New Windows!

One of the main jobs I hoped to have done this year was replacing the windows that hadn't been replaced by the previous owners. They had replaced half of them but the other half of the house still had the original 50 + year old single glazed metal windows. As you can imagine they were horrendous to take care of and the previous owners obviously didn't look after them at all as the metal was rotting and covered in mould which I was constantly removing as well as cleaning and drying the windows daily. 

This has been our biggest job to date and luckily Andy has a friend who fits windows for a living! Yay! So over the last few months he removed and replaced all the awful old windows and replaced with new sparkling double glazing windows. Of course I made sure to grab some before shots so I can show you the huge difference it has made to the look of the house. 

Not only does it look better outside but it looks and feels much more warm and homely on the inside too. We have had both the back and the front done now and the house looks so much better. We still want to replace the back door as soon as we save up some more money so watch this space.

 If you look closely too you will be able to spot another difference just inside the house which was my next job! (and yes the first picture was photo-bombed by my lovely 3 year old)

Forever House Charm Update

Wow it has been a year since my last post on this blog. My third child, Elsie was born last August and has kept me very busy. I haven't stopped with the renovating/decorating/home improvements but I have concentrated more on writing on my other blog. I do however, have plenty of posts to write up on here now to get up to date with where we are on the house front. We are still nowhere near finished and have a pretty long list of jobs to do over the next few months which I can't wait to share. 

I have all sorts from bedrooms to kitchens and even some upcycling and Ikea style hacks to share with you so make sure you keep an eye out for them over the next few weeks! 

Thank you!

Project Four: The Master Bedroom: Getting There

Good news! The hidden door is no more! Over the weekend we removed the door (despite being warned not to!) and thankfully we had no problems with collapsing walls. Instead we found a small gap before the plasterboard the other side. This was great news as we could then replace the door with plasterboard and use pollyfilla around the outside of the board to smooth it over and TA DAH! Our wall now looks semi normal! We have replaced the skirting board in front of the wall and so also replaced the rest of the skirting boards in the room so they are all the same. I have to say it looks great, a huge improvement. 

All this means that this week we need to paint the skirting boards again (have done one coat tonight), replace the carpet and paper all the walls. I know that it's a lot in one week especially when 38 weeks pregnant but I'm feeling positive that we can do it!

Project Four: The Master Bedroom Update

I was hoping to have had lots of updates for you and a finished project by now complete with lots  of pretty pictures! Unfortunately things are not quite going to plan! I now have three weeks until my baby is due and a bedroom which is one big DIY disaster and for once it's not our own doing! It was going great until I finished stripping the wallpaper. Apparently the fact the room had quite bad damp by the windows under the paper and a hidden door to nowhere hiding behind the paper on another wall, had gone totally unnoticed when we had surveyors checking the house before buying and so it was a not so lovely surprise for us!

Yes you heard right. A hidden door leading to nowhere behind the wallpaper. Not your average decorating problem. In fact I've never heard of anything like it and it really is as bad as it sounds. I've had a plasterer come and take a look and he hasn't got a clue what to do. He can't plaster over the wood as the plaster won't set and any attempts to move the door could mean the wall falling through in Zach's newly decorated bedroom!

We've managed to kind of solve the damp problem with lots of cleaning and some anti mould paint. I am slightly worried there may be some behind the fitted wardrobes though from what I can see but have no way to get to it there. 

I'm finally beginning to realise I am way out of my depth here and I'm lost at what to do next. Over the next week we are going to be attempting to at least smooth over the area around the door and fill in all the holes in the hopes we can get it all level so we can paper over it. 

Once that is done I can finally get round to papering the rest of the room and choosing some flooring. 

Wish me luck!

Project Four: Master Bedroom: Before

This is the room I've been dreading starting. There is just eight weeks until baby arrives and I need to have my bedroom in a fit state for her arrival. In every house we have lived in we have never got round to decorating our bedroom. It is always the one that no one else looks at so tends to be the last one to be considered when it comes to decorating. This time, now that we know we are here to stay I want to make our bedroom special. I want it to be my sanctuary, to escape to when I need to relax or even just to have something nice to look at when up with the baby in the night.

Now our bedroom won't be an easy or quick job. We need new flooring as there is damp on the carpet near the windows and a small amount of damp under the windows. We need to strip the wallpaper on all the walls and eventually I would like new fitted wardrobes as I just don''t like ours. I still haven't made my mind up on wallpaper as I keep changing my mind but I figured if we clear out our room and strip the wallpaper then I can go and choose some without giving me time to change my mind again.I love that the room will be a blank canvas. I will choose a feature paper for the wall behind the bed then choose a colour to match for the other walls. The only thing I have bought so far is a beautiful blue patchwork duvet set from next which I fell in love with.

Anyway for now I will leave you with my before pictures of the room taken before we have started anything else. This is the room with the wallpaper, curtains, drawers and dressing table which were all here when we moved in so just the bed and bedside tables were ours. ( I have big plans for the furniture they left behind though, an exciting upcycle project).

I cannot wait to get started and show your our progress. I'll probably have a few updates to come for this room shortly. It certainly couldn't look much worse than it already does!

My Dream Bathroom

I don't usually take part in blog competitions like this but when I saw the Great British Home quiz and competition from Victoria Plumb, I thought it looked not only like great fun but also great content for me being able to use my imagination. The quiz itself is available for anyone to take and find out their bathroom style HERE. The quiz showed that my bathroom style was 'Quirky Cool'.

Now my task is to tell you about my dream bathroom. The if money was no object version. Now if money actually was no object I would have a pretty amazing bathroom. It is my favourite room in the house as I love a good bubble bath complete with a glass of wine to relax with. 

When it comes to a bath, I think the bigger the better and I would love to have a huge bath similar to the hotel bath in one of my favourite ever films 'Pretty Woman' I love the shape and elegance of the bath it would be an amazing focal point for my dream bathroom. 

Along with my large bath in the centre, I would love a whole wall turned into a dedicated dressing table style area. Vintage looking cabinets along the wall containing all my skincare lotions and make up as well as being a storage area for spare towels. A long mirror across the wall above the cabinets also the length of the wall and a comfy chair I could sink into after a nice bath to brush my hair and apply moisturiser with everything in easy reach.

For the colour scheme I would love a mix of duck egg blue and white to keep the room looking clean, fresh and light. I would then incorporate these colours in the accessories too. In fact I've been getting lots of inspiration for this post over on Pinterest, where I have just created a Dream Bathroom Pinterest Board. Over there you can get an idea of the colours I would use and a rough idea of the furniture that has inspired my dream bathroom.

Another thing my dream bathroom would 'need' is a TV, especially for watching films so would have to be viewable from the bathtub preferably on a wall so it didn't clutter my bathroom. 

Every bathroom needs a shower for when you are in a rush so I would like a door leading into a wet room with walk in shower. Of course I would need a much bigger house in order to have my ultimate dream bathroom, but it may happen one day! 

What do you think of my dream bathroom ideas? What would be in yours? 

This is my entry to mumsnet's Victoria Plum dream bathroom competition. You can read about the challenge Here.

Project Three: Bathroom Progress

Well as I said before, the bathroom is my next big project and the great news is it started sooner than I had expected! While I was at work Thursday our plumber came around and removed the old shower basin and fitted our new bath and shower screen. I absolutely love it and there is still a lot more space in the room than I expected there to be. So although I still have the decorating to do I really wanted to share the before and after pictures since having the bath fitted for you to see the massive difference it's made already!

BEFORE

AFTER

The bath itself is huge! I definitely think it looks much more welcoming in there now. I now need to find some storage that will fit in there for all our toiletries and some paint for the side that you can't see in the picture as the tiles only go around half the room where the bath is. Once the painting is finished I'm going to treat us to some new flooring, towels and accessories as we spent so little on the bath and fitting. We actually only had to pay for the fitting as a family member was getting a new bathroom fitted and their perfect condition bath would have been thrown away otherwise. It is definitely worth checking local selling sites and pages if you want to do a bathroom on a budget as surprisingly, people give items like baths and sinks away for free very often when having a new bathroom fitted!

Now I need to choose a colour scheme! What colour is your bathroom?