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 bathroom so far

We are currently knee deep in house renovations as you will know if you keep upto date with my blog and social media. Our entire house needed to be gutted and started from scratch so to say it's a big job is a slight understatement, it's huge!

We haven't been tackling one room at a time as you would usually do as we simply didn't have the time. We just got stuck in with everything, all at once. Which is a little stressful. 

Today I thought I would share the progress on our bathroom with you all. 

The bathroom was the worst room in the house. It was so dated with it's avacado green tiling and paintwork, it was like stepping back in time when entering that room. It's safe to say I wasn't sad in saying goodbye to any of the original bathrooms features. 

Time to get stuck in! First we ripped up the linoleum and threw that out. It was then time to take off the tiles. There's no polite way in removing tiles so out came the hammer and chisel. I have to say I did take some enjoyment out of smashing up all the tiles and it was rather therapeutic. 

 

The tiles came off pretty easy but I should of known that was too good to be true because underneath there was ANOTHER layer of tiles. They had tiled on tiles and I soon realised why. The bottom tiles were almost impossible to remove. But we got there and I removed the majority myself with very little injury! It's a bit daunting at first swinging a big hammer around and seeing tiles shattering and flying everywhere but after a cut or two it's no worry! 

When I began removing the tiles around the shower it pulled off all the plaster as you can see in the photo. This was a bit of a disaster as it now would need re plastering. Another one of those things! 

We decided to give the tiles a break and take out all of the bathroom fixtures. The bath was cast iron and was so heavy that I was surprised it hadn't fallen through the floorboards. It had to be sawn into pieces so we were able to take it downstairs and dispose of it. When we took the toilet out it absolutely stunk and we were gagging for days. Thankfully the stench soon went! 

We tried to tidy as we went but this renovation malarkey is messy work!

Once the tiles were fully removed we had our new boiler and central heating installed. I think the bathroom looks better at this point than it did to begin with although it was scary to see all the brick and bare floorboards.

This is where we are upto now. The plasterboards are up and the bathroom is finally starting to look like we are getting somewhere. We have also dropped the ceiling, had it re plastered and have had spot lights installed. We have already bought our bathroom suite and it's ready to go in. The next step is to begin tiling! So exciting!