Home Improvements

I’ve been meaning to share a post about our home for a little while as last year we finally extended the kitchen and added a downstairs shower-room, changes we’ve been planning since we bought our house back in December 2016.

Over the last six years we’ve made lots of changes from redecorating to adding a woodburning stove and turning alcoves into bookcases, but the kitchen was always going to be a big, time-consuming project that we didn’t want to rush. Both my husband and I enjoy cooking from scratch and eating at the dining table, and we found the original kitchen dark, cluttered and badly designed.

We had some clear ideas about what we wanted instead, more surface space, more practical storage and space for our dining table. We hired an architect to draw up the plans and a team of Polish construction workers built the extension over 10 weeks. Once the extension was complete, we started looking for a fitted kitchen, which was installed just in time for us to host Christmas, and it was lovely to have our family gathered around the table for our winter feast – and the dishwasher meant no one was stuck washing up afterwards.

I’ve always viewed kitchens as so much more than just a place to prepare and eat food, the dining table often proves to be just as inviting as the couch to enjoy a coffee and the garden view, somewhere to chat about our day while one of us makes dinner and the little one plays underfoot, or spreads out her play-dough or paper and paints on the dining table when she’s feeling creative.

The room we had been using as our dining room has now been turned into a spare bedroom, which has already been used by visiting parents, in-laws and friends. It’s especially convenient for my mum who has MS and is finding stairs increasingly challenging. This was also part of the reason why I wanted to turn our front porch into a downstairs shower-room as our main bathroom is upstairs. To comply with building regulations, it had to be a wet-room, which altered some of our ideas about lay-out but we’re still really happy with it. The tiles were my choice and the colour seems to be something people either love or hate.

Upstairs, things have remained the same, though my husband and I are now back in the smaller, back bedroom, leaving our daughter in the master bedroom, which gives her plenty of space to play – it’s not normally as tidy as it is in the photo (most of her toys are in the cupboard behind me), and we still need to redecorate for her, but she loves having her own room and has settled in so well.

It’s funny how quickly we’ve adapted to the newest parts of our house, and how our home has changed to meet the needs of our growing family over the last few years. I loved this house when I first saw it on a cold and dreary Saturday in November nearly six years ago, and i love it even more now that we’ve made it our own. This little house has become our safe haven sheltering us from the storms of life. Take care, and have a lovely week. X