Vivod: The First Year

Happy Friday Evening all! I am currently sat in my kitchen, with a nice big glass of red wine not doing much apart from thinking about everything I have done this week, and everything I want to do this weekend. I love this particular time of the week, and I tend to sit in this spot in my house at this time of the week too. I'm not sure why, it just seems to happen this way. Anyway, I remembered (because I am planning on little DIY this weekend) that I began telling you about Vivod. So I decided I would fetch my Chromebook and tell you a little bit more about it.

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!

Vivod: In the Beginning

I'm very busy at the moment but, as usual, I am working on more than one thing at a time and therefore I have nothing new to show you yet.

Anyway, it did occur to me that this blog is called 'Vivod', named after my house, but I haven't really told you much about my house yet. I think that's probably because when I began this blog I was only mid way through a much needed 'time-out' period from the house renovation stuff so I didn't really want to talk about the house, and I haven't done anything new recently that I could show you. However, I am now feeling quite keen to get going again with it all - I just need to decide exactly which part I am going to focus on next. It's also almost 2 years since we first saw this house, and I fell in love with it completely.

So today, I am going to show you the pictures of Vivod that I took on the day I got the keys. I'm expecting that most of you won't see why I was so crazy about this house, but that's ok. If we were all the same it would be a very boring world! I loved everything about it then, and I still do. It's my favourite place in the world and gets better and better all the time.

I used to have a quick look on right move every month or so. Technically I wasn't really in the position to buy a house at the time as I didn't have the deposit at all. I was also looking for something quite specific too. I wanted a terraced Victorian house, with at least 3 bedrooms but preferably 4. I wanted original features. I wanted character. I wanted high ceilings and I wanted space. Oh...and a bay window.

It was mid November, cold and dismal. Not the best day to view an empty property really. I mentioned to the kids that we might 'pop in and see a house, just to get an idea what we might like to buy one day'. Pulling up outside the house with the boarded up pane of glass in the door didn't really fill them with joy - I think child #1 almost refused to get out of the car. I walked into the bay windowed front room, onto the original parquet flooring, to find an original fire place, and window seat, and chandelier hanging from the lovely high ceiling. I was sold at this point. To be honest the rest of the house could have been a huge compromise and I still would have put in an offer, but it wasn't. Whilst the original features didn't continue in the remainder of the house what I found instead was masses of space and potential. It was liveable....just. It was perfect. I just needed to convince the kids and bank the same. I managed all that, and raised a deposit. The bank was the easy bit...the kids took a little more convincing but the fact that they each got their own room swung it somewhat. So on the 10th January 2010 I got the keys and took these pictures....(note that the furniture in them came with the house and all had to be cleared later).

The Hall, complete with boarded up front door.

Stairs and Landing, and attic room stairs.

Top of the range bathroom.

Child #2's bedroom (those ceiling fans were in every bedroom!)

More landing.

Child #3's bedroom

Child #1's bedroom

More landing!

The attic room.

The other side of the Attic Room (my bedroom)

The view from the top of the attic stairs.

The family room.

More of the family room.

Kitchen.

The 'Sun Room' as named by Oliver the Estate Agent...I think he was pushing his luck with this but this bit of the house has retained this title for comedy value.

More Sun Room.

Ironically I didn't take any pictures of the front room that I loved so much but I will show you that next time (although its already featured in many blog pictures already). I did quite a bit in the first year. It was mostly because the kids, in the end, had been very supportive and in return I wanted to decorate each of the their rooms within 12 months. I will show you some of the work that has been done in the next post.

Bye for now.

Bye Bye Half Term

I think they should make half terms longer! It was all gone too quickly and we were back to getting up early (in the dark), defrosting the car and getting to work and school as quickly as possible. 

Last week was so much more fun, we went to the cinema, baked and built things like this...

I had time to cook properly...like this steaming hot pan of chilli...

We went looking for Santa List ideas...(I miss having little girls sometimes!)

Even the cat was far more relaxed last week...

Roll on Christmas!

Anyway, one thing that did make monday more exciting was that fact that it was Bonfire Night. Even better, it didn't rain! So we all went along to the local display at Deeside Leisure Centre and put up with the really annoying 'DJ'. It was all worth it as the display was really good and seemed to go on and on for ages! We even managed to get right to the front too (not that it really matters for the fireworks obviously but it was more entertaining while we waited for them).  I didn't take pictures of the fireworks (they never seem to capture the magic!) but I did get a lovely picture of Child #1 and 3 here...

Etsy Experiments

Another day...another stash issue. The fabric stash this time. I was still in the mood for a sorting out cupboards etc, in addition I was also looking for the little bag that contains the other bits for the sewing machine like the zipper foot and button hole maker etc. I suspected it was buried within the fabric stash somewhere. 

I had also taken the time this week to have a proper look at the Etsy website. I'd only really been on it when search results took me there but never stayed long. Anyway I have other reasons for investigating its potential but we'll not go into those today. However, I did discover that there are lots of people selling hand sewn finished items on it at various price levels. 

Well as two plus two equals eight, I added my fabric stash and Etsy together and began sewing. In short I produced these two items yesterday (made solely from things I already had, I am proud to say)...

The top one was made from a little Indian tunic that Child #2 wore to my friend's wedding about 5 years ago. I loved the colours and design so much that I couldn't throw it out so its been sat in the stash ever since (I really won't mind at all if it doesn't sell). The red one was just one of my Abakhan shopping trips from that long ago that I don't remember when or why I bought the fabric. At least it has a use now anyway.

So I listed the red cushion yesterday on Etsy...$0.20 for 4 months - much cheaper than Ebay anyway. They take 3.5% of the sale price which I think is reasonable too. We shall see what happens. Worst case is that I end up with a few more cushions I guess!

I know I wasn't suppose to start new projects yet but I am discounting the above as they were made to sell...so technically 'work'. ;-)

Oh...and I did find the sewing machine accessories too...result! 

Back soon.

Trick or Treat

The nest love Halloween. Child #1 likes the dressing up side of things the most - ever the theatrical one of the family! This is her (a Zombie school girl apparently)...

And this is her with her fellow trick or treaters before they left...

Child #2 likes the dressing up part (but chose to do this at a friend's house - typical of Child #2 so I don't have pictures!). She also went along the zombie school girl route - I guess its an obvious choice when you the majority of the outfit to hand every day.

Child #3  went for a more cheery look...

He's in this a little for the dressing up but mostly for the sweets! I took him and his friend out (in the rain!) for over an hour collecting sweets. They loved it. I don't remember much about Halloween from my own childhood...maybe it wasn't a big deal in the 80s or maybe its a north/south thing but people around here make an effort. Fairy lights in windows, pumpkins outside, cobwebs etc etc. Kids are welcomed by adults (of all ages) dressed up as witches and vampires with bowls of sweets or other such treats. There is a lovely atmosphere outside too created by little groups of children running from house to house, followed by less enthusiastic but generally happy parents keeping watch. Even the rain didn't dampen the spirit! 

So, once the sweets had begun to run out we went home, where Child #3 began the best part...eating the sweets! I too had a few left over from the supply I bought to give out...I 'might' share them.

Child #2 finally returned in the evening with a mountain of sweets (at the envy of child #3), I'm sure she will be sharing too though.  

After an hour, my favourite part of Halloween occurred...the sugar low. Child #3 sat, snuggled up, almost asleep and very very quiet. Happy Halloween!