Angry Banana Throwing

It has been six years… six years since we brought (when I say brought, actually mean borrowed money from the bank) our house. When we originally moved in it was an absolute shit tip, and that is being generous; it was as if no one had live there in years, when in fact the elderly lady that had lived there, died only a year before we moved in. There were holes in the walls, where the wind chuffed its way in, blowing the freezing cold air across our home, and there was no heating, only an old smelly back boiler and two gas heaters that also stank.

I remember in February, the year we moved in, we sat in our coats and scarfs on the 14^th by a hole in the wall, where our old tattered dining table was, eating our Valentine’s Day meal. It was so cold that the inside of the windows froze over; we had to sleep in sleeping bags with two duvets over us. It was fun though, and kind of exciting.

I never regret buying a ‘fixer upper’ I love seeing it develop, and love being able to design it exactly as I want it. I find it mad now that at the time we were a year into trying for a baby! I don’t know what I would have done with a child at that stage of my life!

Unfortunately I don’t have any photos to show you of how it looked before, but trust me it was a mess. When we moved in we had very little money; now I am still shocked we even got offered a mortgage, I was studying nursing at university, and my husband worked at Domino’s Pizza. I had massive plans on what to do with the house; I actually had a five year plan, which has not quite worked out.

Jobs that needed doing included but were not limited to: Installing all double glazing, new doors and adding a French door, full central heating, re plastering every room and decorating, installing a functioning ring main, building an ensuite, knocking walls down to build a bigger bathroom downstairs, and installing a new kitchen. Currently we are up to the ensuite, which we are sorting out at the moment; we are only just at the building a stud wall stage. So, a lot of work still to do, and definitely not finished, or anywhere near!

My weekend has consisted of juggling building said stud wall, child entertaining and writing (as ever). I am surprised we have managed it to be honest. Mainly though it has been my husband Tom doing all the work, as I am absolutely useless at the hard DIY work, I am very adept at scrapping woodchip wall paper off the walls though (I may have mentioned how much I love this job in earlier posts).

At this time I am thoroughly buzzing about the fact that we are getting on ensuite, I have some major plans for it, I want a walk in shower, with fancy lights and a rainforest shower head. My husband isn’t convinced; we’ve done really well saving for it though, and I want it exactly how I imagine it.

Meanwhile my one year old has taken to running in and out of the new doorway in our bedroom as fast as she can, I’m not sure why, there seems to be no particular reason. She is becoming increasingly more helpful, in fact she helped me put the shopping away yesterday; she may have also put the rice, bread and washing up liquid in the fridge. She also, after putting most items in the fridge, discovered that, surprisingly, the strawberries didn’t fit. Obviously the only solution to this major issue, was to take a bite out of each one, and then put them back into the pack. Then there was a problem, because we couldn’t get the lid back on the strawberry pack, this resulted in a major breakdown, as I’m sure most of you are familiar with the pain of not being able to get the lid back on the strawberry pack.

We had already had an awful time, in Tesco, when she couldn’t get the banana skin off her banana, again, a very hard and upsetting issue; which culminated in said banana being thrown at an unsuspecting passer-by.

If she isn’t getting upset at life hardships, or helping me put the shopping away, she is helping me write, by pressing all the keys on my keyboard. Writing is becoming harder than it already is, it must take me at least twice as long to edit, as the majority of my sentences have many more, Q’s, A’s and Z’s than they should have. Though maybe she thinks it adds a bit of, well needed, spice to my book and posts.

I am actually very proud of myself for updating my blog as much as I am at the moment! It has taken me two years to be this productive, I am especially proud as it is February at the moment, and normally I am in a dark pit somewhere over the winter months.

Anyway thanks for the read dudes

Kate

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Any photography used is by the fantastic Victoria Langford.