There is no getting around the fact that buying a house and saving the money you need for a deposit is hard work. It can take a long time and requires a lot of discipline. So here are my tips to help keep you motivated during the long hard slog of money saving.

1. Make yourself a progress chart. You know like the ones people make when they’re raising money for charity. Each month when you get paid and you’ve transferred money to your savings, colour in another square. It can really help to actually watch yourself get closer and closer to your target. Make it pretty, make it colourful and it keep it somewhere obvious so that you can use it to motivate yourself. I’m an extremely visual person and I needed constant reminding that my hard work was paying off. When it’s just numbers in a savings account it can hard to realise that you’re steadily making any progress at all when actually each month you chip away at your total a bit more.

2. Reward yourself every time you hit a milestone. Reached 20% of your target? Go to the cinema! Reached 25%? Time for a nice dinner to celebrate! Being strict with yourself when you’re saving is really hard and requires a lot of self control. It’s far easier to stop yourself splurging if you reward your hard work with a treat. In the mean time you can plan and look forward to your next treat ready for when you hit your next goal. The one thing I found really hard to cut back on was going out for dinner so by using this to reward myself it meant I always had something fun coming up.

3. It always helps to keep the end goal in mind. Fancy a cheeky ASOS order? Work out how much it will set you back in your savings goal and then decide if it’s worth it. By actually doing the maths and factoring in how your impulse splurges will affect your overall goal it becomes easier to remind yourself it's just a top that you don't really need. Keep in mind that fashion comes and goes but you will be glad everyday when you come home to your house that you put in the hard work instead of buying an outfit you wore three times.

4. When we were in the last final struggle of buying our house my Nan went and bought us lots of little useful things ready for when we got the keys. I remember holding the rolling pin she bought me and having a really strong image of myself stood at the kitchen counter, in a house that was now mine, rolling out pastry. There was a huge amount of pride and contentment wrapped up in the little flash of the future I had dreamt up. It represented us triumphing and finally getting what we had worked so hard for and a glimpse of what it would be like to be living our own grown up life together. The emotion that it conjured up was so strong I felt like crying every time I thought about it for weeks after. I know it sounds silly but I focused on that strength of feeling when it seemed like it would all fall through and I just wanted to give up. Psychologists call this visualisation and it can really help with working towards your goals. Picture yourself being handed the keys to your own house that you bought with your own hard work.

5. It can always help if you can talk to other people going through the same thing. It can be harder to stay disciplined when you’re watching all of your friends blow their money on exciting nights out and holidays and you’re sat at home being boring. Not only can you feel cut off and isolated but you’re friends will probably find it hard to understand why it’s so important to you to save for your deposit. Reach out to other people going through the same thing (either in real life or online) so that you can chat to people who are struggling with the same things you are. When I was saving to buy a house a lot of my friends were either still in education, unemployed or were of the opinion that it was impossible for anyone our age to buy their own house. I desperately wanted to find my own tribe of people who wanted to try and do it by themselves and sadly I couldn't find any so I just got through it on my own. Since buying our house I have discovered lots of other people online who are also buying their own house who I wish I had found months ago, so reach out!

6. Spend more time with close friends and family who can offer support and help to boost your morale. There will be times when you are feeling low about saving so much money and it can feel like an impossible task. Surround yourself with people who believe in you and can lift your spirits.

7. Try to build in regular fun things on the cheap and plan your budget accordingly. It’s important to strike the balance between planning ahead for the future while also living for the here and now. Fun things don’t always have to mean expensive and saving for a deposit does not mean you have to live in purgatory. In fact dreaming up ways of enjoying yourself on a budget can be a fun task in itself and by being more creative it can help you discover new and exciting things.

8. It can take a long time to save for a deposit and I felt impossibly restless during the time. I was aware of months passing me by and I felt no closer to achieving my dream (despite inching a little closer each month but it’s hard to have that level of perspective when you’re living through it). In order to try and use the time productively I researched every aspect of buying a house I could think of. I learnt a huge amount about the legal processes because I decided knowledge was power.  I wanted to know and understand what the professionals were telling me rather than just blindly trusting their opinion because not everyone is great at their job! It also felt like something useful to do in the meantime while we were saving and it certainly came in useful when we actually came to buy our house. The fact I was prepared to call people out when they were wrong was one of the reasons that we ultimately ended up successfully buying our house. Turned out to have been time well spent in the end.So if you're feeling like you're not getting anywhere use the time to become an expert in house buying, it will definitely be time well spent. 

First time buyer blog post series

1. We bought our first house
2. Our house buying story
3. The guide to saving for a house deposit

The guide to saving for a house deposit

Housing is currently the hot topic on everyone lips. The Autumn Budget 2017 was pretty focused on it and you only have to step onto twitter to see young people talk about it quite a lot.

Mostly they’re tweeting sarcastic remarks about how they can’t afford a house because apparently they spend too much on avocado on toast, rather than because house prices are out of proportion with wages.

The problems facing our housing market our numerous and complex and this post isn’t really the place to get into it. But I do think there is more to the avocado on toast argument than many young people may think.

Sadly it isn’t as simple as just give up avocado on toast for the rest of your life and you’ll magically have enough money for a house (perhaps you don't even like avocado). To take that from the article is a gross oversimplification.

It’s more about giving up the avocado on toast lifestyle.

Plenty of people will now immediately close my blog and shake their head about ‘baby boomers who don’t understand anything’. Except I’m no boomer, I’m a fellow millennial. But crucially I’m a home owning millennial without the bank of Mum and Dad.  

There is no magical secret to how I managed it. The harsh truth is that if you want to save enough money for a house in this current day and age you have to give up the ‘have it all lifestyle’. 

You know the one I mean. 

The brunch at a fancy café on a Sunday, cocktails on a Thursday night, jetting off on holiday to exotic places, drinking Starbucks on the regular and the constant ‘treat yo’self’ mentality.

We just love to make other people think we spend all of our days casually brunching with friends, buying designer items and always going off on our newest long haul adventure. 

In reality most of us are working the day job and living this life in our spare time and by the time pay day rolls round we’ve convinced ourselves that we deserve a treat just for getting through the week.

If we’re honest a lot of the time, we live this life to look cool for the ‘gram and the rest of the time I think we do it because we think that’s what we *should* be spending our money on.

I recently saw a tweet where someone was saying how happy they were to have reached their saving goal to buy a MacBook Air in three months. I couldn’t believe how many replies the tweet had. Barely a single tweet was congratulating them on their achievement, but instead demanding to know just how did they do it?

If we take it right back to basics there are pretty much four ways to get more money:

• Steal it
• Earn it
• Invest it
• Get given it

Stealing it is hardly an option, if you were able to ask someone to give it to you then you probably wouldn’t be reading this blog post, you probably aren't working with a timescale long enough to think about investing it and like most young people you’re probably struggling to earn more money than you already get.

So if the above is true then we all know the answer is simple really. 

In order to save more money you have to spend less than you earn.

This was exactly the answer the person gave to everyone demanding to know where she magically got the money for a new MacBook Air from. It didn’t just appear in her bank account, she spent less than she earned and saved the rest.

But we don’t like to hear that you have to spend less than you earn. 

Why? Because it’s hard. 

Instead, we like to convince ourselves that there is some magical formula or skill that you have to have in order to save money and for a lot of people it seems to become their excuse as to why they don’t save any money. 

Don't get me wrong, I'm well aware of the issues surrounding stagnant wages and the increasing cost of living. It definitely effects me too. For a lot of us most of our salary just goes on keeping a roof over our head and the bills paid. But I don't think that means you should give up if you really want to own your own home because it can be done if you make it your single minded goal.

In many ways, saving money is rather like losing weight. In order to shed some pounds you have to burn off more calories than you eat. There is no magical diet or exercise regime that can work around this irrefutable fact of physics. 

But that doesn’t stop a multi billion pound industry trying to convince you otherwise. Or thousands of people with endless excuses about their metabolism or being built that way. Aside from rare cases of actual medical conditions, for the vast majority of people, if you eat less food than you burn in a day, over time you will lose weight. 

But just like saving money, people want a cheat method to get to the end goal. Sadly one doesn’t yet exist for either example.

This might not be the truth you want to hear but if you really want to own your own house, you have to close your ears to all the noise. 

You have to stop listening to people who complain to you about how easy it was for your Grandparents to buy a house and how things aren’t fair because none of that will help you.

The world doesn’t function on fair, and if you wait for it to be fair you could be waiting forever until you own your own home. Whether we like it or not buying a house is harder than it used to be so you have to learn to save as effectively as you can in the meantime. 

That means making sacrifices. Depending on how you like to spend your money those sacrifices may have to include avocado on toast. 

1. Know how much you need to borrow

This might sound counter productive, but in order to know how much you need to save for a deposit you first need to know how much money you can borrow for a mortgage. A good place to start is by using an online mortgage calculator which will calculate how much you can borrow. 

Or you can call a mortgage broker and ask them to talk you through what you can afford. 

I used London & Country and found them to be exceptionally helpful. The best part is they don’t charge a fee.

By knowing how much you can borrow you can get a better idea of what your overall house buying budget is. It’s no good thinking you can buy a £400,000 house when the most a mortgage lender will let you borrow is £200,000.

     2. Work out how much you need for a deposit

Now you know how much you can borrow, you can work out what you’ll need for a deposit. So for example, if you know you can borrow £180,000 and you want to buy a £200,000 house you’ll need to save the remainder of £20,000.

This is enough for a 10% deposit. The larger the deposit in relation to the amount you want to borrow (called the Loan to Value Ratio or LVR) the better the mortgage deal you can get. So it pays to save as big a deposit as you can.

There are mortgages available for those with a 5% deposit but these will charge more interest than those available for a 10% deposit. 

3. Add in the extras to get to your overall savings goal

When saving to buy a house, it isn’t just about the deposit. There are other additional costs to think about such as solicitors fees, mortgage fees, surveys, removal costs, stamp duty etc.

Thanks to recent changes in stamp duty you probably won't have to pay this now, but it’s worth checking if you need to budget for it, particularly if you live somewhere pricey like London. There are lots of good online calculators.

Do your research on other home moving costs, but to give you a rough idea we paid £1,300 in solicitors fees, £550 for a HomeBuyers report and £350 in mortgage fees.

Add this amount to your deposit money and that should give you your total savings goal.

     4. Work out what you’re prepared to sacrifice

This is where we come back to avocado on toast. What are you prepared to give up in order to save for a house? As we've already established that money needs to come from somewhere. 

You probably wouldn't be reading this if you had lots of disposable income so some aspects of your lifestyle will need to be reduced.

The easy ones are things like the gym membership you never use but what about the things you rightly reckon that you deserve because you work hard?

Can you give up holidays? Nights out? Quit smoking? Takeaways? Eating out? Shopping?

Do you want your own house more than you want the extras in life? Only you know the answer to that. But if you’re serious about buying your first house in the not too distant future then virtually all unnecessary spending has to stop or it will take you a VERY long time to save up.

If we’re being honest we know we waste chunks of our money on the little things. Magazines, picking up a chocolate bar when we pay for our fuel, buying sandwiches because we’re too lazy to make them.

This article has got lots of excellent advice about the small things we pretty much throw money away on and how giving it up can actually help you buy a house. 

Those little things like buying sandwiches at work can work out at thousands of pounds a year, so you may be able to claw back a fair chunk of money without too much sacrifice in some areas.

     5. Cut your living costs if you possibly can

Everyone’s situation is different so it’s almost impossible to write something that will cover everyone. But for most people their living costs take up a large proportion of their income so any saving you can make here means more money to stash away.

The most painless way to do this is to make sure you’re paying as little as possible for all utilities.

But if you can make savings on keeping a roof over your head you’re likely to make more of a difference. Ideas to consider are:

-Moving in with friends or family who are kind enough to let you pay a reduced rate.

-Sharing a flat or house if you currently live alone.

-Depending on your circumstances taking in a lodger.

-Moving in with your partner.

-Relocating to a cheaper area.

I moved back in with my parents and while I still paid them rent, it gave me the extra cash to save each month.

Obviously not everyone has these options open to them but it is worth taking a think about how you could cut back on what is probably your biggest monthly expenditure. 

     6. Look for extra ways to boost your income

The small extras you can make on the side can really add up over time.

Could you work an extra job in your spare time or do some overtime? Perhaps do some odd jobs for friends and family for a little bit of extra cash? Using cashback sites can also help to boost your income.

Selling some of your old stuff on eBay, Facebook, Gumtree or a good old fashioned car boot sale is worth trying too.

None of these are likely to make you rich. But they might give you enough for a few nice things to help keep you going while you save. 

7. Make your savings plan and stick to it

Once you have trimmed all the unnecessary spending and cut as many costs as you can you will be able to work out how much you can afford to save per month.

Whatever that figure is, you must start to see that savings goal as being non negotiable. You wouldn't accidentally spend your rent money on non essentials and your savings need to become just another outgoing in your mind.

Set up a standing order to transfer the money as soon as you get paid. This is absolutely essential. It's no use trying to be good all month and then saving whatever is left. You will just spend it (trust me, I've tried, it doesn't work).

It is also a good idea to transfer the money to an account that you can't see every time you do your regular banking. Obviously the money needs to be accessible but having it out of sight, out of mind can really help the urge to spend it all on a two week trip to Barbados. 

You can use an online calculator to help you work out how much you either how long it will take you to save the required amount or how much you need to save per month to hit a certain target date.

Use this info to make yourself a progress chart like the ones people use for raising money for charity and tick it off each month when you add more money to your savings. Doing this might sound silly, but it can really help with motivation. When you feel low, take a look at how far you've come.   

      8. The importance of staying disciplined

I recently saw another person tweeting about buying the new Naked Heat palette on the sly, because if their mum found out they would lecture them about how they’re supposed to be saving for a deposit. This person was claiming that one make up palette isn’t going to make any different to the thousands of pounds they need to buy a house.

They’re correct in some ways. £38 probably won’t make much difference providing this splurge is a one off. But if you justify this kind of purchase with this excuse a lot then you will have lots of clothes and make up, but no house to put it in.

It took Jared and I a year to save for our deposit. During that time I bought one new dress (yes that’s right, just ONE) and no new make up. We didn’t go on trips, we didn’t go out, we didn’t go on dates, we didn’t go to the cinema. We stopped all of it and only did them on very special occasions in order to keep us motivated. 

I'm not saying this to make you feel bad for treating yourself, just to remind you that you can do without things and that you always have to ask yourself, do I want this more than I want a house?

If you can afford a treat without compromising your savings plan then by all means go ahead. But ask yourself, if you can regularly afford to treat yourself to expensive things then would that money be better used if it was helping you reach your goal quicker?

Bear in mind that £100 of treating yourself a month adds up to £1,200 a year. Although not a life changing amount of money it would probably make a reasonable difference to your house deposit. 

The more disciplined you are in the short term, the quicker you will reach your goal. 

9. Staying motivated

This may sound like I'm contradicting myself from my previous point but it is important to build in rewards to keep yourself motivated. 

Otherwise it just becomes an endless monotony of working and saving.

I found the best way to do this was to plan fun things for when you reach certain saving targets. This way you encourage yourself to keep going and you look forward to hitting your next goal.

It can also help to set yourself a dedicated part of your budget for 'fun spending' even if the amount is small. We all enjoy the little things and denying yourself everything makes life no fun at all. 

Chances are you will be saving for some time so try to keep a good balance is important. 

There is a world of difference between frittering your money away on consuming things you don't really need (while complaining that you don't have enough to buy a house) and deciding how much is reasonable to spend on fun things without compromising your savings plan. 

10. Get as much help as you can

While it might seem small there is help out there for first time buyers. It won't give you enough to have a deposit overnight but you should take ALL the help you can get. 

There are two main ISAs (Individual Savings Accounts) for first time buyers. 

The first is the Help to Buy ISA and the second is the newer Lifetime ISA. 

The government will give you extra money on top of your savings (up to £1,000 a year for the Lifetime ISA at the time of writing) so it is well worth doing.

This is particularly true if you are saving as part of a couple as ISAs are individual products (the clue is in the name) so you can both have one if you are both first time buyers. This means a potential £2,000 a year between you from the government is available. 

There are pros and cons to each different ISA and you should look into which one is right for you. This guide might help you. 

In conclusion, it is 100% possible to buy a house as a young person in the UK in 2018. More and more of my friends are managing this feat (without help from family) so it can be done. It takes time and effort to save but it is worth it in the end when you get the keys to your first house. 

First Time Buyer blog post series

1.  We bought our first house
2. Our house buying story

Projects for our Garden in 2018

1. Expand our bird feeders

When we first moved into our house in late Autumn we put a bird feeder in the tree in our garden. It has taken a while for the birds to be brave enough to use it but they are now feeding from it regularly.

I'd really like to get some more feeders such as ones for sunflower seeds or fat balls to encourage more birds to visit our garden.

2. Create a mini pond

Our garden is far too small to have a decent size pond but a water source is really important for encouraging wildlife to live in your garden.

I saw this project for creating a mini pond and thought it looked like fun, as well as being small enough for our space.

It also looks super easy, which is always good for gardening novices like myself.

3. Get a bug hotel

As part of providing a home for wildlife in our garden I'd like to get a bug hotel. You can make these yourself but some of the ones you can buy are really cute.

They cost hardly any money either and it would be nice to start adding some character to our garden as it's currently pretty sparse.

4. Get a fruit tree

Our garden already has a large cherry tree (which sadly doesn't seem to fruit) and some crab apple trees but I'd really like to get some sort of potted fruit tree.

Most likely an apple tree.

We don't have space for a whole orchard but one that is compact enough for a pot would be perfect.

5. Train some climbers up our trellis

We have a trellis that separates our oil tank from the rest of the garden and I would love to grow some climbers up it to hide this eyesore from view.

My mum has a honeysuckle growing in her garden that she took as a cutting from our old house.

But the original plant was a cutting from my Grandma's garden and I really like the idea of taking a bit of it with us to our new house (particularly as honeysuckle is quite easy to grow from a cutting).

6. Grow some fruit in our hanging baskets (probably strawberries and cherry tomatoes)

I always enjoy growing tomatoes and I'd like to make the most of the small space in our garden and grow something in hanging baskets.

The added advantage is they would have the heat from the wall of the house and from the fact it faces south. Plus they're right next to our water butt for easy watering. 

7. Attempt to help our lawn recover

We have a small lawn that is currently looking a little bit sad.

My cousin (who owned the house before us) has two small children and they had a trampoline and various toys in the garden. As a result our lawn has a lot of bare patches and it quite sparse and weedy in places.

My parents bought us a lawnmower for Christmas so hopefully come Spring we can fertilise and reseed it. After that we should now be able to mow it regularly.

Fingers crossed with a bit of TLC it will recover a bit. I'm not bothered about it not being a 100% perfect ornamental lawn. It would just be nice if it was a little better.

8. Challenge myself to grow something new

I tend to grow similar things each year and I'd like to branch out this and try to grow something I haven't attempted before. Perhaps runner beans or courgettes. Something simple and that can be grown in a pot.

9. Start a compost heap

Every garden needs one, even if it's just somewhere to get rid of your lawn clippings.

Again, this is another super easy project and hopefully one that will reward me further down the line when I've got ready made compost on hand.

10. Trim our cherry tree

This is something that needs doing fairly soon while the tree is still dormant during the winter but it needs cutting back a bit. Some of the branches are quite low and it's starting to take over the garden. 

11. Get a coldframe

This would help a low with lots of different plants and I've asked my very DIY orientated sister is she could build me one. Hopefully she'll feel the urge to build something new at some point!

12. Get some patio furniture

There's not much point having a garden if you can't enjoy it! We're in need of a table and chairs so we can sit outside and use the space. 

Our budget is tight so I'll probably be on the look out for some second hand items.

13. Host a BBQ

Hopefully by the summer our garden will be a little more welcoming and it would be great to invite some family and friends over for some laid back food and drink!

Painting progress

So it's been a week since my last post and guess what? We still haven't moved in!

As we are learning, painting is all about the prep work if you want to do a good job. We didn't just spend pretty much all the money we've ever had on a house to not at least try to do a decent attempt. 

So have we made any progress this week? I am absurdly pleased to announce that we have completely finished our first room!

That's right everyone, the kitchen is DONE. Wow Amber, you're thinking, it took you a whole week to slap some paint on the walls of one room.

But let me tell you, it's not as easy as it sounds. Especially when you have no clue what you are doing and learning from a mixture of google, YouTube and advice from friends and family. We both work full time and only have a couple of hours each evening and during the weekends to get things done.

The main issue we have discovered is as soon as you decide to make a start, you immediately begin to notice more and more areas that need attention. 

For instance, when we first bought the house, we were only planning to paint the spare room as it used to be the kids room and is currently several different colours. We decided we were fine with the rest of it, we were just relieved to finally have the keys. 

But then we decided to tackle the holes left in the wall. Once they had been filled in we decided to do the same with all of the (many) holes in every room in the house. But the walls then looked patchy. So then we thought, we'll just paint the walls. But that made us realise the ceilings would look a bit grim if everything else was freshly painted. And then we noticed the many scuff marks on the skirting boards so decided to tackle them too. But then we realised they were gloss, which means they all have to be sanded down. Then, once we actually started to paint we noticed that a lot of the sealant round some of the doors and windows has become cracked and messy with time so it needs pulling out and redoing... literally the list is endless!

So yes it is taking us longer than we thought because every time we start something we notice all the little things that make the overall job bigger than was first expected. As I've already mentioned, my parents have spent 15 years building their house from scratch, so none of this is a surprise to me but it is still pretty frustrating. You think you're finally on track to just get on with it and then you notice yet ANOTHER thing that you need to fix first. 

But still, those little things are what makes the overall finish high quality, and even though we are beginners we have no intention of doing a bodge job.

So anyway, back to the kitchen. In theory this should have been quick to do as most of the walls are covered by the kitchen cabinets but in actual fact it made it really tricky. All of the cupboards and counters had to be covered up, then all the walls, skirting boards and ceiling sanded and washed down. Because of the way the cupboards, windows and doors in this room fit together you can actually only roll a small section and the rest has had to be done by hand, which is time consuming and difficult.

The time it takes is pretty much entirely spent in doing all of the above. Once you have finally finished cutting all the walls in and its time to pick up the roller and actually paint most of the wall...well it's all done in a few minutes once you get the hang of it!

My dream kitchen is a contemporary farmhouse style, pale cabinets, wooden surface, flagstone floors, large welsh dresser, Belfast sink... everyone who knows me is probably thinking, wait Amber, this sounds JUST LIKE YOUR PARENTS KITCHEN. But as I've already said before while it was my Mum's dream kitchen and her vision, I had a lot of input into it. 

So it's no surprise that I've taken the aspects I like most and recreated them in my own kitchen. We can't afford to replace the units, the floor, or the work surface and the kitchen isn't big enough for a full size welsh dresser. But I have recreated the colour scheme with a soft, neutral undertoned cream (Dulux 'Fine Cream') on the biggest walls and then a soft greeny gray on the two smaller end walls (Farrow & Ball 'Mizzle'). 

This was for two reasons, one is that the kitchen is very long and thin and by painting the two end walls a darker colour it helped improve the proportions of the room. The other is that Farrow & Ball paint is eye wateringly expensive. The 5L can we bought was £43. And it was the only colour that there was no tester for, so it was going on the wall once I had opened it even if I hated it!

Luckily though I absolutely love it! It's exactly the colour I wanted (I spent forever deciding) and it has completely changed the whole feel of the room. Before it felt bland and empty and now it has it's own character. Although it was expensive the quality of the paint itself is fantastic and it is extremely matte. Not only does this make it easier to work with, but the end result is very striking. It was worth spending the money because it has made such an impact. 

We have also decided to do the skirting boards and door frame in satinwood rather than gloss and this has had a surprisingly big effect on the room. Personally I think gloss looks quite dated and the satinwood has definitely made the room seem fresher and more modern. Plus it ties in with the F&B paint as it is *so* matte that gloss skirting boards against it would look pretty odd. So the extra effort it took to sand them and repaint them was 100% worth it, even though the change is not that obvious.

Maybe one day we will be able to afford to replace the actual kitchen itself but for now I'm going to recreate my farm house look with the accessories, now that I've got the colour scheme I wanted. I'm also on the look out for a small dresser to upcycle as my next project once we've finished painting...

We've also completely sanded, washed and prepped the front room so we're ready to paint that today. As long as we stay disciplined and keep working on it every evening and during the weekends we will make steady progress. Once the front room is done we will be halfway there! Plus the two upstairs rooms will be easier as they are both just going to be one solid colour, which will reduce the amount of cutting in we need to do. Cutting in corners in the absolute worst!

Hopefully it'll be worth it in the end!

Decorating our new house

So I mentioned in my last post that Jared and I have had the mad idea of decorating our new house…

I say mad because it’s crazy to me that Jared and I are spending our weekends walking around Homebase instead of recovering from a hangover after a night out at Jesters like we did at uni.

I also say mad because only a crazy person would think ’Oh yes, lets repaint the whole house, what a great plan’ *nice one Amber*.

Joking aside though this is the perfect time to do it. We are in the lucky position that my parents only live round the corner and they’re quite happy for us to spend a few more weeks with them and make the most of the house being empty of furniture.

On that note, I have no idea how anyone decorates while still living there. The only proper furniture we have in the whole house is the sofa and an armchair (which my parents very kindly donated us from their old house) in the front room and they have made doing anything in this room a nightmare. They are HEAVY and we seem to have done nothing but shift them around the room so far…

The previous owner of our house was my cousin and her husband. They have two small children and have lived here since the house was first built ten years ago. As a result the house definitely needs a bit of a freshen up. They had a lot of fitted shelves which have left a lot of holes behind. Jared has done a fab job of filling these in and the house now looks instantly better. It was amazing actually how much difference it’s made.

As they had little kids the room that was theirs is currently painted a variety of interesting colours. There’s a fair few scribbles on the walls and even the ceilings from where they had bunk beds. The other rooms have just got marks from furniture, white patches from where we have repaired the holes and just general wear and tear.

My cousin has good taste and when we first looked round the house I was totally happy with the colours all the rooms are and I still am to be honest. I could totally live here with the colours as we they are. But seeing as we have the opportunity to smarten it up a bit we have decided to take it and make the house our own at the same time, by changing things up a bit.

We have decided to decorate the four main rooms: the kitchen, the front room and the two bedrooms. That only leaves the hallway and the two bathrooms untouched. The upstairs bathroom and downstairs loo are both painted nice colours and don’t really need any attention so we have decided to leave them for now. Due to the awkwardness of the stairs and the high ceiling we are planning to get the hallway and upstairs landing painted professionally. But we are planning to wait until we have moved all our furniture in as we are bound to make some more scrapes on the wall and there’s no point in damaging our new (and expensive) paint job. There’s no real furniture to go in the hallway anyway so it shouldn’t be too much of a problem.

The major development has been deciding the style I want to take the rooms in. Apart from the kids room the whole house is painted in a very neutral style which I like. It’s a small house so anything too dramatic will feel claustrophobic, plus it also makes it easier to paint over as the colours are so pale!

It sounds crazy but I suspect a lot of my decisions are going to be shaped by what my parents have done to their house. When you spend 15 years building a house you become aware of the millions of tiny decisions you have to make. Where are you putting the light switches? What style of windows do you want? Do you want wooden stairs or carpet? The list is literally endless and not something you normally get to choose when you buy a house as everything is already in situ. But what it has taught me is the importance of not skipping over the small decisions as they can have a big impact on the overall finish.

As there were so many decisions for my parents to make, I’ve had a fair bit of input in helping them design the overall look of the house. My mum has always had a really strong vision for the look she wanted, and when it comes to making that a reality I spent a lot of time with her helping her pick the items to make it come to life.

So I suspect that the interior of my new home will end up having strong echoes of my parents, purely due to the fact I helped my mum pick things and colours that I like and my taste hasn’t really changed in the few short months since.

On top of this my mum is very creative and good at being able to make the most of a space so I’ve made sure to take her with me on trips to shops to get her input. She says she is wary of telling me what to do, but I personally find her suggestions helpful. She knows and understands the look I am going for, but has more experience than me in actually making a room turn out how you pictured. The main thing is because it’s our house I don’t have to listen to her if I don’t agree ;)

I’m lucky in that Jared is quite laid back about this sort of thing and is happy to let me take the direction that I chose when it comes to the style of the rooms. However that makes the decision quite daunting as there are so many colours to choose from! I’m glad my mum is able to help me with it, otherwise I think I would still be walking around Homebase right now frantically clutching paint swatches!

So what have we achieved so far? Apart from filling in all the holes we have repainted all of the ceilings in the four rooms we are decorating and repainted the architraves (the wood that connects the walls to the ceiling). While we are only painting white over white this has made a surprisingly huge difference. Particularly in the kitchen and front room where the paint had become quite dingy! Anyone who has ever done any decorating knows that the ceilings are hard work to paint but Jared has done an amazing job and I think they look brilliant.

We are now making a start on painting the kitchen and I am hoping to bring in some elements of my parents modern farmhouse style, which is my absolute favourite kitchen style at the moment. We can’t afford to replace the kitchen units themselves right now (maybe one day!) but I am planning to make it happen with the paint colours and accessories that we chose instead. I have splashed out on some eye wateringly expensive Farrow & Ball paint for the two end walls (which are conveniently the smallest) to add some colour. I’m too scared to open the tin in case I don’t like it and naturally it was the only colour they didn’t have a tester for.

Once that is done we will then move onto the front room which I am planning to start sanding and prepping tomorrow or the day after. The whole downstairs of the house is currently cream and while I’m fine with the neutral tone, I am hoping that the paint colours we have picked for the front room will help it feel warmer and more lived in. At the moment the front room in particular feels a bit sterile and I want a cosy feel, with warm natural wood tones and lots of different textures. Long term I would love to replace the carpet in this room with wooden floor, which I think would help create the look I am after even more.

We’ve now got lampshades, curtains and blinds for almost all of the rooms and this has helped us quite a bit in deciding the direction we want to go in for each room.

It’s only been a week since we first started decorating but we’ve already made a really big start. We’ll carry on spending our evenings and weekends on it until it’s done. We’ve never done anything like this before but we’re rapidly learning as we go along.

Does the house feel more ours now? I guess so, but it still doesn’t seem real to me that we will actually live here. Or that I can do what I like to it. I guess that will change with time and once we actually move in.

So that’s my update on our hectic week! Have you ever redecorated? Or is there something you wish you could do to your house? Let me know!