Designing our dream bathroom

We managed to get onto the property ladder last year when we were able to buy our first home. Once we bought the house we spent six whole months renovating it before we could move in. There was so much work that we needed to do as we basically had to scratch from scratch with every room. 

Although the renovation process was hard work, exhausting and expensive work it did have a silver lining and that was being able to design each room ourselves.  

When it came to the bathroom I knew what style and look I wanted to achieve from the get go. I wanted the entire bathroom to be tiled, both floor and walls. I opted for spotlights as I wanted an even distribution of light and find them to feel a little warmer. I also wanted a four piece bathroom, a free standing shower, separate bath, toilet and sink.

The only issue we had when renovating the bathroom was which tiles to go for. There are simply so many to choose from and with them being so expensive we had to get it right. We deliberated for weeks on end before we decided to go for travertine effect tiles because we loved the colour and size. 

A year on and our bathroom is complete but there are still a few tweaks I want to make, such as bathroom furniture and perhaps a few potted plants to really complete the look.

What does your dream bathroom look like? 

The Next Stage in our Renovation Plans

One of the main topics I've been writing about this past year has of course been our renovation. We bought our first home last May and to say it was a work in progress is one huge understatement. We knew it needed a lot of work but we didn't realise how much until we had bought the house and started the work. This is normal of course because once you start pulling off the wallpaper and tearing up the carpet that is when all the hidden jobs start rearing their ugly heads.

A year later and the renovation is complete. A new kitchen, a new bathroom, central heating system, new boiler, full electrical rewire, new ceilings, plastering, new carpets, every room newly decorated.. those are just some of the jobs that we accomplished in that first year. 

When I think about how long it all took and how much blood, sweat and tears went into it I wonder why I'm even thinking of saying this but we are now drawing up plans for phase two.

Phase two will start with us converting the attic and we want to do this for various reasons. The first and main reason is that it could give us one more large bedroom and a storage room or even two bedrooms. This of course is needed if we want to have more children in the future. Another reason is that it will increase the value of our house tremendously and if we want to sell up any time soon we could earn a lot of profit too. Once this is completed we will need to look into updating our home insurance policy and must remember to do so.

When the main frame work has been finished we will be looking at dormer windows and will need to invest in some electric radiators as attics are known to be a little draughty. 

I'm really looking forward to decorating the attic room once the building work has been completed. I picture a light and bright but welcoming space for two children to share. This thought of course is very dear to me as I know how much Noah would love to have a sibling in the future. I can just imagine two boys rough housing in there or Noah and a sister squabbling over what game to play next. 

Although the next stage of our renovation is only just being drawn up I'm already making plans for stage three! I realise I do sound a little crazy planning so far ahead but this is our forever home, the home where we are going to raise our children. It's got to be perfect. 

Renovating - What we did & Where we are now.

This time last year we were fortunate enough to buy our first home after 6 long years of renting. We viewed only a handful of properties before we found the house that was for us.

Although the house needed a lot of work we saw past it and could envision what that shell of a home could become. I vividly imagined what the house could look like and I could picture Nick and I raising our family there. That's how we knew it was the right one for us.

Buying the house and then undergoing the renovation has been such a long winded process but we are finally getting there now. I sometimes forget how far we've come so I thought I would put together a blog post of what we've done so far and what is still left to do.

What we've done so far  

Central heating. The house had never had central heating so we had to buy a boiler, have it set up and the whole heating system needed to be installed. This was one of the most costly aspects to the renovation.

New kitchen. The kitchen was a shambles when we bought the house, a retro nightmare. We knew we needed a new kitchen and we browsed different styles for weeks before we finally decided on which to go for. This of course was costly too but as we have a kitchen fitter in the family we only paid trade price and he fit it for free! Very lucky. 

New bathroom. Another room which was a retro nightmare was the bathroom. It was avocado green and literally the worst bathroom I have ever seen. I couldn't wait to get in there to start ripping it out. I actually removed most of the tiles myself, with a sledge hammer! It was a bit scary! We then had a new bath, shower, sink, toilet installed and tiled the entirety of the room. 

Decorating. Every single room in the house needed redecorating which meant lots of hard laborious work. Not only did each room need painting, new flooring or carpet but many walls needed replastering too. 

What we still need to do

Fitted wardrobes. As the majority of the messy work has now been completed we are now focusing on fitted features within the house. We are very limited when it comes to storage as our attic is currently sealed off. I have recently been looking at sliding wardrobes because not only do they look fantastic but it's amazing how much you can store within them too. 

The finishing touches. We are almost at the finishing line when it comes to the work but there are little bits and pieces here and there that need to be completed. I am excited to start focusing on dressing each room now that the DIY is out of the way. I have seen some fantastic lamps on Amazon that I would like to buy for our bedroom and I also have my eye on a couple of rugs from Rug Mountain which I would love for the dining room and hallway.

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

Front garden. The front yard is a decent size for a terraced house. At the moment it is graveled with a little path which I don't think looks good and it's not very practical either. I want to keep the path but lay down a lawn so then Noah has somewhere to play in these warmer months.


Hopefully in a few months time I can report back on how we have ticked off another few jobs on our to do list! Do you have any renovating or decorating tips you would like to share with me?

Buying our first home

Last year we were lucky enough to buy our first home after renting numerous properties for the past few years. I say lucky but we needed to save, save, save and thankfully our bank had an offer on at the time which was a first time buyer discount. With the deal we only needed to pay the 5% deposit which was exactly what we needed. If that offer wasn't available then we would probably still be renting today. 

House search - 
The mortgage application was very complex and long winded but once we were both accepted then we were able to start the search to find our home. Having family in different towns we did contemplate many different area's but we decided to stick with my partners home town where we were currently renting. We made a note of all the area's that would be suitable and the area's that wouldn't and that narrowed everything down for us. 

Everyday we would start our search online by tailoring our search by area, house type, number of bedrooms and price. We would then make a note of all the houses that could be a possibility. We found that looking online through street view really helped as we didn't need to go and drive out to every property to get a scope of the area. If the area looked okay online then we would drive over in the car at different times of day to get a feel of the location. In the end we only arranged a viewing for 3 properties.

Viewings -
The first house that we viewed I loved as it was huge and in a fairly okay location. Once we viewed the inside of the property we noted lots of issues that would cost an obscene amount of money to try to repair. We were open to do work but the issues were too much for us. The kitchen was full of mold and the entire house had movement as it was situated on a hill. It was a shame because I did get a good feeling from the house, but unfortunately it wasn't meant to be.

The second property looked fine on google street view but we were deceived as it ended up being in an awful area and the house itself was run down and tiny. What was worse is they were asking for a lot of money for it too, far too much. We only needed to step into the house to know it was a no from us, we couldn't get out of there faster!

Last but certainly not least was the property that we ended up buying. The house needed a lot of work but it was work that we would be able to afford and manage with the help of our family. It's in a fantastic area which is close to everything we need and we instantly knew it was the one for us.    

Making an offer -
After viewing the third property we knew it was the house for us. We saw past the avocado green bathroom and bright green carpets and decided to make an offer. The previous owner had recently reduced the asking price as they wanted a quick sale but as first time buyers we needed to buy our first house for as cheap as we possibly could. With this in mind we went in at £10,000 less than the asking price which was £20,000 less than they were originally asking for. At first they declined our offer and tried to make a counter offer, which we firmly declined. We stuck to our guns and eventually they caved in and accepted our offer. It did take a few months for us to finally sign everything over and we had months and months of renovations ahead of us but we were finally home owners! We had bought our first home! 

If you are looking to buy, sell or even value your property then I would recommend taking a look at My Online Estate Agent. In a digital world where we do our shopping, banking and holiday bookings online it makes perfect sense to seek an estate agent online too. Not only do they provide everything that you would receive from a regular in store estate agent but they are an estate agent with a twist! You can set wheels in motion all in the comfort of your own home, with ease and with a fraction of the usual costs. My Online Estate Agents offer fully professional services for a fraction of the cost with their fabulous upfront package fee's. I wish I had of heard of them sooner as I could of saved ourselves a nifty sum which we could of put towards our renovation. 

What are you experiences of moving home? Have you recently bought or planning to sell?

My top decorating and renovation tips

When we bought our first family home last year we had no idea how much work we had ahead of us. It was a house with potential but one that was expensive and needed a lot of hard graft but we totally underestimated how much work there was to do. 

When viewing the run down property we had to try and see past all the faults and try to envision what it would look like after everything had been completed. This was easier said than done with the bright green carpets and avocado bathroom but we just knew it was the house for us. 

I'm not claiming to be an expert when it comes to all things DIY but I have certainly learnt a thing or two on our journey so I thought I would share a few of my top tips which I hope will help you save time and money. 

Be realistic - 
If you have a dozen jobs on your renovation to do list then add another twenty because once you start the work more and more will crop up. It's better to be prepared for this because we were often disheartened when we had completed one job to find another two a long the way. It's better to be realistic.

Do your research -
It's going to save a lot of time and money if you have some sort of idea on what you want. From the colour of paint on your walls to the type of carpet on your floors. Do you want paint or wallpaper? Do you want luxury carpet or engineered walnut flooring? I found that google was my best friend during this process as I searched for idea's on every aspect of our renovation.

Bargain hunt -
We had a limited budget to work with but you would be surprised with how far we managed to make our money go. We would often buy second hand products on eBay, car boots or buy and sell pages. Items were often into next to new condition and you can save extortionate amounts of money. There is nothing wrong with not buying new. 

Upcycle - 
With a new house you often want to buy new furnishings but don't throw away that old side table, it can easily be revamped with a lick of paint. Many of the furnishings in our house are family hand me downs or charity shop finds that we have upcycled by simply sanding and repainting white.


Do you have any tips that you would like to share? 

Our home: The kitchen

It's been a while since I last updated you on the progress in our kitchen so I thought it was about time I blogged about it. The kitchen is probably the room in the house that has been transformed the most and I'm so happy with the way it's turned out. I had a vision in my head of how I wanted my dream kitchen to look and I've got it. 

Here is a visual update on our kitchen from start to finish- 

Designing your dream kitchen

This year we were lucky enough to be able to escape the renting rut and place our feet firmly on the property ladder by buying our first home. If you are a regular reader of your blog you will know that for the past 9 months we have been renovating the house and it's been such a long and tiring process. We still have the odd jobs to do but we are pretty much at that finish line now and as stressful and tiring as the whole experience has been it's so worth it and we are ever so grateful to be in this position.

One of the huge benefits of buying a house that needs a full renovation is that you can start from scratch and put your stamp on every little detail in the house. My partner let me take charge of decor and design as he admitted he didn't really have a clue (not that I did either) and he fully trusted me with it. 

My favourite room to design was the kitchen. 

When we moved into the house the kitchen was a total nightmare. The red tiles and dated cabinets hadn't been altered since the 1970's and everything was falling to pieces. One of the first jobs we did was to rip the kitchen out and start with a blank canvas.

Once I had that blank canvas the fun really began.

I knew that I wanted a kitchen that had a farmhouse and homely feel to it without it being too old fashioned. I'm a huge fan of cream and wood together so we chose cream shaker style cabinets with a wood effect work surface. I think this combination works the best for the style that I wanted to achieve.

What I really struggled with was deciding which tiles to go for as there were so many options. I liked the rustic looking tile but as so many more people preferred the glossy underground tiles I had to take their opinion on board. I had also noticed how on trend they were so that helped me make the decision too. I'm really glad that we went for them as I think they look perfect in the room and do give it more of a modern edge. We chose a wood effect tile for the floor and I think they finish the kitchen off perfectly.

Of course when all this was completed we then had an empty shell of a kitchen. When designing the kitchen we opted for some of our cabinets to be intergrated so we could have our washing machine and tumble dryer in the heart of the kitchen. We already had our matching kettle and toaster but needed to buy a new microwave as we had broke ours months ago. I don't know how we managed for so long without one as we've found ourselves using it everyday since it arrived.

Now the new kitchen has been fitted, decorated, tiled, floored and filled with our appliances and belongings it's finally completed and it feels fantastic.

- This is a PR collaboration. 

Our home: The master bedroom

Our bedroom is one of the rooms in the house that is totally finished now, minus a bit of furniture and decor. It's one of the rooms that I feel we spent ages on as it was the first room we began stripping and a room that we've dipped in and out of as our renovation progressed. 

It was probably one of the easier rooms to renovate too. We of course stripped the dated floral wallpaper and retro green carpet as soon as we bought the house. The room needed new plaster here and there but other than that the walls were fine. The ceiling was then lowered, plastered and spot lights were installed (something that I wasn't really bothered about but Nick prefers spot lights over one main light.) We also had new electrics and central heating installed as that was needed throughout the entire house. The new central heating and electrical rewiring was so expensive and cost almost half of our renovation budget. Which is very daunting when you still have a new bathroom, kitchen and a dozen other things yet to pay for! 

After all the big jobs were completed it was time for the fun part, the decorating. We first painted the ceiling white and it took a few coats as fresh plaster loves to soak up paint. Then we decorated the room with lining paper and painted with a Dulux shade called Mellow Mocha. It's a strange colour because in some light it can appear to have purple hue's and others it's the taupe type shade we were looking for. The light rail, skirting board, door, door frame, window frame, window sill then had a couple of layers of undercoat and gloss. 

With all the messy DIY and decorating jobs out of the way we then had to decide on a carpet. We decided to go for a silver grey (which is bang on trend according to our carpet fitter!) as I thought it would really compliment the colour and decor of the room. 

Here is our bedroom renovation journey from start to finish, enjoy!