I absolutely love our house. Love, love, love it. It’s genuinely my dream house and I still have moments where I look around and can’t quite believe we live here. But it’s also more than 100 years old and, as beautiful as it is, it needs a lot of work.We knew that before we bought it. We sat down after we first viewed it and had a very honest conversation about what we were taking on. We knew it would take years to get it how we wanted it and we were completely fine with that. There wasn’t a single room in the house that didn’t need some sort of work when we moved in, so we definitely … [Read more...]
Things in our home I wouldn’t have chosen (but now love)….
When I think about how I used to decorate, it was very much my taste.Not necessarily in a selfish way, more in a “this is my house and I know what I like” kind of way. I liked things to match, I liked everything to feel calm and coordinated and I generally knew exactly how I wanted a room to look before I'd even started decorating it.Actually, now I've written that down, maybe I was a little bit selfish. 😂My old house was very much like that. White walls, pale grey carpets and everything coordinated. If you've been around here for a long time then you might even … [Read more...]
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 … [Read more...]
Don’t Rush Your Home….
When we moved into this house, we could easily have gone shopping and bought everything we needed in one go. It would certainly have been quicker, and within a few weeks every room would probably have looked finished. There would have been furniture in every corner, pictures on every wall and accessories on every shelf and although there's absolutely nothing wrong with decorating like that, I don't think our house would have felt like ours in the way it does if that's what we'd done. We've chosen to take our time decorating and furnishing our new house. There are still shelves … [Read more...]
The best things about bringing a Victorian house back to life….
After writing about the worst things about living in a Victorian reno project last week, it only feels fair to give the house a chance to defend itself. 😁 Because yes, there is dust everywhere. Yes, every job turns into three other jobs. Yes, we have a plasterer on speed dial, and yes, I have had more conversations about door knobs, cladding lengths and paint finishes than I ever imagined possible. But underneath all of that, there is also a very big reason why we fell in love with this house in the first place.Living in a Victorian reno project is chaotic, expensive and … [Read more...]
A Pre-loved home office {on a budget}….
For the first time ever, I have an actual office at home.In our old house, my “office” was basically just a corner of the dining room and honestly, I didn’t mind it at all. I loved being downstairs in the middle of everything. I worked long hours back then and quite often ended up logging back in on an evening or over a weekend to help someone or deal with something urgent, so having my desk downstairs meant I still felt part of whatever was going on in the house while I worked. I could answer emails while tea was cooking, quickly check something while everyone else was watching TV … [Read more...]
