Post Comment Love - 14th -16th February

Happy Valentines Day.

Time is flying by. I've been back in the UK now for 2 weeks. My husband travels back to Dubai this afternoon and I'm returning the car hire and getting home by train. Our local station is a 10 minute walk from our house, one of the reasons we first moved here back in 2002.

I've had a house full of family, which has been lovely but also quite tiring and emotional considering this is now my home and I'm on my own in a 6 bed house, with the furniture from a 1 bed flat and the cat and dog.

After 9 years of tenants we've had to do a lot of renovations, so far mainly repairs and fresh white paintwork, walls, doors and ceilings, giving us a blank canvas to work from. I'm back in Dubai in March and will be sorting out what furniture is being packed into our container and what stays in Dubai when we rent an apartment in the Marina.

Until we decide if we're staying here or going to move on once my husband retires in 2-3 years, we're not doing any more work to the house. The kitchen and bathrooms will eventually need updating, but for now some minor fixes, like a new bath panel will suffice.

What have you been up to this week? Both Stephanie and I would love to hear from you.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Storage for small spaces

We don't need storage solutions, there's my husband and I in a 3 bed house, in Dubai, with so many built in cupboards that we have the luxury of keeping the toaster in a cupboard.

However when we lived in the UK there was a period of time when we had 5 children in a 4 bed house and we had to make the most of every inch of space, from built in shelving in alcoves to storage boxes under bunk beds and regularly holding boot sales or donating items to charity.

In recent years, we bought a 1 bed flat in the UK to use as a base for visiting our families and as somewhere for our adult children to stay when we were over.

Sadly within 6 months of purchasing the flat my father died suddenly and mum had to move from her 4 bed house to a 2 bed flat as my father was a bit of a hoarder, lots of the more valuable items ended up in my flat for me to be able to sell on mums behalf at a later date.

Space in the flat is tight, with plastic storage boxes under the bed and a set of golf clubs and a suit case belonging to our middle child who is now living in Australia and my father's stamp collection in the built in cupboard and an old sewing table of my gran's in the lounge as I couldn't bare to part with it.

The 3 best buys I've had for the flat to ensure we can still live in it when we visit (up to 6 months of the year) was the wardrobe, the under sink cabinet in the bathroom and the sofa bed from Ikea.

The sofa bed stores all the spare bedding and pulls out as a double bed.

Washing is an issue and I've not mastered the art of drying things. We do have a washer dryer but the cost is high and the dryer part isn't that effective so I often do a service wash at the laundrette when anyone else is staying in the flat with me, other wise I hang bedding to dry over doorframes and chairs.

A cupboard under the sink now keeps the bathroom items on the shelf and cleaning chemicals hidden from sight, making it easier to keep the bathroom clean.

Moving my fathers stamp collection into the cupboard has freed up space in the bedroom.

I purchased a small wardrobe for this alcove behind the door to hang my clothes now the cupboard was full and our son's belongings now live under the bed.

Over the door hangers free up space in the lounge for hanging clothes to dry. This is also the cupboard housing my fathers stamp collection.

Do you have issues with storage? Having built in units in our former family home and our current one in Dubai mean we require far less furniture than we used to need and I'm sure when we move back to our former family, 6 bed, home in the UK next year with just the two of us, we won't have half the need for the furniture and storage solutions we've purchased over the years.

My top tips on interior design for those perfect instagram posts for #myhousethismonth

Those of you who have arrived here based on the title alone, then carry on, you're already doing well and you know it.

The rest of you are just intrigued because you know me well enough to realise I'm not being serious.

But if you want some tips then here they are:

• Ensure each room looks exactly like page xx of Next home or whatever store is in vogue and similar to everyone else.
• Purchase display towels and make sure your family know they can't use them (actual conversation over heard in IKEA in Dubai) I know people who have 'display towels'
• Spend an hour or two every day staging photos and tidying up for the perfect shot
• Move that house plant around for it to appear in every photo
• In all bathroom shots make sure a) yours looks like everyone else and b) that pot plant is placed near the loo
• Make sure you only buy or just tag expensive wall paper/paint companies
• Spend a fortune on buying the latest 'must have' cushion in the latest colour, for the photo
• Don't up cycle anything, if you want shabby chic then buy it already done like that
• Paint your walls grey and call it greige, same with all other colours, give them a made up name
• Have a glass of wine, fresh flowers and freshly baked bread/cake in every shot also

Or you could do what I do.

Show the reality of your home, the mess, the work in progress, realise that the above is not true to life.

Here's how my house looked on Tuesday when I wrote this post and after a 2 hour tidy up. If you click on the #myhousethismonth hashtag on instagram you'll see how far off the mark I am with every being qualified to offer you a top tip on interior styling or design.

Cushions used to stop Bob the dog making himself comfy on the sofa.

We rarely draw the curtains and the bed only ever looks like the 2nd photo on the day I change the sheets, I made it especially for this post.

Entrance hall and dumping ground, used for everything that comes in and out of the house. Yes, the bike really does live there.

Kitchen is hit and miss, for this photo I just removed everything that shouldn't be there and dumped it on the stairs.

The lojunge at the end of every day and within half an hour of peter being up, easy to tidy, just plump up the cushions. The single chair also has to be dog proofed or he'll sleep on there at night and when we're out.

My lovely outdoor space on the balcony and the bedroom floor that everything gets dumped on when it rains, as keeps happening.

It takes around 45 minutes to sweep the sand up after a storm and everything gets set up, then I use the chairs to dry the washing on.

Then it rained the following morning and everything jsut got dumped in the dining room.

Is your home insta ready all the time? 

Mine is like anyone of the above photo's at anytime and I welcome anyone in at anytime also. 

I don't have time and energy to keep it looking perfect. 

It's a home, it gets lived in.

HDYGG - South Africa Our Second Home

Last week I posted photos of the first house we lived in, in South Africa, where we lived for 18 months. It was a much more glamorous house than this one, but in need of a lot of work, the large glass windows were starting to crack and the river flooded regular. The layout didn't really work for us as a family, so when this house became available, we decided to move. 

The garden was not as exciting but the pool was a big incentive and I really wish we had a pool now we are living in Dubai, with it being summer all year round.

The Braai area, sadly this wasn't covered like it was in our old house, and with summer in South Africa comes monsoon style rains.

We attracted some wonderful birds into the garden and had 2 green parrots nesting in the palm tree in the corner of the garden.

We did have a gardener in South Africa, but with the rain, we needed to mow the lawn at least twice a week. The boys earnt their pocket money this way.

Heavy rain would fill the pool and the storms would turn the water green, costing a small fortune and taking a week to turn the pool back to blue from green.

In our old house we could set the 8 sleeper tent up IN the lounge to dry it out, in this house we had to leave it set up for a few days to dry in-between storms.

The boys and the dog loved the pool and needed no excuse to go in there.

We entertained a lot in the 2nd house and held functions there.

I used to complain abut the heat in summer in South Africa, but wish I'd enjoyed it more, since moving to Dubai. However there was no air con in the house and the winter months the temps dropped to zero and below.

The grass was greener in South Africa than it is in Dubai but for different reasons. However, give me the choice and I'd move back there in a shot.

Where I Live

Having joined in with several linkys over the past few months I'm starting to meet some lovely and interesting bloggers. This week I discovered Tara Cain's Blog Sticky Fingers. I can't guarantee I'll join in every week and I'm really not in the mood for adding the badge at this moment as I'm not technically minded and last time I added a badge I messed up my whole blog.

I've been feeling rather restless the past few months, since moving to Dubai in December 2014 from South Africa. I loved South Africa, despite the safety issues where we lived in Pretoria, I loved the wide open spaces, the dog walks, the close proximity of the malls and I made the most amazing friends, travelled far and wide and worked full time as a volunteer with some amazing organisations.

I haven't settled in Dubai. We live 1km from the beach, there is a beautiful park near by, we take the dog for walks in the desert early mornings on the weekends and enjoy all the experiences Dubai has to offer.

But I don't feel settled, I don't feel like it's my home. It's too hot to go out now, to the beach, the parks, the desert. Life is lived inside most of the year due to the heat. I also know we'll have to move again and after leaving South Africa and knowing that it will never be home again, I'm frightened to settle in here, knowing that one day we'll have to give it up also.

Despite living in our house, making it a home and personalising it to our needs and individual style, this home does not house a family any more, the kids have left and I'm on my own most days.

This is our home in the UK, Malvern. It's rented out at the moment, we'll probably never live there again, it's not my home anymore, but it was 'our' home. Our family home, where we raised 5 kids.

Creating our first child free home

Well this is it, our new home in Dubai.

Chosen because it's near the beach, there are shops near by and a good transport link. Hubby has a study and music room, I have my own sewing and craft room.

While he sits in the lounge in the evenings, I'm often found in the conservatory as the air con is the quieter in that room.
                                                

Not once did we think about local schools, play grounds, parks, football clubs or after school and holiday clubs, we didn't have to as the children had already left home.

We've dragged boxes of lego, teddy bears, keepsakes from the UK to South Africa and now to Dubai, the 3 oldest children didn't come on our expat journey and the youngest 2 haven't come with us to Dubai, but all their stuff has.

We have a spare room, set up for visitors, we'll always have visitors, whether it's family or friends or work colleagues, I don't think we could ever rent/buy somewhere that couldn't accommodate extra people.