Somewhere over the rainbow: Ta Da

I warn you this is going to be a long photo heavy blog.

After three years and a week we finally finished renovating our house.We knew we were in for the long haul.Our last house had taken even longer and it was a lot smaller.

So I thought I would share some before and after images.The before pictures were all taken before we moved in.Even before my husband got to see the house.He put an offer in,even before he saw it.

He was in Chicago when he spotted it for sale.(its his hobby looking at estate agents sites)Years before I used to visit an elderly lady as a carer, in one side of the house.It was a house we had always loved,but never in our wildest dreams did we believe we could ever live in it.

So of I went to view it.I wasn’t too excited once I looked around.We had just finished our old house and I LOVED it.I never wanted to move. This one seemed dark because of all the secondary double glazing over the original sash windows.It needed a total overhaul and it was huge.

My old house had just been featured in 25 Beautiful Homes.So you can imagine I was a tad worried about starting over again after all our previous hard work.

But we went for it with our usual gusto.We sold our old home immediately for the full asking,without the people even coming to view it!!!They saw the pictures on line and it was sold!Hubby was biting at the bit to offer the full asking for the new house so we wouldn’t lose it,but I held him back.And low and behold it became ours.We moved everything we owned,except our summer house in the back of three cars!!!We did it over a month, until the night before the house was officially ours,we had nothing left in our old home.So we squatted in darkness in our new home.(It was a bit difficult as the owners live in a house built in the original back garden!)

I nipped home to have a last bath in my old home and then locked it up.Sad to leave it.

So here goes.

Kitchen:It had fluorescent yellow tiles.orange and pink walls and a 28 year old Amtico black floor.We blocked up windows and put an outside door and window in.

Some snippets of me new bespoke kitchen(you can look back at oodles of previous posts to view full look)

Our sitting room:down came the filthy secondary double glazed units.The fireplace brick insert was plastered and the old serving hatch was bricked up.

After

Kids sitting room:We blocked a door up before we even owned the house!!!

After

Hallway and landing:I designed a new bespoke banisters and we tried to have the Edwardian French tiled floor restored.But the previous owners had laid a cable right through it!!I had a doorknob imported from Italy and we had some of the original door fittings chromed.All the glass in the door was replaced with clear bevelled glass.