Home improvements

I've got lots and lots to blog about, but we've been out all day every day and I've just been too exhausted to do much in the evenings. I'll catch it all up eventually.

In the meantime, here are the photos of our home improvements. The very long overdue home improvements! I didn't take any before photos because it was all just too awful to preserve in photo. I'm sure if you carefully enough at all my other photos you'll see how dire it all was.

Right, bathroom first! Bath panel painted (we thought we'd give painting a go before replacing and it looks great) and walls repainted a lighter colour. I'm still amazed every time I go in there at the difference a bit of paint has made. Shame we couldn't move the whole lot upstairs.... And make it bigger.....

Stairs and hallway: Walls all needed repainting. My lovely dad painted downstairs for us when we moved in and I was languishing about recovering from my c/section and getting to grips with breastfeeding my baby. Anthony did a base coat on the upstairs and up the stairs, but never got any further due to life getting in the way. So now it has all been painted, skirting boards touched up and that horrible dark wood on the banisters painted white. Anthony did an amazing job of decluttering the alcove next to the door where all the shoes and junk used to land. There's a shoe cupboard there now, which the kids adore (and actually WANT to put their shoes in when we get home - hurray!) and no clutter. Well, aside from the spare booster seat down the side of the shoe cupboard, but I literally have nowhere else to put it.


Lounge: Again, everything has been painted. I spent today crawling about on hands and knees doing skirting boards, doorframes and doors upstairs and down. A rearrangement of furniture, a clear out of as many toys as possible, and a nice new rug. The dining room has also been replainted, but is full of toys at the moment, as you can see from the photo, and the table is covered in our artwork. But such is life with kids and I'm in no huge rush to change it, except that we need somewhere to eat. And I need to get them both into the habit of putting away one thing before getting out another. Something that Tyran is good at and Hayley is terrible at. It's scary how much mess a 3 year old can make. Oh, and I still need to put the voiles up at the windows.


Our bedroom has been painted and cleared out and looks a thousand times better. No photos yet because I haven't finished everything in there. at the moment it looks a little rented accomodation-like! The kids' rooms are waiting for their new beds and will each get a new coat of paint and some new little decoration bits. We haven't done anything to the kitchen because it's such a big job and I sort of hope that my beautiful units and work surfaces detract a little from the lack of tiles and finished walls! Oh, and all the washing I need to put away.

All of this thanks to Homebase and their interest free credit scheme. Tsk, tsk. But you know, desperate times call for desperate measures and I was D.E.S.P.E.R.A.T.E!!! I can't believe how much better I feel about life in general just knowing that my house looks better. Mind you, I've also been off work for 2 weeks.....