Window - Short 3

This time I chose window. I had an idea in my head that I was going with then halfway through writing, my brain kinda went away and my imagination was like, "Hey, what about this idea?" I wrote it and read it and loved it. I hope you do too.

photo from: www.homestratosphere.com/entrance-hall-designs/

Window

                “Do you like it?”
                “It’s beautiful”, she looked up, above the entrance way.
                “You’re sure?” He came behind her, wrapping her in his arms, his chin resting on her head.

                “Yes. Honestly. It’s beautiful.”

                “Beautiful…But you didn’t say you liked it”.

                She turned to face him and sighed, “It’s just bigger than I expected it to be”.

                He brought his hands from the small of her back to her shoulders and lowered himself to look straight into her eyes. “We can change it if you want?”
                “No. No…honestly. It’s big but it’s fine. You’d have to tear the wall down to change it, wouldn’t you?”
                “Yes. But that’s not an issue. You know cost isn’t a problem”.
                She sighed and looked into his eyes, “It’s times like these I wish we could go into some sort of virtual reality machine to see what the window would’ve looked like before it was all built in.

                “It’s really that bad?” He asked, dejectedly.

                She turned back to the window above the doorway in the foyer of their new home. The house was finally finished. This was the first time they’d stepped inside since it was complete. The rooms still bare and undecorated. Her heels clicked over the concrete floor.

                “But we’ve changed the plans so much already. I think our architect would hate me if I did it again”, she looked his way, her eyes betrayed how she really felt.

                “If it’s what you want then she’ll have to accept it. I don’t see why she’d complain. It’s more money for her in the long run.” He smirked, money wasn’t the question, making her happy was.

                She wafted her hand towards his face, pushing his idea away, “It’s just a window. I’m being far too picky and silly”. She walked over to the bottom of the stairs and twirled her fingers around the deep oak bannister at the bottom, looking up into the open plan foyer, lost in thought.

                He was stood, watching her, by the front door, hands in pockets and smiling at her. She was beautiful. She’d always been his dream. This house was hers. He’d been living his dream for 25 years and the kids were all grown up and had moved onto their own lives. She’d put her dream aside for him, and them, so now it was her turn.

                “I’ll call the architect in the morning and get the window changed. It’s nothing my love”, he reassured her.

                She turned to him from the stairwell, “The light hits the window at the perfect spot to make the entire space glow. Imagine the colours that would bounce around in here once we have the chandelier up. Imagine the sunsets…” She walked to him, “…it’s perfect”. The sun shone behind her, filling her body in a glowing light.
                He smiled, “Yes, it is”.
                His phone rang, interrupting their moment, “Hey, Sweetie!” He smiled.
                “Hey, Dad, how’s the house? You like it?”
                He looked at his wife, “It’s perfect”
                “I’m glad…” she breathed into the phone, she must’ve held her breath until she’d known the house was okay, “…It took ages but we finally got there. I’ll be over tomorrow with Ben and the kids. Got to make sure you don’t starve”. There was a smirk to her voice and he laughed.
                “I’m not going to starve”, his wife smiled at the remark from their daughter.

                “I know, I know. But, living in a caravan on the lot can’t have been easy. I’m sure the meals haven’t been the greatest”.

                “It’ll do for now Liddy. The decorating will be done in no time”.

                She sighed, resigned in her father’s hope, “Okay, Dad. Well, we love you okay?”

                “I know. Me too. I’ll see you tomorrow baby girl”.             

                “Okay, and Dad…”
                “…Hmm?”
                “We miss her too”, she sighed.

                “I know. Me too. This is her house more than mine.” He looked at his wife, smiling and looking at him in pure adoration, the sun bouncing off her beautiful face.

                “You think she’d have liked it, Dad?”

                He smiles back at his wife, responding to his daughter on the phone, “I know she would have done, sweetie.”

                “Good. We’ll see you tomorrow then…”, strain was laced in her voice as she whispered, “…I’m sorry it had to be this way”.
                His body relaxed into the call, “Don’t be Liddy. Nobody saw it coming. Your mum fought, just as any survivor would, to see this place finished. We just put her getting ill down to the exhaustion of waiting for this place to be done. We didn’t even think it could be the Cancer coming back”, he was saying what he could to try and calm his daughter’s voice with his words. “I’ll see you tomorrow. You’ll love the house. Bye sweetie”.

                “Bye, Daddy”.

                He put the phone down and placed it back into his pocket and looked up at Elizabeth. She was stood on the bottom of the stairs, light now shining in through the same window she’d said she wanted changing.

                Her hair dazzled in the Autumn sun. Her eyes wide and full of promise, and her smile was the most beautiful he’d ever seen. She looked happy, at peace. It was almost as though they were 25 years younger and right back where they began. Life full of love and promise.
                He choked, “I’m sorry you couldn’t be here with me to see this place finished”.

                “I’m here”, she smiled, looking up to the window, “Don’t change the window, Stephen. I love it”.

                He looked up to the window behind him, “I won’t. I promise”. He turned back, she’d gone. His face fell and his body crumpled under the weight of her absence. He walked to the steps trying to gain back the feeling of what it would’ve been like to have her standing there with him. He fell to the bottom step and sat hunched over in grief. His head between his hands resting on his knees.

                “I miss you so much”, he cried to the air around him.

                It whispered back, “I’m always here”. 

Fiddly Tiddly Bits

I think I'm going for a coastal look in the house because I'm liking this 'au natural' look of wood. I think I'm going lollipop stick crazy! But more on that later.

Last night I was doing the fiddly tiddly bits of the house, the bits that make it a little more complete. I finished glu-ing together the frame of the window that broke in transit somewhere and painted it white so it all fits together. It was a little fiddly because I sat and measured out where the grooves of the joins in the frame would need to be and carved them out with scissors. I'm thinking I need my own special pack of tools for all these random bits that I need to complete.

I also painted the front door white, and then red. It still needs another coat, and needs re-affixing to the house but, apart from that it's good to go. I love the red door. In my real life house I have those PVC doors that would cost a bajillion pennies to change the colour of so they're just plain old boring white. But, I love the colour red; in our bathroom the accessories are purple and the inside of the door is purple too! My husband thought I was mad when I said I wanted it purple but it's nice because it's just a little different. I wonder what door number the mini house should have?

My cat is very upset with me because I moved all the minature kitchen furniture back into the finished kitchen and he got confused because there were things in his sleepy-spot. Poor Milo. It still amazes me how occupied my daughter can be with the house though. At the moment she's been very poorly and not great with her breathing but she was still adamant that the dolls have "dinn' time" and then go to bed with her. Such a cutie.

One final thing, I've been notified by my mother that my blog isn't playing nice for those trying to visit. I have updated it so you SHOULD be able to subscribe on the right hand side of the blog and you SHOULD be able to see all the colours okay. I've turned off the mobile version but even then when I go to check it on my phone the font is different to what I have on my desktop so I'm tres confused. All I can say is bare with me until I figure out what the problem is!

The Finished Kitchen

I was going to stick some pictures onto the walls of my house kitchen, make it look a little more real but since I'm renovating it to be played with they'll only get pulled off or something.

Last night I finished my flooring, inbetween getting up with Little Miss because she wasn't feeling well, and at about 11:30pm both Ava and I placed the flooring down and she loved it! I really enjoy watching her playing with the house and that's what it is all about really. 

Today in the post we got the dolls house bedroom set for the children dolls and it's so cute. It has a rocking horse and a rocking chair! Ava loves playing with those. Now I only need the living room set and the dining room set. All the sets are pink but instead of decking the whole house out in pink I'm just going to nail varnish or paint the items for each room the colours to match the decor. Ava won't mind and it'll all look a lot better. 

I'm away on holiday next week (woohoo!) so instead of posting updates on how the house is doing I'm going to post daily inspirations on each of the rooms I've got left to do. For now though, may I present the dolls kitchen... 

Mini Kitchen Makeover

Doing the kitchen has not been as easy as I thought it would be but has been rewarding to see finished!

I sat and measured out my grey and blue foam and cut them into small tiles and set about placing them in the kitchen before realising it was going to take me a donkey's age before I would be finished. 

So I had to sit back and think about what I could do instead then remembered I bought some large wooden lolly sticks and decided to go twenty first century and make some shiny laminate for my mini kitchen. Annoyingly enough I had to cut down all the sticks, get rid of the rounded edge and cut them to different lengths so it didn't look so 'straight', if that makes sense? 

Then throughout last night and today I painstakingly pieced them all together over the whole of my make shift mat, which was measured out to the dimensions of my mini kitchen. 

So now the kitchen deco is finito and it is all ready for furniture - that is, if Ava stops thinking the kitchen furni goes in the living room - which is next on the list of rooms to decorate. 

Last night I also sat and made stencil shapes of the tiles on my mini house roof so that I can draw round them by the gallon and it makes it easier to cut and paste. Unfortunately though, not all the tiles are the same size and shape so I had to make 6!!! Different tile stencils. They took forever!

I would take a picture of the finished.kitche deco but my cat has decided he's going to sit in there for tonight. Hence my blog name, House of Gracie Cat :) 

House the Grace Built

So, when I was 16 I told my mum I wanted a dolls house for Christmas. She thought I was mad but I wanted it to be one of those things that stays in the family for generations. More lived in than just looked at. Then at Christmas and a lot of money spent later that's exactly what I got. I'm now 26 and my dolls house was stuck at my mums for a few years then at my sisters for a few months and finally, I had a car big enough to hold my house as well as all our luggage. So here we are. House in my living room.

My daughter thinks it's amazing fun, I however, am slowly going to do it up and make it pretty again instead of falling apart and in bits. I am not a professional at all with the dolls house thing. I don't really know what I'm doing. All I know is I want it to look pretty.

Last night I painted the whole front of the house in white and today I rescued the window frame by making a window frame out of bbq skewers!

I also took a trip to HobbyCraft, my new favourite place I think, and bought some felt to make carpet and some foam to make squares for a kitchen floor. See, I told you it's not really professional but it'll be pretty and be family friendly. I also bought some lovely wrapping paper that will be my wallpaper. I picked the foam for tiles after I picked the wallpaper and didn't realise until later that they'd look so good together. For now, this blog will show my progress. 

I almost forgot to mention, but, I also re-upholstered one of the dolls double beds because the old fabric was grotty and discoloured.