Renovation Progress. One Year On. 20.05.12

Here's a photo of the front of the house or at least part of it, for a change. I'd taken this particular shot on the 20th May 2011 because the doorway to the right of the garage door had just been bricked up. We decided we didn't really need another door into the house/garage and thought we would probably find the extra wallspace it created internally more useful. And we have; the new fuse box and the washing machine sit against this wall now.

And the same spot today, 20th of May 2012.

 Not much has changed; the windows are new, there are curtains in the downstairs window and a small wooden heart hanging from the handle, the grass is looking much greener and hubby has planted some lovely flowers in the patch under the window - it's his little 'cottage garden', with tulips, lupins, a small wisteria, hyacinths, hellebores, etc. The twirly-whirly windmill belongs to Granny and will go to her new house once she moves in. Might have to get one to replace it though as I quite like the bright, smiley colours.

Now lets head inside; just inside the front door in fact. Say goodbye to the downstairs toilet that took up such a chunk of space and made the hallway feel very dark and enclosed.

Looks a bit bigger and brighter in the same spot today (although messier...)

Off to the right of the hallway we have the snug (I've already written several posts about the evolution of this room so I won't bore you again.)

To the left of the hallway we enter the open plan dining/kitchen/living area. Here's a view from the 20th of May 2011 with the back wall still a work in progress and the window above the kitchen sink still a distant dream. Walk forward towards the kitchen window and turn to the right and you have the french doors and window in the living area.

And the same spaces today, 20th of May 2012.

A quick jaunt upstairs and here are two shots of DC's room. I think he appreciates having a window (honestly, there is one behind the curtains.) The angle of the shots isn't quite the same but I'm more constrained by furniture/doors/walls these days!

And finally, time to head outside again. It's difficult to get the same angle in the garden photos as everything looks so different these days.Here you get a wider angle of the shot from yesterday which shows where we had the shrub bed in the middle of the lawn removed.

And with the goal posts in situ, you can see why having that bed removed was a good idea! You can also see the edge of the patio that we had laid.

And finally, here's a shot with me standing in the far corner of the garden with my back against the house. The shot from today is a slightly wider angle than the one from a year ago, but would you have believed there was a woodshed at the bottom of the garden in the first shot? And also, that the path we recently re-gravelled was there all along, also with gravel, albeit slightly old and weedstrewn. Yes, behind the cement mixer there's a path leading to the bottom of the garden. You can also see how many of the shrubs we've cut back from the bed to the left of the path (ie those directly behind the blue water butt in the first photo, and also from in front of the apple trees (directly behind the handles of the upturned wheelbarrow.)

 I hope you're enjoying this 'one year on' posts as much as I am! It's definitely making us appreciate just how far things have come.