Our Annual Report - 2012
Wow, we've been living in our new house for nearly a year now. I guess it's no longer a new house, huh. Good job I unpacked the very last box of kitchenware this morning (hello, mugs! It's been a while!) cos otherwise that would be kinda embarrassing.
Before diving into the plans for 2013, let's take a moment to review progress in the past year.
Here's our lovely house - nearly 3000 square feet of glorious Victorian original features and tasteless eighties decor.
You can take a tour of our house as it looked on moving day here, and view the floorplans here.
The first room we tackled was the guest bedroom. We were inspired by this:
To this:
And finally to this:
Along the way I upcycled a table and a couple of stools from our cellar. You can read the whole story of the spare room transformation by visiting the Guest Bedroom Photo Gallery.
Next up, we used this inspiration board:
To turn Eva's bedroom from this:
To this:
And ultimately to this:
It's a pink and blue paradise, and she absolutely loves it (as do all her toddler friends, who on average last five minutes after arriving for a playdate before making a break for it up the stairs to jump up and down on her big girl bed).
As part of the transformation, I sewed curtains, beanbags and cushions, painted the mural, upgraded an Ikea table and chair set, and upholstered a chair. You can view lots of lovely before, during and after photographs here.
We started planning the living room renovation...
...and then took a break from all things house transformation following the arrival of a certain dark-eyed smiley Natalia baby.
Her bedroom started off looking like this:
And then looked like this:
And now looks like this:
But in the next few weeks (let's get this room finished, already!) will hopefully look something like this:
Moving outside, we filled in the ornamental pond, and chopped down the wild jungle in the front garden to transform it from this:
To this:
(Don't worry, it will look fabulous when all the bulbs and new plants start growing in the spring.)
We also replaced the radiators on the ground floor, and made some quick upgrades to the kitchen/dining room (you can check out our future vision for the kitchen here). Oh, and we built a play kitchen for Eva, and temporarily installed a bouncy castle in the back garden to celebrate her second birthday.
It feels to us that progress is reeeeeeally slow, but actually after writing it all out that doesn't sound half bad, right? Especially considering we doubled our quota of glorious daughters half way through the year :-)
So, on the cards for 2013? Find an architect, get drawings done, get planning permission, and get a builder booked in for the extension. Do something about the enormous trees in the back garden. Finish Natalia's room. Do the living room. Do our bedroom. Do something with the vintage chairs I keep buying on eBay.
What are your plans for 2013? Any house-related resolutions?