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?

A renovation clean up

We were fortunate enough to buy our very first home earlier this year. We bought it at a steal of a price because it needed an entire renovation. Fast forward 5 months of blood, sweat and tears we are finally in our house! The work is still ongoing but the house is livable and we are almost finished now. There are only two big jobs left to do and that's the hallway and dining room. Both rooms need new flooring and need to be decorated but these cosmetics we can deal with. Other than that there are a dozen little jobs here and there that still need to be done.

As you can imagine under going a full house renovation the house can get very dirty. Most of the walls in the house had to be knocked back to the brick and had to be replastered. For months we have been battling endless and relentless dust and dirt. The minute I walked into the house I could feel in on my skin and in my hair. There was rubble everywhere, pulled up floorboards, holes in the walls. We've really seen the bones of our old house. 

But the dust and the dirt, it's been a nightmare. No matter how many times I hoovered, mopped and swept up it seemed to just continue to appear, until we received and started using the a Dyson DC59 Animal which has really helped us out. It has been a godsend with it's digital motor, superior suction and with it being cordless! (It had me at cordless!) I found myself spending a lot less time vacuuming as it's such a powerful machine. 

Here are some of my top tips for cleaning up after a renovation-


Wipe down: It's scandalous how much dust is created when renovating. You see it everywhere but what's worse is that there's even more than you can't see and it always seems to come back. My top tip is to keep on top of the cleaning and wipe down with a damp cloth after every job. After each big job I would begin mission wipe down and start by dusting down the ceiling, moving onto the walls and then begin wiping down everything else in the room. I found doing this more and more frequently helped minimise the dust coverage around the house which you will be thankful for later. 

Sweep: Before you vacuum it's very important to sweep first. There's a whole array of different materials that are distributed throughout the house and sweeping is ideal for picking up the bigger bits of debris that you shouldn't try to vac up. Using a broom is also good for brushing dust off hard to reach places such as door frames, skirting boards and picture rails. 

Vac: After the sweeping comes the vacuuming as it picks up all dust that is not just impossible to sweep but to see too. Dust continues to settle days after each renovation job so you do find yourself vacuuming often. Thankfully the Dyson DC59 is a joy to use and maneuver and has saved me a lot of time and effort as it is just so efficient.

Mop: Now it's time to bring out the mop. The debris that cannot be wiped down, swept up or hoovered has got to be mopped. After the mopping I would sigh a breath of relief until it was time to do it all over again!  

I have found myself doing these 4 steps continuously these past 5 months. Sweep, vac, mop, repeat! Have you been doing any renovations lately? Or do you have any cleaning tips you would like to share? 

Our home: The work has begun

If you follow the blog you will know that this year we made an offer on our first house. After a week or two of negotiations they accepted our offer and we were over the moon. Little did we know that it would take a long, drawn out three months until we signed on the dotted line and finally got our hands on the keys! 

We got the keys last Friday and it's been none stop ever since. I started on the master bedroom, stripping the wall paper. Whilst Nick, his Step Dad and Granddad ripped the kitchen out and begun the rewiring of the house. I would be upstairs taking off the wallpaper and pop downstairs to refill my wallpaper steamer nd there would be a hole in the floorboard or something new ripped out. We are so lucky to have so much help with the house as we wouldn't of been able to do it without Nick's family. It's incredible to see how much we have got done in such a short amount of time.

We have a month left in this rented house before we move into our new home. Time isn't on our side so we need to get as much of the work out of the way as we possibly can. This would be pretty straight forward if we only had the odd job to do but we literally have to gut the entire house; central heating, rewiring, new kitchen, new bathroom, new windows, plastering, every room needs redecorated and more. There is so much to do with so little money. It's hard to budget too cause every day a new job or repair seems to pop up and rear it's ugly head! But it's better to spot them now before we fully redecorate and move in, that would be a nightmare. 

So as it stands the house currently looks like a bombs hit and you really have to watch where you are walking with the multiple holes in the ground. Once all these big jobs are out of the way the real fun begins, the decorating! We can't wait to make this house into 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.