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Day 18 – Quest for Onion Bhaji

Feb8

The past three days have been spent unpacking my life from the previous two homes (the parentals and mine) to the lovely new little flat. I had no idea I owned so much stuff! I am on day three of unpacking at the moment and it actually looks like I have a home now which is very exciting! I cannot wait until this is all done and I can go back to my very much needed 8 hours of sleep a night and catch up on about a months worth of Eastenders!.

The worst thing about unpacking is the fact that you have no idea where to even begin or where anything is. I also found myself thinking I owned things when I actually did not. Food choices have been very limited to whatever I can find in the shop over the road as I have not had anything here to cook with. However I had moved the kitchen stuff in so decided to treat myself to an Indian snack selection (think samosa, onion bhaji, little potato thing with peas in). This meant I could snack and still unpack (ooh little bit of rhyming there!) without having to stop unpacking or snacking. (Sorry, again!). I come back from the shop armed with snack selection, pop the oven on and go to put the snacks on a baking tray. Baking tray… Where are you baking tray?

Turns out I do not own a baking tray. Why do I not own a baking tray? All the baking trays at my old flat belonged to the landlord at my old flat and I never bothered to get any more as they were perfectly functional for baking stuff like the name suggests. So I am now stood in my kitchen with no way to cook what I had just bought. The samosas and other bits I could have happily lived without but not the onion bhaji so I decided to adapt and use the microwave even though there was no microwave options on the packaging. I was not to be defeated by the lack of a baking tray!

I pop the snack selection on to one of my new square plates. I remember writing about these plates saying how much I had always wanted square plates. Turns out this was also a no go. Due to the squareness of the square plate it could only rotate 45 degrees in the microwave before getting stuck and rotating back 45 degrees in the other direction. My quest for onion bhaji was not going to plan.

Upon the removal from the microwave I was very disheartened to discover that due to the microwave’s inability to rotate I had a lovely little selection of really badly cooked snacks. Some were hot, some were cold, most were soggy and I think one may have been a bit burnt. Not even my craving for an onion bhaji was enough to make that taste nice.

So what was the first thing I did today? Bought a bloody baking tray! Well actually I bought three!

Day 15 – Nearly looking like a Home!

Feb4

Hello! I have spent the past few days either getting a little bit tipsy at a work conference or recovering from the self induced tipsiness. As a result my lovely little flat has been a little bit neglected for the past two days. However today it definitely got an awful lot of love! Over the past two weeks I have been so happy with the flat as it is everything I have worked for over the past 8 years but I walked into it today after the carpet had been laid and it actually looks like a home now. I am completely unashamed to admit that I cried! I’m just going to let the pictures speak for themselves as I am completely besotted with my new home!

I am so happy with the choice of carpet, it is so soft and lovely to walk on and the colour really compliments the paint colours on the walls. The stairs are a plum stripe which I love. I never thought I’d have a stripey carpet but then my parents had stripey carpet put up their stairs and I actually really liked it so took inspiration! The carpet still needs a few more hoovers but the living room has come together so well. I came back from work today and got the surprise of a lovely TV stand in the living room! My parents went and got it while I was at work. Walking into the living room and just seeing it complete was lovely, they really have worked so hard for me today. We just need to now get a nice big mirror for above the dining table and a nest of tables and the living room is done!

So if you ever come to visit me it is shoes off to protect my lovely new carpet! I am wondering how far I can take this and have found myself looking at little booties and converse for dogs online. Check these out:

Dogs don’t wear shoes outside, so maybe the answer here is for him to wear shoes inside! He would hate me too much I think… Bobby you can be an exception to the shoe rule.

Day 12 – Lets go Build a Light

Feb1

Remember the lovely little IKEA hanging pendant lamp?

Exhibit A on the left is how the light is supposed to look. Exhibit B is how it looks when you open the box. Today I felt was the perfect day to build the Death Star Lamp. Armed with a Malibu and Coke and 3 trusted friends (1 human, 2 animal) we decided to build the light.

I was expecting the worst. Assembling things is not my forte but this little light actually surprised me. Everything clicked nicely together and within 5 minutes a star was born.

Turns out however that at the flat there was nothing to hook the light to on the ceiling and the old light was literally just hanging there. If I hung this light through that hole in the ceiling and pulled the cord to open or shut the light there was a high chance of the whole thing falling on my head. No worries though because I have a Dad who’s pretty good and this whole DIY stuff and he managed to go up into the loft, and install something more sturdy for me to hang my Death Star from.

Look it works!! It also makes some really pretty patterns on the walls the the ceilings. Definitely a new take on adjustable lighting, no dimmer switches needed here!

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Do excuse the naked stairs!  I am away with work now until Friday so sadly no more house related work until Friday/Saturday 😦 But hopefully by next update there will be carpet on those stairs! Fingers crossed!

Day 11 – Indecisive Furniture Placement

Feb1

I’ve started laying out where everything is going to go and it is really hard to actually make a decision. We loaded the table into the van and dragged it up the stairs to see where it would look in various different places. Having never studied the art of Feng Shui I was not limited by the need to harmosie my environment so can pretty much put things wherever I want. I really hope Feng Shui is the correct term for the thing that I am trying to describe. I’m thinking of the Chinese thing where you place furniture in order to harmonise your home, I would hate to find out that I have actually said something completely different and offended someone! Maybe it is something I should look at as I could really do with some harmony right now! Watch this space we may be re-branding to “Sam’s guide to Feng Shui and I’m suddenly going to become a much calmer and cooler version of myself. I have now found myself Googling Feng Shui and I’m actually getting a bit interested so I think I’m going to close that tab now and get back to deciding the location of my dining room table before I add another complicated factor to the mix. On a completely unrelated note can you still call a dining table a “dining room table” if you do not actually have a dining room? I think maybe the correct term is a “dining table” which would make a lot more sense and I do not really understand why I have been bought up to call it a “dining room table”. Perhaps it was because my parents had a dining room. I apologise I have digressed very far away from the topic of this post and will now yet again steer myself back to the topic in hand which is the placement of my dining table which is from this point forward going to be known as the living table as it is located in the living room.

It is all a bit slow now until I get the carpet laid so I ended up going to my old flat to box up some more stuff. This was the last box so ended up having all the random things in it that did not fit in any other box, hence the name of “the shit box”. This then resulted in yet another distraction when me and my friend ended up decorating the boxes with Miranda Hart quotes and doodles. Why have a boring moving box when you can have one this colourful?

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I did tell you it had been a slow day!

Days 9&10 – Lights!

Jan30

So much to do before Friday! I think once we get the carpet in the whole flat will suddenly come together and start to feel homely. Maybe then I can finally move in without walking dust around constantly.

My lovely little spider lights from B&Q have been put up and I think they look pretty good. Managed to get the one in the living room to be dimmable even if I did make the mistake of buying awful light bulbs from the Range. Can be replaced later though so won’t worry too much now.

I googled the Karli lights just out of curiosity to see if they did any other similar lights or accessories. Out of some stroke of luck I stumbled across these lovely little bedside lamps! I was going to go for purple lamps but when I saw these it just had to be done. I think this has pleased my parents as I was going to take the lamps from my old room at their house as they were the perfect lamps and exactly what I had in mind. However they now get to keep those and I will not be branded a lamp thief!

The room is so much lighter now than it was when I moved in. This could have something to do with the fact I now have 22 light bulbs in the room instead of just 2! Could you call that a little bit excessive? At least no one can say my room is too dark and I don’t need to use all 22 at the same time I suppose! Very thankful for my IKEA bulbs! On the subject of IKEA I went to put up my light for the hallway today.

I was very naively expecting to unpack a nice spherical light out of that box but looking at the size of the box in relation to the size of the light I really should have known better. IKEA hanging pendant light is currently in about 8493625 different pieces. I decided that the light could go back into the box and be tackled another day. When that day will be I am not too sure.

Today was mainly about odd jobs. I helped build the furniture for the downstairs bedroom. We got this furniture online as a lot consisting of 2 bedside tables, a dressing table, chest of drawers and a wardrobe and its really good stuff! Sadly couldn’t get any pics of the rest as most of the furniture for the flat has been moved into this room ready for the carpet to be laid and I can barely move in there at the moment but the dressing table is stunning! I just need to get a chair for the dressing table and we are all done in here. Such a contrast from the kids room it was just over a week ago.

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The shelves also got put up today and now the living room is starting to really come together. I’m looking at a few coffee tables at the moment but am leaning towards a nest of tables instead for space saving purposes. I have a coffee table in my rented flat at the moment which made me think that I needed one, but my parents have a nest of tables which gets used a hell of a lot more than the coffee table does and they are pretty cute! I dragged the dining room table to the flat tonight just to try and figure out where everything will go and I think I have a plan in my head now so hurry up carpet so I can have a functional living room!

As we are getting the internet and TV installed tomorrow I had to decide really quickly where everything was going as I don’t want to be moving cables around once they are installed at one end of the room. Fingers crossed it was the right choice! I have accidentally managed to order myself two lots of internet and TV though so I really hope they only turn up with one! Most importantly only charge me for one!

Day 7 – Reconstructing the Kitchen

Jan28

Day 7 is being posted on Day 8 due to a very important charity event which required an early night last night! Post on this to follow!

After previously being banned from the flat I was finally allowed back in as all the glossing and painting is done. The only room which does not require much more work doing to it is the kitchen. As I do not have much time left off work I decided to use this day to clean my kitchen and move everything into it. I had no idea quite how therapeutic and actually quite enjoyable this would be.

Here is what the kitchen looked like before.

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I wanted to keep the kitchen itself very neutral and put colour into it by accessorising. I am aware that I have bought a lot of little things that I like but I am not actually sure how it is all going to look like together. It took me about 2 hours to deep clean the kitchen but it was so worth it to be able to move my stuff in

Not much of an update today but I’m glad I managed to move some stuff in as it is starting to feel more like home already. Turns out I have a lot of storage! It is nice not to have to be cramming things into cupboards to store them and to have everything neatly put where I want it to be. Everyone told me I had maybe bought too many glasses, however considering how lovely they fit in the cupboard I disagree! I was one of those naive glass people when I went glass shopping, I did not even know that there were different glasses for red wine and white, but now I do! I got all my glasses from Morrisons and I love them :). I always said that when I moved I would get square plates and bowls and I was lucky enough to get this lovely little set from Santa this year! I still need to get a cover for the end of the worktop but apart from that things are looking pretty good in the kitchen.

In other exciting news I got my first “New Home” card today from my Nan along with this lovely little wine holder (and the bottle in it!) which has pride of place by the kitchen window. The only quandary I have now is which wine glass to use!

Day 6 – Banned

Jan26

The flat is being glossed today so I was not allowed in through fear of sticking to a newly glossed door or smudging a painted skirting board. The decorators banned me which is pretty much fair game as I am incredibly prone to falling over my own feet and genuinely cannot be trusted. That’s ok though because I had a very successful trip to IKEA and the Range in Reading instead. I demonstrated the exact reason why I was banned when we went to IKEA and mother trod on the back of my shoe and I stacked it going up the escalator. It is a good thing I am used to these moments.

I did pop back to the flat afterwards though as I bought a doormat. So under the pretence of “dropping off the new doormat” I snuck to the flat. Anyone who knows me personally will know that I am a bit of a hedgehog. Prickly on the outside (in personality, not physical appearance thank you very much), prone to frequent hibernation and runs away to curl up into a small spiky ball when scared. However once you get past that grumpy spiky appearance (or I have had a cup of coffee / it is past 8am in the morning) I am the craziest but friendliest person you will ever meet.

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Got this little creation from the Range. So if you ever come to visit me you’ll know I’m the flat with the bonkers doormat. Dad hates it though so I have been warned there is a very high chance of a little bit of paint falling its way onto it. He wouldn’t dare I’m sure…

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Day 5 -A Hole in the Ceiling

Jan25

Rather mixed day today. The painting is done and looks fabulous. Turns out I underestimated the amount of paint needed by about 10 litres resulting in a dash to B&Q early this morning. I’m really happy with my plum feature wall and now I can see the living room nearly done I’m definitely happy with yesterday’s choice of carpet. However there is a small issue of a hole in the ceiling. There was what looked like an old water stain on the ceiling in the bedroom upstairs and when we rolled the new paint on it has dampened and weakened a rather awful attempt of a repair. Luckily we have tested it for damp and there was no moisture reading so the ceiling is completely dry and obviously just old which is good, just a shame that I now have a hole in my newly painted ceiling! Seems like we will be sending dad up into the rafters later on this week strengthen and replace the shoddy work previously done. I’m contemplating sending him up with a load of loft insulation while he’s up there and he can distribute it out like a little rodent. Anything to reduce the electric bill right?

However in better news the plum wall is done and I love it!

Tomorrow is glossing day so I am sadly banned from the flat until at least 5pm in order to let it all dry. I don’t appear to be trusted not to stick to a door or smudge a skirting board. Even the painters know my clumsiness well it seems!

Day 4 – More Paint & A Carpet

Jan24

I made a decision! Finally I am an indecisive human no more! I took my samples of carpet round the flat today and put them with the paint to get a better idea of how the carpet would look in the finished room. Once we put the carpet with the wall it was obvious that a grey tone was definitely the right way to go. I had already decided I was going to with a Victoria Carpets Freedom carpet as it is bleach cleanable, fade resistant and most importantly looks and feels lovely! I found myself stuck between two very similar shades of grey. I checked the names of the two grey carpets and found that one of them was called Dawn Mist and that made my decision for me as my walls are painted in White Mist. I do love it when fate takes the decisions out of my hands by making them so blindingly obvious for me!

Ta-Dah!

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Dawn Mist and Grape which is going to go up the stairs. I fell for the lure of a different carpet to go up the stairs. Nice little bit of purple in there and the grey from the Dawn Mist too, definitely not a wasted trip. Hopefully the carpet will be laid next week so I now have a very tight schedule to get everything in and ready.

And here’s my second purchase of the day from B&Q, Karli 8 Spiral Chrome Ceiling Light. The flat at the moment is a little bit dark so hopefully this will light up the living room. I bought three of these as I found it quite difficult to find a unique and nice looking light for my bedroom as the ceilings are quite low. A lot of them I would find myself smacking my head on but these are perfect! Only down side is that I have now realised that I have to buy 24 light bulbs! Also got my eye on a lovely little hanging star light for the hallway but it seems to always be out of stock 😦

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So here are the pics of Day 4! The bedrooms are now painted which is fabulous as I am not changing the flooring in these so should be able to start moving stuff into these soon while the living room and hallway are finished. There is no sign at all of the kids wallpaper that covered the second bedroom when I moved in, I think Chris and Victor have done a really good job here. Should all be done by Thursday they tell me, which means they have filled, rubbed down, painted and glossed an entire flat in 6 days which is pretty good going!