Paul and I are moving house this year. In this half of the year we hope. On Saturday afternoon our starter home of three and a half years opened it’s doors to prospective buyers, which means the last couple of weeks have been spent scrubbing, painting, repairing, planting and tidying. The market is moving ever so fast, and if all goes to plan we should have an offer or two by the end of today (!). FINGER CROSSED. Selling is the easy part right now; buying, it appears, is the b***h. (Anyone else on Rightmove every day at the moment?)
Our house on open day.
Whereas our current two-up two-down has served us well, we’re on the hunt for our ‘family home’. Not our forever home I hasten to add. We have long term plans to move deeper in to Kent or Essex for that, but our aim for this home is to see us though our thirties, through babies and primary schools and family Christmases and a growing business (me) and a doberman called Steve (Paul). Ahem.
As such, we have grand dreams for our next home. Perhaps too grand, for our modest budget and a housing market that is rising so fast it’s threatening to price us out. Nevertheless, we will continue to dream and search, and I will continue devouring house magazines, watching Kirstie and Phil, and pinning to my Ideal Home board like my life depends on it.
So what’s on our wish list? Well, a 1930′s 3-bed semi is what we’re really after, and thankfully our local area is rife with them, being in the ‘burbs. A driveway and a reasonably-sized garden are musts as we have neither at the moment and Paul has a fancy car he likes to look lovingly at and wash regularly. (Tantrums have been thrown when I’ve dared show him houses without driveways.)
Inside is where it gets a bit more specific. I want a project, i.e. a house to do up and make our own, but a liveable project. Neither of us wants somewhere we can’t move in to straight away, although I love the idea of completely gutting a house and starting from scratch at some point in our lives. For now though, we have a busy year ahead and we really would like to be able to move straight in if we can.
And now for the actual wish-list… (because the liklihood of getting *all* of these things is looking pretty slim)…
Utterly Wow HQ meets Guest Bedroom
Right now, our spare room houses everything that doesn’t belong in the kitchen, living room, bedroom or bathroom. It has a desk and a filing cabinet, some fitted cupboards that store anything and everything, Paul’s weights bench, a sofa bed for when guests crash and the laundry basket and airer. Oh, and a half-baked attempt at a gallery wall which I’m putting on pause until we move. In our next house I would reeeeeally like a guest room-come-office that’s practical and pretty… and without a weights bench or laundry basket in sight.
Image credits: 1 / 2 / 3
A Bedroom in Blue
We’ve been a bit spoilt with our current bedroom. It’s huge and drenched in light (as the front of the house is south-facing), and as we painted it in Farrow & Ball Cornforth White when we moved in (the palest of bluey/grey) it has a lovely, calming feel. Paul has stated several times in the last few weeks that we are to “have our bedroom exactly the same” in our next house, a sentiment I adore him for having but don’t entirely agree with.
See, I’m really keen to go a little bit bolder with the blue. A little bit deeper, and a little bit moodier. With lots of white to still make the room feel bright and airy, and perhaps accents of gold or copper for warmth, I think a moody blue is super chic and ever-so grown up…
A Modern-Victorian Bathroom
We inherited a brand new bathroom when we moved in to our current home, which, although modern and perfectly nice is certainly… bijou. Aka tiny. Paul and I do a wiggle/dance round each other every night to try and reach the sink when we’re brushing our teeth. I’ve never really got massive bathrooms, but I’m certainly looking forward to having a bit more space. Enough room to store towels for example, or to be able to sit and chat when one of us is in the bath. I’ve noticed a bit of a theme in the bathrooms I’ve pinned so far- I like a very clean, white look with a free-standing bath, subway tiles and a large sash window. The last feature is a tad difficult to achieve in a 1930′s semi but something to wish for nonetheless!
Image credits: 1 / 2 / 3
A Family-Sized Kitchen Diner
This is really the crux of our house search, and something that is as important to me as Paul’s driveway. I’m a firm believer that the kitchen is the heart of the home, and certainly growing up I spent a lot of time sitting at the breakfast bar, doing my homework and chatting to my Mum as she prepared dinner. The problem with three bed 1930′s semis is that the kitchen is usually tiny unless the previous owners have extended. As such, I reeeeeeally want a house that has already been extended (likely to be top of our budget, and so has to be a kitchen that I don’t want to change), or one that we can extend pretty much straight away (and is therefore considerably under our budget). I should also mention that I’m desperate for an island. And if the space isn’t large enough for an island AND a large farmhouse-style table, then the large farmhouse-style table will have to double up as both roles.
These kitchens make me drool with happiness.
Obviously I could go on. I want a living room that has personality and colour but can also be soft and cozy when the winter nights draw in. I’d love a downstairs loo that I can go a bit crazy with décor-wise to get people talking. And although conservatories are often associated with the older folk, a good conservatory can be a fantastic extra space to house a playroom/ disco room/ candle-lit dinner party. I’m not asking for too much, am I?
You can follow my Ideal Home Pinterest board here, and if you’ve gone a bit interiors-obsessed like me then do leave a link to your Pinterest board in the comments and I shall follow you.
Show me the pretty houses!
Sama xxx
