A mini beach hut

I found this little wooden hut on eBay and couldn't resist it.

Think it was around £2.90 + postage. It'd made from ply and comes complete.  This is the hut showing its first coat of primer.  I'll post the fully painted one once it's finished though that could be some time off....

Mapping...

I did geography for a degree and love maps and also photos, so I was really happy when Google bought out Streetview.  However, have been searching and found this website...
Geograph - which is attempting to photo every grid reference in the UK!

The site states that it aims to collect geographically representative photos and info for every square km in Great Britain and Ireland.  Have just had a look and found our beach hut on there. There are currently 16 images for that grid reference!

The site is supported by the Ordnance Survey and is a registered charity too!

Can you find your house?  People seem to have taken lots of pictures of postboxes near me!

Beach Hut Stamping

This Michael Powell stamp is fantastically themed.  I've had this for a while but only used it once (to make a birthday card), but love his style so much, I bought loads of his Christmas stamps.  Thought I'd dig it out again and do some therapeutic colouring with my new box of Derwent pencils (Christmas present).  I've also thought about photocopying it to a larger size and making a big picture that I can frame..... but that might take a while for me to get round to.

I use Memento ink for my stamps - as I love their smell!

I'll post the finished effect once it's done (could take a while)

Shell cushions

I've been working on this cross-stitch cushion for the past few months and finally finished it last night.  It's a large count on a printed background and I love the pattern (shells).  I've decided it'll be perfect in the beach hut, though will take me a while to make it into an actual cushion.

The kit was bought from a seller on Ebay and cost about £22 + postage - it's called Fossil (left) and there is also a Fossil (right) cushion too, which I've just bought and am going to start later today.  They are by Collection dArt

Invoices

The downside of a beach hut is the bills!  A flurry of letters from the local council as the leasehold is changed over to us, but then another flurry of less desirable invoices for the next financial year for the lease!  

In 2013/14 the total cost to the district council will be £391 including VAT.  We did know about this and factored it into our costs, but still a sizeable chunk to find on the 1st April. 

We are also humming and harrring as to whether we want to buy a year's carpark permit for the nearby car parks for a discounted rate - our entitlement as a beach hut holder!  There is parking on the road nearby, but this is limited and still a trek with laden bags..... we have some time to think about it, as we cant buy it until 1st April anyway, as everything is based on the financial year.  We'll see!

This is our view by the way!

0 degrees!

Today was the first day we got down to the hut as the new owners.  Priorities meant a cup of tea outside before deciding what stays and what goes, even though snow was on the ground.  It's actually in better condition than we remembered but we did rip up the flooring to let the wet floorboards start to dry out.  

This is the interior as we bought it:

Ripping up the flooring:

Interior rather than exterior

One of the points of a beach hut (in my opinion) is filling it full of nice, seasidey things.  As we cant do much to the outside yet, as it's too damn cold to and we need a child-free day to do so, I can trawl the internet looking at beach hut p-o-r-n.  For example, have found these on Not on the High Street, and love them.  But the other point of a beach hut is cheap and cheerful, so we aim to spend as least money as possible on doing it out.  

Wish I was as crafty, but hope to get there one day.  Need to go looking for some nice, flat stones first...

http://www.notonthehighstreet.com/heartinart/product/handpainted-fish-pebbles

Pinterest

Oh wow - had heard about Pinterest but never looked at it before.... How much beach hut p.o.r.n is on that site??? Just typed in 'beach hut' and a myriad of stuff came up. Loving this interior in a Lyme Regis Beach hut on Pinterest

We had one of those old cupboard things years ago - bet they go for a fortune now!

Ohh - they do - just checked Ebay and this was on for £250 starting price...

Exchange

Raced to the exchange rendezvous from work on Tuesday- all quite formal as the meeting took place in a cafe to fill in the change of owner form.  As we had only spoken to the owners over the phone, I was worried we may miss each other, but all was ok!  Formalities over and the money bit sorted, we found out a bit more about its history.  Apparently they had owned it since August 2004 and had bought it from a brother and sister in their 60's who had inherited it from their parents ten years or so before (the Rutherford's?) and who could remember using it from their own childhood.  This means the hut dates back to the 1950's / 60's.  

Too dark to visit it that night, but (snow depending) we hope to go and play with it this weekend. 

The only thing left to do is post the change of owner form to the Council and pay a £30 admin fee.

We own a beach hut!

After months of looking, and thinking, and looking a bit more, we have only gone and finally bought a beach hut last Sunday - our little piece of seaside nostalgia! It's a little bit shabby and needs some tlc - the door wouldn't close properly after the owners had finished showing us it and there was a big dried up puddle in the middle of the floor....but it has a view of the sea (all be it between the two huts in front) and looks the part.  We 'exchange' tomorrow and get the keys.

Image courtesy of Simon Howden / FreeDigitalPhotos.net