A Little House Update
After my teasers of the new house so far, lots of people had asked when I’d be sharing the inside, and so in amongst the brilliant chaos of visitors and trips out and about that we’ve had recently, I set about determined to take some decent photos of the internal rooms that we’re now so proud to own! I thought this post would be about the whole house, or maybe at least the downstairs. As it turns out, there’s a LOT to photograph and so many little things I want to show you, so this post only focuses on one room to begin with- the living/dining room.
The funny thing with house tours is that usually it’s a case of showing off the finished product. With this one, we’ve barely even started.
Below are the “before photos” on the day we moved in whilst it was still empty, and to follow are lots of current photos, as it looks right now. Yet we have so many plans, so many tweaks and amendments and dreams for how we hope it will look one day. I am so content in this house, just thinking about it makes me beam with pride and love for it, regardless of the to-do list a mile long!
So here’s our living room.
It currently just about fits our sofa bed and the big box armchairs. There’s room for the lovely wooden coffee table we picked up from our favourite grot-shop near the old flat, and the doll’s house green grocers that Adam was made as a child. We swapped our little square dining table and the tartan chairs I had upholstered with Adam’s granny’s larger table as she was also moving house, but downsizing. The thing I realised after moving was that although we came from a small-ish 2 bedroom flat to a much bigger 4 bedroom house, possessions are like a liquid – they fill whatever space is available. Thinking we’d be able to have acres of space and be totally minimalist just never happened – each room has expanded and is pretty much already filled with everything it needs.
Though we have taken a few bits away and added a few others.
For instance, it became very apparent that neither of us actually particularly wanted the TV in the living room. A) because it was too big and bulky and just looked odd in a long thin space (I hate living rooms where the TV is the main focus of the room rather than the fireplace) and B) because we simply don’t have the time or desire to watch it. Whilst it’s reasonably nice weather outside, and we have limited time to tick each weekend’s jobs off the list, we just don’t have enough hours in the day to sit down for an hour and do nothing. Is that bad?
So the telly has been moved into our huge loft room with the intention that we’ll turn it into a cosy cinema room at some point before we put the staircase in.
Our intention with this room is to have it as a day living and dining room. The kitchen currently doesn’t have the space for a table, so we eat in here or outside if it’s sunny. Our idea for this room is to close off the second door in the corner to allow more space for furniture, and have it bright and airy, with parquet wooden flooring and move the stable door to the kitchen and replace with glass bi-fold doors to open up in the summer and let the air in, creating an outdoor-indoor space between what will be our new patio area, and the current dining space. It’s somewhere to be filled with plants and art, hopefully with a bright Scandinavian feel to it. Somewhere to have coffee with friends during the day, or sit down and read the paper over breakfast. Eventually, the second living room (which is currently our indoor tool shed/garage) will be our cosy evening room, and this one will be the larger, brighter day space.
Though, as with everything, this is entirely money dependant, and it will take time.
So as it is, it’s a mixture of the two.
A bright space for entertaining, and a cosy place to sit after dark.
When you first move in somewhere, before it feels complete, you really need two things: pictures on the walls, and plants.
I’ve rearranged our gallery wall to fit into this room and put up the beautiful painting of Sennen that I’ve always loved from home (and which Mum so kindly gifted me when we moved in!). We’ve still got a few little bits to find, but adding other quirky features like the sea blue Thomas Kent clock from RedCandy* gives the room lots of colourful points to draw your eye. I like rooms with lots to look at, so I’m really tempted by their mustard yellow retro phone, and copper accessories. You might recognise the corner cupboard and bureau that we picked up at the tip that we are going to upcycle, and there’s also a new addition of the barley twist antique side table we found someone selling on Facebook. The bargains you can pick up locally are amazing! I’ve also been determined to stay stocked with fresh flowers in my hammered copper vase, which brightens up the room no end and makes me so happy. It’s the little things.
It feels as though we’ve barely done anything in the two months since moving in, but it would actually also be nearly impossible to remember it all. We’ve moved everything in, changed all light bulbs to LEDs, flooded the kitchen (and as a result put in new lino, taps and hoses), drilled through the ridiculously thick wall to plumb in the washing machine and tumble dryer, repainted the front door, smashed through the kitchen door (for glass panels, not just the sake of it!), fitted curtain rails and blinds, taken up said curtains, put in shelves for tools, changing light fittings, de-mossed the lawns and reseeded them, trimmed the hedges and trees, planted up some of the borders, propped up the apple tree, cleared the gutters, put up hanging baskets, repainted the back door and put in lighting and a new false ceiling above the hob in the kitchen. Oh, and we bought a van. A big old rusty transit for picking up big old things and moving them around. All that alongside a wonderful stream of visitors every single weekend.
I love it, I really do.
We fully intend to do one room at a time, as and when we can afford to. The jobs this weekend will be painting the kitchen and fitting a new window pane, all after Sally’s 30th!
When you’ve bought a house with the intention to do it up, I guess it can feel overwhelming, but just choosing one bit at a time has really helped, and as a list queen, ticking everything slowly off so far is the most satisfying thing! As for what’s next, I’ll keep you posted…
***This post is in collaboration with RedCandy but all opinions, elbow grease and DIY dreams are my own!***
