The main reason was to check how the house was going but also enjoy Irish hospitality.
We arrived on the Monday and as we were a little early to check into our accommodation we found a place for breakfast. There is something about Irish bacon and sausage, it is yummy, add a little bit of black pudding,egg and toast and you have a perfect Irish breakfast plus of course the obligatory pot of tea.
We went to introduce ourselves to our host for the week. Have you ever tried Airbnb? It's a great way to stay in places where people rent out a spare room for not very much money. Our stay in Westport was with Sabina, a lovely lady in her early 40's, who had a spare room in her apartment. She had recently decided to take a year long career break from her job and had decided to be an airbnb host for a couple of months. She was so friendly and welcoming and very passionate about her country.
She also provided a great breakfast every morning. We were happy with tea, cereals and homemade soda bread, the best he had ever tasted according to hubby.
Once we had introduced ourselves and offloaded our bags we set off for a local town, we had visited a home store there on our last visit and purchased two dining chairs to add to our set and we had noticed they were having a bank holiday sale so we popped in for a look around. We ended up buying a lovely sofa set plus a new mattress. They were a very good price and we have been able to order them for delivery in November.
We then went out to our house to see how work was getting on. We had some friends from back home in Birmingham,UK who were over in Ireland at the same time doing a road trip and we had arranged to meet up with them. The weather was totally awful, horizontal rain!! Ok so we always go to Ireland expecting rain but this was torrential. Sadly it did mean that most of the beautiful views around our house which had tempted us there in the first place were somewhat obscured by cloud. We were keen to show our friends around inside and out but we scampered inside and viewed the rest from the dry indoors. It was a shame because all we could see was low cloud. I'm sure they think we are mad, not the only ones I'm sure, but came again on another day and they would appreciate it a lot more I'm sure.
The rest of our 4 day stay was spent deciding on the final layout and design of the kitchen, looking at bathroom furniture, having the rooms measured for flooring quotes, looking at stoves/fireplaces, looking at doors and of course enjoying a pint of Guinness or two.
The most impressive part was seeing the transformation of the upper floor from one big space to three separate rooms.
Also we had asked our builder to do a bit of adaptation with the fireplace in the dining room. We didn't want a floored based fire but one a bit further up the wall which wouldn't impinge on the room so much.
