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 is opening its doors to prospective buyers, which means the last week or so has been dedicated to 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 the open day. 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?)
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 plans to move deeper in to Kent or Essex for that, but our plan 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.)
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 trickier. 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 fixed cupboards that store everything and anything, 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.
Source // A room of two halves.
Source // Wall to wall shelving leaves room for a guest bed.
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 bit bolder with the blue. A 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…
Source // This blue has a hint of lilac in it
Source // I love love love the colour and texture of this wallpaper
