It may have taken 12 months... but I have finally convinced the hubby that renovating the existing house is the way to go! Up until now he has been convinced that we should just knock the current house down and start over by building a kit home. No thanks.

I like the idea of being able to renovate the place slowly over time - in stages. This means that I will be able to pick up special bits and pieces as I find them rather than having to budget for each step of the way.

The first official step in our renovating was to remove the carpet out of the hallway that runs between each of the bedrooms. This is a dark hallway that was musty and smelly. I was at the stage I didn't care what was underneath!!! I was going to rip it out anyway!

The 'before' shot



And after!

We were pleasantly surprised at the quality of the timber floor boards underneath! I was extra happy because it means that we can have real timber floor boards rather than my cheap alternative of floating laminate flooring from Bunnings!

Where to next?........Well we don't have a set plan and will probably end up with 10 things on the go at once! My sister is pulling her old kitchen out and we will be taking it off her hands. We will probably use the cupboard doors and a lot of things like that to re-do our country kitchen! So that will be the first major thing we tackle....

(and I'm looking forward to it! I think I have gone without a cold tap in my kitchen for about 6 months!)

Now for some reason I feel like I must find a lovely bathroom door next. I'm not sure why as the bathroom will be one of the last rooms that we renovate! Can't hurt to start looking now!