I can’t believe how long it feels as though we’ve been renovating this house for! Thinking back, we had absolutely no idea what we were getting ourselves in for. Well, Charlie did, I was just insistent on renovating a house that was in an absolutely terrible state. To give you a little re-cap, we purchased our first home in March 2018, and it has been left to basically rot by the previous owner. We didn’t quite realise the scale of the project when we hastily put an offer on, lesson learnt. I feel as though we’ve essentially rebuilt the house, we had to replace the roof and even repoint a lot of the brickwork, so we aren’t far from it!

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Throwback to the start of the year and building site vibes. When the house was left with no back wall for a good month. It took so long to get planning permission to sort everything out for our (tiny!) extension but we got there in the end 😬🥴

A post shared by Tilly | A Boho Nest ✨ (@aboho_nest) on Jun 20, 2019 at 2:08pm PDT

I’m extremely impatient, so to me this slow process has been extremely frustrating. I like to just get stuff done and not wait around, but it’s been impossible with so many barriers in our way. Waiting for planning permission, organising tradesmen, waiting for Charlie to be able to take time away from his painting company in St Neots, and calling in favours which slowed down the process. We’ve ensured everything is absolutely perfect, cutting no corners and buying exactly what we want even if it means saving harder for a few months.

So, where are we now?

✅ new roof

✅ fixed the drainage

✅ extended the kitchen

✅ fitted bifolds and velux windows

✅ new sash windows in every room 

✅ plastered the whole house

✅ new front door

✅ re-wired whole house

✅ new flooring in the bedrooms

✅ fitted the bathroom 

✅ decorated the bedrooms

And so, so many more little details

When the floor went down…what a RELIEF!

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We have a real floor in the bedrooms 😃🙏🏻 went for Amtico Traditional Oak (after a long and painful decision process) and I’m suuuuper pleased with how it looks. Now we’re just waiting for the skirting board and doors to go on and I can think about the fun bits 😍 We’re also going to try and spray the fireplace that was left here black. Will update with progress on that 🙈

A post shared by Tilly | A Boho Nest ✨ (@aboho_nest) on Oct 21, 2019 at 9:22am PDT

Although it feels slow, we have accomplished in a lot in the past 21 months (christ) and it hasn’t been a cheap project that’s for sure. The bedrooms are finally complete, we’re ready to furnish these so I’ve been eyeing up some beautiful beds from Bed Guru for the master bedroom and a few different wardrobe ideas for my dressing room/office. The bathroom has been fitted, we’re just waiting to complete the tiling and then the upstairs is DONE. At last!

Downstairs is then the next challenge, with a few jobs on the list including fitting the kitchen (I think we’re going for a Magnet shaker style kitchen) and laying the floor, then it’s pretty much ready to make look pretty and we can finally move in. I don’t even feel as though I own a house, it’s a super strange feeling and I actually can’t imagine moving into the property that has caused us the biggest of headaches over the past couple of years.

A mock-up of the kitchen (this will probably change…)

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If only the views looked like that outside 😂 we’re in the beginning stages of designing our kitchen and I’m thinking it will look something like this 🤩 I wanted a concrete worktop with black shaker style units, and just shelves on the wall. I’m going to be making a few tweaks but excited to get going with this!

A post shared by Tilly | A Boho Nest ✨ (@aboho_nest) on Jun 17, 2019 at 4:28am PDT

A lot of people ask me if I regret the decision to renovate and take on such a big project. Although Charlie will be quick to say yes (I’m sure) I don’t regret it. I wanted everything to be perfect, which is a big ask for your first home, so for me this felt like the best way to do it. Even if we had bought a house in liveable condition, I still would have wanted to change absolutely everything, so for me this made sense. There are a few things I would definitely do differently next time…yes I said next time…I would love to renovate another house that isn’t quite as crazy.

For now, I can’t wait to get the house completed, it finally feels like it’s in reach and I can’t wait to share with you the finished product. I haven’t taken a huge amount of photos just as it has been logistically tricky but I’ll be sure to show you every little detail when it becomes my home.