Knocking down has begun & Bathroom ideas

Rubble, Rubble toil and trouble.

This is exactly how I feel at the moment. Steve is full steam ahead on getting things moving now we have planning permission, and with my dad's visit getting closer, Steve is determined to get certain things sorted before he gets here so my dad can concentrate on the block work.

So, the first victim to the Fox Developments was the poor old garage. It got emptied into the new big shed, and also the utility room which is directly next to the garage. In short, it's all a big mess. He's started knocking the walls down, but we realised that children and chickens could then escape into the front garden, so he's keeping up the front of the garage for now, until we can get some massive gates in to hold everything in place!

The roof had a fibreglass coating on it, which was wrapped over a timber frame, and under that was the old roof which was felt with gravel over...nice!

The plan is that once all the walls are down, we'll get the mini digger in to start on the footings for the new house, which is effectively wrapping around the existing house, so we can remain living in it whilst the work is being done. The utility room is about the same size as the garage, and these will join to become one giant garage with our bedroom above it.

So in the next few weeks he's got footings to dig and drains to move. I'm not sure if services get moved yet, or if they wait until further down the line - Steve knows everything, and I'm just over here dreaming of kitchens and bathrooms.

I did come up with a good idea - given how grubby he comes in from the garden sometimes. Maybe a little shower room in the garage might be a good idea? He can keep his Swarfega under the sink in there, and save me some space in the utility room 🙌

There will be an en suite directly above, so plumbing and drainage won't be a problem.

Also, I'm thinking that given there will be a door from the garage into the house via the playroom, it might be best to put the washer and dryer in the garage too - then I can use the utility as extra storage, and somewhere to iron (drink coffee, eat chocolate and and hide from the kids).

I've also seen some really cool ideas on Pinterest. I'd love a laundry chute from upstairs down into the garage. I have visions of two separate chutes, one for darks, and one for lights and both going into different hidden compartments near the washing machine...A girl can dream. I'm only 28 years old and these are the things I have going around my head.

I guess this comes with the territory when building your own home, you can pick things you'd like that you couldn't normally do. I don't think Steve is keen on the laundry chute idea though, but we must do around 7 loads of washing a week. I'd like it to be made as easy as humanly possible from now on. Happy Wife, Happy Life and all that ;-)

The girls will have a jack and jill en suite between their rooms, and given the nature of these, it means two doors into the room makes it quite small. I'm currently working on the sizings to see if they'll get a walk in shower, and two sinks in there as well as a toilet. Then hopefully it's future proofed for when they are doing their makeup ready for some under 18's night. God that's an awful thought. We might have even moved by then so who knows. 

Their own bathroom is a must for me, given the hideous, mouldy bathroom we've been sharing between 4 people since August last year.

This brings me onto our en suite - I'd like it to be quite modern, and simple. Walk in double shower, with his and hers sinks and a toilet. I have this idea that I'd like all the toilets and sinks to be wall hung to make hoovering and steam mopping easier - no more scrubbing around the foot of the basin.

The house bathroom will be my domain. I'd like a free standing bath, with quite traditional looking features. I'd love wood paneling, and victorian style taps.

The bathroom images above are all from Pinterest. Sadly, the messy garage pictures above these are my own.

Who knows how long it will all take, and given our tiny budget, I think we'll be doing it room by room once the building work and roof are on for the next 6 years. But it'll be an adventure, and best of all it'll be to our taste.

Planning Permission GRANTED!

We have planning permission!!

Feels like forever and a day ago since we started the planning permission process. We went through pre-planning first as our plans aren't straight forward. We were advised that because the building work will wrap around the entire house, it is classified as a development and an extension. But regardless, we are here now, and we can finally get cracking. Wahooo!

Now seems like a good time to document the house as it is now. The warts and all images from the small, mouldy bathroom, to the lovely brown carpets.

Truth be told, we actually love living here, regardless of the house itself. So these things aren't important to us. What is important is where we live - this can't be found on a shelf in Laura Ashley, and is priceless to us. We lived in a new build previously, and we initially thought all our Christmases had come at once with the utility room of dreams, our lovely little en-suite and that 4th guest bedroom to decorate for our friends and family to stay in. But once we started wanting to make changes to it, we realised it would never be right. The plot was tiny, we were overlooked massively (and we had a really decent plot!) it just wasn't us. It wasn't in the village location we wanted, there was no little village pub, and we couldn't walk our daughters to school. These things you can't add on later. So after just two years of living there, we put the house on the market.

We found our little 70's bungalow. 

The gardens were huge, and the potential was incredible.

It was also liveable, we wanted to be able to live in the house for the time being, and having two small children, this was really important to us.

We made some small changes once we moved in. We painted over the loud, floral wallpaper in every room (apart from our eldest daughters room - she loves that pink wallpaper haha). Once we squeezed the contents of our old house in, it started to feel much more like home. 

We live right next door to the school and nursery where the girls go, which is so handy. But when we moved in the fence was only about 3ft high, so this year we got a 6ft one in place (after we'd been through a consultation process with the school and local council!)

Then that was the kick off of work. We put up a big workshop shed, ready to empty the garage into, so we could knock the garage down first, to enable us to get in a mini-digger round the back to dig the footings...and in between we got a summerhouse and are currently laying a patio. I think that pretty much brings you up to date. Oh yeah, and we found some nasty asbestos - not the kind you can double bag and take to the tip. That was expensive...

I'm starting with the Bathroom & toilet. These are my least favourite rooms in the house. They serve a purpose, but aren't somewhere I enjoy being. The bathroom is dark and mouldy, and smells damp. I bleach it weekly to keep the mould at bay, and spray it daily with anti-bacterial spray, so it's liveable!

 Next up is our bedroom...

It has some lovely features, such a wallpapered ceiling, and a fusty old brown carpet. My beautiful white wooden bed broke due to being dismantled one too many times, so we had to buy an emergency bed. So now nothing matches. We have random bits of furniture in here to store all our clothes in, as we went from having built in wardrobes and built in shelves, to having nothing...

Next we have my youngest daughter's bedroom...

The smallest room in the house, in fact there are built in pantry cupboards in the kitchen which are bigger than her room, bless her. She's only three, and quite girly, so we've tried to make it as nice as possible, I've been on pinterest since we moved in, dreaming of her new bedroom...

Next is my eldest daughter's bedroom...

This room is full to bursting with her stuff. She is a little collector, and loves everything she is given. She's not one to get bored of something easily, so therefore hoards things.

She collects stones, conkers, leaves, and jewellery in pockets daily. She also likes Disney princesses, and puppies, and well, any animal really. You name it, you'll find it in her room, kept safe.

Next up we have the living room... 

Apologies for the awful layout formatting, Blogger doesn't seem to like you changing the layout or picture shape too much when you use a set template.

We had a beautiful "Seaspray" blue - Laura Ashley living room in our old house, and the furniture doesn't quite work the same in the bungalow. Not much I can say about this room, other than one of the panels in the patio door is bust, and has let air in, so it is permanently damp in between the two panes of glass. We painted this room first, as it had an oppressive, dark brown floral wallpaper which made me feel like I was walking into a dark tunnel of doom!

Then we have the kitchen...

This is the lightest room in the house, it gets beautiful sunshine, and feels spacious. We had to remove some worktop and an end cupboard to fit in our lovely oak dining table though. There are three large walk-in style pantry cupboards which house all of our crap. I have a cupboard sorting fetish when it comes to the food though, so that is organised nicely.

So there we have it. I need to start sorting all of our clothes, all of the girls toys and trying to get rid of everything we no longer wear or use in preparation for not having a loft, not having a house and for everything needing to be tidied away so it doesn't get covered in dust!

Summerhouse Love

So, my dreams of having a little garden haven were turned into a reality last month, when we acquired a beautiful Chelsea Summerhouse. I made a little mood board for the garden in a previous post (You can see this here)

These summerhouses are beautifully handmade in England, with incredible attention to detail. They are made from Red Cedar, known for it's long-lasting properties. The roof alone has a 40-year guarantee! However, Steve wasn't happy for a couple of days. It took a full day for him and his dad to dismantle, then another full day to get it from it's old home, to ours. But I'm so glad he persevered as it's now in situ and absolutely gorgeous!

It was painted in Farrow & Ball - French Grey, but needed a freshen up. We were undecided on the colour. We thought about painting it the same colour as the shed (White and grey) but I felt it suited the French Grey. Plus it looked so handsome sat up in the top corner, and gives the garden some character. So we stuck with the French Grey.

     

Loads of the hip-ridge tiles broke whilst dismantling the roof sections, so we needed to order 3 packs of these...not cheap. They are from Canada - it turns out not many places in the UK stock red cedar shingles. Anyway, they arrived last week, so they are ready to go on. The replacement ones will go at the back so we don't need to look at the new replacement tiles and there are plenty of trees round the back, so should weather fairly quickly.

This really has been a labour of love for us. It seems a bit backwards working on the garden first, but for us it's important to have somewhere nice to chill during the building work. Since moving into the Bungalow last August we haven't been able to put our stamp on any part of the house as there just isn't any point. So this has been lovely, and we've enjoyed sitting in here a few times now the weather is picking up.

We have disposed of the old shed, and gave away two greenhouses to make way for a new Indian stone patio which we are in the middle of doing at the moment. It has meant that evenings and weekends are spent in the garden, and praying the girls want to play outside where I can keep an eye on them. I feel like certain things are being sacrificed for the sake of getting this done though, lunches are picnic style in the back garden, and dinners are mostly BBQ's and not much effort put into them as we just want to get cracking. I have piles of clean washing waiting to be put away, but lack of wardrobes means they stay as piles. The bathroom is always in use, as there are 4 people using it constantly. None of us have any space away from it all...until now!

We are planning on getting a coffee table for in here, and store all our board games here and turn it into a bit of a family room. We are getting power installed in it soon too, Festoon lights are on my wish list next, for around the outside.

Image credit - Pinterest

I have filled the summerhouse with lovely girly things, but still deciding on prints for the walls. The Jute rug is really soft, but hides muck from shoes really well. The tray table adds a modern flare, and will hold a glass of Gin & Tonic or two. Both are from Very.co.uk

Most of the accessories and soft furnishings are from Matalan (Floral cushion, throw, candle holder, glass trinkets and faux lavender flowers).

The patio will echo the octagonal shape of the summerhouse, and come out in three main sections at the front. Steve has made some lovely decking steps which wrap around nicely, and will hide the ugly bits underneath. It's seated really high up as it's on a large wheel. It spins right round which is nice as you can chase the sun. However, the garden is North West facing, so we will only get sun in front of the summerhouse until around 4-5pm at the moment, but we are hoping by summer, the sun will be higher in the sky for longer and we'll have a little sun trap!

Last week I went to the Harrogate Flower show for some garden inspo, and came home with a few plants to fill up the space either side of the summerhouse, and loads of other ideas for further down the line (when the house is done, as I need to stop spending money now!)

One of the plants I picked up was a lovely Hydrengea called "Love me Kiss".

Once we have the patio down and power to it, we'll be having a BBQ. Looking forward to a few card games and drinking a nice cold Gin & Tonic in there.


We were about half way through laying the patio, when we decided it would be better a bit bigger. The original idea was to do it 4 rows deep, but I think now it'll be 6 rows in total. Plus a border of the stone setts around the edge.

I'd like two deep raised beds made from old sleepers which we  found under the greenhouses and shed. These will be to the left and right of where the path will be leading down to the house.

I'd also like some lights in the borders and raised beds, pointed towards the summerhouse, but we really can't spend anymore money, as the money we spend here is either coming out of the house budget, or from the money we should be saving...

I'll update with pictures of the finished article soon.