10 months in!

Happy new year everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful christmas and was able to see friends and family over the festive period. We hosted christmas at ours this year which was lovely. To get us to that point though meant alot of dedication and hard work. I had said ever since moving into this house that I wanted to have all the family round ours for christmas but we had so much work to do before we could even think about that. From the begining. We were handed the keys in March 2021 but couldnt move in straight away as the property had no central heating. It was so cold and damp we had to correct these issues first. Especially as we had a young child and another one on the way in a few months. The new boiler was installed by LW gas ( A company Rob has used for years) which we had pre booked. Once this was done we then started taking off all the polystyrene squares and layers upon layers of wallpaper which led to them being taken right back to brick. ( One of the main causes of the damp in this house. The damp surveryor we had to pay for prior to moving in spoke alot of tosh when explaining why the house had a damp issue. Its a good job we had done our research before hand.) The next task was the bathroom. It was disgusting! Everything was ripped out and a new suite was installed. ( The bathroom didnt even have a sink in it, weird huh) We chose a high sisterne for the toilet and a slightly wider and longer bath with a shower head over the tub. It was heaven using this for the first time let me tell you. We actually moved in before the bathroom was completed. Once we had the toilet it wasnt fully plumbed in immediatley so we had to flush the toilet using a bucket of water. We pinched a little bit from the bedroom next door so we could fit the new bath n and reconfigured the layout to make it more accessable. Once the bathroom was ok - ish, by this I mean functioning we started on the kids bedrooms. They too were completly gutted, flooring was ripped up, insullated, completly boarded, re plastered, chimney breasts and old fireplaces where taken out, re painted, picture rails up, curtains/blinds in, new radiators on and electrics re-wired. Just in time for our new arrival. Phew! Now it was time for the biggest project yet. So, the Now kitchen/diner was two seperate lounges/ dining rooms? we knocked the wall and chimney breasts down seperating them both, put a steel beam in and ripped up both floors as the joists needed to be replaced and insullation needed to be added. We had already chosen our kitchen and the accessories to go with it ready for a smooth transition. The delivery date was slowly creeping up and we where having more and more late nights. hurrah! The rooms where ready just in time for the delivery date at the begining of December. Now it was the final push before Christmas. Rob was still working full time so it was evenings and weekends trying to get it all completed. We worked right up to Christmas eve to get the rooms in a respectable state to cook and eat in. Thank god for parents as Mum had the kids for a few days just before the big day to ensure we got everything done, Not to mention the prepping of food to feed 12 people. Needless to say we did it! We did it running on around 3 hours sleep. We didnt see shy of 4am very often to the lead up to the big day let me tell you. We ended 2021 on a massive high, and enjoyed celebrating the New year with family with food, drinks and party games. So just to recap. We brought the house in March, hosted our birthdays and baby shower in the garden during the summer, brought our son into the world 2 days before robs birthday (July) completed 5 rooms in the house, hosted Christmas and New year all in 9 months and during covid! 2022 has arrived and were enjoying our time as a family before Olivia goes back to school Monday and rob returns to work. (Olivia had longer off due to the works being done on her school) We have said that due to us not having any big deadlines this year we will slow down a little, whether this will happen or not is another matter. The next task will be the lounge where the bay windows need to be made safe as currently the joists are rotten underneath and one needs replacing in our floor. The whole room needs to be insullated, boarded and replastered like every room in this house. But.... the paint has already been pirchased and has been sat there waiting to be slapped on the walls for months so thats a big thing to tick off the list. ( Choosing the paint colour takes alot of dedication, alot of research and alot of colour charts) HAHA. We have already designed the room so fingers crossed we dont have any massive hurdles. One of the biggest things to be happening this year is the request for planning permission. This makes me grit my teeth as it would be really helpful to have it. Its not the end of the world if we cant, but it would be really helpful in our long term plans. I HOPE YOU HAVE ENJOYED BEING KEPT UP TO DATE WITH OUR PROGRESS. THANK YOU FOR STOPPING BY, HAVE A WONDERFUL WEEKEND!