DIY PROJECT: OUR FIRST HOME

It might not look very glamorous but that bay window on the ground floor is all ours! Thanks to the Help to Buy Government scheme (and from my mum) we were able to raise a big enough deposit to buy our first home. A two bedroom, one bathroom, garden flat in Greenwich, South East London.

When we first viewed the flat it was a complete and utter disaster. It didn't look like anyone had been living there as it was completely suffering from damp and was completely empty, other than the cheap thin carpet, crumbling old kitchen cupboards and tiles, and stained old bathtub and sink. Most people might have taken one look at it and thought that it was where newly-married-couple-first-time-homeowner dreams go to die, but we saw past the grime and dirt and saw a big enough project to put our stamp on, yet small enough not to make us bankrupt! So we nervously made an offer in September 2014, completed by November then got to work on all the renovations straight away to make it habitable enough to move in by 31st December 2014.

We transformed pretty much every inch of the flat, so it will probably make the most sense to cover each room in separate posts. Here's some pictures below of what it looked like pre O.C renovations.

Entrance Hall

Above is the main communal entry way that we share with the upstairs neighbours.

Above is our long narrow hallway from inside the flat looking at the front door

Master Bedroom

Before the property was split into two flats, and it was one house, this room was probably the main living room. We decided to take this room as our master bedroom as it was the biggest and because of the layout made the most sense.

 Second Bedroom

This is a lot bigger than it looks, but we took these pictures on our phone in panoramic view to try and capture the scope of the room

Bathroom

Two huge problems with this cupboard bathroom: no window and absolutely NO storage

Living Room

I knew straight away that ugly striped stud wall was going to come tumbling down to make the living room and kitchen an airy and bright open living space

Kitchen

Stripes AGAIN in the kitchen, what was with the stripes?!

 

Garden

 

I wasn't exaggerating about the state of the place, was I? It was verrrry grim but we were ready to get the builders in and start tearing down some walls! With all that said, we were SO excited to have been in a position to buy it and couldn't wait to start our projects and move in.

Hope that you enjoy all our renovations, we had a very modest budget and had to get creative but we were more than ready to get stuck in! If anyone has their own DIY reno projects in progress then I'd love to hear about it, so leave me a comment below.

xx