The first day of renovation - patience is a virtue

All brown for the 70s Christmas house

Happy new year! Christmas has gone and the bloated bellies are all around. Gym memberships will go through the roof and then half cancelled by March. But let's be positive and make this the year to be an unforgettable one. It certainly will be at number 35.

The first day of renovating our house began on the 30th December 2015. Our future bedroom has been stripped back to it's bare plaster bones and we're now going to fix the crack from the old walls and then start to rebuild it back together again, making it our own.

Mess? What mess?!

It's a wonderful thing to be doing, re-designing and building our own house, being our own
project managers and designing your own time-frame. There's so much to do...strip wood-chip, strip wallpaper, carpets, board up polystyrene tiles, and much much more. A perfect project for when it's rainy, cold and dark - to cosy up inside and work hard on the house becoming home.

Onto a more foodie wavelength, a 4 course extravaganza was made yesterday evening by the gang. For a special birthday, we made seafood vol-au-vents, tarka dahl and haddock, then lamb - three ways, followed by a rum and raisin creme brulee. What a feast!

Rack of lamb | braised lamb shoulder | lamb bon-bon |
pea puree | rosti | roasted shallot | jus

My New Year's Resolution is to improve my patience. I've seen a lot of interesting posts but one I've seen that's great is here. Thanks for the inspiration, Henrik.

ZP x