Our house... a work in progress (picture heavy)

Well, we've been in here for over 3 months now and I think we've got the spiders on the run at last. At no point did we intend to buy or undertake 'a project' but somewhere in our heart of hearts we must have known the amount of work that needed doing. For us this is to be a family home so it's absolutely worth the effort.

I thought I'd start by showing you some of the pictures of the house when we moved in, and then I can update as we go along. Obviously the kitchen is going to be my main point of interest, but in the grand scheme of things I'm afraid that's a way down the line. Mainly because I'm desperate to knock through and unless our premium bonds come up that's a bit of a pipe dream for the time being.

It's safe to say that the house was languishing slightly, and that the shabby decor was hiding a few frights for us. That said, we're meeting it head on - the green anaglypta from the lounge/ diner has gone, and we're stripping the eleventy million layers of lining paper (yes, really). The 7 different variations of floral paper from the bedroom have been reduced to the one that lines the wardrobes. And we have quotes for the scary chocolate brown bathroom to be returned to an easier to stomach white.

For me the hardest part of all of this is living in chaos, for lots of reasons I just function better in clear, tidy environments and even though I know this is temporary it kind of fogs my brain and means I find small things stressful (such as not being able to find the laptop charger). Even though I know there must be an end in sight I do kind of want to go and hide in bed for a bit.

Anyway, that's enough words - have some pictures

Lounge Dining room - this is before and then after we started stripping.

Our sunshine yellow kitchen, with vintage Hygena units.

Truly, the most 'special' room in our home. The brown bathroom of doom (est 1972). I don't care what Kirstie Allsop says, no one in their right mind is going to want to buy that! 

Our office, the pastel cloudy wallpaper is just a bit trippy

Our bedroom, complete with vintage Liberty print curtains - in a design called 'Penelope' oddly enough.

The spare bedroom, we don't think the stripes will give me a seizure but I haven't taken to twirling in there just in case. 

And our very own patch of undergrowth. I mean garden. Which with help from M's parents we're steadily clearing. 

I'll update as we go - in between steaming wallpaper and scrubbing floors.