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Rosie’sFrenchAdventuresandIrish Shenanigans.com

~ Letting ‘Life’ show me the way.

Rosie’sFrenchAdventuresandIrish Shenanigans.com

Tag Archives: a labour of love

Poignant Times: No Going Back ….

20 Thursday Aug 2020

Posted by RosieJoseph in Change is a coming, new adventures, New Paths, poignancy, sunrises and sunsets, The adventures of living life in the French countryside, The continuing adventure

≈ 11 Comments

Tags

A haven, a house is.not a home, a house once loved, a labour of love, a moment in time, a place for reflection, accepting change, adventures, aerial displays, French Sunrise, French sunsets, happy times, here and now, houses for sale in France, peace and tranquility, Poignant times, Rolling hills, swifts

https://www.frenchestateagents.com/french-property-for-sale/view/114748ADR53/house-for-sale-in-ambrieres-les-vallees-mayenne-pays-de-la-loire-france

So here it is. Our house in all her glory, now for sale on the internet and generating a lot of interest.

Why wouldn’t it? The location of our house is second to none, set amidst the rolling valleys of the Parc Normandie, at the very end of a dead end road, with no traffic.

God she is going to be hard to replace (a small tear came to my eyes then.)

But as I am writing this I know that selling up and moving is the right thing to do. I cannot be away from my family constantly on a long term basis, and I will have been away this time for weeks. Albeit with a fabulous client.

Even in paradise we all need money to live.

Over the five years I have been writing this blog I have written about change so often, and how we should not fear it, because it is the only constant we have. So I know this change is right for us, using all we have learned from this adventure to enhance the next one.

And boy! Have we learned a lot!

But I know that with my current job I will only have six weeks at home for the remainder of the year, and for me that is too long away from the ones I love. I also believe that life is too short.

I know that there is a high probability that this is the last summer in this beautiful place. That when I left last time would be the last time I saw the bales of hay waiting for collection from my bedroom window.

That it will be the last time we will sit in the late sunshine, drinking wine and watching the swifts teach their babies to catch the insects in the evening air.

So when I go home I am going to enjoy every sunny evening for the two weeks I am home. I am going to cherish that ‘here and now’. I will catch the sunrises…

and I will raise a glass to the sunsets.

And I will remind myself that Ireland will offer me more of the same, only different.

Poignant Times

Rosie

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The Renovation story: The Beast

24 Sunday Nov 2019

Posted by RosieJoseph in My home, renovations, The adventures of living life in the French countryside, The continuing adventure

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

a labour of love, crystal, French Armoire, French Mirrors, French vintage, French vintage furniture, French vintage mirrors, handpainted, home, obsessing, painted furniture, pretty furniture, renovated, sanctuary, shabby chic, stain bleed, vignettes, vintage furniture

It will come as no surprise to any people who read this blog that I love old furniture, and in France there is an abundance of old furniture.

This is what I have fondly come to call ‘The Beast’! It is a very old dressing table, 1860 to be precise as the date is written on the back of the mirror! It has had woodworm in its lifetime, and shows the life it has lived. It weighs just under quarter of a ton, with its marble top, and mirror. So imagine the look on RD’s face when I said I wanted it in our new bedroom!

This is our wonderful French curved, small stairwell that we had to try and get this piece of furniture up. We moved all the furniture in the living room and opened up the second door to our stairs (essential for moving furniture, it’s going to be hidden behind a mirror!) as we attempted to get ‘The Beast’ from RD’s van to the bedroom.

And we huffed, and we puffed, as I was at the bottom at one point I thought ‘if he lets this go now I am going to die!’ It got stuck on the low ceiling at the bottom of the curve in the stairwell, so we brought it down and sawed of legs that had been added to it at some point. ‘That should do it!’ Said RD. so up we went, huffing and puffing and it got stuck, really stuck. RD lost it, and punched it and it moved and was free! Once in situ RD said ‘when we sell this house this bloody thing is staying here!’

But the beast was not finished with me: I decided there was too many scratches on it so I was going to paint it (who am I kidding? I didn’t like the colour!) I primed the bottom first, and it bled through like a bastard! So I primed it again, and it bled! I painted it with acrylic and it bled! I painted it another two times with an acrylic lacquer and yey! Then I painted it with chalk paint. It only took me fifteen hours all told! The detail on the pillars had to be painted with an artists brush so that I didn’t lose the definition.

The only way to open the heavy draws was with the key, you can see the keyhole in the centre of each drawer. With our clothes in lace it was too heavy, and unpractical so I added crystal handles.

Then on to the mirror: I had learned and this only took three coats, but each coat took me two hours because all of it had to be done with an artists brush, so as to not lose the definition of the pretty flowers and filigree. But it all served as a distraction for me, to stop me being ‘driven’ about my book I have learned my lessons!

it really is a pretty detailed piece. I finally finished it, I started it over a month ago! But I love it, it now has a new lease of life.

It makes my life so easy putting our clothes away, as the beast contains them all, that and the little French armoire beside it.

Perhaps ‘The Beast’ is no longer an appropriate name for something so pretty.

More to come the bedroom is now our sanctuary.

Rosie

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