My own little piece of France

I really do have a wonderful husband. We have a dream of retiring in France and we had an amazing holiday in Normandy last summer. The link is here. I think what really made that holiday was that my parents and one of my brothers came with us. French living really does seem to be all about the family, and the bigger, the better!

Since going out there it has really made our goal of living in France a lot stronger. This year we are going to the south west of France near Carcassonne for 2 weeks. It is a beautiful region and we can't wait to explore. We're staying in a villa in the mountains but only half an hour drive from some of the highest rated beaches on the Mediterranean coast.

While we are waiting for our trip hubby has brought a little of France to our house for me. We can't afford to change our kitchen and it was starting to look rather tired and worn out (a bit like me!) so hubs decided to paint it for me.

This photo shows the before kitchen. This was taken when I had the wall knocked down between the kitchen and dining room. I was in a wheelchair most of 2014 and needed better access in the house. I will be in and out of the wheelchair for the rest of my life but thankfully I'm doing ok at the moment. Due to this we decided to cash in my pension and use the money to adapt the house to some of my needs. So the wall came down and the doorway removed to make a wider space for my chair. We also had a lowered counter top, our breakfast bar put in so I have somewhere to work downstairs and use for things like food prep without having to stand. I'm not sure what Missy is doing in this pic!

This is the motley crew who did the work for me. My bro, Uncle Bob the builder (as Missy calls him, even though he's a carpenter), hubs (love ya) and a friend of ours, who has experience renovating his own houses.

This is my brand new breakfast bar/office! You can see the old units in the background.

This is the dining room side before we painted it cream and put a sofa in there. I like this pic because it all look nice and clean.

All this was done in 2014 then we took a break from house improvements to get married and go on honeymoon.

At the end of 2015 Matt was made redundant from his job of 25 years. It was a big blow to us especially as my ex also went back on his maintenance agreement that we had and it meant that we lost half our household income in a matter of months. We are now living off savings. Thankfully Matt has a new job starting next month but it's on a fraction of his old pay. So obviously we can't afford to change the kitchen any time soon. Matt however discovered chalk paint and decided that he was going to transform our kitchen for me and we were going to have a slice of our French dream.

I think the choice of green paint was great as it contrasts really well with the black counters and floor tiles. And look at the lovely hand painted motifs he's done to add a bit of charm to the kitchen. I guess I'd better get back into cooking again now the kitchen is back together!

I am very lucky to have such a thoughtful and clever hubby. I love my little piece of France and I can look at it from the breakfast bar where I tend to work and admire it each day. Thank you Sweet xx