The House

Thought I would tell you a bit about the house so you have a bit of background to my renovations.

The house was built in the early noughties. The official description we were given when we bought it was “link-detached” but that’s just estate agent spin on terraced! At one side our house joins to our neighbours’ garage and at the other side our garage joins to the next neighbours’ garage. So we aren’t sharing walls with living accommodation which is where the “detached” element comes in.

We have 6 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms and 3 reception rooms spread over 3 floors.

The top floor has two large bedrooms with a Jack and Jill bathroom between them.

The middle floor has the master suite, consisting of bedroom, en-suite shower room, and dressing room. I recently discovered a large loft space above the dressing room which one day I hope to convert into a useable space.

There is another bedroom with en-suite shower room, two smaller bedrooms – one of which is an office/dumping ground at present and there is a large family bathroom.

Downstairs we have a large kitchen-dining room, a living room, playroom and toilet. From the kitchen we can access our garage which is a long space running the full length of the house and houses a utility area with a sink and washing machines. It is big enough for two cars to park one behind the other. Although not with the amount of rubbish we have in there at the moment!

Of course, connecting all of these rooms is our hall, stairs and landing spread over 3 floors.

So What Are We Dealing With?

The house is in good condition and being a modern build most of the issues are purely cosmetic.

The decor we inherited was a mixture of magnolia and beige blandness with a few strange colour choices such as a luminous green kitchen, a patchy aqua dressing room, and bedrooms in brown, hot pink glitter and Manchester City wallpaper on every wall!

The bathrooms have white suites with beige tiles and are all looking a bit tired with some serious wear and tear to the fixtures and fittings.

The kitchen is blonde wood and a little bit meh!

What have we done so far?

All the children’s bedrooms were decorated when we moved in, although as they are growing up some are in need of a further revamp.

We have painted the kitchen walls as a quick fix to get rid of the luminous green and lighten up the space but further work is needed to give it a wow factor.

The lounge has been redecorated and is all complete but for some alcove shelves we’d like to build in one corner.

The downstairs loo has had a lick of paint and freshen up.

One bathroom, en-suite to our son’s room, has been completely renovated and finished.

The dressing room has been recently revamped but for a couple of small finishing touches.

What’s Left to Do?

Lounge: Alcove Shelves

Kitchen: Revamp Cupboards, sink and worktops. Redecorate walls, add shelves, upcycle dresser.

Playroom/Snug: complete redecoration required.

Downstairs Toilet: Freshen up

Garage: Convert back section to create proper utility room. Organise storage and create workout area.

Hall, Stairs and Landing: Complete redecoration required.

Master Bedroom and En-suite: Complete renovation required.

Family Bathroom: Complete renovation required.

Spare room/Office: Freshen up and organisation required.

Jack and Jill Bathroom: Freshen up and new flooring required.

Outside: Garden Revamp and some external painting required.

So there we have it, our house and the state of renovations in a nutshell. In future posts I’ll be going into a lot more detail about projects I’ve tackled in the house big and small. From knocking out sections of wall to quick, simple upcycles. Sharing my savvy styling tips along the way.