If you’ve been following for a while then you probably know we LOVE renovating homes! When we moved to where we live now we knew we were going to embark on a big renovation project, so I thought I’d update you on where we are at and our home renovation timeline.
In the past we have renovated multiple homes, and then always got itchy feet and moved on to the next. Even though that was the original plan with this house, the pandemic really put a halt to our plans, and perhaps even long term. We aren’t sure we plan to up and sell anytime soon! It’s had a huge affect on how we feel about the exhaustion of moving and renovating, and really whether it even matters to us to keep renovating and moving anymore. The more children we have, the less it seems to matter that we go bigger and better.
Here is how our current renovation has gone/is going, and the plans we have left to put into motion.
Our Renovation
The Bathroom
Pretty much as soon as we moved in, we started the work to turn what was a separate, tiny shower room and toilet, into one bigger bathroom where we could add a bath! This room was one I absolutely loved getting stuck into the design of. I had decided I wanted to go ‘soft industrial’ long before, but convincing my husband was another matter. You can only imagine how crazy he thought I was when I told him I wanted him to paint ‘almost’ black on the walls! And yet, it’s absolutely perfect and we love it!
You can watch our Bathroom Story Highlight for a lot more Detail
https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/18103826695181279/
The Main Bedroom
The main bedroom is my sanctuary, but it certainly wasn’t when we moved in! We had to move the boiler out of the room, so we had enough space! We even had to remove a sink!! We turned it from a very questionable and definitely too small space, into a soft industrial, relaxing haven for me! I LOVE this room.
The Second Bedroom
The room that gets all of the likes on social media. The kids’ room is probably our biggest ‘wow!’ as far as renovations we have done, and the finished product of our imaginations. We are pretty lucky that Martin’s dad is a joiner and can help whip up the dream, Pinterest worthy, quad bunk with Martin. It is so hard to believe that this space is the same space as before. Even for us, and we live here and saw the transformation happening. But it really is mindblowing that it’s the same room.
One thing that definitely still needs doing, and I notice it most in this room as the double glazing is failing, is the windows! We ran out of money for a while, so I just need to find somewhere with some massively discounted windows, and we will be set!
Check out the shocking before and after pics!
The Box Room
N’s room never got finished to the point we meant to get it to pre-covid, as we ran out of time before lockdown. The original plan was for a ceiling of blossoms dropping down, and a tree in the corner of the room, but alas… Covid both ruined our plans and kept us in check! Haha! We still did our best to make use of all the available space in the room, and by using draws under the bed it helped immensely. We also built a shelving unit over the stairs, which has also been great for utilising any available space, as the house is quite small!
The Landing & Stairs
This was one of the easier places, as we simply painted, added new doors and popped in a new carpet, but my goodness did it make a HUGE change. I couldn’t believe how much changing from those bright orangey brown, 70’s doors to white, wooden ones really changed the entire feel of the landing, and all the other upstairs rooms too actually!
The Kitchen & Dining Room
The biggest change. The longest part of the renovation and the heaviest and most draining emotionally too! We decided to start the kitchen renovation at a really crappy time, I’m not going to lie. Lockdown was off again on again, it was the depths of miserable Winter, and there was nowhere yet open to take the kids while the work was happening. So why on Earth did we do it?! I have no idea, haha! But alas, we did! This was the one that took the most knocking through and re-building.
We knocked down the old conservatory/lean to, and rebuilt on the same footprint, but a properly insulated and secure build. We had to knock through our teeny, tiny kitchen (with no storage) and the dining room, and work it into this newly re-constructed conservatory space to. So essentially we tackled 3 rooms into one new and far better space!
We wanted to make sure we could stand and cook, and still socialise with the kids and friends and family if they were over. We definitely managed that! Due to low light in the kitchen even though I originally wanted COLOUR, I opted for layered whites so that the space didn’t feel as dark as it is. We built so much storage into this room. It hides the washer, the dryer, the dirty washing baskets, coats and shoes and even a cloth nappy drying draw! Bonus!!
The Living Room
I always knew that I wanted to build in an epic fireplace/bookcase to the living room, and Martin definitely ran with my Pinterest inspirations for me! We created a glorious shelving unit, and then painted it my favourite shade of off-black (F&B Railings). This room isn’t completely finished yet, but I love the combination of the off-black and the concrete paint too! We found our teal sofa for a bargain price on Facebook Marketplace, and I can’t wait to finally get around to buying some bright and funky cushions to go on it. The dark greys and the bursts of colour work so great together!
The Hallway & Downstairs Toilet
Last, but not least, we tackled the hallway and built in a downstairs toilet. We had to add a small extension to the front of the house to be able to add a downstairs toilet, but this was something that was definitely worth it.
The new addition has new windows and a new door, but we definitely still need to add new windows to the rest of the house, and that’s high up on our list of things still to do.
The hallway is so much brighter and open now. We took out the doors and left the space open plan (except for the toilet, obviously!), and it’s made a huge difference to the amount of light in the house.
What’s Next?
Really, we have two goals still to achieve in this house… the windows and the garden!
As I mentioned above, we really want new windows throughout as the double glazing is failing, and also the older windows don’t match the newer, grey framed ones. Something else that is desperate, but we ran out of money and energy for, is the garden! Currently it’s half raspberry plants, and the rest grass. We would love to think of a design for it that will utilise the small size of it better, and also be a lovely space that we want to sit outside in!
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So there you have our renovation progress, and our future plans! I can’t say for certain whether we will finally settle for good or whether we will get those itchy feet feels again, but for now we are content to just be for a while. We need to work on growing our funds again, and then we can focus on the windows and garden!
L xxx
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Have you seen our Children’s Bedroom post?
