You may have heard that there is a new blog index on the block, the HIBS100. I’m remarkably grumpy about not being eligible to join this one (it has to be mostly about pretty home type-y things) and it’s given me quite a kick up the bum. With the absence of any home ed to keep talking about and limited time to actually do craft, working 3-4 days a week and the increasing ages of the girls meaning I really CAN’T keep writing about them in detail, there feels a lot less to blog about these days. But one thing that absolutely HAS to happen over the next couple of years is that for various reasons (sanity, happiness and maintenance) is some home improvements. And I really want to make the house more personal, more US, while I do it.
It always makes me a bit sad that I was desperate to have a home of my own for so long while we rented and yet since we’ve been here, I’ve somehow totally failed to stamp myself on the place. It feels like it is time to change that. For a start, we exist in too much chaos. The decluttering project earlier in the year did a really good job of getting rid of mess and that has made it easier but no longer having the luxury of a cleaner means I keep noticing places where clearly she cleaned regularly and I DO NOT! The house is only 7 years old but we are cursed with cheap beige carpets that we can’t afford to change, a limited budget and mostly cream walls. It’s all feeling rather tired and dirty. And my god I wish they’d all put stuff away.
Still, Bene now has a really nice room and that gave me quite a lot of confidence in trying to find ways to make small scale, not too expensive ways to improve other places in the house.
One of my quick fixes the other week was to add a purse/glasses/letters shelf at the bottom of the stairs. I really liked the shelf, which wasn’t too expensive at £24.50 and it has been a handy spot (combined with me finally organising myself into using a regular bag again, so I don’t constantly lose everything I need to leave the house) for lots of things, including my MADs Award, which is living there till I find a better spot 🙂
My hallway list currently involves:-
- make a curtain for the door
- make and put up a picture of our name coasters
- put up a piece of collaborative art near the door
- find a better shoe solution (though this has to wait till Bene safer on the stairs)
This made me happy too.
A gorgeous gift from a friend to signify Bene’s rainbow status and curtains I made for our very first home but hardly used, hung up and looking lovely. His room has become a really nice play space for us all and I love it.
The to do list includes:-
- lock for the slightly inconveniently situated craft cupboard
- some jungle pictures for the bare walls
- toy organisation solutions
Last weekend, in readiness for more prettying and to try to lift the feel of the house ready for winter, we RugDoctored it from top to bottom. Our carpets are awful though I try to feel better about it as they’ve basically had 24/7 wear for 6 years from 6 people – home educating is not kind to homes. I reckon this means my house is closer to 25 years of living in it that 6. The cleaning made a huge difference and the house feels so much nicer.
I think that if I can scrub down the walls and skirting boards (I’ve made a start on this with floor wipes but I’m going through rather a lot of them!) and add some pictures, it will look really different.
The list has:-
- ponder a hall way ‘girl photos’ gallery
- repaint the lower half of the walls in something slightly different, maybe just silky?
- get some rugs
- make some artwork for the walls
- find some Paul Corfield prints. How I wish I had bought the ones I saw cheaply!
Anyway, that’s enough to be going on with. My big think – which is starting to come together thanks to the lights I made a while ago – is the living room which is making me grumpy with all its brown. I have some ideas now, but it will have to wait till after Christmas I think. And I’m busy with some finishing touches to my bedroom too which I actually really like (although one of the projects is a BIG blanket I’m only 1/2 way through!)
I love this kind of planning and dreaming. We’ve been in our house for just over a year now, and a few big unexpected expenses have left us with none of the money we’d planned on using to make a start. I ripped up the hall carpet the other week though, so now I *have* to start something!