If you asked me what I would do in the future, out of all the things I may have said, writing a blog would certainly not be one. I am sure my English teacher would have discouraged me to do any public writing too….but here I am, commas and full stops everywhere.

Like many of us, upon searching for our dream home, you spend hours on Pinterest, Rightmove and then you actually can’t afford that house with the swimming pool and have to put together a sensible list of ‘essentials’, desirables and sadly agree on a realistic budget haha. Mat wanted a new build; I wanted a ‘project’ and like any good relationship, we came to an agreement and ended up with an entire renovation job. We got the keys back in May 2016, after years of hard work and saving, as you can imagine, we were so excited to have bought our first home. I say we, Mat is pretty laid back and as he puts it ‘consistently content’ but I was bouncing about the place – scraper and steamer in hand! The poor previous owner hadn’t left and I was already stripping the living room haha!

Our home, in a Rightmove tone, is a 1930’s semi-detached generous corner plot, with 3 spacious bedroom’s, a garage and a conservatory extension. If I was actually to regurgitate the Rightmove ‘key features’ it stated “with a modern kitchen” I will let you be the judge of that when I do the kitchen blog post – can’t give it all away at once, you might not come back haha!

Aside from all the obvious work we were aware it needed such as the bathroom (which included knocking down a wall and using some of the landing space) and the kitchen, it soon became apparent that the entire house needed a re-wire, a new boiler and this it was more than just a “strip the walls and give it a lick of paint job”. For those of you that are pros or more experienced renovators, I am sure you are laughing and nodding as you read this…! But since then, we (mainly myself as Mat isn’t really a hands-on home renovator kind of guy) have learnt A LOT!

Despite all of the above, I often get asked why I loved the house in the first place, especially at the time by friends and family that saw it in the first few weeks. Well, the answer is “I am all about the floorplan” so this was the first thing that got my attention and we weren’t disappointed. I loved the hallway and all the little windows throughout the house and the bay windows. Then it was all the little characteristics you can get from older houses such as the high ceilings, high skirting boards and the fireplaces in the bedrooms.

Aside from all the obvious work we were aware it needed such as the bathroom (which included knocking down a wall and using some of the landing space) and the kitchen, it soon became apparent that the entire house needed a re-wire, a new boiler and this it was more than just a “strip the walls and give it a lick of paint job”. For those of you that are pros or more experienced renovators, I am sure you are laughing and nodding as you read this…! But since then, we (mainly myself as Mat isn’t really a hands-on home renovator kind of guy) have learnt A LOT!

So far we have completed the kitchen, bathroom, two bedrooms, the hallway and most of the living room, minus plenty of never ending snagging jobs. One of the major tasks of the renovation was moving the kitchen from the ‘old kitchen room’ to the ‘old dining room’ to give us a more square and larger kitchen. One of the hardest things for me, aside from sticking to a budget, is choosing a style, as I love so many different styles. In here I have provided some varied photos of the rooms we have already completed but I will do an in-depth post for each individual room later… watch this space.

Keepmoat homes, leading UK builders, as part of their home inspiration gallery have asked me to share where I find my inspiration and what my vision was when embarking on renovating our home. If I am totally honest, I never had a clear vision for each room when I started. As not only do I change my mind more than is healthy, but also due to the fact I love so many styles. I knew I wanted each room bright but warm and then I broke down each room into a project to decide what the end look was – hence why there is also a mixture of styles throughout the house. Then for ideas, I use Pinterest, magazines and even local cafes or hotels for ideas and then one of my favourite places was Instagram. Which for me provides a more interactive platform to source items, share ideas, but also see a style in a real-life home. To see more photos of our home please head on over to Keepmoat, where you can also find a number of homes I love myself.