One of my interests is dolls houses, making miniature furniture and bits and pieces and miniature gardens.
A few years ago I built Ship Ahoy Cottage. It wasn’t quite completed and I was about to do a thatched roof for it, but other life things got in the way, so it was placed somewhere safe until I could get back to it and finish it.
There was a great story with it too, even if I say so myself. 
The story goes that the cottage was built originally in the 1600s and was the home of a seafaring family, hence the name Ship Ahoy Cottage. It was just on the edge of a beach and so the families that lived there over time had wonderful sea views and enjoyed strolls along the beach, collecting driftwood, seaweed and other marine life type things.
But, the modern time occupiers, an old retired sea captain and his wife had no idea that there was a secret hatch in the floor somewhere in the cottage and that if they had found it and then climbed down the old rickety steps to wherever it lead, would take them to the deep caverns that lie under the house, and there dotted about, hidden in nooks and crevices were jewels, treasures, pieces of eight and so on, all hidden there by the old retired sea captain’s pirate ancestors!!
Sadly, for Ship Ahoy Cottage, while I was absent from working on it for a while, it got a little damaged!! 
something fell on it or it fell to the floor, or both, I can’t remember as this was two or three years ago now.
Today, I made the decision that I was going to restore it back to it’s former glory and finally complete it, jewels and all. As I made that decision today to do this, I have taken a photograph of how it now looks. This will be the “before” picture. Hopefully before the end of this Project’s year, I will be showing the “after” picture too.
Original dolls house and bits and pieces made by me and original photograph taken by me today 21 February 2011 - copyright 2011
As you can see poor old Ship Ahoy Cottage is in a bit of a sorry state. Some of the “glass” in the windows is missing. The walls will need re-doing, the roof is in pieces inside the house now! And all the wallpaper, carpets and other bits and pieces will also have to be re-done as they are torn, broken or just very tatty.
The wooden beams are made from oak wood taken from the original Spanish Armada ships. I have the official provenance for it and thought it was very apt for a seafaring family who had lived in the house for a few hundred years. (That’s the genealogist in me who just loves going back in time).
As I made the decision today that I must get started on restoring this cottage, there might be the odd photo along the way through my Project year, before the final “after” pic. We’ll see how it goes. 
