House Tour

Welcome to the Raggedy House!

There have been some big changes around here since early 2013 when we moved in and there are many more to come! As well as giving you the tour, this page will record our before, during and after snaps and we'll be updating it as we go. 

Note: Most of the before pictures are the estate agents pictures which were included in the advert when our house was for sale.

Outside

The outside spaces of our property are one of the next things on our list - they actually look worse than when we bought the house at the moment (whoops). Nevertheless, here are some before pictures...

Front Garden

The wall on the right-hand side of this picture is in need of some serious attention (it is currently leaning at a 45 degree angle). 

We want to rebuild the left-hand boundary, add some plants, give the front door a lick of paint and probably get rid of the window box (it drips on the bay in the rain and makes a lot of noise). We will also need to extend the down pipe so that it spits water out onto the pavement instead of next to our house.

Back Garden

The previous owners took their shed with them. Unfortunately, it was the only thing holding the fences up in that corner. After the recent storms the rest of the fences are looking extremely sad too, so we need to get them replaced (we're responsible for those on the right and at the back of our land).

Other plans include clearing the rest of the end of the garden and putting a proper shed in, replanting the beds, buying a BBQ (wahoo) and putting in a raised veg patch somewhere on the right of the lawn.

Outside is going to be a lot of work!

Downstairs

Lounge/Diner

This has by far been our biggest project to date. We'll be updating our blog about this in the near future to reveal to you what we've been up to.

Kitchen

One of the first things we did when we moved in was paint this room a lighter colour! It doesn't look so bad in this photo, but when you were stood in the kitchen it felt so small and dark.

We've made lots of other changes too, such as re-wiring, adding blinds, doing some retiling, adding skirting boards etc. You can read about them all here: Kitchen Posts

Ultimately, the kitchen is a slow burner and we're doing little bits and bobs to it slowly as and when we can.

Understairs

Left: Badly flaking distemper paint
Middle: Very sad lathe and plaster ceiling
Right: Underneath the shelf after removing the grotty carpet

The understairs cupboard might seem a strange thing to "renovate", but it really was in quite a state. We'll be updating our blog about this in the near future to reveal to you what we've been up to.

Hallway/Stairs/Landing

The hallway, stairs and landing still require a lot of attention. All we have done so far is to replace the grotty moth eaten carpet (see below - it was like that and worse, in large patches, throughout the house). 

Longer term it will need a new ceiling, we're going to replace the badly installed spot lights with pendants and it will need to be re-plastered and re-decorated as the walls are in a dreadful state.

Upstairs

Master Bedroom

Like the kitchen, our bedroom was another room which we decorated before we moved in so that we'd have at least one room to escape to. It will do for now, but will need to be re-done properly at some point. We need to paint the woodwork and ceiling, make some repairs within the wardrobe and we'd like to add some coving in.

Second Bedroom

A lot of work went into Bedroom 2, but unfortunately it is currently our main storage space so I can't get a better "Progress" shot. It gives you the general idea though. You can read about our dusty progress here: Bedroom Posts. 

It is a blank canvas which needs blinds, pictures and furniture. We'll update you when we get that far.

Study

The study is pretty much finished now, we just need to put pictures up. You can catch up with the transformation here: Study Posts.

The "after" photos aren't the best, but we will endeavor to update them with better ones at some point!

Bathroom

Like the kitchen, the bathroom has been another slow burner. We have slowly made lots of little changes such as installing a new shower, a light and taps which you can read about here: Bathroom Posts. 

New Taps

New Shower

We might renovate the bathroom properly at some point, but for now (as its our only one) we're sticking to smaller changes to make it more live-able. For example, we're about to add an extractor fan because we've struggled with condensation through the whole house over the winter .

Loft

The loft is very much on our to do list! The chimney in the dining area/bedroom 2 has been removed at some point but you can see on the right hand side of the picture that the bricks still exist in the loft. They are currently being supported (badly) by an "upside down" steel beam and a bit of wood resting on the ceiling joists (which aren't designed for that). We need to provide proper support to the remaining bricks.

Also, thanks to the recent storms, we have a bit of a leak somewhere in the front corner of the house which needs to be addressed. Every time we have a heavy downpour we get a soggy bedroom wall - boo!