I'm guessing, if you read my last post, that you may now be picturing me sat in a rather shabby, much unloved, house? Well in all fairness you aren't completely off the mark although it is a very much loved house to be fair. Tonight I am going to show you how it went from house to home in year one. We still have a long way to go but that's ok...Rome wasn't built in a day and I don't have an endless bank balance either!
As I explained, the nest weren't really as sold as I was on viewing day but by move in date they had come to understand, and maybe even support, my way of thinking. In return, I thought it only fair that in the first year I transformed each of their rooms into a space they had chosen. The bedroom allocation worked in this way. Child #1 picked first, followed by child #2 and then child #3 got the one that was left. To keep this fair too I agreed to do the decorating in reverse order.
Child #3 wanted 'lots of colours' and 'the shiny paper from the wallpaper shop'. What he meant was a border that he saw with lots of fish and seaweed on. I figured that if this was what he wanted then we would take the theme a little further. So, remember, this is what he had on day one...(complete with junk, old furniture and bare floorboards!).
This is how it looked in about March 2011....
I did hand paint all the walls thanks to the OHP that the Art department at work lent me. I traced the fish and seaweed from the border onto the acetate and then projected them at different distances (to vary the size) onto the wall before painting them using acrylic paints. He loves it, and I love it too! The guys in the carpet shop thought I was slightly mad when I asked for a carpet the colour of wet sand but then they understood when I showed them the pictures!
So then I moved on to Child #2's room. Now, she is a Marine cadet so likes the outward bound side of life, she, as stated by her, likes to 'run around with guns and pretend to shoot things'. She also liked to read things like Horrid Henry books, she played with cars and bikes and made friends with all the boys because the girls bored her. Based on this, I was expecting her to choose a colour scheme that reflected this. I was wrong. She chose the girliest design ever! She wanted pink. Pink!! She wanted white paintwork and a pink (pink!) carpet. So...this is how it started... (badly artexed ceiling, bare floorboards, no picture rail, a power socket on the floor (yes the floor!) and a ceiling fan)
By August 2011 this is how it looked...
I had the ceiling plastered, relocated the power socket, had the picture rail put pack in and redecorated and carpeted. Its such a pretty space now.
It was then time to tackle one of the biggest rooms of the house. Child #1's. It spans the entire front of the house and I do secretly have my eye on it for when she moves out (I realise I may be waiting a while but that probably suits the funds anyway!). Now Child #1 is the classic drama student. She, like me, likes to be different and these days isn't scared to be exactly who she is rather than follow the crowd. She wanted something that reflected that. She trusted me. She asked me to come up with some ideas and she went along with them. She started with this...not is such a bad state but still quite a distance from 'pleasing'! During the first week we lived here the entire nest slept in this room and there was still plenty of space, it's huge!
By the end of 2011 this is how it looked...
I do love it (on the rare occasion it's tidy anyway!). This weekend I am going to do a little work on this room so I will show you that another day.
So that was suppose to be it for year one. I thought I was tough and adventurous and that I could cope with the the rest of the house. Including the bathroom. I was wrong (again!). I mean...come on...do you remember it???...
Nobody is that brave surely?! So..I set myself a budget (helped by the fact that one of my friends (and childminders) is married to the partner of Flintshire Plumbing and Heating and, on mates rates, the budget went a lot further. yet I still exceeded it big time!!....but so worth it!....
Gorgeous though isn't it?! I still love it but if any of you are considering installing so much 'self cleaning' glass please be aware that it really isn't self cleaning what so ever! I do burn a fair few calories cleaning that shower on a semi regular basis though.
So, apart from a bit of temporary superficial decorating on the ground floor that's about it for year one. I will tell you about the superficial stuff next time if I remember. After all those rooms and the extra stuff downstairs I was all DIY'd out at the end of the year (and broke thanks to that bathroom) so I took a year out.
One thing that I do feel is that those rooms are nicer but haven't quite reached the level of homeliness I was after yet. I shall begin to resolve that this weekend though.
Keep following, and enjoy the weekend!
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