5 things you need to know when renovating

If you follow my blog you will already know that Nick and I were fortunate enough to buy our first home recently. After years and years of renting it was such relief to finally be able to get out feet on the property ladder. Renting left such a bitter taste in my mouth as it seemed like we were throwing our money down the drain, where as now we have a mortgage we are paying into something, our future.

Buying our first home was a huge deal but as if that wasn't hard enough the house we fell in love with and decided to buy needed a lot of work. By a lot of work I mean it needed stripping back to bare bricks. It was one long process but now being at the other side of our renovation I decided to share a few things I learned a long the way.

1. Be realistic
If like us you have a big job on your hands make sure you keep in mind not only a reasonable time frame but also a reasonable cost. With realistic plans in mind you won't be disappointed at any stage. 

2. Upcycle Upcyle Upcyle 
With a new house you often want to buy new furniture but don't throw away your old bits and pieces as they 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 up cycled by simply sanding and repainting white.

3. Don't stress
Our renovation took 5 long months and while the work was being done we lived with relatives. Noah wasn't even one at the time and the whole thing was so stressful. We needed to go and do the work and people had to watch Noah for us, it was a hard time. In hindsight I wish I hadn't of stressed so much, it took time but we go there in the end and the outcome is so worth it.

4. Bargain hunt 
Once we had paid for everything we needed for the renovation there wasn't much money left over to play with. We had to really bargain hunt and got some great deals by doing so, a next to new 4 piece bathroom suite for under £500 for example! 

5. Enlist your family and friends
The people closest to you will probably be over the moon for you when you buy your property and will want to help out where they can. Don't be shy to ask for help! If you have any plumbers, kitchen fitters or electricians in the family get them on board as you will save a small fortune. Our Granddad helped us create a garden space for next to nothing and the video below shares some great tips.

- This is a PR Collaboration

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?

Choosing a theme for our nursery

When we bought out first home last year the one room that I wanted to get spot on was Noah's. I wanted him to have a room that was not just functional and pretty to look at but somewhere that just had a great feel to it too. It also had to be suitable for his age but also easy to convert into a toddler room as he gets older.

I had an idea of what I wanted before we started decorating but I found that searching for idea's online really helped me decide what would look best. I wanted his room to have a warm feel but with a slight nautical twist. To achieve this theme I decided to choose a mild yellow paint called Cream Oakville from Graham & Brown for the walls and a pale beige carpet. You would think it would be pretty simple to choose yellow paint and a beige carpet but with so many different shades to go for we did deliberate for a while. We eventually agreed on which to go for and they both complement each other well.

Once all the decorating was out of the way it was time to bring the nursery furniture out of storage. We had bought the setup when I was expecting and thankfully the warm tones of the pine furniture matches the theme of the room perfectly. You can buy pine furniture online and in many stores - a timeless, and classic look that stands the test of time.

The last step was to dress the room and I chose blue and neutral accents to add a sort of seaside/nautical feel. I personally love light blue and yellow together as it reminds me of the beach. With the subtle hints of blue here and there I think it really works and Noah's room is my favourite room in the entire house.

Noah is now 16 months old and it's scary to think in a few more months we will be changing his room around again, we will be packing away the cot and switching to a cot bed. I can't believe it's almost time to say goodbye to his cot but I am looking forward to tweaking his room here and there. I have been looking online for new pieces for his room and I am so tempted in buying this pirate themed bed from FADS. Noah is pirate mad, everything is Jake, Jake, Jake and it would fit in with the theme so well. 

At what age did your toddler go from cot to bed? Does your child's room have a theme? 

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- 

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 - 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! 

Our home: One month later

I've been absent on the blog front for the past week, so I apologise for that. I've been so hectically busy that I haven't had chance to even tweet let alone write a blog post. I don't think I've ever been so busy or so stressed in my entire life! I know it's all going to be worth it though.

As you may know we recently bought our first home. We bought it at a steal of a price as it needed a lot of work doing to it. We had a month to gut and renovate the house. Just one month as that is how long we had left on our rented tenancy. A month was cutting it short and we didn't realise how much we underestimated our time scale until we were in the house and doing the work. But we couldn't of paid to stay in the rented house for another month cause we simply couldn't afford to pay rent on one house, a mortgage on the other and two sets of bills!

Our tenancy ended last weekend. We had to pack up all our belongings in our rented house but because our new house is still being worked on we only moved the big pieces of furniture. The rest of our things are all over the show, some at the new house, some at the in laws garage, some in the grandparents garage. It stresses me out to think about it as I have no idea where anything is. We also needed to clean the rented house from top to bottom to make sure we received all our deposit back. Packing and moving our furniture, cleaning the house, working on our new home all while looking after Noah was pretty difficult. We also had a big family wedding on that Saturday too which added to our list but it was a welcome bit of respite after our hectic week. As our house isn't ready yet we are currently living with the inlaws and we have no idea when we will be moving into our new home.  

Now lets talk about the progress on the house. Going into our new home we had a to do list as long as my arm but every time we completed one job another two or three was added to that list. So our long list is a very very long list now. 

Living room - Pretty much done. Walls were lined and painted. Alcoves and all woodwork sanded, painted and glossed. New carpet fitted. Ceiling painted. I'm in love with the front room and as it stands it's the only room that looks "finished".

Dining room - This room is one of the largest in the house and is currently being used as the dumping ground. We need space to store our tools and paint. But we have stripped all the wallpaper and half the room has been lined ready for painting. 

Kitchen - All units fitted. Intergrated fridge freezer, dishwasher, washing machine in place. Spot lights are being installed. We just need to do the odd few jobs with the kitchen units and then we have to floor it, tile it and paint it. 

Hallway & Landing - Mostly stipped. Needs lining and some walls need plastering. Carpet needed. 

Master bedroom - New ceiling up and spot lights being installed. It needs to be papered and painted. Carpet needed.

Bathroom - Possibly the worst room in the house. There is nothing in it. It's totally stripped and the walls are a terrible condition so it needs to be fully re plastered. Bathroom needs to be installed and the full monty when it comes to tiling. 

Noah's room - Noah's room is next to the bathroom so his wall needs to be re plastered too. It needs the works; paper, paint, carpet. 

We have had the house fully rewired with new sockets. A brand new energy efficient boiler installed. The house had never had central heating so we needed to buy a full set of radiators and copper pipes. Then pay for it to be installed. All that is done now though so I can breathe a sigh of relief! 

As you can tell a lot is yet to be done but we have made a great start! 

Our home: The kitchen so far

One of the first major jobs on our renovation list was to start on the kitchen. The old kitchen needed to be ripped out and gutted. All the cabinets, the tiles, the floor. You name it, it getting taken out! So the day after we got the keys we were straight in there. We needed a blank canvas for the new kitchen that we ordered just a few days later. 

This was the kitchen the day we go the keys. Very dated. So dated in fact it was last done in 1973, we found the kitchens receipt in the back of one of the cabinets. 

The day after we got the keys everything was gutted. All the cabinets and cupboards were ripped out, dismantled and taken to the tip. The tiles were hammered off the wall. All the waste was swept up and thrown away. Kitchen floor was taken up. 

After everything was thrown out we finally see the kitchen's bare bones, stripped back to bare bricks. They found a bit of damp at the back of the cabinets so all the plaster needed to come off the walls. 

The back wall was then damp proofed and plaster board went up. 

The back wall was then plastered and Noah came to have a look at his house's progress, he was having a good nosey around. We were waking around the house with him and I lost my balance, nearly tripped and he started laughing his head off at me. He was so happy and smiley whilst we were having a look around. He must know that this is his new home, the house he is going to grow up in. 

There was an electric fire in the kitchen as the house has never had central heating. We didn't need that fire so it was taken out, sold and Grandad began closing it up. It was sealed with breeze block's then plastered but with a vent as air needs to circulate.

The other side of the kitchen. It's a very long kitchen and not that narrow either but on pictures it seems to look smaller.

Our new kitchen arrived today. We unpacked it all, attached the legs and set the frames up to where they are going to go which will make the fitting of the kitchen flow much more smoothly. 

Hopefully by the end of the week our new kitchen will be fitted and we can begin painting, tiling and flooring the room! I'm so excited, I can't wait to see the end result!