Hall, stairs and landing

For Christmas 2016 my lovely mother and father in law bought us a decorator to paint the hall, stairs and landing. I quickly decided I needed to have the stairs I’ve always wanted, so we were fortunate to have those done too. 

Now, the only slight draw back was that by the time the decorator could come, we already had our second arrival. So, Rachel, Emily and I went off for a week to Nonna and pop’s house, and then for a week to Nain and Gangan’s! 

I also upcycled an old mirror frame to a picture frame, and a piece of skirting board in to a height chart!!

And we bought some awesome new frames 

Emily’s room

With the arrival of #2 on the way, I thought it was about time I painted her nursery! Now, we can’t exactly remember when I did it, as I think I must have done it after she was born, as I was holding on to the fact that she might have been a boy (they weren’t sure on the scan). But I certainly don’t remember doing it around feeding her..... 

anyway, it didn’t take very long as all I had to do was repaint the grey to freshen it up, and then add the pink triangle with a few stickers and two shelves. 

Simple, easy, and it’s made it totally different from the grey room we had before for Rachel’s nursery. 

(Backup) Down with the shed! The old one, no, not the green one, or the other one. No, that one. Oh... ffs....

As you can tell by the title, we weirdly have an abundance of sheds. 

We have a little green one by the back door that holds wood (made so that I don't have to go hunting for wood when Rachel was little).

Then we have the temporary wood store that's up on the drive. Dave made this to chuck a HUGE load of wet wood we got given. It's worked incredibly well.

We then have the old shed in the middle of the garden. Apparently it used to be a chicken shed. It's old and falling down. 

We finally have the new shed. It was put up a few years ago, but we had trouble with a leak which took a long time to sort.

But now it's sorted! So, on the arrival of our new baby girl in February 2017, we needed to get the old she's down, and make the garden safe for Rachel, so that I could sit and feed Emily whilst Rachel played, without me having to worry about her getting out on the road.

It's been a long journey. And a lot of nagging!

It started with dave and his dad shifting a mound of soil we had stored behind the cars (this was from when we dug up for the base for the new shed, and it was too good to get rid of). 

 

    

They then removed the concrete. But I don't have any photos of that! Before laying a new patio in its place for dave to park his car properly, which dave did with my dad. At the same time they made two planters for the raspberries and strawberries.

 

     

After that (a week or so apart!) dad and dave started taking down the old shed!!!! WAHOOOOOO

 

                      

A few weeks later Daves dad (Richard) and dave started to take the floor up..... started. After about half and hour dave hit his hand - between a concrete block and pick axe handle. So, off we went to a&e from 10am to 3pm....

 

His dad carried on though! (What a trooper) 

Eventually they got it all up. Then Dad and Dave made a planter for our herbs, and seeded the lawn.

Rachel's new room

Ever since we moved in, I've wanted to decorate the back bedroom. Mostly because it has the boiler in it (random!!). In fact the boiler was half in a cupboard, but it was so big that they had cut the door in half to be able to get it in. 

And it was decorated for a young teen. 

After we had R we knew that eventually we would like to move her in to this room - whether that be to have a new little addition in the nursery, or for two children to room share, so we could keep a guest room.

So, we had the boiler moved, and in march mum and dad came up, dad and dave started to fix the cupboard door. By "fix", of course, I mean transform! 

And then slowly over the year, having found out we were expecting again we slowly decorated the room for R to move in to.

Before: 

 

 

Dave and dad doing the cupboard:

 

 

 

    

Dave sorting out the other cupboard:

 

  

Paper stripping (which was horrendous as there was chip paper on the ceiling):

 

    

 

Plastering:

 

   

Painting:

 

   

Final product: