Last Updated on 2 July 2024 by Colette
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We’ve been in our house for twelve years now. A tired, two bedroom semi that we planned to stay in for about three years before we moved on. It was well suited to our needs as a young couple – we had plenty of room for the two of us and it was well situated for our lengthy daily commutes to work – but we had never really planned for it to become our family home.
However, life got in the way of our plans to move and with a newborn baby and a puppy in the mix, our priorities changed. We had a second baby, got married, gave up my full time job and had another baby – moving house was no longer feasible.
Over the years we’ve done quite a lot to the house – and when I say we I mean mostly Dad, and more recently Dave. Just before Ben was born we refitted the bathroom (and I mean just before – my Dad was in fact finishing the bathroom while I was in hospital giving birth!). We extended and refitted the kitchen, making a more open plan living space shortly after I had Chloe – we also put new flooring down throughout the whole of the downstairs of the house (it has the look of wooden flooring but is actually a really hard wearing laminate).
And, when Amy was born and our family of five (plus a dog) could no longer comfortably fit into our two bedroom house, we added a full two storey extension and doubled the size of our house adding in a third reception room (which was once a playroom but is now the dining room and my office space), a utility room, downstairs toilet, two bedrooms and a second bathroom. (You can see a little video tour Ben did while the extension was still a work in progress – everywhere looks such a mess!) Luckily we were able to extend the house to the left of the top of the stairs otherwise we might have needed to head to Stair Crazy for a new staircase!
Most recently we’ve redecorated the living room (which included removing a false chimney breast that I’d hated for years) and made over the garden to finally lay some much longed for artificial grass!
But there’s still things to do.
We still need to replace some of the windows in the old part of the house: in our bedroom, Amy’s bedroom and the main bathroom. I can actually see daylight from underneath my window sill when I lie in bed, and the condensation in Amy’s room is terrible through the colder months. Once we’ve got Amy’s bedroom window replaced I’d like to fully redecorate her room for her – I’ve been browsing Cuckooland, quirky homeware and kids bed specialist for ideas!
We also need to get the front of the house repointed and a bit of missing fascia board and guttering at the back. I think the fascia board is just cosmetic but the missing guttering does cause us problems when the weather is especially bad so that does need to be a priority. Of course the external jobs aren’t really ones we can do ourselves – when it comes to the repointing Dave will grind out the old mortar to save some money but the repointing itself needs to be done by a skilled tradesman!
And inside? The front room – which was our dining room until last winter – needs some work. There’s been some issues with damp in the past – but that’s been mostly fixed by relaying the drive. The repointing will make a difference and Dad has also suggested that we add additional insulation to the front wall. The room needs completely re-plastering – not just skimming but taking right back the brick and starting again. This is something we had planned to do this year but really we need to get the jobs done on the outside of the house first otherwise we’ll risk wrecking the new plaster I think.
The front room has looked a bit of a mess for the last year or so after having a new window and radiator fitted – of course we left it as we were planning to get the plastering done – but we all know what 2020 thinks of plans don’t we! So we’ve decided to give it a bit of a tart up with the help of a new white blind (because I’m pig sick of the kids closing the curtains all the time to watch tv) and a fresh lick of paint. At some point I’d like to put some new shelves and prints up but for now we’ve got a huge Kallax unit in there that’s waiting to go to it’s new home!
Have you got home decor or renovation plans at the moment?
