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Life with Holly

Blog about Period Interiors and Gardens

House

My Goals for the House in 2020

7 January 2020 Comments : 13

I’m a little late in writing out this post – sorry! We’ve had the most perfect Christmas and New Year followed by a few days of holidays, and I’ve really tried to embrace being away from technology and spending time with my family. It’s been amazing. I can’t say I feel especially refreshed, but I feel a bit brighter and like I’m itching to get started on a new project in the house. I’ve got goals for the house in 2020!

 

Open Plan Kitchen Diner in Grey Shaker Style with Pampas Grass by Life with Holly

Unfortunately for me, I have a huge tax bill due at the end of January. Once this is paid, I can start saving for the next job. That’s the trouble with not having a bottomless pit of money! Our renovation is taking place at a snails pace, but do you know what? I’m OK with that. This is our forever home, so if it takes forever to get it how we want, it doesn’t matter.

 

 

Last year we overhauled the bathroom and painted the kitchen as a short term fix. The whole house had a lick of paint and we panelled the bedroom wall.

Grey Victorian Period Bedroom with Wall Panelling by Life with Holly

 

 

This year I’m going to accomplish three jobs in the house (and hopefully more, but if I only say three it’s not that big a list).

 

Firstly the back wall of the house needs repointing. This is a rubbish job, and we’ve had some sky high quotes in for it as it’s quite labour intensive (and rubbish). It’s not an overly skilled job, so Mr R is going to tackle this with his builder friend on hand to give advice and help out. It’s a job for warmer weather though, so will have to wait until Spring for this.

Small Courtyard Garden Revamp by Life with Holly

 

In conjunction with this rubbish job, we need to resurface our back yard and install a french drain between the yard and the house so all the water from the wood runs away rather than soaking up into the stone. We’ve got damp on the back wall and installing a drain and a more permeable yard surface should help alleviate this. Some previous owners have made effectively a concrete ramp, which soaks up the water and draws it onto the wall of the house like a sponge. It doesn’t help that we get all the water from the wood at the back, or are so near the river (it’s why our cellar floods and we end up with frogs down there!).

 

Victorian Kitchen Dining Area with Grey Painted Concrete Floor by Life with Holly 2020 Goals

This job also impacts on the big job number two, which is flooring in the kitchen. At the moment the damp on the back wall would ruin any wooden flooring we put down, so we need to wait until the damp is rectified before we can install flooring. I’m going to use parquet (perhaps reclaimed, if I can be bothered with cleaning it all up and it’s significantly cheaper!) throughout the kitchen and dining area, so will remove the existing quarry tiles. They’re not original to the house, so I have no qualms about that! This will hopefully make the room seem warmer and lighter. We currently have a temporary painted concrete floor which is, to be frank, ugly AF.

Grey Pantry Cupboard in Victorian Kitchen by Life with Holly 2020 House Goals

I’d also like to give our hallway a makeover. We started to panel the walls (by adding a dado rail) but need to finish this off, give it a lick of paint and get a new stair runner and landing carpet. I’ve got a Pinterest board full of inspiration for Victorian hallways, but can’t decide whether to leave the floorboards as they are or to tile the hallway with Victorian style mosaic tiles. More pinning required!

Modern Victorian Hallway with Pink Door by Life with Holly

I also want to change all the door knobs, light switches, plug socket covers and radiators, and have the one in the lounge moved to the centre of the wall. Who would put a radiator off centre on the wall?!

 

So those are my plans for the house for 2020. I’ve got 12 months to make them happen, and now I’ve written them down I need to!

Have you got any goals for 2020?

Related

Previous:
Using Pantone Classic Blue in Period Homes
Next:
Weekend Wander to Haworth and Oakworth

Comments

  1. Gabi says

    8 January 2020 at 12:31 am

    Wow! A lot of work but the results is precious πŸ₯°

    Reply
  2. Shibani says

    8 January 2020 at 4:11 pm

    Ah I never make house goals but after reading this I want to!

    Reply
    • lifewithholly says

      10 January 2020 at 3:04 pm

      I like to make goals, but whether I stick to them or not is another matter! Have a great day πŸ™‚

      Reply
  3. Zan says

    8 January 2020 at 8:21 pm

    Home renovations can take a long time. And yikes, frogs and water all in your backyard. That doesn’t help at all. Our house was fully remodeled when we bought it so we don’t have much to do but we do have some things that started falling apart as if they were not put in correctly in the first place. At this point, we have not fixed any of it yet. Like you mentioned, saving for projects and not having enough money to do all the things all at once is real. Slow but sure you’ll get there. As it is your forever home you can decide how you want things to be done and attack them one step at a time. It’s good to have a friend who can help you out, too – we had one with our first fixer upper house. Super helpful!

    Reply
    • lifewithholly says

      10 January 2020 at 3:04 pm

      Definitely! It’s a slow and steady approach that we’re taking, and it’ll all get done eventually πŸ™‚ x

      Reply
  4. Shamz Amm says

    8 January 2020 at 9:05 pm

    Hi!

    Your home is so cozy with loads of potential. Here is the thing when you take your time to renovate it actually ends up being a masterpiece. Sadly we don’t all have pots of gold at the end of rainbows to steal from or all of our homes would have been posh..🀣so don’t sweat the small thing love..wait it out patiently if you must for now but in the end you will be stunned at the remarkable haven you created. Enjoy every bit of space which you work on. Thats where the excitement lies, in planning, messing up, re doing and finding the best look that works for you…best wishes! P.S If I had a million bucks I would have dropped it on your doorstep so you could create your little piece of heaven ASAP.

    Reply
    • lifewithholly says

      10 January 2020 at 3:03 pm

      Ah thank you! Thanks for reading x

      Reply
  5. Xoxocb says

    14 January 2020 at 12:45 am

    Those sound like great goals! You are so right that it is a forever home so you want it to be perfect for you. Good luck and can’t wait to see the end result of each product!

    Reply
    • lifewithholly says

      14 January 2020 at 4:16 pm

      Ah thank you so much! X

      Reply
  6. Deb Lee says

    14 January 2020 at 2:03 pm

    Writing down your goals will make them real and add importance to them β€” and will help you get your renovations done bit by bit. Look forward to seeing the changes you’ll make!

    Reply
    • lifewithholly says

      14 January 2020 at 4:15 pm

      That was my thinking behind the post – if I’ve written them down I’m halfway there! X

      Reply
  7. Rachel says

    14 January 2020 at 2:15 pm

    That’s a big list! I can’t wait to see the results! I have a home to do list too. My big one is a plant wall installment with lighting so I can have indoor herbs (and all my little plants) in one spot

    Reply
    • lifewithholly says

      14 January 2020 at 4:15 pm

      A plant wall sounds amazing!

      Reply

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Hi! I'm Jo, and welcome to my blog about my life with my daughter Holly. Here you'll find posts on interiors and DIY, our home and garden, our travel and other day to day goings on. Thanks for stopping by!

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Coming at you this Easter Sunday with the view of Coming at you this Easter Sunday with the view of the other side of the kitchen with the decorative twig having been salvaged from the garden. I found this on a walk we did in December, intending to use it for a decorative Christmas twig, but I felt so meh over Christmas I just dumped it in the garden (after driving home with it wedged in the car πŸ˜‚). It's now become the Easter twig/birthday twig of dreams as two thirds of our house have our birthdays soon.

Our egg hunt is done, chocolate has been consumed and Easter is well under way. Hope you have a lovely day!

Flooring gifted as part of previous PR collaboration. 

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Hope you're having a lovely Easter weekend x

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Totally unrelated pic of the living room as it was pretty much tidy yesterday.

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After having no enthusiasm for house stuff recently, I mustered up the energy for a clear out in the spare room today. It's a proper shit tip usually as we dump things that have no home in there! I put an ad on Facebook Freecycle for all the bits to give away and it was chaos! People fighting over things, people wanting everything - I don't know if I can cope doing that again!

How are things with you?

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Hope you're doing OK x

LVT flooring part of previous PR collaboration with @harveymaria 

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Have a great day!

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Have a fab Saturday! Have you got anything exciting planned?

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