Our new forever home (before I got my hands on it)

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The only exterior shot I have courtesy of the estate agent so please excuse the poor quality. We’ve since destroyed the drive, got a massive dent in that light on the right (someone crashed into it but won’t own up!), and the front jungle (garden) needs some serious work. You’ll be the first to know when the front is photo worthy again.

I have no idea where to begin with this blog and am probably at risk here of over sharing and creating an anticlimax when you realise this isn’t an epic renovation story. I get asked all the time what I actually did to this house and what we bought. So for the first time I am going to share all the ‘before’ shots of our house so you can see some of the horrors we had to un-do*, what we still need to do, and the blank canvas that got me so excited I literally caved in and agreed to buy a house that was way bigger than we needed, and completely the opposite of what I wanted.

*sorry to the lovely developers (Maurine and Wayne) if you’re reading this.

But first the floor plan (everyone needs a floor plan)

I was in two minds about sharing this floor plan as I’m so conscious this can come across as (excuse the poor English) just “wanky”. But I want you to see how many rooms we have so you know that I haven’t redecorated our living room or bedrooms to create new content for my Instagram account. And I don’t create new corners of a room for a photo either. We are very lucky to have a large 4 bedroom house (all thanks to choosing a cheap part of the country to live in, wheeeeey!) and the photos you see on Instagram are all how the rooms look today after 2 years of hard graft working my way around the house.

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We renamed the ‘Lounge’ to our formal Drawing Room

So you’ve walked through the front door, take a left and here you are - in the second lounge as it was originally intended to be. Who the hell needs a second lounge as well as a Family Room and a Cinema Room we wondered. We seriously wish there wasn’t a TV in here (he literally never uses it), and don’t even get me started on that modern fire place, but we didn’t have the money to remodel the chimney breast so we worked with it and turned it into a formal Drawing Room with lots of bookcases, a study area, and our random collection of antique furniture and mid century iconic Ercol treasures we have inherited from our family. One day I want to remove that entire chimney breast and replace with a real wood burning stove. I’d also love to tone down the orangey wood floor but that’s a massive job as it runs through the entire downstairs and again, time and money have relegated this project to the very bottom of the list.

BEFORE - Classic, neutral, plain, boring….

AFTER - A wonky, never before seen angle of the Drawing Room taken with my iPhone from outside the window on the driveway looking like an absolute prat. If only I had an over-priced wide angle lens for my camera, sigh!

The room that sold the house

I’ll be doing a more detailed blog post for each room with lots more photos so I’ll leave it there and move on to the Kitchen to keep this on point - this blog is only about the before and afters, after all! So, here we are now at the end of the hallway in the room that stretches the entire width of the house. When we walked in this space, we knew this was the house for us. We squeezed each others hand, looked directly at each other and without speaking in front of the developers, we said ‘EFF YES’ with just one look. All I ever wanted was a period house with high ceilings, massive windows I could replace with as much crittall as we could afford, and bags of character. Instead, I fell in love with a modern brand new build that had zero personality, but what it lacked in period features it made up for in light and space. It was my perfect blank canvas to create our home, without the mega bucks or drama of a renovation.

BEFORE - A nice white space, but annoyingly it was slightly on the magnolia side of white

AFTER - Whiter, new lights, new furniture, and plenty of wall decor to add character. Still no blinds though!

The almost perfect room (just a shame about the magnolia walls and that wall paper)

BEFORE - The wallpaper went in the first month. The Boy was on a roll stripping wallpaper whilst watching sport so I gave him all the rooms to do!

AFTER - Still no blinds, but our perfect family room with a huge sofa and plenty of chairs

Where we binge watch Netflix & films, a.k.a The Boys Room

The kitchen/dining/family room sold the house to us when we viewed it, but it was this next room that obviously caught the Boys attention and led to him making a phone call to the estate agent to book a viewing. You see I’m the mug who scrolled straight past this house on Right Move as I didn't want a modern house. I didn't even get to the floor plan to see the copious amounts of space, but luckily I live with a film/gaming/sport addict so when he found a house with a Cinema Room he over-ruled me and booked us in. There’s still some work to do in this room so I’ve only ever shared a glimpse of some wall art and the massive Chesterfield where I try to cuddle up to watch boxsets but always end up falling asleep and get shouted out for having to rewind Netflix!

Within a week of moving in, we pulled down the wall mural of the galaxy and added a new lick of paint. It was more fitting for a 10 year olds bedroom than a room for thirty-something year olds and my OCD just couldn’t live with how badly the wallpaper was put up (sorry Wayne).

By the time we went upstairs we knew we were buying this house and forgot all about the bedroom decor

BEFORE - Our master bedroom! The floral wall paper again went in the first few weeks and was replaced gradually over the next 18 months with Railings, Dead Salmon and Brilliant White walls.

Some people might like this. I hated it all but at the same time felt so bad un-doing all the hard work of the developers.

BEFORE - Guest bedroom. (*Shudder!)

They were clearly targeting a different market and not a stupid couple with a big mortgage and no kids

BEFORE - Bedroom 4 and more wallpaper to strip!

BEFORE - The last bedroom and another mural that had to come off. I tried to save it thinking someone could re-use it. Impossible!

Thats the best of the before photos I think. I’ve saved a few more for each blog post I work on to show the details and ideas behind each room makeover. And I’ve not even touched on the bathroom, new en-suite or downstairs loo as I promise you, there’s some hardcore DIY in those projects so definitely don’t want to peak too soon sharing all that good stuff yet!

It was the best decision the Boy ever made getting wooed by that Cinema Room, ignoring me, and booking us in for a viewing. We fell in love and knew this was our forever home. Immediately we put both our homes on the market, panicked whilst we waited for them to sell (luckily it only took a week) and put in our offer. I’ll never forget the call we received when we heard the house was ours and the happiness, excitement and fear we felt over the next chapter of our lives. We also had to put our life in storage and live out of our cars whilst bedroom surfing with my Nan, then my Dad, then as many weekends away as possible for over 3 months until we finally picked up the keys to our new home 7 months after that call to let us know our offer was accepted and the house was off the market. It was hard times, but one billion percent worth it!

Loves all round,
Katie x

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