“Let’s not spend a fortune as it will all be temporary before we do the extension…”
“How’s the house guys? Still going to do the extension?”
This is a classic tale of girl meets boy, moves in with him, buys a house that they rather cheaply dec out because who has money for that when you’d rather go on holiday? And I’m mainly referring to the kitchen here with regards being ‘cheap’. And nothing is actually cheap these days is it? Anyway hubby worked his arse off knocking down walls and stuff to make it our first home together. Work I really wouldn’t understand. It had been a run down little fella before he tarted it up, despite accidentally knocking through into next door at one point. Hey neighbour, need some sugar?
Anyway back to the story. Girl then slowly loses her teeny tiny mind as the years roll by and the shit kitchen becomes shitter; the bargain green wall tiles, exposed pipes that went up through the ceiling to do something important and generally the altogether confused decor throughout (hello bedroom chandelier) and the yellow (read ‘HELLow’) wooden floor. Every time we’d have guests over I would make a point of the kitchen and how it was temporary because we were obviously going to be doing our extension, y’know, because it would be an investment and all that (that I have no idea about).
I would increasingly flinch when the follow up questions would come… ‘When are you going to start? Have you got the plans drawn up? How much do you think you can do it for?……Ha! And the rest!’
I think my best friend is the only one who understands that I have never known the answers to the above to my husbands probable dismay. He dealt with architects and drawings and quotes and all the different trades needed for the renovation. He probably kept an ‘eye on the market’ too. I’m more of a ‘I want it to look like that’ whilst pointing at a photo on Pinterest, eating a biscuit and flicking through Etsy for the perfect ‘bits’ kinda multitasking gyal.
It was over 8 years ago now that we moved into our house together. Prior to that I had lived in his flat, correction, maisonette that incidentally I had driven past every morning before we’d even met on my way to the train station. Which probably means it was meant to be.
And now here we are. In the year 2018 when our world has already taken on one major development in the arrival of our first baby, 10 mins down the road is our other one.
We’ve been renting since March this year, local to where our real house is. That’s right folks, mortgage AND rent – hahahahahahahahahahaha. FOOLS.
Had I had some brain cells left after pregnancy and birth and now early motherhood I would here insert a ‘before’ picture of the house. So it’s such a shame that isn’t the case, isn’t it?
But it was a modest 2 bed 1930’s red brick affair. We have a drive, front garden and a rather large back garden. Downstairs was a galley kitchen, dining room, living room and some sort of weird ‘lean to’ extension that had been thrown on the back of the house where we had a tiny gross toilet and room for the fridge, washing machine and tumble dryer.
Upstairs were two good sized bedrooms and a bathroom.
Well looky here. The plans!
BEFORE
AFTER
So as I type and publish this, the house is really taking shape and we even took delivery of the floor and wall tiles for the ensuite (no you’re fancy) today which a man is going to stick on the walls next week.
In all seriousness I am really enjoying this project and am so grateful to be in this position of creating a family home. I know this is no mean feat and increasingly more difficult for people to realise. As I meander through life as a new mum, flailing and worrying and caressing and wiping things all day long, this is a cool addition to my days. I mean sure, I am frantically typing these words with one eye on the baby monitor as she snoozes and often stirs upstairs in her cot but whenever I can grab 10 mins I often forgo food (overrated) and get on with the research to make our house a home. It’s strangely confidence building too as 8 years ago I really didn’t know what my style was which probably led to the house being very odd. Some vintage stuff, some contemporary. WHO WAS I? Now thanks to Instagram and Pinterest and all that jazz I think this house update will be markedly better than the first attempt. I’m basically stealing ideas and looks from other people and mashing it together to create our vibe.
So this will likely be the first of many extension related blogs and while you might not have the benefit of the before pics (although i’m sure we’ll have some somewhere) hopefully you’ll enjoy how it finally turns out. It’s going to take months and months to get it complete because it’s so expensive but we’ll get there this time.
Thank you hubby, big ups to you.
Right, baby is stirring.
Vx
So exciting hon!! Can’t wait to read the updates and of course see the end result. xxx