Last weekend we got the keys to our new house. It’s been a long time coming, and not the easiest of purchases. There have been many proposed move dates, and in fact, last week we thought we weren’t even to get to move as after my last post which announced we’d finally exchanged contracts, our vendor sadly passed away! But we’re finally in, so I wanted to give you a small tour of the house using the slightly blurry Rightmove plans and some pics I took when we first entered the house and before we’ve changed anything.
We’re moving from a 2 bed (+ box room) house with a teeny tiny kitchen and a little shared yard to this 4 bed, hallway-ed, big kitchened house, with an actual, garden. And we could not be happier.
But oh my god, it needs a LOT of work. Every room is wallpapered, and by the looks of it, has been since the 70’s. The colour schemes are very questionable (as is the phrase ‘colour scheme’ when used in conjunction with the house) The plug sockets are in the skirting boards. There is no shower in the main bathroom and the shower in the shower room is teeny and gross. The kitchen, whilst being big, has no real storage what so ever, the oven needs replacing before we dare use it and well, eventually, it all needs ripping out! And the garden is mostly bushes. It is, as they say, a project! So, on to pictures of said ‘project’. There are a couple of rooms missing, but you’ll get the idea!
The hallway is yellow and orange with woodchip on the walls, with mis-matching, worn, scrappy carpet all the way to the attic.
Our living room is this slightly odd shade of yellow, with a huge, dominating, fake marble fireplace and built-ins in the alcoves.
The dining room is two tone pink, the woodwork is a very pale shade of pink the fireplace is blocked up and the carpet is a questionable shade of meh! Check the plug socket in that skirting board too!
The kitchen is a mess of dirty wallpaper and tiles. The oven is gross. And for something of it’s size, there is hardly any cupboard space! But it’ll make an awesome space one day!
This is the main bedroom, it’s massive, but again, questionably decorated with a green carpet and yellow striped wallpaper. These built in wardrobes have tonnes of storage, but don’t fit our bed between them and are very 70’s, they also carry on round the room, past the ORANGE fireplace to a dressing table and window seat. Honestly, what is that fireplace?
The main bathroom is also orange. Very orange. And showerless. And wallpapered. Did I mention it was orange? There’s nothing wrong with the actual bathroom suite, or the flooring. Just the crazy orange walls and the lack of essentials, like a shower!
This is one of the attic rooms, it’s mint green woodchip. Like, very mint green. I’m leaving it green though as we’re ignoring the top of the house for now. Next week it’ll be the craft room!
Here is our overgrown garden. Flash loves all those bushes as they provide space for him to hide from us when he’s been naughty, but they take up so much space that could be used as an actual garden or for growing stuff! I did however find a peony!
All this means I may well be a bit awol for a while, up to my eyeballs stripping woodchip and covered in paint.
Oh wow, it's great to finally get a look at this house I've heard so much about and to hear that you're actually in and it's officially yours! I'm no stranger to a house that needs a lot of work, as you know. You have an excellent shell to play with – wonderful big rooms and some lovely features that I am sure you will show off properly. Looking forward to watching your progress!
Its such a big job though, the question is where to start! Gulp. Plus I want it all done RIGHT NOW! (I'm not very good at being patient!)
Congratulations on finally being in your house 😀 We bought a new build house last year so didn't have the fun of knocking it about and tearing up and down stuff but I'm looking forward to seeing what you get up to 🙂
Gemma
x
I always thought I wanted an old place but now I know how much work we have to do I'm wondering if we should have gone new 😉
Congratulations, E.! I see SO MUCH POTENTIAL in this space. Hooray for new chapters! xox
Thanks lovely. I'm glad you can see the potential. It's starting to scare me a bit!
Congratulations!! I'm getting excited for you just thinking about all the amazing things you're going to do to it!
Thank you. There are so many ideas swimming about my head! Starting with the easy bits first I think!
Congratulations on your house! But I agree, it's certainly an "interesting" choice of colours and styles! Definitely a lot of potential though, I look forward to hearing all about it! 🙂 x
Seriously, who thought all those colours were a great idea together?
Oh my god I love it! I've always wanted to get my hands on a project like this. Can't wait to see some more pics and good luck with all of the renovating! wineandolives.co.uk
Trust me, if you saw it you might be as horrified as I am……..so much to do and so little money! Gulp!
Oh some people have some crazy idea of wall color don't they?! The amount of BRIGHT pink, orange, green and blue walls I saw house hunting, it was blinding. Least you don't have full rooms of wood panelling, i'm not sure how we're going to tackle that one ourselves!
Congrats on the house (finally!!).
If it's white and could withstand a bathroom – send me them – i've got my heart set on panneling half way up in there for that real beachy feel!
Good luck with it though. Looking forwards to seeing what you do too.
Oh wow. I know it's going to be a lot of work and money for you guys. But….wow. I'm so jealous.
And massively looking forward to the posts that are going to show us the After pictures having seen the Befores.
Look at it this way – you have enough fodder here to keep your blog going for years!
Haha, i'd totally not thought of that. My rush to get everything finished NOW might be ruining my blog 😉
Wowzers, lots of work to do, but so spacious, it's going to be fab, looking forward to seeing what you do! x
Yes, loads of space but so much more to revamp…….And so much wood chip.
Looks like you've got a lot on your plate [we know how you feel, especially after discovering a leak in our roof, a collapsed bedroom ceiling and bowing loft joists.. :'( but I can sure see the potential that you saw here! It's going to be amazing and you know what the first thing I'd do is? Rip that flooring up in the hallway – I BET you anything there is original encaustic tiling underneath. Can't wait to see what you do with the place love x
Oh no, all that work must be so frustrating. We daren't rip the hallway flooring up just yet – we don't have the money at the moment to re-tile it all if we do 🙁 Money needs to be spent on the roof, the hot water/heating and plastering to get rid of the woodchip! x
Win some bunting! Follow @bytheseaside77 on Instagram, repost and add #giveaway. When I've reached 200 followers I will pick a winner at random! Thanks!