of the new kitchen.

This was where the previous owner had a bench and hooks for coats.

 I needed a pantry for storage and we also needed a closet for our winter coats and shoes.

One side will have shelves and the other side will have a coat closet.

This is the pretty pattern of the wood.


This is how it looks now. 
We are going to put in the shelves and coat closet this weekend.

Terry is adding crown molding to the top of the armoire.

It will give it a more finished look.

I have these vintage knobs for the doors.


I debated on leaving the natural wood color on the armoire since it was similar to the french bench color.




It really has too many scratches and wear. 

Plus the new crown would not stain to the exact color of the armoire. 

It will get painted white!

I hope to have this done with the shelves in and it finished with a pretty white paint this weekend.

When you live small you have to figure ways to use every sq. inch of your space. 

I will show you pictures when it is all done.


This is our before bathroom picture. 

This has been totally re loved. 

New flooring, new bathtub and surround, a new vanity and mirror and light.
 
It was a complete re love.  I will have pictures of this transformation soon.

Everything you see in this picture is gone!!!!

Have a great weekend.
Hugs,
Kris

Feeling Blue With My White World

Hello Sweet Blogging Friends.

So happy to be finally settling into the new JCC#4.

I know I have always been a very neutral mainly white decor kinda gal.  Like everything in life there is always room for change.

I feel in this cottage style home there needs to be a lot of me and my signature white with a little bit of color added.  

I know that seems shocking but we neutral girls can have some color in our lives too!

My design assistant Buddy would like to show you the comfy feel of the blue and white throw!!!!
I have the two love seats in the new house.  I like the white slipcovers but was thinking about adding new slipcovers with some color and design.

My slipcovers now are easily washable since can  Buddy gets on them often.  Whatever fabric I pick would have to be a washable fabric too.

This is one of the inspiration fabrics I am thinking about.

Also love this stripe white and light blue fabric.


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I love this stripe fabric on this loveseat.  I have a similar floral fabric I am having made into drapes.  You will see that below.
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I like the stripe fabric on this slip cover for inspiration.



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This floral slipcover is so fabulous.  Just have not found any upholstery fabric similar to this that I like.




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I love the mix of the pattern and solid in this inspiration picture.  



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I also am throwing around the idea of wallpaper like the stripe wallpaper in this picture and leaving the white slipcovers.


This is the fabric that is being made into drapery panels.  The color is a light ivory not yellow like the picture indicates with light blue and darker blue in the flowers.

I am trying to decide on fabric to coordinate with my drapery choice.

Hope to make a decision soon.
Just not sure if I will do new slipcovers or stay with white slipcovers and add wallpaper to one or more of the walls to bring in color and texture.

Hope you all have a great start to the new week.
Hugs,
Kris


Happy Weekend

Hello sweet friends.  
Just got home from a lovely week in Michigan with my family.  
We rented a home on the lake and it had a pool and hot tub and fire pit.  
We had such a great vacation as a family.

After moving and trying to get some things done at JCC#4 before we left this vacation was really needed.  
I was by the pool or on the beach the whole week.  The weather was beautiful.



Our view of the lake from the house.

Loved the pool.

At night the hot tub was nice with a glass of wine.


I am not sure about you but we love to eat local when we vacation.  I love to find the resturants known to the locals as the best places to eat.  This was one of them.  We ate here twice we loved it so much.  It was right out on the lake.


My 3 year old granddaughter Charlotte.  Loved wearing her sun glasses all week.

Lots of yummy ice cream places in this area.


Another great local restaurant in Holland Michigan is called Crazy Horse.  Best food ever!!!  They also let you pin up a dollar bill anywhere in the restaurant.  Then at the end of the month they take them all down and give them to a local family in need.  I just loved this and the girls loved pinning dollars around the restaurant.

It is hard to tell by the picture but this is a painting of Crazy Horse on one of the walls.  Abby made her dollar into a heart and pinned it on the horse.

Charlotte also pinned her heart dollar onto the crazy horse painting.




Just such a great idea and cause. 

We girls also enjoyed a spa day at one of the best local salon and spas.  The salon over looks the lake and the inside of the salon is all done in shabby whites and chandeliers.  Right up my alley!  Just the sweetest little spa places to have a girls day.  We enjoyed massages, facials and pedicures.



I wanted to share with you a little treasure I found on my shopping time in Michigan.

You know I love the Found Cottage Shop which Liz Marie from Liz Marie blog and IG is a part owner.  
This sign use to hang over liz Marie's bed and she brought it into the shop to sell.  
Now it hangs over my bed in the new house.

It is so pretty.  
The picture does not show the color well.  It is lighter gray than shown and has chippy white on the frame.  
The saying is my favorite so this was a perfect find for our new bedroom in the new JCC#4.

Now that we are back in town.  We are working on getting the new JCC#4 done.

I am almost done with the bedroom and will have more pics of this room soon.

I think you are all going to be surprised to see some of the changes in JCC#4.  I am still a white and neutral girl at heart but this new house called for some color.  YEP!!! color.
Can't wait to show you more.
Have a great weekend.
Hugs,
Kris


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