Making it home.......... Kitchen renovations continue

I'm not sure about calling this post making it home it should really be called making more mess, or please can we get something finished.

The kitchen renovations continue in our house if you would like to find out more here is the link to planning a  small kitchen.
It has been a stressful couple of weeks to say the least we seem to be hitting a problem at every turn i sometimes wonder if the house does not want to be fixed. It seems to want to hold on to its 80's grey kitchen and garage you can't fit a car in.

I thought the original grey kitchen above was scary but then things looked alot worse when everything got ripped out and thrown in the skip and the items to go back into the kitchen got moved into the lounge for what was intended to be a temporary stay !

 A month later the lounge is still chaos as it still has dining table and other kitchen things strewn all around it as sadly we had a couple of weeks where are builder was very unwell and work stopped in the kitchen leaving us in a right mess. Things moved forward a bit more last week and we could finally see a bit of light at the end of the tunnel although we still had along way to go.

Then this week things really started taking shape and we managed to sneak a few essential items back in and finally had a sink again ...... no more washing up in the bathroom hurrah.

Its really getting there now and a million miles away from the grey impractical space we started with. I can not wait to start doing the finishing touches but i think that's a way off yet as still electrics to be done and a wall to come down and a garage to be converted to give us the link through rooms. I am really pleased though with what we have achieved so far and I am really looking forward to getting each room back to its proper use and being able to use it as a real family home.

That's it from me this week what have you been up to around your house to make it home, i would love you to link up and share your home and its always lovely to hear from you so feel free to leave a comment.

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Thought of the day.................. Renovations and children don't mix !

Making it home.... Boys space bedroom on a budget

We have lift off !!!

Welcome to the next instalment of making it home a little link to share ideas and all things interiors that help to make a house home. Every Monday i put up a post on the progress of our house renovations or share inspiration and ideas or must haves for the home.

I love to save money and time where i can as there is only so much of both when your a mum so you can be reassured whatever i share will be aimed at making life easier cheaper and more beautiful.

I hope you will join in by writing similar posts or linking up old posts that provide inspiration for making your house home. If this is your first visit and you want to find out more about making it home or see the progress so far on the bedroom or kitchen or bathroom just click on the links.

Anyway without further ado here is my latest update.............

Moving and renovating can be quite unsettling for small children so the first project we tackled when
 we moved in was little E's bedroom to get him settled and feeling safe in the new home. The bedroom he has now is half the size of the nautical bedroom he left behind so some creativity was definitely going to be called for to give him a space he loves excuse the pun !!

To help settle him and make the room seem comfortable and familiar i started by painting the walls a similar colour to his previous room using satin paint as it reflects light better and is wipe able a real must in a child's room. The next thing we needed to do was raise the money to buy him some new furniture as his bed was now too small and wardrobe and changer no longer needed.

We listed his old furniture on EBay and the money raised was the budget to spend on the new bedroom. Selling his old outgrown items we raised £275 so my challenge was to create a boys bedroom for £275 or less but technically its created for free as recycled money i guess!!

I wanted to get a bed that was good quality and going to last him for a good few years so i opted for an oak single as this would  last and adapt to fit most schemes.

I shopped around and found this bed as an ex display item in a  local bed shop who were changing round to make room for new stock. It is always worth looking at ex display items as they have not been used and you don't need to wait for them as in stock. This bed and mattress cost £159 a real bargain for what would of been  £359 if i had of ordered it.

This left me £116 to finish the room so i had to search and spend wisely my first bargain was found when doing my weekly food shop at Sainsbury's i picked up this very lovely star duvet cover and pillow case  for £7.50. It's a really good match for the wall colour and also picks up on the old blind we brought with us from the old house.

The stars then got me thinking along the lines of space and from there the room started to evolve and take shape. Next i looked at storage the room had a really large double size wardrobe too big for little E's small clothes and then a small cupboard next to it which did not really give enough room to store toys.

The most cost effective way to get the storage we really needed was to remove the hanging rail from the wardrobe and cut it into two making smaller rails to fit into the small cupboard making perfect double hanging for E's small clothes.

We then just brought some wood and batons from a builders merchant for £25 (cheaper than going to diy store) and made the large wardrobe into a shelved toy cupboard and painted the shelves white to match the room.

The inside of a cupboard or wardrobe is the perfect place to display childrens artwork and little bits and pieces sort of like an open up gallery.  A few handy hooks on the inside off the other door are great for bags and all the other bits that don't have a home to hang.

Excuse the mess, at least i can just shut the door on it at night.

Left with £83.50 i searched for an in expensive way to inject some fun into the room by way off a wall sticker. I found it quite hard to find something fun and tasteful as a lot of children's stickers can be a bit tacky on the front as well as the back ha ha!

Eventually Ebay came to the rescue and i picked up this lovely space theme for £20 and they were even kind enough to send contrasting colour stars free of charge. Wall stickers are really easy to apply and are a great inexpensive way to add fun to a room.

Easy to apply and little E loved to help create his space!

Ebay also came to the rescue with the lovely space throw at the end of the bed complete with cushion and pillow case £9.50 including postage. I will tell you a bit more about this in another post as they will be changing slightly into more!!

My final £54 this went mainly to Argos where i purchased the lovely cube storage units with star and stripe boxes one as a bed side table and one at the end of the bed for £30 the next £10 went to next the little cubes on the wall and the last bit to the charity shop lamp and light shade.

There you have it a little space from recycled money and bargain finds. I will also be linking up this post on Monday magpie and Thrifty Thursday.

I hope you have been inspired to get renovating its always lovely to hear from you please feel free to leave a comment.

Now its over to you to link up how you are making it home with your ideas inspiration renovations and pinterest anything goes ........... ready steady link xx

Thought of the day.................   In every home there is space if you look for it xx

Making it home..... Bathroom makeover

  Welcome to the first ever making it home linky!
So many of us are renovating /redecorating and making over our homes or  bringing old items back to life or generally searching for items to make our houses home.

 I thought it would be lovely to share ideas and inspiration get support if your stuck with something and just generally show the world our handy work on home projects.  Every week i will write a post following either the progress of our house as work in progress or finished projects or generally passing on lovely items and ideas i have seen.

 I hope you will join me by linking up and sharing your renovation projects and room makeovers items you have brought back to life or any relevant post about making your house home.  It can be a new or old post either finished projects or work in progress or maybe you have seen too many nice things and can't decide and need help choosing.

Hopefully its fairly simple there is a link at the bottom of the page to link up your post and i look forward seeing your projects and popping over to and visit your blog. While your linking up take a look at the other entries and find inspiration and share the blog love xx

Here's my bathroom update.................... 

  We moved  house at the end of January this year out of necessity to a home in need of improvement so that we could reduce our mortgage add value to a property and therefore allow me more time to spend with my little boy and care for my elderly mum.

 Every room needs attention..... downstairs the layout needs re arranging and the floor space needs extending but while we are waiting for planning permission etc we are starting on the upstairs.

 The bathroom changes needed are mainly cosmetic and re doing the previous owners half finished diy!! When we moved in as you can see the bath had not been fitted properly had been put in too low and this meant the bath panel did not fit. The layout was not ideal the bath sink and loo have been fitted to close together and the blue tiles and dark floor make the small room feel even smaller. The window glass has been painted along with the frame and generally the room looks small and dark and unfinished.

Before bathroom!!

We are working on a tight budget as we need to use most of our money on the kitchen and building work so here is how we managed a low cost bathroom transformation.

First we just needed to work out how to lose the blue go faster stripes as these are really making the room appear smaller..Re tiling would of been costly so before going down that route we decided to see if tile paint would work ..... I have to say i was a bit dubious at first but once i had mastered the best technique i was pleasantly surprised.

If you fancy having ago at this really cost effective way of updating tiles this is how i found to get the best result. Use a tiny roller from a craft shop as you will get a better finish than with a brush. Go over the whole area including covering existing grout rather than trying to go tile by tile. Leave to dry for longer than it says on tin i found 48 hours better.I would not bother buying a grout pen the finish is not realistic instead leave for 48 hours and then with a small tub of grout re grout the area all over the tiles then wipe off excess with a damp sponge. Voila new tiles for the tiny cost of tile paint and grout around £25 much cheaper than new tiles and someone to fit them.

Next we tackled the layout by moving the radiator and putting a slimline towel radiator on a smaller wall to free up the big wall for much needed storage. Then we raised the bath very slightly to fit the bath panel properly.We then Painted the walls a natural colour using kitchen and bathroom paint and tidied up the woodwork. 

The next project was the floor we went for a vinyl in a light oak colour to lighten and brighten the space, and chose one with a real wood floor affect. In a small room its good to use something like this as the planks draw your eye to the widest point and give the allusion of space as a result.

Storage is in short supply in our house so the bathroom was finished off with a slimline tall cabinet to get the best use of space without taking up much room.

I wanted to continue the nature theme in our house so that the rooms link together therefore i finished the room off with a lovely ex display Laura Ashley blind which i picked up for a bargain £40 and a few nature inspired accessories.

I have been really pleased with the overall result and what we managed to achieve without spending a fortune.

I hope you enjoyed this weeks offering ............ Now its over to you to link up and share how you are making your house home.

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There's money in the house!

The last few years for us as a family have been challenging to say the least, like most people we are really feeling the burn of the rising living costs, redundancy and expensive child care that leaves the average family for want of a better word stuffed!!

My husband was made redundant literally hours after the birth of our little E (hows that for timing) and after a rather traumatic birth i was left too ill to return to work quickly. We sort of muddled through with my husband doing his best to cover my  little shop while looking for new employment himself.

                                           
 He eventually found new employment but sadly around the time he started back to work my  my mum became seriously ill and on her leaving hospital i became her carer. We had to make the difficult decision to sell my business as there is only so many hours in a day and with elderly care and childcare costs being so high it was just not cost effective. We therefore like many families are living on one wage trying our best to get by.

Anyway......to cut a very long story short and spare the gory details,we had to move mum from her home she had lived in for 48 years only weeks after moving home ourselves.  Its been a roller coaster few years and the learning curves have been steep but somehow as a family we managed to hold it all together and I'm proud of us for that.

The time has now come though that something needs to change, i  need to be able contribute to the home again whist still being the best mother,daughter and wife i can be.

Having re assessed we realised that the thing to do was to move again and release the equity created by  the improvements we have made to our current house and then buy another home that  needs improvements.

We have found in doing this we can pay 25% off our mortgage from the equity created by the improvements we have done on our current home which brings the monthly payment down on our next house, this is good at a time most of the other house bills are rising!

                                         

The key to getting the best price out of your home really is in the presentation, America definitely have the right idea it is normal practise when selling a home in the states to call in a home stager before they call an estate agent. I hope its something that will catch on over here as it definitely works that's why house builders use show homes as they are wise to the fact presentation sells. I think sadly most UK estate agents are stuck in their ways and will  still reduce the asking price rather than suggest to a seller improvements they can make to achieve a good price.

We really needed to get the best price for our house to help our situation so i pulled out all the stops and styled our home ready to sell, and sell it did we got a good offer in just over a week after going on the market.
 So our mortgage challenge begins we are determined to move and improve again a few  times to eventually pay the mortgage off . The hunt for the new property was finally over today when  we had an offer accepted on a property ironically  two streets from our current one fairly identical just in need of TLC and as a result of needing work  a staggering price difference from our own.

Hopefully I've inspired anyone hoping to sell in the spring to get out the paint brushes finish those half done jobs and edit your clutter to create space before calling the agents in, if you cant face it alone hire some help i promise it will be far more effective than a price drop later.


I'm really excited and cant wait to get to work on our new home next year and I am so pleased to have finally found a way to make it  financially work as mum.

I have a feeling this may be a whole new blog in the making, watch this space x
Thought of the day.....................   A home is where the people you love live.