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! 

Our home: We have finally moved in!

Wow, what a journey. 

It feels like a lifetime ago that I wrote all about buying our first home back in January. It took 4 months for the sellers to finally agree to terms and for them to sign the contract. It was torturous waiting because it wasn't a case of buy the house and move in the house. No, buying the house was the first step because we knew how much work needed to be done before we could even think about moving in. 

Once we finally signed on the dotted line it was time for the "fun" to begin, the renovating (I would be happy to never hear or say that word ever again!) We were a little naive when it came to the work because we thought we would be in the house within 2 months. We totally underestimated not just how long it would take but the scale of how much work had to be done. It took 5 whole months of renovating, decorating and DIY until we actually moved in. 

So after all these months and all the hard work here we are finally in our new home! All the major jobs are done and dusted but there are still some little jobs that need to be done. We are so close to everything being completed now and it feels so good to be almost at the finish line. 

We haven't fully unpacked yet and haven't dressed the house but we are certainly settled in. We get a lovely vibe from the house and love it here already. It feels incredible to be home owners and now have a place we can call our own. I can see us having many happy times here. 

Our home: Noah's Nursery

We have been renovating our house for the past 5 months and everything is finally coming together. We weren't very sensible when it came to starting the work as instead of starting one room at a time we dived in and started every room, all at once. If I was to do this all over again I would certainly undertake one room at a time. Doing so much at once doesn't get you very far and it can leave you feeling deflated. It's been a long and slow process and I can't even begin to describe how good it feels to be almost at that finish line. 

I thought I would share with you some photo's from the work we have done in Noah's room. To say it's one of the smaller rooms in the house it sure took a lot of work!

We initially stripped all the walls in this room which took a long time to do because the previous owner had used some pretty old school wallpaper paste! We spent a good few days doing that but it was all to no avail. In the end we needed to start from scratch with the walls as they were in such bad condition (got to love old houses for that). That meant we needed to knock off all the plaster which isn't just hard work but dusty work too. Once we had done that we discovered the houses original wooden slats and they all needed to be prised off with a hammer.

Next up the walls needed to be boarded up with plaster board and then plastered. The ceiling was also lowered and painted at the same time and spot lights were installed. With the new walls came new skirting boards and a new door frame too. (All sounds pretty straight forward on paper, it's not when you are doing it.)

We gave the plaster a good few days to dry and while we waited we painted all the woodwork white. Noah's room was one of the rooms which I really struggled to decide what paint colour to choose. Graham and Brown offered to send us some paint and after gratefully accepting and browsing through their website we finally decided on a colour. We chose a gentle shade called Oakville. It's a gorgeous colour which seems to change colour drastically depending on the light and the time of day. In the mornings it looks like a light buttermilk shade but by night it looks more like a warm yellow. You can tell it's a great quality paint because even on plaster (which likes to drink paint) it covered and applied well and easy. We love the colour and it's made Noah's room look and feel very cosy.

Painting the room didn't take long and after the second coat we gave all the woodwork another coat too. The next step was to have the carpet fitted and that's is always the most exciting part because you know your room is almost complete! 

Noah's room is finished when it comes to renovating and decorating but it's not when it comes to dressing it. At the minute it's very minimalist when it comes to decor as all that is in there is his cot, wardrobe and some toys. We need to take his changing unit out of storage, put up his shelves and lots more. Once we are all settled and all the jobs throughout the house have been completed I will then be focusing more on home decor and will be blogging all about it too. 

We love how Noah's room has turned out and he must really love his new room too. After 4 months of exclusively sleeping and napping in bed with me he has moved into his cot, in his new room, in his new house without one single hiccup! Very proud Mummy!

What colour is your little one's nursery? Do you like the colour we chose? 

Our home: Where we are now

It feels like such a long time ago when we were handed they keys to our first family home and I would of thought by now we would be in there but we aren't. We are currently living with Nick's parents and have been for about 5 weeks now. It's great that they have welcomed us into their home whilst the work is being done but I do miss our own space and having the occasional PJ day!

Our house is getting there slowly but at the minute the work has been put on hold. Our chief builder/handy man/kitchen fitter/bathroom fitter/plumber/electrician/step dad is currently on holiday so there's not much that we can do. That being said we have been doing the odd jobs here and there. 

Last week we started grouting the bathroom which was fun! We did as much grouting as we could but as there are tiles that still need to go up. We've painted the ceiling too and the bath and shower have been installed. The toilet, sink and radiator are waiting to go in but all the plumbing has been completed. I feel the bathroom is really coming along now and is completely transformed. We decided to tile the entire room which is more expensive but I just love the look of a fully tiled bathroom, it reminds me of a spa! 

The bedroom is almost finished. It's fully decorated and all the woodwork has been sanded, painted and glossed. All that's left to do in the bedroom is to pick a carpet! We are holding off on fitting a carpet until most of the work has been done as the house is still very dusty. 

The kitchen is still how it was 2 months ago. The units, worksurface, sink, taps, oven, extractor are all in. As well as the dishwasher, washing machine and fridge freezer. It just needs the odd few jobs; plinths, painting, tiling, ceiling, lights. Then the big job! We decided we want wood effect tiles in the kitchen as not only will they be hard wearing but they match the wood work surface perfectly too. But the floor is very uneven in the kitchen so before that can be done the floor needs to be leveled and it can be quite pricey! I think it will be worth it though. I can't wait to see the kitchen finished. 

Every other room is pretty much the same as it was the last time I updated. The living room is finished. Hallways stripped back. Dining room half lined but lots of plastering needs to be done. Noah's room is bare and needs a lot of work too!  

I still find it hard to imagine us in the house. I know we have bought it and have been working on it for the past couple of months but it still doesn't seem real to me. It doesn't feel like "our house" but I think we will need to live and create memories in it before it does. 

Our home - The bedroom so far

Along with the bathroom one of the rooms we are really getting stuck into at the moment is the master bedroom. Although there is a lot of work still to do on the house once we have a working bathroom and kitchen, a living room and bedroom that is livable we can pretty much move in. The other jobs aren't major and can be done as we go. 

Here is our progress on the master bedroom -

As you can see the bedroom was very dated and decorated in a rather unattractive pea green. The previous home owner certainly had a thing for green as the bathroom was also in the exact same shade and they have even gone as far as painting some of the doors that colour too!

The bedroom was the first room I started on and it's one of those rooms we keep going back to when we couldn't go any further in another. First thing we did was strip the walls. The wallpaper came off very easily and underneath the walls were in an okay condition, thankfully. We also ripped up that awful green carpet too!

But you know how it goes. If everything ends up being straight forward and easy there is always a little hiccup. The hiccup in this room being the chimney breast. The wallpaper was really tough to get off on this area. It wasn't just wallpaper but it had been sealed with some sort of pink putty stuff which was so sticky and difficult to remove. It took us absolutely ages to remove the majority of the stuff and we ended up leaving it till another day. (A few weeks later the chimney breast was plastered over so we didn't even need to do it in the end!) 

The wallpaper on the ceiling came off incredibly easy to remove too. So easy infact that we didn't even need to use a steamer we literally just peeled it off in big chunks. We did have another one of those hiccups though as when pulling it down some of the ceilings plaster came down with it!

Rather than simply re plastered the ceiling we decided to have the ceiling dropped and re plastered so we could have spot lights installed. I wasn't really fussed about the lights as I do like a big feature chandelier or light shade but Nick loves the little spotlights so we went ahead.

The walls were lined with lining paper ready to be painted whilst the ceiling was plastered. This is when we really saw our bedroom coming together. 

We've decided to paint out ceiling and all woodwork white and the walls Mellow Mocha from Dulux. We are doing this at the moment so the next time I update on the bedroom it should be finished! Very exciting! 

Our home: The living room

We recently bought of very first home and are currently undertaking a full house renovation. It's such an exciting yet stressful time. As so much needed doing we just got stuck into everything. There was no time to do a room at a time we just needed to leap into it head first. We have a long list of jobs to do and every time we complete one job another couple are discovered and added to it.

Today I thought I would write all about the progress with our living room. For some reason I don't seem to appear to have any "before" photo's on hand just images from when we began. I have some somewhere though. 

The room was decorated with wood chip and painted yellow to begin with and it wasn't that bad. But as we are going to be redecorating every room we decided to do it anyway. 

Some area's the wood chip came off really easy but in some places it was really tough. It took us a good two days to get it all off. When we were stripping wallpaper off in different parts of the house we discovered bad walls underneath (cracks, holes, uneven plastering etc) but thankfully the living room walls were in an ok condition. One thing I have learnt is that with an old house you have to expect bad walls amongst other things. Still give me an old house over a new any day!

After we had tidied up I used sugar water to clean all the woodwork and fireplace. We have original wood features and coving which I love, it gives the house real character. I then sanded all the skirting boards and window ready for painting at a further date. Nick's Grandad then papered the entire room with lining paper, also ready for painting! 

We decided to paint the front room in Natural Hessian from Dulux. It was a shade we kept going back to as it was neutral and light but warm too. It will also look good against any colour so we could frequently change the colour accents in the room without having to redecorate the whole room again. 

We chose to paint the ceiling Natural Hessian too so the coving would really stand out as they were painted white. All the woodwork was sanded, painted with an undercoat and then glossed.

We had the radiator and new electrical sockets installed while we were painting the room. Once everything was dried we then went out looking at carpet. I wanted a neutral carpet that was light enough to compliment the wallpaper but was practical too. I would of loved to of gone for a nice cream carpet but that isn't feasable with a baby and three cats. We opted for a light sandy colour and I think it's perfect.

I am so happy with the living room because although the rest of the house is a shambles this room is almost complete and exactly how I wanted it. We just need a piece of skirting board and need to remove the old sockets and then we are done. I intend on having cabinets in the alcoves with floating shelves above them. Nick wants to put the TV on the wall too which frightens me but we are limited with space in the front room so we will have to do so. 

Now that one room looks finished it makes me so excited to see how the rest of the house is going to turn out. We have a long road ahead of us but we have certainly made a good start.