DIY

again, i have been negligent of this blog. lots have been going on lately and we're trying to do as much as we can while my mom is still here. she's leaving in a few week's time and when she's gone, it'll be just me and cayden most of the time and being heavily pregnant, i wont be able to do much.

anyways, we're redecorating our upstairs/downstairs hallways and afterwards, the master bedroom. it all started when cayden started peeling off the wallpaper upstairs. that gave me the push to start the whole process. after all, we've been in this house for 5 years now and some of the rooms are still stuck in the 80's! it's about time we update some more areas of the house.

tantan prepping the stairway - the hardest bit!

just a little history - our house is probably about 50-60 years old. we bought it from a little old lady, who wanted to move nearer her family as she's living all alone (a widow). so just imagine how outdated the decors were/are. our house has 3 bedrooms (2 doubles and 1 single), a galley kitchen, a separate loo and bathroom, lounge/diner, utility room and a fairly big back garden. all the bedrooms are fairly decorated. as well as the lounge. there isnt any need for urgent updating. even so, the other rooms are/were functional despite looking really outdated.

the first one we renovated was the kitchen (2007). we were helped by a friend and her husband from work, tantan's previous boss and one of our neighbours.

Old

renovated

next was our bathroom and loo, just a few months before giving birth to cayden. the bathroom is always my favorite spot in a house so it has to be visually appealing. our old one - disappointing! it had bright pink tiles, pipes showing and the tub was ewe! i love having baths but i have never taken one single bath in the old tub! and we used to sit on a stool just because we couldnt stand up because we were splashing the wallpaper with water and we had to shower using a pail and a dipper because the hot and cold faucets were separate. i told tantan i dont want to bathe our baby in the yucky tub (it's clean though but not my type!) and we have to refurbish before i give birth. thankfully, he agreed. we were helped by our next door neighbour (who just moved in), who happens to be a builder and has a brother who is a plumber. they didnt charge us much =D (and they can cost an arm and a leg!).

 

before

rainforest shower with hand shower and little body jets

whirlpool tub big enough for 2!

then it was cayden's room.

in addition, our next door neighbours (both sides) have fenced our garden (even the side we're responsible of). i've long wanted to do that to have more privacy but it's really not that important so we just let it be. thankfully, it's been done for us =D

the house is really getting smaller for our family. cayden has been dominating most rooms (and soon, kian will be joining him!). the kids really need their own separate playroom so we, adults, still have a place to relax - without seeing any chaos toys around. but it's not gonna happen in the very near future. tantan said, the earliest we can move house is probably 2013. the housing market is not really good at the moment and the banks are not giving out affordable mortgage deals. hopefully, as the economy improves (god knows when!), we'll be able to buy and move into a bigger house.  for now, all we can do is bring all our junk to the attic lol!