Saturday 6 January 2018

The Ongoing Saga Of The Futility Room

First, I must apologise for accidentally deleting some comments the other night. Happy New Year to those kind people, I will try to maintain my resolve to switch off at 10pm - after that I neither think straight or type accurately. 
Mags commented a few days ago that she had missed the explanation for the Futility Room. I'm not sure where I first heard the name. But it strikes me as a brilliant moniker for the place where much of the housekeeping is done. Because this is often how I feel about this Sisyphean task.
The Kirby Muxloe Manse FR was just off the lovely large kitchen. It was tiny but useful. The Ferndown Manse has a much smaller kitchen and no FR.But the previous owners of Cornerstones added an extension which includes this luxury. I do not want to take it for granted. 
Downside - it is the first room entered when you come in by the side entrance. [The bungalow  is on a corner so entrances are front and side.] As we usually arrive in the dark, we stagger in with luggage and deposit it in FR, so it frequently looks like the left luggage office at Paddington.
Since 2009 we have done nothing to improve the room, other than adding a washing machine given by kind friends. The move from KM meant we had 3 wall cupboards and a dishwasher, which Bob put in place. So now we have a well equipped room. Painted in Builders' Magnolia, with my cheap white melamine cupboards on the wall, and under the worktops next to the appliances, some old wooden kitchen units painted in white gloss. A bit of a hotchpotch!
The acquisition of a length of vintage French Linen Roller Towel fabric set my fevered brain working. Visiting NT properties and reading Country Living magazine conjured up dreams of a FR decorated in country house laundry room/French farmhouse style. I began a Pinterest board, and bought tester pots from Wilko. Restful greys and blues. Farrow and Ball may hail from Ferndown, but I find their prices are high, and their shade card rather pretentious.
We painted the trial squares, bought the paint, and emptied and took down the wall cupboards [which we stood on the worktops] That was in the summer.
In October we were too tired, and last week we were happily busy with the family.Only one minuscule bit of progress made on the FR. That was on the afternoon of January 1st.
But that will get its own post next week... 

5 comments:

  1. I love the concept of the Futility Room! I shall use the expression forthwith!

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  2. Just wanted to say that I always pop in but don't often comment. I love reading your blog Ang.
    We had a FR in the UK which was very useful - I rather miss it here as we don't really have that much storage space, despite living in a house with 4 floors!!!

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  3. Happy New Year to you both, Jean and FD. FOUR floors??!! I am not sure I'd manage that - if my phone rings when I am upstairs, I find it is usually downstairs and hurtle at breakneck speed to retrieve it [bad habit] With 4 floors, there would definitely be sprained ankles and maybe a broken neck too! It must help keep you fit though...

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  4. I always smile at the Futility Room moniker. This morning, I was typing a text message involving Huddersfield and I thought of you as I almost changed the name to Shuddersfield! It was so nice to hear your voice last night! Thank you!!x

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  5. P.s. those paint names are Ridiculous!!!

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