Our house

I mentioned our staircase in a previous post and thought I would share some photographs. The house once belonged to my Nan, Ida, and I believe she last decorated it in the 1970s. Since then, not much work has been done to it at all. Here is what the stairs and hallway look like at the moment...

I know that retro wallpaper is back in, but I can't help but feel like this is a step too far. Here is a close up...

The curtains are also an interesting green and brown pattern, and you can just about make out the dark green carpet.
Despite the negatives, I have high hopes for this space. I love the chunky bannister and the dado rail. Behind those curtains is a beautiful original sash window and we revealed some original quarry tiles beneath the carpet downstairs. Once we strip the walls and get them replastered, I think a lick of paint will go a long way.

The Renovation Continues

We are slowly making progress in our home. One of the features that I really wanted in my house was wooden floors. I am not so keen on laminate flooring and real wood is a bit on the expensive side for our current budget, so we decided to hire a sander and strip the existing floorboards. Here is the rather garish 1970s carpet that featured in the spare bedroom before...

 

This is the room that I am turning in to my Minnie Vintage studio. My collection of vintage items was starting to take over in our old flat so I have been allowed to dedicate an entire room to my hoarding. When we pulled up the carpet we found that the floorboards were a bit of a mess but the wood itself seemed to be in good condition. I realise now that I had forgotten to take a photo of the floorboards in the spare bedroom, but they were in a very similar state to those in the master bedroom....

 

We hired an industrial floor sander and corner sander from HSS Hire for a weekend. In two days we managed to complete two bedrooms with both medium and fine sandpaper. The only drawback was that it created an awful lot of dust which seemed to settle all over the house. After sanding we covered the wood in three layers of varnish with an oak stain. This was the end result....



 

(and here is the main bedroom)

 

 

We are thrilled with how the floorboards turned out and would definitely recommend giving it a go yourself. It saved us a lot of money and you don't need to be a professional to get a fantastic finish.



Moving on

I am very excited to let you know that I am in the process of buying my first home. It belonged to my Nan before she passed away and my Mum and Uncle have agreed to sell it to me. It is a real fixer upper, the house hasn't been touched in over thirty years. Because our flat lease doesn't end until the end of September we have an opportunity to get some work done before we move in. It's a slow process but we are starting to see some changes. I am really excited to see it finally get finished, I have lots of ideas and promise to start sharing some photos of the process.