The House that saw us become a family
It's been a couple of weeks since we had the offer accepted on our new house. We are in the stage where we want to get moving as soon as possible but the whole process has barely begun. The survey for our current house has been booked and we have the full mortgage application appointment on Thursday. The vendors are still to find a new place so that will determine how long this will all take.
We have lived the last eleven years in Bristol. Six (nearly seven, probably seven by the time we actually move) in the house we are currently in and the first one we owned. This house has seen us grow and change from a young unmarried couple to married and with two kids. We moved here from a teeny tiny 2 up 2 down cottage so now to have outgrown it's three bedrooms seems crazy but there we go!
This house has changed as much as we have, maybe not from the front but certainly every room and the back garden. As my previous posts show I can type for England so I'm going to try and keep this one a short(er) before and after post to show the stamp we've put on this place! As a serial blogger I have documented much of our work as we did it so where I can I'll add the links to my old posts.
Starting with the back garden.. this has probably seen the biggest change maybe apart from the kitchen. The garden works were done in 2 stages; we replaced the wall with the fence and did the greenhouse first back in 2015. We used our wedding gift money to pay for it. We then replaced the brick planters and extended and grouted the patio last year.
The lounge was the first room we decorated when we moved in. We absolutely love the red colour and I will miss how moody and snuggly this room is. Photos of itt always make it look more garish than it is in real life.
The box room has seen a few changes over the years. It started off as my sewing room and then became Pippa's nursery/bedroom which is how it is now.
I was about to say that our bedroom is possibly my favourite but actually I love it all. You can't deny that the bold purple is just devine! It wasn't until looking back on the photos that I realised the previous owners had gone with a purple theme too.
Scott's office come spare bedroom is the most neutral of the bedrooms. We weren't entirely sure what to do in here and because it was a guest/work space we thought a calmer feeling would be best. The blue accents were dictated by the sofa bed as they only came in 2 colours, the duck egg or bright red! After the red lounge I didn't want more red again!
The kitchen was by far the biggest (inside) job. The old kitchen was a mess and we ripped out the end the first day we moved in so that we could fit our range cooker. It then took us 2 years to get on with the rest but it was worth the wait! Once the kitchen and floor was in we then left it... The paining /finishing round the window and doors and the walls weren't finished until a few weeks ago when we we getting the house ready to move.
Whilst refitting the kitchen, I had the great idea of ripping all the wallpaper off the hall, stairs and landing and started to decorate that too. This was really silly as we lived with plaster walls for years. Literally years. We replaced the banister when Pippa started crawling but that was it. This was another job that was only finished in the last few weeks to get the house market ready... And when I say finished.. the walls are painted and carpet changed but we have only primed the woodwork. The house sold before we finished and they wanted to take it as it is!
The bathroom was another room I started whilst Scott was away one weekend and while there were multiple other jobs unfinished. I hated the yellow walls that weren't finished properly so all rough and dust stuck to them. My grand idea was painting the room brown. At the time I had a great vision but again, it never got finished and in the end it just looked rubbish. Scott was up repainting the bathroom at midnight the night before we sold our house. The before and after photos don't really show much change but there has been lots, promise! For some reason we don't have a photo with the new flooring in, i'll have to rectify that.
Other stuff we have done here includes changing all the doors and windows, replacing the fuse box, replaced the front fascia and added more insulation and a new loft hatch. 3 of the rooms were fully re-plastered including the ceilings too!
We are sad enough that we have kept a spreadsheet of everything we have spent here over the years. It actually isn't as much as it could have been as Andy helped us with a lot of it which included getting alot of stuff at trade price. We won't have the luxury of that in the new cottage but at least that place doesn't need much work. Mainly just a freshen up but we plan on keeping things pretty neutral and will make it ours with soft furnishings, wall decorations and photos etc. We did bits of that in our house now but because we never really finished, there are lots of bare walls which should have been dressed more. The cottage will hopefully be our forever home, or at least our neary forever home and I absolutely cannot wait to make it ours. I am trying really hard not to start buying things already... I have my eye on some curtains for the kids bedrooms and a rug for the louge floor but I want to get there first and make sure I know what I want will suit before getting too carried away!
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