I think the title of the post may give it away but we spent our mini emergency fund.

A large chimney stack on our house has always resembled The Leaning Tower of Pisa and when the pigeons moved onto it a few weeks ago I feared the worse; scaffold and rebuilding for the chimney and rebuilding for our depleted funds!

At least it’s another job off the list!

Get free updates from this site here . Thank you for visiting.

{photo credit: sbisson}

I’m posting a fun tour through our house as I’m currently on holiday

Kitchen: before

Kitchen: after

Sources:

Units: All from MFI costing less than £500 as paid for through Tesco clubcard deals {store no longer open or deals available}
Appliances: All sourced and bought online
Glass Storage Jars: Ikea
Toaster: Dualit years old?
Bagels: Sainsbury’s {lol}
Mug: Starbucks

The whole kitchen was covered in a foot of grease…well not quite that bad, but it was bad, so we ripped the lot out. We fitted most of it ourselves, apart from the appliances and we also paid someone to do the tiling….I really can’t tile for toffee!

Get free updates from this site here . Thank you for visiting.

Good morning; I’m on holiday at the moment and just for fun I’m posting a tour through our house…..

Before: breakfast room

After: breakfast room

We had the fireplace boarded up for all sorts of reasons; the main one being the grate covered half of the floor. I also wanted some extra storage space built into the alcoves and the boiler hiding. After removing the grate I spent six weeks tracking down the exact same terracotta floor tiles to fill the gap, so that we didn’t have to replace the whole floor.

Sources:

Table and Chairs: 25 years old?!
Vase: BHS?!
Frames: Ikea and Habitat
Prints: Etsy and Central Park NY {The Gates Installation}

I’m unable to respond to any comments until Sunday; thank you for reading

Get free updates from this site here .

I’m on holiday this week, so while I’m away I’ve set up some posts showing our house remodel

Dining room: before

Dining room: after

Sources:

Paint: Farrow and Ball Lime White
Blinds: eBay
Chairs: eBay and Dwell
Dining Set: Homebase sale {slightly damaged £50}
PC Table: Ikea
Filing Cabinet: Ikea {unable to see}
Print: Bold & Noble
Print Frame: Ikea Ribba
Cushion: Rockett St George {sale and a gift}
Table Runner: M&S
City in a Bag: Muji {on shelf}

Please note that I’m unable to respond to any comments until Sunday. Thank you for reading

Get free updates from this site here .

This week most of the folks in the Move To Portugal household are in Portugal, yay! So to keep the posting going while we are away I thought I’d post a few before and after {renovation} shots of our house……

We bought our house, a three bed Victorian, in 2006 and it took us about six months, and £13k, to get all the work completed. In the brochure pictures it looks better than it was, the kitchen was unusable {really yucky} and the whole house needed damp proofing and rewiring…..we had 16 weeks with half the downstairs walls removed and no kitchen; not fun or frugal with three kids, lol…..hello microwave meals!

Every wall and every ceiling has been replastered and repainted; we paid for plastering, I did the painting……if I never paint another ceiling again…it’ll be too soon. We were quite lucky in that the previous owners had had new oak flooring installed in the two downstairs room just before selling, however these needed really protecting while the damp proofing and painting was going on.

The lounge: before

The lounge: after

*The previous pictures are from the ‘for sale’ brochure and not great.

Sources:

Paint: Farrow and Ball Lime White
Fireplace: eBay
Rug: Next
Glass Table: Ikea
Pictures: Print street seller NY, Frames Ikea
Table Lamp: M&S
Floor Lamp: Homebase {£10 in a sale}
Blinds: Fabric Warehouse
Sofas: So old I can’t remember!

Please note that I can’t respond to any comments until Sunday. Thank you for reading!

Get free updates from this site here .

One of the things I can {easily} spend money on is items for the house; I can keep my wardrobe streamlined, but seeing an item, and resisting an item that would look great in my home is another thing; to keep this spending trigger at bay, I move stuff around……all the time.

The pictures, among other things, in my house have been everywhere; they travel to every room.

Moving pictures is easy and it changes the whole way a room can look without any cost; keeping the walls all a fairly neutral colour helps with this and means every time I want a change around I don’t feel the need to paint and buy different coloured accessories.

Above is a corner of my dining room after a little move around; a totally different look without me buying anything new {the picture was here before}.

So let me know, do you move stuff around in your house?  Have you been known to get up in the middle of the night to do it, or is that just me?

Don’t forget I’m having a book giveaway this week, so keep looking out for that; A clue. It’s my favourite frugality book!

If you would like to receive free updates from this site by email then you can subscribe here . Thank you  for visiting!

The motivation to get things crossed off the house to do list  is back, so I’ve made the most of it and retrieved the paint brushes from the shed!

I have a master to do list, pictured below, and all this work needs completing before the house goes on the market in early 2012; that may seem like a while away however I’m amazed at just how quickly this year is going, so I’m trying not to delay anymore.

{This to do list and project book might give you an insight into the mind of a habitual list maker..lol}

One thing I’m trying to do is to fully complete a room {apart from a new window if it needs it} before I move onto another one; I have a bad habit of leaving a little snagging item. I’ve also bought some fabric to try my hand at making some simple curtains; I’m hoping that it’s not too difficult!

I’d love to hear what you’re doing around the house at the moment, has the warm weather made you want to decorate? I know Emily her family are working on a new Master bedroom, which is going to look beautiful.

For free updates you can subscribe to this site here . Thanks for visiting

In June 2008 I posted about how I was going to paint our back door. Well, I finally got it done this month; major ”house to do list” fail!

I bought the black gloss paint on sale, so the whole job cost less than £5. Now onto the next job on the list!

For free updates you can subscribe to this site here. Thanks for visiting!

Do you have an inspiration board? I do, but it’s a little outdated. This weeks project is to make a new one for my updated desk/computer area; yes, a year later, I’ve finally {frugally} pimped my little corner!  Pictures to follow.

{photo credit: mysi anne}

We’re having four new windows put in today, replacing wood with UPVC and I’m sitting here wondering if I’ve made a mistake.

Let me explain. When we bought our house in 2006, at a reduced price as it needed work {lots of !} we planned to renovate and then sell it on at a profit. We changed our minds however and started to view it as our long term home. Move on in time and we decided on the Portugal move so now the house is back to being an income opportunity. And there lies my problem; It’s quite hard for me to stop thinking of our house as a home and more as a future income opportunity. Replacing the wooden windows, which are totally beyond repair, with UPVC ones, a third of the price and much easier to maintain, in a Victorian house is depressing to me, however much sense it makes budget wise.

This is the part of our journey where I need to start moving forward.

{photo credit: mark turner}