From House to Home
By Aimee on
Since I moved in with Sam we have slowly turned this house of ours into a home but this weekend things sped up considerably. We already had a couch and kinda knew what we were going to do with the space once our house mates found their own home but thought it might take a little while till they found something… well they moved out this weekend. Down the road actually into this beautiful house with a wonderful backyard and we couldn’t be more excited for them. We also couldn’t be more excited for us. “This was it!” I thought as they started to pack up their boxes, “We will have a linen cupboard and a real study!” needless to say as they moved their stuff out on Saturday Sam and I took a trip to Ikea. Where we purchased a lovely new dining table, a T.V. unit, a coffee table (all in the Lisabo series) and two new bedside tables. We have other things on our list but that was all we could afford for now.
The Building
Ah the building stage of Ikea normally ends in tears and tantrums in most households, in ours it kinda turns into a semi-competitive race to see who can build it the fastest. The Lisabo range of goodies went together quicker and easier than most Ikea furniture but still required the use of that wonderful tool, the Allen key. We had a house full of cardboard and plastic (which for some reason the cat loves) and some really lovely new furniture that pulled our open plan living area together. The tricky/competitive part was the bedside tables. I think of it as putting together Lego and I really enjoy it, but my arms and back started hurting with it after a while. Needless to say I calmly followed the instructions and finished with a beautiful bedside table. Sam on the other hand had screwed a few things in upside down or around the wrong way…. Anyway you can’t tell the difference really (unless you try to open the draws). I say we both won because we didn’t fight and we didn’t break or throw the bedside tables across the room. GO TEAM SAM AND AIMEE!! Moving on to the not so fun part… cleaning.
The Cleaning
Ugh! Cleaning! But considering this house has been a boys share house for at least the last 5 years it needed a scrub. Now as I was busy cleaning I didn’t get a photo of that stage but here is what the cat was doing whilst we cleaned the house.
The weekend before Sam and I had started to scrub the place as we had already heard the room mates had given the all OK for their new place. I washed walls using sugar soap and got all sorts of grub and grime and drink spills off walls. Sam went through the pantry and boxed up all the stuff that wasn’t ours. This weekend I continued to clean walls and move furniture around. The bathroom was done first, then the living room. Sam was still working on the kitchen (this time going through the cupboards and getting rid of cutlery and cooking equipment. He found 7 toastie machines, 7!) I was able to move a few of my boxes from out in the shed inside and organise the bedroom and some of the study. This clean took longer than we thought it would and couldn’t’ believe how exhausted it made us. We went through so much sugar soap and sponges, the water was disgusting after each room but they did look good. It is so nice to have a house that doesn’t have drink spills and go knows what else on it any more. I think it is safe to say that it is no longer a boys’ share house.
The Finished Product
I think with this the pictures will speak for themselves. Now sadly I don’t really have any photos of what the place looked like before (except in the building photos) but think cluttered, black furniture, closed space. Our bedroom had Sam’s desk in it and the living room had mine. It wasn’t terrible but it wasn’t very us. Now it is.
What’s Next?
Well we still have plans for the place but not as many as we did a week ago. I still want to get another bookshelf to put in the corner and an armchair for the living room. Maybe a ladder thing for the bedroom and more artwork/pictures to go up in the house. The biggest project though will be the chairs around the dining table. We are wanting to sand them back and pain them white to make them fit in with the new look of the house a bit better. Another project for another day. I hope you’ve enjoyed looking at our not so new but new to us place and that it has inspired you to update your home.
