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Chapter 4 of our self-build story: Turning a house into a home
I can’t believe we’ve only been in our new house 3 months, it feels so much like home now I couldn’t imagine living anywhere else. We moved in around Christmas and had agreed to host, before having used any of the new kitchen or found places for saucepans – somewhat optimistic, but we made it and have since hosted lots of friends and family and have found it the perfect space for entertaining. We pretty much had all our weekends booked up for the first two months, having friends stay over and cooking for family. It has only been the last few weeks where we’ve been able to properly settle…
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A strong contender for Cheltenham’s best Indian restaurant
So, you’re just about to get a kitten and puppy. Obviously you’re out of your mind, but should you choose that path, you need a good blowout the night before, right?! (before you’re housebound for months on end!). But where to go? Steph’s been on a rather bland diet recently so we were feeling something packed with flavour, and a curry’s a safe bet for that! Cheltenham’s got no shortage of good Indian restaurants; Prithvi still sticks in my mind- years after our first visit as one of the best I’ve been to. But it was time for us to try somewhere new so we made our way to Mahal,…
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Chapter 3 of our self-build story: Going up
It’s been over a year since I wrote the last feature on our house build; at the time we were just up to the first floor and things had progressed rapidly. So, did something go horribly wrong, as you might have expected if you’ve ever watched Grand Designs, or has it just been a very busy last 12 months and blogging’s taken a back seat…? Well I’m very pleased to report that it’s the latter of those two option: With the house build, moving in, Christmas, a demanding new job, Covid and a couple of new furry additions, writing for fun sadly hasn’t had much of a look in, but…
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Bar Padron, Cheltenham
I’m talking tapas again but this time in Cheltenham. One of the main things I’ll miss about Bristol when we make the move to our new home on the outskirts of Cheltenham will most definitely be the food scene. We eat out at least once a week at the moment and rarely have a bad meal – the quality and variety on offer in Bristol is probably the best in the country! Cheltenham as a town, isn’t too far behind though and has a growing food scene with more independent restaurants opening all the time. One of the most recent being a tapas bar called Bar Padron, located in the…
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Chapter 2 of our self-build story: Out of the ground
Once we finally got past the planning permission hurdle and out of the ground, things started moving very quickly! Following the end of May bank holiday the team got started on the block work on Tuesday 28th May. Our front entrance! By 30th May we had window surrounds on the ground floor. On Saturday 1st June Steph visited site and had a stretch: Study: Kitchen: The week commencing 3rd June the team finished off the ground floor block work and started on the brick: Up to Thursday 6th June progress was really good, but Friday was a complete washout, and Saturday and most of the next week wasn’t much better;…
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To self build or not to self build
Bristol’s been a wonderful home for the last 6 years, especially the central spot we have with its easy access to all Bristol has to offer. Living in the middle of one of the most popular cities in the country comes with its compromises though, and the main one is space- both inside and out. So for a while now (nearly 4 years) we’ve been looking for a new home in a slightly more rural setting. We’ve viewed dozens of houses and with each viewing we honed our view of what’s important to us, seeing features we loved as well as those we’d rather not have. If you had a…
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The Coconut Tree, Gloucester Road
I first heard about The Coconut Tree from a friend who lived on the doorstep of the original Cheltenham establishment, from her Instagram feed I could tell she went probably far more often than she cared to admit. I’m a bit hopeless and have yet to visit the Cheltenham one but have since checked out the Bristol one on Gloucester Road. I was told by someone at work, who also raved about it, that I’d need to book ahead so I got us a table for one evening after work. This place is obviously doing something right if a lot of it’s growth is based on word-of-mouth. The food is inspired…
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Le Champignon Sauvage
For years we’ve been meaning to visit one of Cheltenham’s most celebrated, and highly decorated restaurants, Le Champignon Sauvage, which translates to ‘the wild mushroom’ (if, like me, you’re not a big mushroom fan, don’t worry – there are plenty of non-mushroomy options!). Recently we finally got around to a long overdue visit! So was it worth the wait…? Tucked away in the quiet Suffolk Place suburb of Cheltenham, the very modest and understated frontage gives little away. Enter and you feel like you’re walking into the front room of a private house; it has a warm and homely feeling with sofas and a wonderful range of art. We were…
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Our Wedding Suppliers
A DIY wedding is both a great big annoyance and the most wonderful way to plan your big day. The annoying part is not really knowing what you are doing and worrying on a daily basis that your guests won’t enjoy the fact you’ve gone off piste and planned a traditional wedding. But for us the positives outweighed the negatives and we decided to go all in, taking the elements from what we liked about weddings and tie that into what was essentially going to be a great, big party. We were able to have full reign on when things happened, what caterers we chose, the booze we ordered, where…
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We got married!
It’s been nearly a month since James and I got married and I’ve finally adjusted to life without planning a wedding. We took the whole planning thing very relaxed right up until the last week so I didn’t think I’d miss it so much, but it’s strange not having this big event to work towards. I guess I’ve been suffering slightly from post-wedding blues but we’ve recently been sent our wedding photographs and have been able to enjoy the day all over again. It’s true what they say about the whole thing going by so quickly and the pressure you put upon yourself to make sure you’ve spoken to everyone.…
