I always try to answer all my e-mail in a timely manner but sometimes I just can't make it. To all of you who are wondering if I'm fine, if the house is fine and if the BooBoo is fine ... yes, yes and yes.

You can keep track of the house over here if you didn't already knew. I know it's not a pretty sight, that's why I made a new Flickr account because I can't barely look at it in real time let alone that Flickr constantly reminds me how I have to do the washing up. It will be going fast as from next week because all the dirty jobs are done. I'm happy that as from today the house is free of men with red dusty faces.

There's finally proof that I actually live in this house and as Charlotte cleverly spotted, even more over here.

It's sometimes quite hard living like we do, especially now that my mum is here to stay with us for a couple of weeks. For example a couple of nights ago when we ran out of hot water again. My mother was the first to have a bath and she was lucky she still did get hot water. So by the time she was bathed, snuggled up and warm in bed I was standing in the bathroom washing my really dusty husband with a hot water kettle in a tub trug. Now that can be really romantic but not in my house and not when my mother shouted from the other room "can you be quiet because I can't sleep like this!!" Those are moments when I understand people who convict murders.

In general it's just really hard having a grown up mother. It feels like while she's getting older she behaves more like a child - a very demanding child. I sometimes wish I could say "shush" or "shut up" or "ok now you have to stop troubling me and do something for yourself for a bit" or just simply " if you do not behave this minute, no Kit Kat for you".

The Boo is doing fantastic. She's running, rolling in the grass, sitting in trees, getting dirty and fighting the neighborhood's stray cats. And all that just in the one hour that she's awake.

The kitchen is all newly wired up, has a new roof and this weekend the Bo will start making new ceilings. When they are done the plaster people can come in and after that I will kick in with painting and decorating. So some new stuff to show hopefully in a couple of weeks.

Oh and before I forget I haven't been posting much but I'm working on a rather difficult project for you to enjoy; "Yvestown Lifestyle" coming soon.

I subscribe to Martha's a tip a day mails. Each day Martha tells me what to eat, what to craft and what for cookies I should bake. The pictures used in these e-mails are so lovely, white, crisp and clean just the way I like it. Martha doesn't know that I can't bake because I haven't got an oven, my house is dusty, brown and smelly and to make matters worse I do not have a kitchen roof in less than an hour. There's a mountain of dirty dishes in my improvised kitchen because the oil that heats our house was used up last night so I didn't have a bath either because there was no hot water. I can't shower because I'm scared I will slip and crack my head open and the shower curtains stick to my body and I hate that because I'm scared they are going to suffocate me, so I have to take a bath. There isn't one white, clean, crisp Martha room in my house anywhere.

My friend Femke told me that I can use a little bit more light in my kitchen and to take her opinion serious we did something today that will please her.

This is what my kitchen looks like now. Isn't it just lovely?

Do you want to see my old white, crisp and clean rooms? Go over to the lovely interview I did with Lisa from Pink Friday. And to Whitney's beautiful site where I talk about my desk - boy I miss white!

I've made it! I'm in Belgium pretty much settled. I have to say that one adapts to a new home routine quite quickly. As the electricity network in the the house is quite a mess I can't do chores at the same time. For example when I run the washing machine I cannot hoover, do the ironing or run the tumble dryer. So I have to do everything in turns. Wash first, than dry and than do the ironing. I've been doing 3 days over 5 loads of laundry and saved all the ironing for today. The Bo is going to trigger the fuse box before the builders start this Saturday because I'm afraid we'll be out of power constantly if they use heavy machinery. Oh and we now have hot water - amen!!

We also mastered quite an organized living, as we do not have a running kitchen yet.

This is our current home plan. We set up an area to cook, eat, sit and work in the living and dining room. The office is under renovation as we found out that under two retro ceilings a true gem is hiding. It's a beautiful ceiling with 3D ornaments of birds and flowers. We're going to fix that up as the previous owners (we are the third owners of this house, the house is from 1896 so that's pretty unique) brutally smashed beams through the plaster leaving horrible holes. The piano room (the previous owner was a musician and kept that room for his grand piano) is currently our storage for stuff that needs to go to the cellar. And on Saturday the builders will start to work on a proper kitchen, a cloakroom and on the heating and electricity in the kitchen and conservatory.

This is what it should look like in a couple of months.

And this is how we are living right now.

I've made a temporary kitchen out of an old table and Bo hung a shelf for me because I can't go without a shelf.

And this is where we sat last night for the first time and watched Sweeny Todd on DVD - not such a great movie to watch on your first movie night in a new house. Beside that, great GREAT movie!!