Thursday Doors – New Door, New Year

Well, the old door has finally closed on 2018 and a new one has opened for 2019. Our house has literally done that just a few weeks ago, when we replaced our old, cracked and weather beaten front door. Some of you know how much I love red doors but I’m not one to look a gift horse in the mouth and when someone offers you a perfectly good white one it would be a sin to refuse. For anyone who has been following my blog since the early days, you’ll know that we’ve been renovating an old cottage (while living in it) so I thought I would give an update on the progress. As you can see from the above image, the white door has settled in well to its new surroundings.

This is the old one we said goodbye to. I’m not missing it at all. We still have lots to do but we’re getting there. Having spent what money we had on the major work – new roof, insulation, heating and flooring – we are now at the recycling stage and trying to use  up some of the materials we removed from inside the house. Mr. R. has used the flooring that came from the upstairs bedrooms to build a covered porch on the rear of the house. A lot of it was water damaged and warped but there was enough to give us a decent sized utility area. Great at the moment for storing materials still to be used.

In the photo below you can see what it’s like from the outside. Note the look of disapproval on the Gaffer’s face as he inspects the garden. He’s been waiting a long time to have it tidied up and cleared out but we haven’t told him it will be another few months before that happens. There’s a lot of work to be done on the outside of the house but that’s for drier weather. The interior is keeping us busy enough for the winter.

I had intended posting one last Thursday Doors in late December but it was a busier than usual month for our family and I never got round to it. My eldest and her hubby turned forty (which made me feel my age). My youngest turned twenty-one (which made me feel young-ish). It was the first anniversary of my father’s death (which made me feel sad). But the highlight of 2018 for me has to be the birth of our sixth grandchild (which made me feel so many good emotions it brought the year to a positive, happy end). She arrived the day before my dad’s anniversary and I was there to greet her when she came home from hospital, only a couple of days old. It’s really difficult to feel sad with a newborn grandchild in your arms.

I want to thank all of you who have paid a visit to my blog in 2018 and I hope you will stop by when you can as 2019 rolls on. May it be a good and peaceful year for you. As always, Norm has a link to lots of wonderful Thursday Doors on his blog. You can even join in the fun by posting some of your own, if you’d like to.