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!
No comments:
Post a Comment