Our first home: Update #1

Porch and Living Room
Before: When we got the keys we quickly discovered something, the entire house was magnolia from the walls to the doors and skirting boards. It hadn’t been properly maintained either and everything just looked rushed. There was a beige carpet running through from the porch to the living room and up the stairs. The porch had a dark purple blind and a coat hook and the living room had blinds and heavy brown curtains. Both rooms had outdated light fittings.

During: The doors and banister were sanded down and repainted white. The carpet was ripped up in the porch and living room and laminate flooring was laid and the walls were repainted in a creamy-grey colour and vibrant red.

 After: All the lights have been replaced with spotlights. We decided against a blind in the porch as it isn’t necessary so there’s just a Disney plaque in there with the spotlight focusing on it. In the living room we have a corner sofa and a large chair. We added some Disney prints to the wall and reattached the blinds. 

Projects still to do: Buy and fit new blinds in the living room and find a Disney ornament for the porch windowsill.

Kitchen
Before: More than anything the kitchen needed a really good scrub, it was filthy! That aside the boiler was on the wall next to the sink and the lights were two rows of 5 spotlights. There was big cream curtains hung over the French doors.

After: There are no ‘during photos’ as we haven’t decorated this room. The boiler has been moved into the airing cupboard upstairs as we had a brand new boiler put in and the hot water tank removed which created space for the boiler to be hidden away. We replaced the lights with 2 strips of two spotlights which is much better and we’ve took down the curtains. The kitchen is very small so needs as much light as possible. We’ve also removed the kitchen door and it was very boxed in with the living room door, downstairs toilet door and walk-in storage cupboard door all being extremely close together. By removing the kitchen door it’s opened up much more. 

Projects still to do: Paint the walls, sort out the wall where the boiler was removed (potentially by putting up another cupboard), maybe replace the flooring (I love the design but it’s very worn out and ripped) and replace the blind in the window. 

 Garden
Before: By the time we got the keys the house had been empty for nearly 2 months so the garden was very overgrown. There were to conifers as you stepped outside (one was half dead) and then lots of ivy and overgrown bushes dotted around the garden. There was also a huge infestation of ants.

During: I’m classing these as ‘during’ photo’s as we aren’t doing anything with the garden until next year. I can’t take any credit for the garden looking like this now as it was all my dad’s doing. Basically everything has gone out of the garden, the trees, bushes and ivy (although there is still ivy in the picture, it’s all completely died back now). Our house is a corner plot so it has a pretty massive garden which overwhelms us both a bit but I’m hoping we can get it looking nice next year.

Projects still to do: Get rid of all the weeds, put flowers and solar lights in the planter wall at the top of the garden, plant a palm tree or two, put solar fairy lights along the fence, attach spotlights to the back wall, reset the patio flags at the top and I’m also hoping for a built in brick BBQ. 

So that was part 1 of our home renovations. I have a few more home posts planned including part 2 of our home renovations where I’ll show you upstairs. You can view part 2 here.