Home » 1 Year On...

It's a year this week since Moon and found, put and offer in and were accepted on a mortgage for our new home and I can't quite believe how quickly that time has gone.

While working on a few things from Google Drive last week, I found the photos I took from when I was showing my Mum the house that I would then go on to show anyone who asked in the lead up to us actually living there and it's crazy to think that we even went for it. It's not that we've changed all that much about the house, I mean, structurally it's exactly the same but we've had to do so much painting and we're still not even finished!

I guess we just really loved the potential, but I'll tell you what, decorating a house is so far removed from the cutesy painting montages from the movies, like, it's the least fun thing I've ever done. I am really happy with the result so far though and even though we won't have been here a full year until April rolls around, it's still pretty fun to see the changes our house has gone through in the last 12 months.



[Hallway » January 2015]
NOW: The hallway, the kitchen and the bathrooms are up next on our hit list but the hallway hasn't changed all that much since we moved in, apart from it now being where the cat eats with a nicer shoe cabinet. ♥





[Kitchen » January 2015]
NOW: The kitchen was actually just about the one room in the house that didn't need any work. I'd like to paint it just to freshen it up and to make sure it's on a similar time-frame to the other rooms in the house. There are so many bodge-jobs in this house and the only thing that bothers me about the kitchen is that there isn't any sealant around the cabinets.

Even though it's much smaller than I was used to and it can be a bit of an ordeal unpacking the shopping or cooking when we're both in there, I still sort of love it. I'm hoping to eventually replace that blind as it doesn't really match - the sellers wanted to charge us £110 for it but left it anyway..






[Living Room » January 2015]
NOW: The living room is where we spend most of our time and it's probably my favourite room. We've bagged quite a few bargains in terms of furniture, including the larger sofa which matches our original sofa but was a steal at just £100 from eBay! I can't even begin to tell you how pleased I am to finally have a proper dining table that seats a decent amount of people and that doesn't wobble when you're cutting your dinner.


We hosted Christmas in the end - our first one in our new home, it had to be done - and with a couple of spare chairs we all squeezed round the table and it made the house feel really cosy. Even though I miss the open-plan of the flat slightly, the living room is still a great room for hosting and we have so much more space than we did before!

That said, I feel like the before pictures trick you slightly into thinking it's bigger than it is, I can't believe we saw it with that little stuff in it - knowing it was a 5 family household - and didn't think anything of it. Also, why have they got a chest of drawers in their lounge?





[Front Room » January 2015]
NOW: This is our most recent update - I have a little post coming up on how poorly we treated it over the last 9 months we've lived here. You can see it was pretty much a junk room in its past life and that's how it was for us for ages too, we had so much stuff that we left there waiting to be unpacked.

Fingers crossed the drum kit goes soon as it takes up so much room and is hardly used but it makes Moon happy so it's staying for now. I'm really pleased with how the orange has come out, it's so difficult to photograph though as it's so bright in that room all day, maybe I'll try and snap it when I have some time on a dull day. We only went for that one wall in the end, but we've also done the inside of the door of the downstairs loo, which is a pretty neat effect.



Pro tip: These are 'hobby boards' from Homebase rather than standard shelves, goodness knows what the difference is but we really struggled to find shelves that weren't just MDF. I like floating shelves but I felt they were a little clunky for what we were going for.







[Garden » January 2015]
NOW: The garden is one area that I feel is worse since we've moved in. We've managed to grow a few things and we're getting ready to grow more of our own this year as it's something we missed out on while moving last year, we even have a few daffodils poking up, but the bad weather has not been kind to our creaky old fence and most of it is falling down. It's not something we can do much about until late spring but definitely something that will help me love our garden once it's done.




[Our Bedroom » January 2015]
NOW: I know I said the living room is my favourite but our bedroom is probably the one I'm most proud of. Sometimes when I climb into bed, it still feels as luxurious as staying in a hotel. I know it's not all that fancy but after three years of sleeping on a wonky mattress with see-through curtains, I'm still getting to grips with how much of a good night's sleep I'm getting.

I love the blues we chose and I just feel instantly relaxed. I'm hoping to put a few more pictures up but I'm really happy with it for now.







[Front Bedroom » January 2015]
NOW: When I think of the purple, I wonder why we ever picked this house - for the record, purple is a horrible colour to paint over, even with a few coats of one-coat paint, but I just think this is coolest room now. It's so bright and warm, and even though it's a glorified laundry room most of the time, I sure hope that our guests enjoy staying in it when they come.









[Back Bedroom » January 2015]
NOW: This room doesn't have all that much of a personality of its own yet. I really like how it still feels a lot brighter since we got rid of the dark burgundy though - the previous owners apparently had a thing with purple. It comes in useful for when we have a few more people over but unfortunately it's mainly utilised as Moon's ironing room most of the time.








[Bathroom » January 2015]
NOW: We really haven't done all that much to the bathroom, other than getting rid of the sad old mirror and putting in a fancy cabinet. Eventually I'd like to put in a proper shower but I'm happy with it the way it is for the moment :)




Maybe it's just because it's our stuff in it and it was a family of five with a dog that lived here before and we're just two and a cat so we have a lot less clutter and more time to keep it tidy. Since Christmas, I finally feel like our home is exactly what it is, it's somewhere family come to visit and where we host guests, and where we relax when we have a free weekend.



I loved that flat in Newbury, it was freezing year-round, had gross carpets and really expensive bills (our gas & electric bills have more than halved since we moved, thank goodness for double glazing) and it was a big adjustment period for me, but now it feels more like it fits and I'm feeling really positive and actually pretty proud of this place. Now I just need to get out and explore the area a little more so we have things to do when the house is taking up less of our time.

It would be easy to blame January entirely for my lack of posting but I think that's a bit of a hard sell given that my last post was way back in November. I guess I've just been feeling a bit busy and a bit uninspired, which aren't a great combination if you're trying to keep something like this going. That said, the start of a new month has brought about the feeling wanting to start a fresh and I'm feeling a lot more creative than I was so.. here we go...