SAM’S HOUSE RENO DIARIES: PART 2

OK, apologies if you’ve been waiting around for the next instalment of my reno journey. Turns out that IRL, it’s not quite as quick as ‘tap to transforms’ on all of these house instagram accounts. Who’d have thunk it.

So I last left you HERE. The night before it all kicked off. We’re now three months in (which is technically the halfway point – let’s hope) and while lots has happened, there hasn’t actually been that much to show you. It’s been dirty, it’s been dusty but it’s only now we’re starting to see some sort of outline of the rooms and if you squint, you can kind of, almost, visualise the space. I grew up on building sites, with my dad taking me to work with him, so I can read floorplans, visualise the space and kind of envisage what we’d end up with, but Nick is completely floorplan illiterate, so now we’re in a space that we can both imagine, it’s getting to the good part.

But let’s talk first about the reality of living in a building site. If you’ve read my previous post, you’ll know all about the sleeping plan, and I have to say, it’s working for us. Is it ideal? No. But we’re in the swing of things. The builders are actually a delight to have around, which is important as we are spending so much time together. We spoke to six different companies, and after quotes we went with CG Contractors, and honestly, I don’t have a single bad word to say. They are beyond neat and tidy, people have actually commented on how organised my driveway looks, and they see me out of my driveway at 8am every morning. They also explain everything so that I understand it – and they hid an Elf on the Shelf in my roof (can you see him below?) sending me pictures of him moving around, so I didn’t have to do it. Just hurry up guys and get me a roof, yeah?!

Speaking of: I think we have had every kind of bad weather going in the last three months. Gale force winds that shook the scaffold so much we were awake all night? Tick. Torrential storms that came through the roof? Tick. Arctic temperatures making it so cold that we can see our breath inside? Tick. It’s fair to say that it’s not been the best weather to have no roof or back wall. We had one night where it was 2 degrees during which I almost lost my sh*t. But thanks to multiple heaters, friends who invite us to keep warm at their house on Friday nights and weekend afternoons, and they discovery of heated blankets, we are coping surprisingly fine. The kids barely notice a thing. In my mind I think of what we can in the build, because we’re not blowing money on rent, and how happy we’ll be in the summer, with the windows open, enjoying the house because the works all done, and I’m so fine with living through it.

So where are we now? Well, verging on decision fatigue. We have our master bathroom on order, which I am beyond excited about. Think hotel vibes. We’ve done radiators, flooring is 80% there and we kind of know the paint colours, almost. If anyone can confidently push me in one way or the other between Little Greene Slaked Lime and Slaked Lime Mid, I’d be grateful. I’ve spent the majority of this weekend emailing carpenters and bannister experts because the initial quotes for carpentry nearly knocked me sideways (hit me up if you have a great recco) so there’s still a lot up in the air, and lot of unknowns and lot of decisions to make BUT we are teetering on the edge of the rollercoaster down now, and I think it’s going to be fun.

I’ll show you more next month….fingers crossed.