We are a little over 3 months into this project and it has been no walk in the park! The last few weeks have been somewhat of an emotional rollercoaster; trying to balance 2 full time jobs, a new business and a home renovation have been tricky to say the least!

Since Part One we have successfully removed all the hideous wallpaper and wood chip - it was exhausting, and I absolutely recommend you get a steamer to do this. Don’t waste a moment trying to save money by doing it buy hand. We got this one from B&Q which did the job.

THE PLASTERING DRAMA

Once the wallpaper was off and carpets out, we found ourselves in a plastering rut; the whole house needed fresh plaster and we saw four different builders who were charging us upwards of £6,000. Now, I appreciate spending money where it is necessary and the plastering was a key job in this house. But 6K, seriously. Eventually, through the local Facebook community group we stumbled upon a young guy with a budding plastering business called Wickham Plastering who was not only polite and timely but charged a very decent price and his work was truly excellent. And so here we are, with all the rooms bar the kitchen and the toilet nook freshly plastered. Hallelujah!

We gave the plaster 1 week - 10 days to dry, and took off to Cornwall for a holiday in that time. When we came back we popped into B&Q once again and picked up a few tubs of undercoat for the bedrooms. When it comes to paint there are a lot of options out there. Feel free to spend your time looking for reviews of the various options, but I am not a faffer and I know Dulux does the job. So all our paint; undercoat and top coat is Dulux.

THE KITCHEN

All the while this was going on, we had ripped out our kitchen and been spending many hours discussing the redesign. We made an appointment with a kitchen specialist at B&Q and at IKEA to get some ideas about what was possible and a guide on the cost. If you’re curious, B&Q was cheaper, and I found the assistants to be a lot more design minded than those at IKEA. Here’s the catch though, aside from the units - which are going to be basic chipboard (with occasional timber doors) and you can get similar anywhere, B&Q’s range of appliances have horrendous reviews. So, whilst it’s taken us the better part of 6 weeks to decide on a kitchen layout, cupboard finish and counter top we are only going to be purchasing the cupboard units from B&Q - Ali will be fitting these - and then all the appliances and counter top will be sourced elsewhere (destination unknown). The hustle is real, people.

WHAT’S NEXT

We ordered a full bathroom suite from Soak who had a sale on and a brand new shower bath + floating vanity and basin cost us around £800. Marvellous! It’s currently sitting in our bedroom awaiting installation. As well as installing the bathroom, this month we will be painting all the upstairs rooms + ordering and installing carpet in the bedrooms and hallway and luxury vinyl tiling in the bathroom. More on this next time. We are also going to be ordering our kitchen units, which take around 2 weeks for delivery and we hope in this time to have the kitchen primed and ready for them too.

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