Sunroom no more

We have wonderful friends!  Sophie and Patrick are staying for the weekend and working for their bed and board :)  Today's task was to dismantle the "sunroom" on the back of the house.  It's basically a greenhouse, single glazed panes of glass from floor to ceiling, with a plastic roof.  It's freezing cold in winter and boiling hot in summer, overgrown with passionflower and overrun with spiders.

Here's a photo that shows the sunroom from when we viewed the house in August 2013:

And here's the photos of our hard work today:

Scoping out the situation before clearing the contents:

Cutting back the passionflower:

Taking the doors off took the longest:

Look no glass!

Removing the panes of glass one at a time - they weren't held in by much!  Each side was between 2-4 panes of glass and some sort of board at the bottom.

Tackling the roof was a little more complex:

Aaaand it's down!

Ripping up the edging metal strips, which were screwed into the brick:

Some of the mess:

Last piece, fixed to the wall with a bazillion screws:

View from inside - sunlight!

Hammering down the metal flashing.  We'll probably take this out and patch the mortar in due course:

More mess:

Done!  5 hours later.  Team photo :D

We were so lucky with the weather - a crisp October day, the sun was so hot!

View from the master bedroom:

There are vague plans for a big garden overhaul at some point, so until then this will probably stay as a slightly raised concrete patio...

Thank you Sophie and Patrick you are wonderful friends!!! xxxx

Cushions!

Back in June I went to an evening class run by See it. Love it. Make it. (http://www.seeitloveitmakeit.co.uk/) to learn to make a cushion cover.  I hadn't used a sewing machine for over 10 years but it went surprisingly well!

I've been procrastinating over splashing out but I have given in and bought a sewing machine - so exciting!

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Today is a good day :D

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A few weeks ago in the Laura Ashley sale I bought a metre of the fabric our living room curtains are made from, and this evening I combined the two and made cushions :)

They have zips and everything!

Chuffed!

In other-things-I've-made-with-my-sewing-machine news, on Wednesday evening I also made a doorstop from felt for the study door, which kept swinging about halfway closed:

Quite proud of myself so far!

Living Room - new sofas!

Exciting day today as our new sofas arrived!

So the Living Room had been looking like this...

And now it looks like this:

Not sure this side table will stay here:

The sofas are Michigan from Next, we bought a large sofa and a snuggle seat :)  A close up of the fabric is below, it's a really lovely chenille:

What we need now, of course, is cushions - and luckily I have some fabric for that very purpose!  Now just need to choose a sewing machine...

Garden 21 September

The weather is still warm but there's definitely a scent of Autumn in the mornings and late afternoons - the seasons are on the turn!  Here's how the garden is looking at the moment: