Tips for keeping on top of home repairs

When you buy a home, you mainly think about keeping up with the mortgage payments, paying your bills and ensuring that your home is neat, clean, and organised. However, there is another aspect that you should not forget—the time, labor, and cost necessary to stay on top of different home maintenance and repair projects, some of which should be done in certain seasons. Unless something breaks down, it's easy enough to postpone maintenance issues. Since these tasks can often be done later, you end up either forgetting about them or procrastinating, waiting for a more convenient time to get around to doing them, especially if the thought causes financial stress. Besides tending to forget or postpone home repairs, another mistake homeowners often make is trying to save costs by tackling projects themselves that should be done by experts. Take window replacement, for example. If you need to install new windows, this is always something that is better done by experts rather tha......

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Supporting local Businesses Made Easy

I have always been a huge advocate of supporting local and small businesses, trying to source your needs as close to your home as possible and not only lowering your own carbon footprint but also supporting the talent within the are you live in. Being self employed myself I know that choosing to meet up with friends at a small independent coffee shop over a chain has a real positive impact and it's those small changes that can make a difference to our local communities. Although things are often not that straight forward and can be easier said than done especially if your looking for specialist help with something such as a home repair, help around the house, are looking to get fit with a personal trainer or trying to find a photographer on short notice to take a family portrait - all of these services could end up costing a lot of money and you know want to have some kind of reassurance that your money is being well spent. Back in the day reputations were often built up by......

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5 small changes to rejuvenate your home

As most homeowners know big renovations cost a lot of money as well as planning and when your feeling like a change big is not always the way to go, in fact there are many budget friendly options to inject some life into your home and rejuvenate a space that may be looking a little tired or outdated. Most of these suggestions are also doable in terms of DIY even if you have never picked up a paintbrush before with some simple instructions you could discover you have a new talent as well as save money hiring professionals. Of course if your nervous or short of time getting a carpenter in or a painter may be the best foot forward but make sure you get a range of quotes to find the best price. 1. Declutter - It's so easy overtime to collect, accumulate and hold onto things that we don't actually need or hold that much of a purpose. When our spaces become cluttered so do our minds and often our own productivity can go down because of it. It's also hard to see ......

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For the love of Modern Period interiors

We are edging closer and closer to putting our house on the market and we cannot wait, our time in our little welsh hobbit house as we refer to it as the ceilings are so low are coming to an end. We are all in need of more space, more light and in Johns case a doorway he doesn't bang his head on everyday. As much as the rustic appeal is to us and it really does, our home is a bit neither here or there in terms of location, only 20mins from the city on the edge of a small town so it doesn't have the slower pace feel as you would find in a more rural location and equally does not have the colour and culture of living within walking distance of the city. We have also found over time our real passion and dream would be to find a small bay fronted Victorian property as we absolutely love the combination of a period property with a fresh and modern look that embraces the original features of that time rather than covers them up. I think the Scandinavian inspiration that has b......

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Redesigning our Living room starting with the Sofa

As some of you may already know we bought our current property as a bit of a project that needed some work done, before intending to sell, hopefully later this year. We have slowly been working through each room getting ready to put it on the market. Things have gone much slower than expected, mainly because having two small kids at home is not overly conducive for renovations. The picture above is our partially finished living room space, at this point, we had taken away the badly built-in shelves and terrible wooden surrounds and replaced them with more useful storage but otherwise, we have pretty much been making do as the living room didn't have too many issues to start with but now we are ready to get the paint out and get what we need to be done to finish this room. Firstly we will be painting the walls white instead of this slight off white shade, we are going to paint all the skirting boards, fix the fireplace surround, box in wires properly, get a carpenter in to bui......

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Wine, Storage & Growing up

We are not huge drinkers in our house but growing up in SA, a Wine Producing country I do have a soft spot for a glass on the weekend with a nice home cooked meal and some adult conversation once in a while. I have been saying since we bought the house it would be nice to get a small wine rack, it just seems like something a "grown-up" house should have even though we don't regularly buy a bottle it would still be great to have somewhere nice to store them and this would of been especially useful when we recently received a VineBox from Wine & Sympathy  - a wine subscription box which delivers carefully selected wine to your doorstep every month and best of all they also do a cheese box, what could be better paired with a glass of vino at the end of the day. The nice thing about these boxes is not only does it take the stress out shopping but each bottle comes with information and tips on how to serve it best. Our favourite by far was the Bodegas Fontana red......

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Beautiful floors

simply beautiful floor tiles ( image ) Sometimes we overlook how important the floors in our homes are, they cover such a large space and yet they are often left to neglect or covered with bland carpeting. They can as much as a focal point as anything else and should help bring the room together. There are a few key things to consider when it comes to flooring Original Tiles Starting with my first pet hate - you see beautiful Victorian properties such as the one above where people have actually ripped out the original tiles (which in my eyes should not be allowed), it's really not hard to have them restored and they are usually far higher quality than anything you can buy today and add to the character of the property. Also if the print is fairly bold style your hallway simply, keeping closing colours to a minimum such as painting the walls white as above and complementing the tiles with some fresh house plants of a similar shade Beautiful slate flooring ( image ......

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Thinking about getting a Conservatory? Top things to consider

Would love a space like this ( image ) We live in a world were making the most of what you have is key and with most properties there is always space for improvement and what a better way to add value than bringing more light and space into your home than with a conservatory. I have to admit, growing up in sunny South Africa it's something I never really would of considered before but then again the weather was far warmer there so there was less need for this kind of indoor/outdoor space. Although saying that after moving to the UK there is something really lovely about sitting in a glass conservatory, looking out across a wintery garden while keeping warm and toasty, reading a book and enjoying some peace and quite. Or if you have kids, spending some time playing a board game or enjoying a spot of tea and cake. With modern advancements most conservatories are very well insulated, allowing you use it all year round and becoming an extension to your garden allow......

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House maintenance tips for busy parents

Storage and keeping things organised is key for keeping on top of things So you run a busy household, balancing day-to-day tasks such as cooking and cleaning with taking care of the kids, and at times, if you are being honest, it all seems like too much. An easy remedy is to ensure that home maintenance is kept to an absolute minimum, freeing you up to focus on other tasks or even increasing your leisure time. Keep it simple A great way to ensure that your house is easy to maintain is to keep the furnishings and layout simple. A minimalist approach to interior design ensures that there is less to clean and, just as importantly, fewer tight spaces to get into for the purposes of cleaning. Having an open-plan design in the house means that you can see what needs to be cleaned and when, thus preventing a backlog of cleaning tasks. Trying keep clutter to a minimum in a family home can be hard but worth it A follow-on tip from minimalist furnishings is to prevent clut......

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