SAM’S HOUSE RENO DIARIES: PART 1

As I’m writing this, it’s the night before our builders start. I’m nervous, excited, anxious and wondering if we’ve set ourselves up for six months (will it really be six months?!) of trauma. I’ve decided as it’s such a huge thing, I’m going to document it with monthly blog posts, mainly in the hope that I’ll look back and laugh about it when it’s all done.

We moved into our house six months ago. It’s our forever home, the home that our kids will grow up in, we’ll host friends and family in, our kids will bring their partners home to, maybe even their own children, so we figure that as we’re in it for the long haul, let’s make it exactly how we want it. But as prices rise, and building work becomes more expensive, the cost of renting and doing work isn’t something within our realm, so we are going to be living in the house, while the work happens. Fun, right?!

The current plan is: everything from the back of the house (where the extension / building work will happen) has either been sold via Facebook Marketplace (sofa, coffee table, side tables, lamps), sold on Vinted or put into storage (beds, mirrors, mattresses, and let’s face it, the majority of it is my clothes, bags and shoes). Nick is moving into Leo’s room with him, and I am on a Zinus mattress* on Alfie’s floor. I actually discovered Zinus beds when we moved, and we upgraded Leo’s bed to this Zinus double bed, which for the price is bloody amazing. It looks so chic and so much more expensive than it is. At the same time, we upgraded Alfie from the mid-sleeper he was in, to a proper bed, with a full size single mattress (he was still on a toddler sized in the old house) and because we’d been so impressed with the Zinus bed, ordered him one of their mattresses. Anyway, whenever I mention our plan, everyone tells me to put the boys in a room together which I totally get, but I just think this will make life easier all round. Alfie goes to sleep about two hours earlier than Leo, he potters around his room/reads/plays for time until around 10pm. Famous last words – this may all change by the next instalment of my House Reno Diaries.

So, what have I learnt so far? It’s probably a better idea to do a house reno in the summer. Not because of the weather, because let’s face it, British Summertime can be equally as apalling weather wise as Winter is. Because of the clothing situation. As mentioned, I’m moving in Alfies room, thus I am sharing Alfie’s wardrobe. Practically, it would have been far easily to shove in some breezy summer dresses and a couple of cardigans than fit in an entire A/W wardrobe of jeans, chunky jumpers, boots and coats. C’est la vie.

Also, you can’t both be in the driving seat. If someone has such strong opinions on something, and you don’t hate it, go with it. We’ve spent the last couple of weeks nailing the design of our master ensuite, and it’s safe to say, Nick gets far more obsessed with the tiny details than I do. I actually get the point where if we’ve chosen a tap, I’m happy with the decisions and I can’t look at any more options, whereas Nick can go around and around in circles, obsessing over them until 2am – and we always end up coming back to the one we both liked. So this will be fun.

I feel like it’s really important when sharing renovation stories to be as open as possible, because that’s how you find reputable people, via word of mouth, and of course you have to vibe with them. We were recommended so many architects, and contacted so many off the backs of fancy hoardings we drove past, but the prices for the same job varied so drastically it was quite crazy (and remember, we aren’t building an entire house, we are actually doing quite little structurally in the grand scheme of things) and we felt most comfortable with the architect we used, Simon Webb, who’s prices were realistic. He answered every email, provided the CAD drawings some charge a fortune for and he had no issues with making changes. Contractor wise, we had six builders quote for the job, but the ones we ended up using were recommended to us by 3 or 4 people that we know, who were all happy with them. We’re going to essentially be living with them for six months, so the vibe was also really important here. I think we have it, but I’ll wait to name check them in my next blog instalment, if all is going well. Fingers crossed for us!

See you in November. I wonder if we’ll have a roof?!

*gifted item