Living in a Grade 2 listed building comes with many repair jobs and renovation ideas. However because of the restraints of what a Grade 2 listed property can actually have done to it and the cost implications, this has proven to limit how much we’ve been able to do over the last six years of living here. Together with a husband who doesn’t have much time for DIY, the fact that we now have two children and the continuing problems that keep occurring (such as water leaks, heating troubles etc) the house seems to be collapsing around me!

Therefore, I’m writing this post with the hope it will encourage us to finish a room every quarter (it’s never going to happen, but I can live in a dream world, right)! The main job that needs to be completed before the end of the summer is the heating. We had no heating at all last winter but this time we will have a young one around the house so it’s a necessity. Gavin has promised to get it sorted in August ready for the autumn and winter months. Following the heating being fixed, these are my plans for the house:

The kitchen was installed in February 2014 so is relatively new, however, there are a few jobs that I just want completing and shouldn’t take that much time either. So I’m hoping these jobs can be completed by the end of this year.
The electric meter is located above a cupboard but needs boxing in with a cupboard door for access, this job can only be completed by Gavin so I envisage it taking a while but I could speed things along by purchasing the door to match the kitchen!
The door to the outside needs finishing off. When there’s a lot of rain we seem to get a flood through the door at the bottom which needs looking at. I would love a new door but may need to wait a little longer for this as there isn’t anything wrong with the current one really. Again this is a job for Gavin, so alas I must wait!
The tiling needs finishing off, which is simple enough that I can do, all I need to do is purchase some filler.
The beams and the ceiling both need to be painted. In fact the whole room could do with a lick of paint to freshen the place up. However I imagine it would take me a few days to do this, so the plan would have to include takeaways whilst the work takes place!
Finally, the worktops are well overdue a revarnish so this needs to be done, it was easy enough the first time so I will just need to purchase the varnish and get on with it!

Again we did up the main bedroom in March 2015 and I’m still happy with the colour and deco. Again, however, there are a few last jobs that need to be done to finish the room off. It’s more about the furniture needed for the room, which I would prefer to be made rather than purchased as it’s a quirky sized room. I imagine that this will take some time, therefore I’m hoping to have this completed through the spring/ summer of 2019.
The room has two side cupboards off the room, but both need shelving and rails installed to hang clothes etc. This is definitely a job for Gavin as I wouldn’t know where to start!
As the room is in the attic, the roof is slanted and the beams are exposed, on one side there is an empty space which would be perfect for an extra long set of drawers to be created. Again Gavin would need to make this and I envisage it to look similar to the storage that was in our honeymoon suite – driftwood like.
Going along that theme I would love a dressing table and chair to be created in the room, a proper place for me to get ready, I would love it to match the drawers in a driftwood style theme.
The current bed is a double that was made by Gavin’s father. However in the nicest way possible, Gavin is just too close to me so I would like (more like need) a bigger bed. There’s two options for us to do this. We can put two single beds together which can be changed into a super king bed and then with a mattress topper added for extra comfort would fix the problem. The other option is to ask Gavin’s father to take our bed to bits and make the slats between the frame longer to take a bigger mattress. I shall talk to Gavin closer to the time to come up with the best solution.
Our room is lacking in seating so I want to purchase a long ottoman for the end of the bed. This is a job that I can sort out, together with organising the installation of a new carpet in the room, however every room in the house needs a new carpet so it would make sense to purchase them all at the same time in the future, when all the rooms have been completed.

Finally, to finish this blog off I want to have the hallway and staircases completed by the end of 2019. The ground floor, hallway was completed in December 2013, however there’s a few last jobs needing to be completed and the second staircase needs to be made to match the first.
To start with, my dad made a piece of wood for the step into the kitchen to make it more kiddie-friendly, this needs to be fitted and screwed into the floor, so this is a job for Gavin.
The stair case at the bottom of the first set of steps squeaks and seems to go down when you step on a certain part so this needs solving – another job for Gavin.
The wood beam on the second floor needs treating, unfortunately I don’t know what to do or use so this is another job for Gavin.
The second floor needs plastering so we will have to hire someone in to do this. Also, because of the ceiling height I think we will also need to hire in some kind of scaffolding.
We also need the whole stair case re-carpeting but as I said earlier this will wait until the whole house is finished.
The rest of the jobs I can sort out by myself thankfully, such as ordering some pictures of the boys and hanging them, together with other prints I would like to be displayed.
Ordering and hanging blinds for both windows in the hallway and landing.
Finally I want to repaint the whole area again to freshen the hallway and staircase up. This includes the walls, ceiling and the woodwork (including the doors, skirting, banister and staircases).

If I can manage to get these bits done by the end of 2019 I will be very impressed as the only rooms finished in our home at the moment are the linkway to Gavins parents house and the nursery (which does need a new carpet).

Much love
Rebecca