So, I know it's been pretty quiet around here of late, but as you may have read in recent posts, we have been waiting to move house for a whole year! We put our flat on the market in September 2015, expecting to have moved by Christmas. We found the house we wanted to buy in the October, but had to wait while the owner found her new home. In the meantime, we lost buyers left, right and centre due to the wait, but eventually got a dedicated couple I think around April. But then the legal problems commenced. I will never own a leasehold property again in my life! It is a nightmare! After months of thinking it might never happen we finally exchanged at the start of September, and completed on the 30th.
While we were desperate to move to a bigger house, it was still sad as we watched the removal guys take everything out of the flat we'd lived for 7 years. So many big events happened in our lives during that time - getting married, bringing our first child into the world and of course I launched 91 Magazine from here - and if you didn't know, this house inspired the magazine's name - as the address was no.91.
We look back and hope we managed to improve that flat while we were there, I particularly loved the kitchen which was our biggest project, and the room that most prospective buyers seemed to love. Here it is just before we left... and yes, we did leave the Smeg behind! :(
Goodbye no.91, you will always have a special place in my heart! But it definitely felt like the right time for us to move on. We have now been in our new home for a week and it feels great! We have somehow managed to upgrade from a 2 bed flat to a 5 bed semi detached house! The day we viewed it last year I literally couldn't sleep that night thinking about it. The house was a bit of a mess in terms of decor and maintenance, but I loved the space and the flow and just knew we could bring it back to life. When we thought we might lose it, I realised that it would be very unlikely we'd find the same amount of space for the price we were paying. Particularly in an area we liked and that suited us in terms of future schools for Ruby. So we held on and did everything we could to make sure the chain didn't collapse. So, here we are, finally in, and WOW, there is a lot to do!
Downstairs there is a large knocked through living room, a large conservatory (or 'garden room' as I like to call it!), the kitchen and a downstairs loo. We decided on our second night in the house it was time to start painting. We just couldn't bear to be surrounded by dark, dark blue walls for any longer than was necessary! Dark walls can look great if done well, but I personally find it super oppressive. The room also has a worn red/brown carpet throughout! oh and did I mention the gold fireplace feature walls?!
We are half way through painting this huge room white (it's taking 3 coats to cover the blue!) and already it feels so much brighter and even more spacious. There's still lots more to do in here - rewiring, flooring, and skimming the artex on the ceiling, but really it's all cosmetic, so shouldn't take too long to transform.
On through into the 'garden room', I've tried to do a touch of styling and sprucing it up with plants, but there is NO hiding those lime green walls! Oh and yep, they carry on right through into the kitchen....
I realised after we agreed to include our Smeg appliances with the sale of the flat that I'd made a big mistake! My husband suggested we just get a cheap fridge to tide us over until we do up the kitchen, but I literally couldn't bear it (I'm such a Smeg snob!!) - but luckily I managed to get this one at a great price as it has a bit of damage. But those lime walls just aren't doing it justice are they?! So I think they are next on our hit list!
Upstairs isn't quite so bad in terms of colour schemes, except for the room I'm typing from now, which has a questionable mural painted on the dark blue (again!) walls! Above is a small bedroom which I've managed to make passable for now, although what you can't see is the carpet TILES on the floor!
Ruby's little room isn't too bad either - it just needs decorating and to be rid of the stained carpet. I never thought I'd say this, but I think we may actually go for carpet in the bedrooms. Even though the current ones are a bit manky, we've been quite enjoying the softness under our feet after having hard, cold floorboards in our old place.
This is all I dare show you of the bathroom! It needs complete replacement but it is quite a big room, so lots of scope to make it lovely. For whatever reason this is the only room that's been left with exposed floorboards, everywhere else has been covered with carpet or lino!
So that's the first peek into our new home. I know it's all going to take a while, so I need to make my peace with that and endure living with things as they are for a while. But I am looking forward to the journey, and making the space lovely again. I hope you'll enjoy following along with me! :)