Clearing and Cleaning the Conservatory

Okay I am sure no one is going to be interested in the posts over the next week or so, but I am not writing them for that reason, more to give me the encouragement and to remind myself that I AM making progress, even if not as quickly as I would like.

Today was the turn of the utility room/conservatory...it had really got into quite a shameful state and I had been wanting to tackle it for ages and only now have had the energy and gumption to do so.

This is a before photo.

Disgraceful!  Part of the problem being that certain members of the household seem to use it as a dumping ground for all and sundry!  It has to change...

Just two weeks ago we looked out our kitchen window and conservatory window to lovely greenery. Unfortunately our dastardly neighbours are having an extension being built which should never have been approved due to exceeding several government guidelines and lying on their application form...yet despite these points being highlighted in a letter against the proposed extension it got approved.... hands in pockets I wonder?  Their extension will decrease our natural daylight significantly. We have already noticed a decrease in light and have had to have the kitchen light on during the day and it is summer...just imagine how bad it is going to be in the winter.  You can't appeal approvals  - we wrote a LOT of letters and got no where...of course if we had had a spare £50,000 to spare we could have taken it to the special high court that hears such cases.  Oh and the independent inspector that came out at the request of  the MP....yes you guessed it, he was the (insert rude word) who approved the application!  Anyway we were promised that the greenery would be staying only to come home a couple of hours later after popping out for lunch to see it all gone and a charming (NOT) view of a building site!  As you can imagine we were not very happy at all having completely lost our privacy.  That was one of the features of the house that we liked, being able to look out at the lovely green of rhododendrons and other plants and the bird life on them.  They have since stuck up an ugly board to give us a little privacy back and to  shield us from the rubble, but it is not pretty. 

So I have moved the unit over slightly and the cacti give us a little bit of an improvement and something a bit more interesting to look at rather than an old scrubby builders board.

Looking down into the length of the utility room it is vastly improved.

As you can see the builders board is pretty bleak to look at - you can also see the edge of the garage that was built right on the boundary (or even slightly over it) WITHOUT planning permission as well!  Why is it that some people get away with such things I wonder?  I am even more determined to move now.  It really has spoilt it for us.  I do believe people who have such extensions should have to live in the house while it is being done to experience how disruptive and noisy it is for the neighbours.  They should only have done what they are willing to put up with themselves.  The whole summer this will be going on for and probably another four months after that as well. 

A nice clear space.  This space will probably change again over the next week or so as once the garage has been cleared we may well move the freezer back into the garage and move the units along the wall towards the back where it is wider.   I am thinking about putting a little sewing table in this room as the light is good on a whole and it will be handy having a machine set up to use on a regular basis in the house.  But I am not totally sure about this idea yet.

One of the dressers with some 'stuff'   Again I am not sure whether I will be keeping these dressers, but at the moment they are ideal for storage and displaying items.

This is 'Rose Cottage' where my Hitty dolls live - yes I need a little bit of play and madness to keep sane.  They have filled the space that the loss of music left.

There is also an exercise machine in here...I might even attempt to use it now it is freed up and see if  it is something I can use without upsetting my CRPS.