Our home - Kitchen ideas

With our big move and endless renovations and decorating just around the corner (which I blogged all about here) It's time we begin knuckling down and coming up with some idea's on what we want to do with the house and actually agreeing on them. Thankfully Nick is an easy going guy and lets me have a lot of say in the choices but I am extremely picky yet indecisive so I am struggling, already. I find it hard to visualise what I want without seeing it right there infront of me. I have been browsing the internet for hours on end to come up with some inspiration and I have found it has really helped. 

One of the first big jobs on our list is to have a new kitchen bought and fitted. So that is where Nick and I are focusing all our attention at the moment. Trying to decide which one we want to go for. I think we are both liking the look of white kitchens with wooden work surfaces but I am worried about the practicality of wooden work surfaces? They look good but are they practical?

This is my personal favourite. It's an off white wooden kitchen with oak work surfaces. I think it looks traditional without looking to old fashioned and it almost has a shabby chic/cottage feel. I think it would be a lovely, welcoming family kitchen. I think it's my dream kitchen. 

This one is Nick's favourite but we have agreed that we wouldn't have any glass doors, have different door handles and perhaps have a wooden work surface if we did go for this kitchen. I would be happy with this one but it pales in comparison to my dream kitchen. Both kitchens are from the same range but just have different finishes. 

Although we haven't signed on the dotted line yet the kitchen fitter in the family is going to come to the house with us next week so he can measure up. He is then going to design the kitchen for us. When the time comes he is going to buy it at cost and fit it for free. We are so lucky to have joiners, kitchen fitters, gas engineers, electricians and handy men in the family! All the blokes in the family are raring to go and see our house as their project too! 

Just hoping we can finish the paperwork off as soon as possible so we can start making the house our home. 

Our home - Renovating and Decorating

Three months later we are still waiting to sign on that dotted line for our first home. The house we have bought needs a lot of renovating and decorating and is definitely a work in progress. This being said it makes us want to get in and start the work as soon as possible, the wait has been such a pain. Each week that passes is a week we could be in there and starting on the numerous jobs that need to be done. 

I am going to be blogging all about our house. From interior idea posts through to before and after shots. I'm going to be blogging every step of the way. I think it will be great to look back on where we began. 

Here is the list of jobs that need to be done:

Central heating & rewiring. The house has no central heating so we need to have a boiler set up and the whole system installed. We also need a complete electrical rewire - this is a huge undertaking and will be seeing professional services for electrical repairs. 

Room move around. The bathroom is rather large compared to the second bedroom so we are going to switch the two rooms around. We are having the bathroom in the second bedroom and the second bedroom in the bathroom. This isn't a huge job but again thankfully we have someone in the family who is going to do this for us. Both rooms will then need to be decorated.

New kitchen. The kitchen is okay but bright red. Not my thing. We are currently trying to decide on which kitchen to go for and then we are having the kitchen measured up, designed and fitted. We are finding it so hard to decide on which to go for. 

New bathroom. After the two rooms have been switched around we are having a new bathroom fitted as the one that is in now is Avocado green! We have just bought a three piece bathroom suite off a local buying page on facebook, of all places. It was a bargain at just £150. It's a large white bath, sink, toilet, over bath shower and they even included a free mirror. I want the entire bathroom tiling, floor and walls. We need to decide between a sandy coloured tile or black. Both looks I love.  

Decorating. Our bedroom needs redecorating cause at the minute it has a dated bright green floral wallpaper and green carpet! I am thinking of going for neutral colours and just adding pops of colour's here and there. Noah's bedroom also needs decorating once the rooms have been switched around. He currently has a warm yellow bedroom in this house and I am contemplating whether to have the same colour scheme again or just do something different. The front room also needs decorating too but the back room is okay, for now. A long long list of decorating needs to be done but thankfully we have lots of help and I am a dab hand at painting. 

Expanding. We are contemplating knocking the entrance corridor wall through to extend the front room. We need to have another look at the house before we decide to do this. We are still unsure. 

Front garden. The front yard is a good size, it's currently graveled with a little path. We need to dispose of bulky yard waste as the previous owner left a lot for us to clean up - thankfully, there are great services that can help us with this. I want to keep the path but lay down a lawn so then Noah has somewhere to play when he is a little bigger. 

Back yard. Unfortunately, we don't have a garden but a small back yard and there are numerous little outhouses out there. I want them all knocking down and perhaps decking the entire back yard rather than have slabs. I am trying to utilise the space in the best way that we can. This is a job that can be done futher down the line as there is no rush for this.

Attic conversion. We have been discussing the possibility of building up into the attic to give us another bedroom. The neighbours have done this too so hopefully it can be done. We would need planning permission of course. This is a future job rather than a job that needs to be done straight away. 

As you can see there is a lot to be done and it is so overwhelming when I look at this list. We are just going to take it one step at a time and try not to let it swallow us up! We are fortunate that we have so much help from our family.