We've had a lovely couple of days down in East Sussex checking out the local schools, attractions, beaches and parks, ready for our move at the end of June. It’s not long really, is it? I had to keep pinching myself and seeing if the place is real – will we honestly be living in this beautiful countryside? I know it will happen but it does all feel quite surreal right now.
Whilst we were there, of course I wanted to drop in and take a look at how the refurbishment of our new house was going and I was not disappointed. The house is coming on a treat; take a peek at some of the photos. The kids are having their bedrooms painted in colours they chose and in the main we have gone for cream walls so that we have a blank canvas to create something beautiful from. In our first couple of weeks in East Sussex whilst the kids are at school I’m going to enjoy scouring the local shops to find beautiful soft furnishing and accessories, but without breaking the bank.
The windows are all completely different sizes to the ones we have at the moment and I’m no seamstress so I’ll need to get new window coverings. I expect I’ll go for curtains in the main but I’d also quite like some wood venetian blinds for the downstairs rooms as I don’t really want peeking guests as they go by. The blinds on Web-Blinds seem very nice and I love the shutters on there as well but it seems a bit silly for me to invest too much money when it is not my property. So blinds will fit the bill perfectly, classic roller ones in the bathroom and kitchen and then maybe the venetians in the two front facing rooms.
One of the jobs I am quite excited about is choosing new furniture for the house, at the moment we have an expensive Sharpes built-in bedroom suite which of course we can’t take with us and the children’s bed are either pretty old or inherited so they all need new beds. Each of them seems to have a different idea of what might be nice, JJ is hankering after a high bed with a desk and wardrobe underneath whilst the girls quite fancy having bunk beds and moving in together to share a room.
The beauty of that is that it will allow us to have a play room downstairs and we can get a sofa bed to go in there ready for when my parents or friends come to stay. I think I need to get myself on Pinterest and have a look around for some ideas. I am feeling a bit lost for design ideas at the moment. We were given the chance to have all the rooms painted in the colours of our choice and I went blank and said cream for most of the rooms as I just could not think. I knew the kitchen was having new cream shaker cupboards, so I asked for a soft sage type green in there (yes Mum, I copied you!).
As I mentioned the kids made their choices and the girls have lilac and JJ has blue. He is already sorted and has his red, white and blue theme all set in his mind. He has even invested in a new duvet and wall canvases already. To be honest he was the most hesitant about moving and if a small concession like having his bedroom the way he wants it will help him to feel comfortable with our move then that is fine by me.
I’ve started to look online for furniture and it dawned on me I need to be careful that things can make it up the winding stairway. M&S has some beautiful furniture but it does cost quite a bit. I have spotted a good deal though, in that they have 20% off certain ranges if you buy two or more pieces and as my Mum used to work for them she can get discount too so that makes it a much better deal. I need to get organised now though if I want to shop there as most things have a six week delivery wait. I’ve also had a peek at Furniture Village and I like some of their dining sets, although it might well be that we don’t buy one of those as dh and I are debating if we should take our existing set. Oh decisions, decisions.
I have to keep reigning myself in and reminding myself that whilst this is exciting and a really nice opportunity to update some of our tired pieces of furniture, I must not allow it to become an unnecessary spending fest. I am after all a steward of the money that God has blessed our family with.
I think Pinterest is the way to go for now and then I can indulge myself as much as I fancy and see what I actually end up spending my money on after a few weeks of just planning it virtually. If you have seen any great deals or have any beautiful design ideas to share then please do let me know, I really am interested. Thanks, Mich x
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