House Move - The Beginning of the Big Decorate!

So today is the day. I should be getting a phone call about lunchtime to say that we have completed the house. The likelihood of me being hugely productive at work this morning is... well... I'm either going to be hugely productive to distract myself or not very productive at all because I'll be constantly looking at my phone. The estate agent is due to call me when we complete.

So I got up early this morning and carried on putting the moving stuff together. We're moving from living with family to our own house. So as a result we won't have the mad panic usually associated with moving. We're pretty much going to be 'glamping' for the next week in the lounge.

The plan is to get the house decorated before we fill it with our C***. It will hopefully make the entire experience so much more relaxing.

I'm So we have moved into the lounge. Literally. Mattress down in lounge as the we will be pulling up the laminate floor and repainting upstairs first.

Lots of decorating to do- yay! :)

Here's a few pictures (before all our stuff got moved in).

Lounge:

Kitchen:

Landing

Master bedroom

Bathroom

Second bedroom / spare bedroom / craft room

We have a small garden as well. I'll add that later as I totally forgot to take any pictures. Sorry!

But now enjoying a well earned (well i think so anyway) glass of bubbly.

going to be going away this weekend - so I will be leaving my husband and his family to get started on the decorating. I do feel a little guilty for that... but I had already organised to go and see my grandparents. They live up north and I don't get to see them very often, so I don't want to not go. The perk of going away is that I should get lots of time for crafting.....

I've spent all my free time at home painting - actually more fun than the usually "watching paint dry".

For those that don't know, my husband and I brought our first house last week. Which was super exciting. So we've been busy making some serious progress on the spare bedroom/my new craft room *dances excitedly around the room*.

Seeing as my husband is getting the garage... it's only fair I can have the spare bedroom as my craft lair... hehe

This is what the spare bedroom looked like 7 days ago.

We've spent the week pulling down cupboards and repainting this week. So there is now some updated pictures for you :)

This was the progress made by my parents-in-law and husband over the weekend.

The room looks about 4 times bigger with the removal of the cupboard. We're going to build a bed across the slanted stair cover. It'll be a large single bed and we'll build shelves above and around the bed. It has the perk of being a spare guest bed in addition to being my day bed.

The perfect place to hide when my husband has his friends over for role-play.

That huge cupboard has gone!

My husband then got started on painting white gloss around the skirting board. I'm going for white as the window is very small and this is the best way of getting the light to bounce around the room. It will make the space feel so much bigger!

White Glossed Skirting board.

So rather than knitting this week, I've been busy covering the pink wall (not as bad as the pictures as MIL had put a couple of layers of paint on over the weekend). Initially, I used the roller. But they were really cheap - a bid to save budget that didn't save my sanity as it kept coming off - and after that one night I swapped to paintbrushes.

We're not bothering with dust sheets, the floor is coming up as the laminate is already peeling. It's not worth keeping. We won't replace it as laminate, but I will swap it for tight knit carpet - easier to find dropped needles!!

As the white goes on, the room is starting to feel so much bigger. My plan is to create the room as a blank canvas. Then I can style it with colourful soft fabrics and colourful pictures for the walls.

These are the remaining pieces of the cupboard. We're hoping to use the panelled doors to replace the doors - clinging onto the cupboard with difficultly - will replace them. They look a lot nicer. The MDF from the side of the cupboard is still in pretty good shape.

In addition to the painting, we've also had some plastering done in some of the other rooms. The Virgin internet and phone-line also got installed yesterday. So trying to upload photos to posts is going to be so much easier! I've been using my mobile hotspot in order to at least get some post up this week :) (It's really hard to stop me writing as it does actually keep me sane!!)

I'll keep you lovely lot updated with the progress from my weekend - Sunday/Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday. But I'm very much looking forward to the arrival of a washing machine on Tuesday (my MIL has been a lifesaver!) and a fridge freezer on Wednesday (thankfully I have a mini fridge that fits a pint of milk and some cheese in). Then I can start to look less like I'm squatting in my own house....

Some exciting news - I now have internet and a breakfast bar dining table  blogging desk. Which makes blogging a lot easier as it's hard to blog sat in bed - as I struggle not to have a nap!

We picked this up for £50 from The Range today. It comes with 2 seats. We'll eventually move it into the kitchen. But it's super useful as a temp solution now.

So Sunday has been hugely progressive on the decorating front.

We've been busy in our future bedroom (we are currently sleeping in the lounge), landing and bathroom. All the plastering from Friday had dried on time ( yay!) So we were all painting by 9:30 Sunday morning (I would have loved to have a lie-in but o well).

Master bedroom

Before

So this was at the point the wall and ceiling bad been plastered.

The Window Wall

The feature wall. There was a slight crack in this wall. Part of the reason it was selected as a feature wall. The plasterer has covered it over and the plaster is being covered by lining paper.

The ceiling. This got plastered as it was originally artexed in dimple peaks. Very old fashioned.

The Door Wall. This got plastered because husband was a little too enthusiastic removing wallpaper...

The other wall

In here, my Father in law wallpapered the wall by the window.

Progress being made in the bedroom. Lining paper on the feature wall.

This is a sample of the paper that's going up there (below). We found this in our local B&Q. It's called Fresco - Batch 002 (approx £11 per roll). Wanting something a little bit more feminine, it took a while to find something both my husband and I agreed about. We both loved the frames in this design - as it gave the pattern some definition.

We found this in our local B&Q. It's called Fresco - Batch 002.

We found this in our local B&Q. It's called Fresco - Batch 002.

The walls are being painted with a paint labelled "magnolia". It went on more of a mushroom creamy grey but seems to have dried magnolia ish. But it's going to really complement the paper. The ceiling is being painted in white.

After

This is what the room looks like now. We've managed a couple of coats on Sunday. The laminate flooring was left by the previous owner. As it's already pealing, we have decided to replace it. It's saving a lot of faf with dust sheets.

My lovely F.I.L is coming back one evening this week to paper this wall. Can't wait to see it up!

Apart from needing a little touching up around the ceiling, this wall is pretty much finished!

This is the wall we plastered and that seems to be having so affect on the drying. I think this will need another coat.

This wall is done :)

The ceiling also looks so much better now that it's painted. It's making the space really light and airy. I still need to really think how we're going to dress the room now. I'm thinking decorative candle holder and lanterns - basically anything pretty. So I need to start looking, but I will wait to buy anything until after we get the furniture in.

Any suggestions very much welcome!

We've found some beautiful fluffy carpet from Carpet Right today (heads to anyone in the UK - they are currently having a sale!). So we paid for a carpet in budget but worth double the price - which was a total win! I will grab a picture for you when we finally get it laid. If you aren't in a rush, have a look through samples and order it in. So much easier as there is so much more choice.

Bathroom

Before

I wasn't entirely sure about our bathroom.

The size didn't bother me, I love the cosy arrangement and the lack of a window means a candle-lit bathtub is always a sensible option. Who am I to complain when that also involves a glass of wine?

I wasn't sure about the fish tiles originally but they are starting to grow on me.

So this is what the bathroom looked like before I planned and started executing the redecoration.

Our Bathroom - The before shot

After

Like the bedroom, the ceiling in the bathroom also needed modernising. It looks a lot better post plastering.

I choose to go Lime Green with this room. With no natural light, I wanted something that would give the room a real 'Pop' when you walk in. No-one else understood my vision until it went on the wall.

Bright Green Bathroom :)

Bright Green Bathroom :)

Bright Green Bathroom :)

It just makes me grin whenever I walk in. The first coat of the white ceiling paint make it look even better. This room was a team effort between my M.I.L, me (wall) and my dad (ceiling).

It needs another coat and cutting in properly around the ceiling. Upon suggestion from my Dad, I've brought some kids paintbrushes to do this as neatly as possible. He actually suggested artist paintbrushes but that wasn't the cheapest option! Especially with such contrasting colours, having a clean edge is going to be really important.

What do you guys think of the colour? I've got some more plans for the other elements of decoration to this room... but I'll leave that for a surprise later.

We're currently on the hunt for a bathroom cabinet and an undersink cabinet. So any pointers welcome!

Kitchen

Before

In an ideal world, I would have loved a larger kitchen. But I really like that it's so bright and airy. I also love the red brick wall - it gives the room a real character spark.

After

Ok, so there wasn't much done in the kitchen. But we had to make space for the fridge/freezer which arrives on Wednesday (yay!!!). I did not realise how much I appreciated my fridge and freezer. My diet isn't particularly varied without it and we're spending a lot of money eating out.

The floor units have moved under the stairs - which is a much better use of the under stair space. Above is the perfect space for my microwave and to the side is some more great storage space.

The units have moved!

For those the are wondering - yes the lino is being replaced. It's seen better days. But we'll do that after the painting is done.

So, we've made some serious progress in our first week in the house. We're still effectively squatting in our own house. However, we are starting to really get all the homely stuff into the house and it's starting to feel a little more real.

I'm also pre-emptively stocking up on knitting supplies in anticipation of the craft room... my husband actually seems to be encouraging me... That's a silly idea of him, but at least he won't have to see it now we'll have a door to shut it behind. I really should get on with some knitting!

What do you think of this chunky wool I found in a Sue Rider Charity shop today? They apparently regularly have wool in stock and are 15  minutes walking distance from me. Yes... this is dangerous and very exciting... :) You are all a terrible influence :P

I also got some short circular needles from a wool shop in Poole, Dorset, so that I could have a go at starting some socks - (Maggienessium this is your fault!). I'll pick out some wool and hopefully get started ASAP.

So once again, my lack of knitting is primarily down to decorating (and really painful toothache now under control by co-codamol and antibiotics). But we're edging ever closer to being able to invite guests over without them having to effectively sit in our bedroom (which is currently the lounge). Yay!

The Master Bedroom

My very lovely father in law has managed to put up the wallpaper up on feature wall. I loved it on the roll - but it looks even better on the wall! What do you think? I've kept the scraps for some other ideas later :)

The pealing laminate flooring is now up and ready for the fluffy carpet my husband and I brought on Monday!

The painting is also all done (same colours as you saw before but less patchy :) ) and the radiator is back on the wall.

I've also had a dimmer switch installed to replace the flick switch (which was covered in paint) because it will just give us so much more flexibility with light levels.

Furniture for our bedroom has now sneaked its way into the spare bedroom... Which is looking rather small again.

The carpet should be down in the bedroom the first weekend in September - so not much longer to wait!

The Bathroom

The second coat of wall and ceiling paint is on. So the full contrast of the colours is now evident. It just looks so much more uplifting in the room. We've selected a bathroom cabinet from Ikea and I've selected a bathroom light from one of the ranges we sell at work. So I'll ping you a picture of that later.

The Kitchen

Now equipped with a fridge/freezer and a washing machine along with the oven - we're pretty much all set. Now that I am able to cook properly we're both going to start feeling a little more at home. It's so much easier once you can cook proper food.

And my spice collection has now also made it over - so things just got serious.

Although because I prefer to keep all my spices on the side (otherwise they don't get used) - the spice rack in the cupboard is being largely underutilised... So I need to work on what else will fit in here....

We've got a rather busy weekend planned, so not sure how much progress I will have to report in the next couple of days. But I do have Tuesday and Wednesday off work - so I might use that opportunity to start hunting for decorative stuff for the bedroom. I also need to pop back to my grandparents and start packing the bedroom stuff properly now that I will have somewhere to put it!

Yarn Addict Signing off

MrsKirstyHoll

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