Warming up in June...

June attempted to warm up a bit....

I'm just doing some quick documenting since this blog is the only record I keep of the fam... so feel free to fast forward...

Sunday afternoons with friends.

 Annual ward picnic in Hyde Park. 

First Pig Tails... 

June half term and hanging out with cousins.... Dixon's in Colchester....

...... And the Kenny side in Chester at The Ice Cream Farm......

 These Boys.... Where William is in his boy element!

And then BBQ's..... Especially celebratory ones! 

There was lots of celebrating in June, and we liked to acknowledge every little reason to celebrate! From flat completion, An offer accepted and finally the exchange! We'd get the call, get a bottle of Shloer out and say "cheers"!!

Cheers 

A few things from Spring....

That depressingly late spring - where people actually stopped talking about the weather because it got everyone down so much. And when the blossom came the wind blew it off within a day and the rain turned it muddy....

We filled lots off cold rainy days with chocolate cakes (of course), crafts, museums, The gym, and play dates.....

Will loves this place so much he asks to go when ever it rains! Thank Goodness for Heathrow Gym to set my son free!

Will and Mason, rainy day museum trip one of many, they ditch the kids section to hang out on the adult technology floor. 

Science Museum

We did an FHE afternoon into the City Centre to check out all the "Mormon" adverts. It was a bit surreal seeing bill boards blasted over main train stations and across tuns of buses, and I'm glad the press where mostly kind to the Churches marketing response during the opening of The Book Of Mormon Musical - What is a shame, however, was the lack of criticism towards the musical - I perhaps thought British critics might be typically a bit British and a bit harsher than the raving American reviews of the show.. but alas they too thought gang genital mutilation was "hilarious". Classy!

Will Spots his nursery teacher on the bill board behind him.

We got a new niece, on Anthony's side of the fam.

The sun showed its face from time to time and we tried to take advantage of it, Bank Holiday Monday being one.... a last min shout out to friends to join us for a picnic at Virginia Waters....

William sat for ages watching this Indian family playing cricket next to us, then he plucked up the courage and asked if he could join in and they warmly accommodates him. He LOVED it and we lost him for the last hour to the game! He's been loving playing it ever since! A new passion...Who'da thought.

These two are as thick as thieves, they wind each other up and laugh ridiculously.

 And we all went with Anthony on a youth trip to the temple....

Not quite the photo I was going for here...

And this last photo - well this is to demonstrate that somethings round here just don't change....

 This year Anthony turned this.........

Into this..........

Master Bedroom w/ built in wardrobes 

Master bedroom en suite/With large Shower

Main Bathroom

2nd Bedroom with built in wardrobes.

The Boy did good! 

In Anthony's words "this was a crackin' deal"

This was a Goldmine of a find in central London, located just across from Marleybone Station. Anthony has a few flats in this area, and the agents know him and what he likes. So when they called him up telling him about this gem he got on it straight away. He was the first to view it and put an offer in immediately even though he did not have the money to fund it all himself, he said it was just too good to let go. It was accepted so with that he felt the heat to find investors quick which he did - phew!
This project was intended to be a fast turn over profit, and besides the cranky woman down stairs who blocked the planning permission for a couple of months over nonsense, it was exactly that.
A year later,  it was sold for nearly double what he bought it for, with two extremely happy investors who got a fantastic return on their money. And one happy husband who can feel a little financial relief for a while..... and of course me, I was a massive beneficiary, especially when the sale completed and exchanged right before my 30th birthday, which meant we were all in the mood for celebrating big... of course I didn't anticipate how big Anthony had in mind! (birthday post to follow).


 Anthony has quite the talent when it comes to maximising space to squeeze the most value out of something - which is necessary for London living.
This is a typical finish for Anthony, he usually goes for a neutral canvas for easier sale.  He decided to dress the flat for a quicker sale and to give himself every opportunity of getting a top price - It worked!
"It sold itself" the agent said, when an eager cash buyer came in with an offer 5k above the tested asking price a week before it officially went on the market.
Anthony put me on the case of dressing the flat, but he had to specify strongly that I didn't do it to my own tastes! ha! I think my thoughts where too transparent when he mentioned glass table and leather chairs.... But he was right, he was aiming for the single business type buyer 'luxury on a budget' he told me, and it had to be non gender specific.So charcoals, stones, neutrals it was!  I loved being sent to work though - I charged him for my services of course!

I wish id taken proper "before" photos, the ones above are from Anthony's phone. As much as we loved how awful the condition was (money wise), it made me sad that an old man lived in it like this. Crazy.

It was great seeing Anthony out of the office and out doing more of what he loves! There is definitely something infinitely more attractive about a man doing what he's passionate about.... well anyone really! It kinda lights up the soul hey.