Slow Progress, but Progress None The Less

The LiveLAGOM project is a few months in and surprisingly enough things have not been going 100% to plan and 'life' has been getting in the way.

There are some small changes that we have introduced that have had a big impact however:

- Changing all of our lightbulbs to LED has even meant that we were able to pass on some 'task' lighting floor lamps (that were also used as gymnastic equipment by our toddler B, so I was not sorry to say goodbye to them...).

- We have not bought any single use AA/AAA batteries since starting the project and instead have been slowly replacing all of the batteries with reusables as each item runs out.

The area that I have really been focused on however has been decluttering.

Here are some embarrassing 'before LiveLAGOM' photographs - I am sad to say that this was already well into my decluttering, it had just halted a little. One day I may be brave enough to include the real before photos, but today is not that day!

And here are a couple of the same spaces today - I am not going to say that these are the 'After' photos, as I don't think that I have finished, but hopefully you can see some obvious differences.

You can see that we have even added some curtains to our dining room door, which has made a huge difference to help keeping the heat in downstairs.

The biggest revelation however has been the craft room as we have not only had a huge clear out, but have also thought about why the room was never used and how to change that.
- M's collection of train books have now been transferred into some floor to ceiling Billy bookcases.
- Our 5x5 Kallax was then moved to a new loving home.
- The small computer desk has also found a new home and has been replaced with a kitchen worktop attached to a set of Alex desk drawers and Rast drawers that contain the majority of our craft/office related items. It has two of the new Flysta units to hold the rest of my fabric and sewing related items and we even removed one of the shelf supports so that our printer fits in.

I don't think it is just a coincidence that I have been inspired to actually use this previously unloved space and have managed to make a dungaree dress, jumper and purse so far this year!

Swings and roundabouts

The house is still very much a work in progress. And true to previous form as soon as we make one improvement we find another problem.

On the positive side, I have made a new stag picture, we have finally had the shed roof replaced, I have unpacked 4 boxes over the past week and I have just realised that since my last post we have actually finished a room! Sneak peek below:

However on the negative side neither of our toilets are working correctly (one is leaking into the hallway ceiling and the other has to be refilled manually), we still can't put anything in the shed because it is so mouldy and finally although we have moved a few boxes out of storage there is still a very long way to go:

That is a very scary sight!

110 days

110 days ago we completed on our house (yes I know my planned post of a 100 days would have been better, but I have been busy!).

We have learnt a lot in that time and have  probably grown up quite a bit as well. The main thing that I have learnt is that I am terrible at estimating! I tend to underestimate how much time something will take, but would rather err way on the side of caution (I admit it I am a bulk buyer) rather than risk underestimating paint/wallpaper/fabric.

The jobs that we have done I am really pleased with and I think I have learnt that I need to reduce my very high standards or nothing is ever going to get finished.

This weekend we put in our new bathroom tap, I was a little worried about it as we are in a hard water area and I think it will get marked very quickly, but I can't deny that it looks great at the minute!

We have also bought the paint for my craft room - I am very excited to get started, but here is a quick sneak peek...

Finally (for today anyway) I have been watching 'The Great Interior Design Challenge' and I am loving it! It is funny to see so many of the things we have already bought in their rooms, button handles/ wallpaper roller / penny tabletop. And I love the architectural history also included in the programmes (also who doesn't like to be nosey about other peoples houses!). Great programme - I always agree with more craft on TV!