Home Sweet Home

Just wanted to check in to let you all know that Andy and I are still alive.  Unfortunately we are still 'in the process' of buying our house.  It has officially been two months since our offer was accepted.  I can see the finish line ahead but unfortunately the people who own the house have some 'cowboy' solicitors who are not in a hurry at all.  We can not move any quicker on our purchase until they start to move a bit faster on the purchase of the house they are buying and moving into.

Now I know why the sentence 'No Upward Chain' was used on other properties as a marketing tool!

ugh.

So, as I mentioned before I am busy trying to find ways to keep myself occupied during this whole long drawn out buying process.

For now this task appears to be kitchen tiles.  There is not a whole lot of tiled space in the current layout of the kitchen but the tiles that are there do not make me happy at all.  They are very white, very boring and not my style at all.  So I've been looking around for just the perfect tiles to redo the job and I think I finally found them!

The name of these tiles are 'Zanzibar' and in total there are seven different colors.  Here are some photos from a tile website of each color on their own.

Now usually I am a very matchy matchy kinda gal and if I were to do something it would need to be in a specific pattern. But I want to put these up in a very random manor such as the example below, I made this by just copying and pasting some individual tiles from the above photos to make my own layout.


As you can see... no rhyme or rhythm which is what I want.  I can not even describe how much I am in love with these!  They are so worn and weathered looking... and very Tuscan which is exactly what I am looking for. I plan on using a sandstone or beige grout, I just don't think white would be the best choice.

As of right now the kitchen has a black with grey specks counter top, black/dark grey tile floor and light wooden cabinets.  The plan is to eventually replace the counter top with a nice butcher block type style and the floors a nice Tuscan color tile.  But until I have the money for all of that the black will not look horrible and the tiles will really liven the place up and make it look a bit more 'me'.

I've just completed a major revamp of my blog... and as you can tell from the new layout we are about to start a new chapter in the McGrae family saga.

We are in the process of buying our first house! Yay!!!

Now anybody that knows me will know that I am not patient at all. In fact all of my patience would probably fit in the tip of my little finger.  And buying a house apparently requires much patience as it a very long and drawn out process.


*ugh*

I have been trying to keep myself busy making plans and lists.  The house is very much in walk in and live condition but we are keen to make some changes right off the bat to make it well and truly ours.  We are tied into our current rental lease until November so once we have completed and been given the keys this will give us some time to paint and do some work before having to be out of our current place.  The plan is to go after work and on the weekends to get it completed.  It has been a long time since I've had to do some DIY... this will be fun!

And of course you all know how much I love taking photos so I will be posting the entire process on here to share with everybody.

For now though... I guess it is waiting, waiting and more waiting.

Well it's been an amazing month.  Our diets (lifestyle changes) are going great and we were in Italy for a week over our 10 year wedding anniversary!

We had an amazing holiday and even lived through the 93+ degree heat everyday!!  I took many many photos and I have put links to them all below.  You do not have to have a Facebook account to look through them... Enjoy!