Lynne O'Rourke: Like the wood veneer inside, the tiny pond's days are numbered

ANOTHER week on and our new home is still full of holes and dirt and rubble, with a warren of pipes visible and wires sprouting out of walls. It all seems very flimsy and exposed when you can see through to the downstairs from the bedrooms. I'm not talking gaping chasms here, just enough gaps in the floorboards around new pipework to be unsettling. It is still difficult picturing how it all might look. Mind you, it's a relief things are still at this messy stage, because the minute the

Did I mention the garden needs work too? There isn't a patch of grass anywhere, so not quite the child-friendly, swing-loving, sandpit-bearing easy space we left behind. We have more of a concrete jungle vibe going on at the moment. But despite that our five-year-old loves it. We thought she would be upset that we couldn't immediately re-instate the swing and slide, but she has not yet stopped to ask about them. Every time we take her to see the new place, she loves the fact that the garden is so overgrown she has to fight her way through branches and grasses, and climb over old bits of stone. And as for the little (very little and overgrown) pond, it is a magnet for a stone-throwing, stick-wielding child. The one place she was told to leave alone, she made a beeline for it. Obviously I intend to remove this latest object of her affections as soon as possible. Much like the wood veneer that has been hauled from the interior, that pond's days are numbered. So I was thinking she might need something else to occupy her. Who says those paintbrushes are too big for kids? She can use both hands.

We have some great homes lined up for you this week. Karlyn and Rob Evans revamped their semi-detached Glasgow property and turned it into a stylish family home, which you can see on page 4. Rob Tuer drew on his property background to build his stunning Gullane house, which is on page 8. Meanwhile, Mark and Patricia Sheridan have made the most of magnificent views in their North Berwick apartment on page 18. k

This article was originally published in Scotland on Sunday on 21 February 2010