A week of doing one job a day….

Our house needs a lot of work. 😁

It’s absolutely liveable and it’s clean and tidy, but it’s definitely dated and needs an overhaul from top to bottom. We have so many plans for what we want to do here that I genuinely don’t think there’s a room in the house that won’t eventually get some attention.

When we moved in at the end of February, we went a bit mad with the renovations. Getting the kids’ bedrooms sorted was the priority, and my office was high on the list too because I was due to go back to work not long after my operation. We also couldn’t wait to get the dining room finished because it was the room we naturally found ourselves spending the most time in. Alongside those bigger jobs, we had ceilings to replace, new flooring to lay in the kitchen and utility room and, of course, the never-ending task of unpacking boxes and trying to work out where everything belonged.

To make things a little more challenging, I had a couple of fairly major operations in the middle of March which meant I wasn’t much use when it came to anything physical. My poor partner ended up doing far more than his fair share while I supervised from the sidelines, and by the middle of April we were both completely exhausted so we decided that rather than trying to power through, we’d take a step back and simply enjoy living in the house for a while.

We didn’t stop doing jobs altogether because neither of us can sit still for that long, but we limited ourselves to the smaller, more satisfying jobs like fixing the doorbell, changing sockets and switches, putting pictures up and ticking off all the little things that made the house feel more like ours without turning the place upside down again.

Now that we’ve been here for four months, we’re both ready to get stuck back in. The funny thing is that our list of jobs is actually longer than it was when we moved in because we’ve had time to live in the house and notice all the little things we’d like to change. Some of the bigger jobs are going to have to wait until we’ve saved the money because old houses certainly don’t believe in doing anything cheaply, but we’ve also got a long list of smaller jobs that just need a bit of time, effort and maybe a few pounds spent on supplies.

Those are the jobs we want to start working through over the next few months, and as a few lovely readers have emailed asking to see more of what we’re doing to the house, I thought it would be nice to share some of the progress on here too. It won’t all be dramatic room makeovers because that’s just not realistic for us at the moment, but hopefully you’ll enjoy seeing how we’re gradually turning this lovely old house into our home. 

My plan for this next week was to do at least one job a day around the house as I had a week’s holiday from work so I thought it would be a good time to get back into ticking off those jobs. 

Day One

So… Day One didn’t quite go to plan. Rather than crossing a job off the list, we somehow managed to add another one when we spotted a gorgeous vintage-style fireplace for just £50. Honestly, it looks like it belongs in our house and to me, it’s got more character than half the modern fireplaces you can buy for ten times the price.

We actually walked away from it at first because decorating the living room isn’t on this year’s list. We’d already agreed that our front room could wait until next year, but we couldn’t stop thinking about the fireplace. In the end we decided that bargains like that don’t come along very often, especially at that price, so we went back for it. 

We got it home but it was much too big a job to get the old one out and the new one in the same day as it took us two trips just to get it home and my partner was on nights.

So, even though, we didn’t get off to a flying start, I’m super pleased with our day 1! 

Day 2

The next day was a much quieter one. My partner was asleep after his night shift for most of the morning before heading back to work again that evening, so there wasn’t much point starting much. Instead, we just pottered around the garden once he’d got up in the early afternoon.

We scattered some weed and feed over the lawn and dug up a bush that had started to take over the border in front of our little bird café. It looked lovely while it was in flower, but that didn’t last long and, over the past few weeks, it seemed to have tripled in size. It was beginning to crowd out everything else, so it was definitely time for it to go.

We also measured up our fence and worked out the wood we’d need to replace the fencing and to build a pergola in the corner which is in our plans for some point – likely in the distant future though after we worked out how much wood we’d need to do what we wanted to do. 

Day 3

Day three we managed to install the fire place with a few little dramas and by a few little dramas, I mean some major issues with a trip to B&Q needed to buy supplies to fix these issues. It wasn’t easy but once it was in, we decided that we didn’t want to put the old gas fire back in so we then went on a search for the perfect fire and we managed to find an absolute bargain!

It still needs tidying up a bit more but it looks so much better than what was there before. 

We cleared some things from our garage, which is literally bursting at the seams with the contents of the two sheds from our old house, a trailer (that’s also full) and boxes that we still haven’t unpacked from when we moved.  We didn’t get too much cleared but we did do a tip run with one car full of things from in there.

I also stained a table that I’ve been meaning to do since I bought it as I loved the style of the table but not the finish of the wood on it. It was another one of those jobs that I’ve been putting off for ages but when I actually started it, it took no time at all and it’s made such a difference to the table. 

Day 4

It was waaaaay too hot to do too much but we did take a few boxes from the garage over to our storage container and brought some things back over to the house to list on Marketplace. We managed to sell an Ikea Kallax unit within an hour of listing it and listed a few things on there for free that we just wanted rid of.  

Day 5

Despite the fact that it was hotter than the sun, we went over to our lock up and collected our giant tent and everything that we bought with it and listed it on Marketplace for a bargain price. We went for a lower price as we haven’t had the tent up for a few years now and we didn’t want to put it up in this heat to test everything was as good as it was when we packed up from our last trip in the Lakes. I had 76 messages in an hour and it was collected shortly after. 😁

We used the money to pay for some bits we needed for the car and then decided it was too hot to do anything other than sit in the garden.

Day 6

An easy day for me as my partner was at work 6am-6pm so it was just me and I wanted a bit of a batch cooking day in the kitchen rather than a day ticking jobs off our list. 

I did paint the step between our kitchen and utility room as it got a bit splashed when we had the ceiling replaced and plastered and I’d been meaning to repaint it ever since. It took less than five minutes but I just hadn’t been able to find where the paint was in the garage until this week.

Day 7

We’re planning a car boot sale in a couple of weeks so I tidied out our big built in cupboard in the dining room and it took longer than I thought as there were a few tubs in there filled with random bits that needed sorting through. It’s still filled with all sorts but at least it’s organised all-sorts. 😁

So that’s how my week of jobs went.

I feel like we’ve managed to tick off so many things that have been sitting on our to-do list for what feels like forever and I’m feeling pretty accomplished right now. There’s still plenty of jobs left to do (I’m not convinced our list will ever actually end! 😂), but it’s actually really nice to look back over the week and realise just how much progress we’ve made.

I’m trying really hard to focus on the progress because I think we’ve reached that stage where all we seem to notice are the jobs that still need doing rather than the ones we’ve already finished.

I’d love you to follow me on Twitter and it would be amazing to see you over on my Facebook page and on Instagram. If you’re interested, you can find out more about me here and while I’ve got your attention, if you’re wondering why some of my posts lately are a little bit less frugal then have a read of this post. 😉

Do your future self a favour – Pin this post for later.