Heads above the water

Well, hello there!  Been a long while - 6 months in fact - since the last post.  Despite good intentions, blogging from home hasn't happened.  But we're off again very soon, on 25th December, on another bicycle adventure, this time to the Deep South.  I'm not going to steal The Chronicler's material, so you will have to wait to hear about our plans.  No, this is a piece about what we've been up to since we spoke last - aside from working, that is.

Over the late summer and early winter of 2009-10, we had the troops in to completely remodel the little flat that is above ours in Haddington.  We've owned the wee place for 20 years, and had a long-term tenant in there for most of that time.  Since we bought it, we've had the dream of doing a remodel - as much as a creative exercise for ourselves as a moneymaking venture.  And we weren't quite clear as to the final purpose of the finished product; an interesting brief for our friend Sally Ruel, Architect.  Sally was great; as well as putting our dreams on paper (in the proper format), she was the buffer between us and the East Lothian Council Planning department.  I would not have been able to do that bit!  Seumas and his team did the clever (and heavy) bits, and created the canvas for the next bit...

After one regular tenancy, which went without a hitch, we felt that we would like to have the opportunity to use the space ourselves from time to time, so we did some research into holiday letting.  After a couple of false starts (one agency would not consider 'any property above commercial premises'), we spoke to Elizabeth from Welcome Cottages.  Elizabeth understood right away what the flat was about, and was very enthusiastic, reckoning we should get a good level of occupancy.  So, off we went, into full-on furnishing and detailing, and the property is now online and available for holidays.  For us, it was a pretty swift project - thinking, planning, researching and sourcing all take us forever, usually.  And we were determined not just to  dive into IKEA as the cheap and easy solution.  Between the beginning of September and 4th November, it has been a busy time.  The last major piece of the jigsaw finally went into place last night, with a rather splendid rug in the living area.  I can now have mine back for the living room downstairs!

You  can see the results of our project on Flickr, and the Welcome Cottages booking site.  We can take a few private bookings, so do contact us if you would like to use it.

Watch this space for more updates.

The Navigator