We knew that the very first task we wanted to do as soon as got the keys for the house was to rip up a horrible flea-ridden blue carpet in the front bedroom. The photo from the sales brochure below hides quite a fetching blue velvet headboard that had also been attached to the wall.

Fortunately the wood underneath the old carpet wasn’t in too bad a state so we decided to sandthe planks down and paint them, while we just went for a nice blue for the walls. I’d been looking out for an old wardrobe in charity shops that I could paint up when I found this one ready painted and looking pretty good as it was. Teamed with some bargainous drawers from Gumtree that just needed more paint (although I’ll put some nicer handles on them at some point) it was a fairly easy room to do up. Apart from the windows.

The windows are still in need of a good overhaul (and clean) and we need to double glaze them but we like the old glass that gives you a slightly wonky view of the garden. They were in a sorry state though when we moved in. One pane was broken, they’d had thick coats of gloss paint over them that stopped them opening and the windows shutters had been nailed shut so they couldn’t open. It took a lot of sawing of nails, chiselling of paint and brute force to free them all.

The room’s not there yet. We’ll probably put something up on the walls behind the bed, while our old Ikea bed May one day get replaced but it’ll do for now. We just wanted to do one room up quickly to sleep in while the rest if the house was a building site.

– Moving-in day and reminding ourselves how awful the carpet it