Before

Ooh first post! Hello internet,

My new years resolution this year was to stop procrastinating, to do some of the things I've said I wanted to do, starting a blog was one of these things. I also started runnning, dieting (sigh) and budgeting better so lets see what I'm still doing at the end of the year...

As the 'about me' explains I'm a long term tenant. I hope to own my own home one day, but with the deposit we have to save up that doesn't look like it will be soon so I try to concentrate on making our rented home feel like ours.

I'm in no way an expert on property, DIY or blogging, but I feel I've built up knowledge on renting and making a rented place your own - so this will be a (probably quite random) story of our current and past properties, including our good, bad and ugly experiences and what we've learnt from them.

So let me introduce you to our new flat, these photos were all taken in December, loads has changed already and I'm working on a backlog of projects and changes to put up. I had to wait as we only just got the internet today. More on that saga later and how to get the services you want/need when you don't always have a say in what can be done to the property.

Now these are all honest before photos taken very soon after we moved in (I didn't tidy up or make changes for these photos), so please excuse the absolute mess, the idea is I'll show you how we make it look better over time!

As soon as you enter the front door, the hallway (Or storage/junk room as it is in these shots)

 Looking back towards the door

 As it was on viewing

Then a second hallway, which we use as an office/place to put the tank for our turtles, this room has no windows and so very little natural light as it is right in the middle of the flat, so in the photos of this room the lighting looks a little off.

Also where we keep the cat litter, gross... (Yes we are tenants with pets! More on that later)

 

Off the office is the bedroom, at the front of the flat 

WARNING it is not pretty

Yes it's an absolute mess, and there are 2 armchairs in there. This is the room I was most keen to get started on when we moved in. About the only things I like in these pictures are my little retro chest of drawers and the light fixture (It came with the flat and I love it!). 

That's me measuring up on our second viewing, it also shows how the light looks when it's on

 Then off the office the bathroom

And it has a built in cupboard behind the door which I plan to make much better use of soon

Then the living room, also off the office

This room was pretty acceptable once the sofa was delivered (Our first few weeks we just had 3 armchairs in here), but could do with some more personality.

Then lastly the kitchen, at the back of the flat off the living room.

The door leads out to a courtyard garden which I will share later as when I took these photos it was A. Dark, and B. Full of all our moving boxes waiting to go to the tip.

So that's a tour of our place as it was just after moving in, I'll go into more detail on rooms as we go, as there are lots of other 'before' details I'll put up along with the shots of how the place develops.

So much has changed already since these photos, so I'll share the after shots soon!