The house

Ok, I promised pics of the house.

We've almost been here a year now, how time flies when you're having fun!

The house was previously owned by a little old lady, she'd been here 39 years and all the carpets and flooring had been down since she moved in.  She didn't own a hoover.

You can imagine the dust and grime.

We got the keys late on the Friday afternoon and rushed round to start seeing what we needed to do - we had the luxury of not having to move in until midweek so plenty of time to get stuck in.

It was soon evident that every single room needed to be refloored and as it's easier to do before the furniture goes in I got stuck in and started ripping up layers upon layers of carpet and underlay (that fell apart in my hands it was that old)  Luckily we'd had the main rooms measured for vinyal flooring, it was all ordered and paid for so it was just a case of getting them to measure up for the rest (and a small heart failure at the cost of reflooring the entire house!)

Mum and Dad moved in for the weekend on camp beds (bless them) and whilst Mum scrubbed the house from top to bottom, Dad set to with fixing things, wiring things and altering things.  He also got the grab rails and stair rails in that Ewan needs to get around the house safely.  That was a real bonus to us.

Luckily the house didn't need any urgent decoration, it's old, it's not our taste but it was perfectly servicable. 

Since we've moved in I've decorated the smallest bedroom for our youngest, the kitchen's had a freshen up (mainly as it was candyfloss pink!!) and the conservatorys had a freshen up too.

The front and back gardens have also been attacked.  The front garden has a paved drive but had a silly wall that just got in the way and once the car was on the drive Ewan couldn't get out in his wheelchair or scooter, we were quoted £1k to take the wall down, make good and turf...yeah right.  I set to with my masonary chisle and hammer and dug and bashed and bashed and dug for 3 weeks.  The wall came out, the ground leveled and the turf layed.  Loads of neighbours stopped to tell me what a great job I was doing and every single man told me I needed a bigger hammer....not one of them offered to help though!

The back garden is small and compact but was taken over with a willow tree that had a bricked patio underneath.  The tree is now out (and chopped for fire wood), I've taken up the dodgy bricks and turfed to make it level and safe for Ewan and it's made the garden look so much bigger.  I chopped down all the old bushes, pulled out anything that looked weed like and dug and dug and dug some more - I than ran out of ooomph with it and it sat with bare flower beds for a month or so until my lovely Mum arrived one day, she'd brought a bit of everything from her garden, so it's all planted up and by next year it should all look fab!

The kitchen was refitted about 15 years ago - it's not very well laid out but it's still functionable for now so we've done what we can to make it work for us - the first thing was to rip out the gas hob and replace with a bargain "last one in the shop so yours for £50" ceramic hob.

These three photos were from the estate agent details - very pink, very old lady.

And this is now - the eating area.

The kitchen area

And my gorgeous dresser - picked up in a charity shop and furnished with pottery finds from bootfairs.

It's a wonderful space, a real family room.