Bumbling along to be Mortgage Free

pammyj74

oh bless ya, you will love it when its all done.
I wish I had taken before and after with my house. When we bought it 10 years ago, a lady had lived there for 45 years and never did anything to it. The house had been empty for about a year I think. The garden was heavily overgrown and the living room was pink with brown flowery carpet. The kitchen was blue wall with nothing in it all apart from an old sink. The bathroom was purple walls and pink suite, the landing was green! All over the house was mostly wood chip painted in delightful colours and old fashioned doors and light switches. The house was built in 1904. The newspapers under the lino upstairs were dated 1912 and were a great read. I wish I had kept them now.
I would soooo love to be able to go back in time to see the house back 50-100 years ago and the people that lived in it. I love looking back at old photos.
My neighbours have been there 55 years and paid £1k for it :eek: amazing isnt it.

LilacPixie

Michelle - gah is all i have to say. I probably would of taken a sledge hammer to that about 6 years a 5 months ago TBH. well done for lasting so long.

LilacPixie

I know exactly what you mean. I bought my place in 2003 for 31k and it was a wreck, old woman home as well. The hallway is 7m x 0.9m so long and narrow and it was tongue and groove stained/painted dark brown, not even a mahogany colour just dark brown. Livingroom had a stone fireplace come shelfing unit thing along one wall. Bathroom was aubergine suite with peach and green flowery tiles. single glazing needing a rewire etc. Old 70's wallpaper and carpets in every room. And of course as we stripped walls plaster came off in chunks, every room had artex on the roof or polystyrene tiles.

We did the lot from new windows to a full replaster to rewiring bathroom/kitchen refit.

Caroline73_2

cha97michelle wrote: »

Course you can do this with kids, you just have to learn one word. No. Not all the time, but a balance between letting them have the stuff they need plus some treats as oppose to treating them everyday. Hopefully i am getting the balance right. At 4 and 2, they have so much stuff anyway from the rellies they don't seem to get the 'i wants' that often. Now to learn how to say no more to my inner child. It also helps if they have fairly inexpensive family hobbies. I'm not naive, and i know they will want more later but we will survive it.

My husband's only spending weakness is the children. If he takes them into town to go to the library, he buys them sweets if they are good, then a cake on the way home and a magazine. I had to make him stop as the youngest started to expect it everytime we went. Christmas is starting to be a problem, neither of us wanted to scrimp on the boys but DH would spend every penny. I put a £150 limit on each of them which is more than enough but DH started to push it to £150 + stocking presents. Mine are 5 and 12 though.

pammyj74 wrote: »

oh bless ya, you will love it when its all done.
I wish I had taken before and after with my house. When we bought it 10 years ago, a lady had lived there for 45 years and never did anything to it. The house had been empty for about a year I think. The garden was heavily overgrown and the living room was pink with brown flowery carpet. The kitchen was blue wall with nothing in it all apart from an old sink. The bathroom was purple walls and pink suite, the landing was green! All over the house was mostly wood chip painted in delightful colours and old fashioned doors and light switches. The house was built in 1904. The newspapers under the lino upstairs were dated 1912 and were a great read. I wish I had kept them now.
I would soooo love to be able to go back in time to see the house back 50-100 years ago and the people that lived in it. I love looking back at old photos.
My neighbours have been there 55 years and paid £1k for it :eek: amazing isnt it.

Pammy where abouts are you? I'm in the terraces off Gold Street. Bought it 8 years ago and mine hadn't been modernised. I did it all up and now it's looking tired again. I'm trying to work out if I know you. Wellingborough is little and I assume you are about my age.

Iris_Blue

I admire you for waiting to get what you want Michelle, rather than putting a cheapo kitchen in to replace a few years later.

but I've got to be truthful you kitchen really was shocking!

Cant wait for the after pics

Jock_Tight

I like your retro kitchen, keep it the way it is and save the money!

All the best

CathT

Tomorrow without heating - but it's freezing! :eek:

Love the before pics, you probably didn't notice it after living with it for so long. You will really enjoy your new kitchen once it is finished.

pammyj74

haha sounds like fun at your house right now. Just think xmas will be in a lovely kitchen

*Jellie*

Great news on that tax code!

gallygirl

cha97michelle wrote: »

Particularly foul bits to laugh at - the nice tongue and groove walls (and matching ceiling), the green floor tiles, the lovely little bit of lino on the floor, my one and only functional cupboard on the wall, and my lovely contrasting peach and red wall tiles. :rotfl:

I think you will all agree it was in need of modernising.

Gosh Michelle it was very ....... em.......... rustic