Going home

Guess what? We are going home! We are moving into our own home, I mean, not a rental. I am incredibly excited. I can't even begin to tell you how insane the nesting hormones are going inside me right now. Squirrels on caffeine, just picture that. Then triple the energy output.

This is our home (top pic is of the front, bottom pic is of the back). It is a little cottage, one street away from where we are living now. It has to be renovated before we can move in, so Madeleine and I snuck in earlier this week to take some 'before' photos ahead of the demolition process. (That was on Tuesday. On Thursday I walked past and there was a great big skip out the front already half full. It made my heart sing).

The budget doesn't stretch to extensions or any big structural changes, but we will have new bathrooms and a new kitchen (oh boy!); fresh paint and floorboards (right now, there is a downstairs colour scheme of dirty green carpet with dirty green walls, upstairs is a psychotic sensory assault of pink carpet with pink walls and pink CEILING, and everywhere you don't see green or pink you see yellow-ish 70s wood paneling, on both walls and ceilings); plus some extra bits and pieces and cabinetry like a conversion of a wine cellar into a teeny-tiny office for me. Later, we will pull up some of those tiles outside and plant a garden. And build a pergola to cover with vines for outdoor dining.

There are also some beautiful features to the house that we plan to keep. Like lovely Victorian details and fireplaces. Pressed metal patterns on the ceilings in the living room, dining room and kitchen. A light-well that we will paint up and fill with vertical gardens and decking as an extension of the rest of the room. And views from the master bedroom across all the old rooftops in our area, probably much the same as anyone who wanted to look would have seen 100 years ago.

I spent all day yesterday looking at tiles and taps and shower-heads, and I enjoyed it. Today I have to see a woman about a doorknob. I can't wait to share our new home with you as it starts to take shape!