This is it, we have a builder, January is blast off!!

I am so excited to be writing my very first "thedunlins.com" blog. I do hope you will find my ramblings interesting. At long, long last we will be getting started with demolition in January. Hopefully the demo work won't be too much of a blast and upset our lovely neighbours!! All our neighbours have been fabulous so far, but will they stay that way once the messy, dusty and very muddy building works get underway.e of life in Cornwall, where professionals and trades are thin on the ground, it makes for very slow going indeed.

But here we are, about to transform The Dunlins into the beauty she deserves to be.

Ok, so she's not a looker at the moment, but we think she has much potential. Her crowning glory is that she is situated in the most idilyic spot overlooking the Camel Estuary to Rock. 2 mins walk and we are on the famous Camel Trail and 10 minutes walk into Padstow Harbour and we love it.

Despite her aged appearance, she was built in the early 1950's, we think she is going to scrub up really well. Back then the trend was for lots of small internal rooms, which is of course a nightmare for those of us that have got used to and love open plan living/entertaining space.

I could share hundreds of internal photo's of how she was when we got her, but I am sure you get the gist with these few shots.

We did spruce her up a little bit when we moved in and am I glad we did, as we have ended up living in her for a year. We essentially replaced the carpets we counldn't bare to live with, repainted everywhere, gave the kitchen cabinets a lick of paint and the most important thing of all, installed a wood burner, where the very horrible gas fire had been. The wood burner may seem an extravagance for temporary space, but we chose one that would fit in our new space, so it will be packed up and stored and then reinstalled in a new postion when the house renovation is complete.

We got the keys on 2nd December 2018, it took us two weeks and some long, long evenings to get it ready to celebrate Christmas, but we did it.

This Christmas we have taken a different tack and decided to go away. We have not put any decorations up at all, and I can tell you, it has not been easy as I love Christmas. Seeing all my fellow bloggers sharing their prepartions and immulately dressed trees has made me so envious, but its for the best as come the 1st January, we will have no decorations to take down and can jump straight into packing up the house and moving into our little holiday house "No 10" for the next 10 months of build work. More to come on "No 10" in future blogs.

Next time I plan to share my experience and views on Architects and Selecting Builders and then once Christmas is over, then I plan to Blogg regularly every week.