Eleven months after putting our house on the market we’ve moved in to our “family” house. We initially accepted an offer after 10 days and had already found a house we like so thought it would be a quick process; but it didn’t go as we expected with two buyers and two sellers pulling out on us. Then our third buyers threatened to pull our just as we were approaching the end, so we ended up up moving with less than 48 hours notice.
However, we now have a wonderful house (better than the other two) that ticked all but one thing off our features list and has many benefits we didn’t think of including such as having a library within walking distance.
The really exciting part is it is a project house, so we can turn it in to our perfect house.
The house was previously a residential care home so as well as looking very tired and needing complete redecoration we have some unusual features to deal with ; safety bars in the bathroom, fire alarm system, emergency lighting and a lift. Yes we have a proper working lift; the removal men loved it.
We are all enjoying the extra space, but are having to get used to living in a different way, for example we are used to eating in the kitchen, but are now using a dining room and I am missing a tiled floor under where the children eat! Hopefully soon we will get used to living in a building site as we make structural changes such as removing the lift and making the kitchen bigger and then redecorate every room; there are so many possibilities it is very exciting.
Obviously I’m going to be focussed for quite a while on turning this house into our perfect family home and I suspect it will influence what I write about (it is already influencing what I pin on Pinterest).
We are expecting the changes to take well over a year, so I’m very interested in your experiences of renovating a house. What are your tips for organising the renovation? What are the key features you’d recommend we include in our new home?