Renovations and Home Improvements

It had been a few years since we did work of any kind in the house, having kids and working full time kind of took up all of our time so redecorating was not a priority let alone renovations or home improvements of any kind. As the kids grew and multiplied from one to two so did the toys and storage we needed, we have limited space in our house so this soon became a huge problem for us.

We have a cellar that was used only for storage....every box for every purchase of baby goods since the eldest (7) was born!!!! So it was a task to just clear the space before thinking of any kind of use for it, our initial thought was for a lovely kitchen with nice new units, appliances and some lovely flooring, we looked at some genuine solid oak flooring which would of been amazing down there with a snazzy new kitchen.

Obviously there were many suggestions for usage, one being a bar/ pool room...As if that was going to happen, a cinema room...this would be a great little place to chill and watch movies and eat popcorn, however we were looking for extra space to expand into not to create an extra room with extra furniture and unnecessary costs to kit out.


We finally decided that the best option for us considering reviewed finances and time scales was to convert the Cellar into a play room for the kids, this meant that the toys could be stored away down there out of sight and also give extra space for the kids to play and they would not be nagged to constantly clear the floor space in the living room to allow us just to function on a normal scale.
Our flooring options changed with the advice that the cellar obviously being underground and therefore was more susceptible to more moisture than above ground rooms, so we were advised to buy engineered oak flooring. The fact that this was to be a playroom and would be well used by the kids, probably having many spillages with drinks etc also led us to this type of flooring option.

And so work commenced, stripping back walls, sealing walls, plastering, painting, levelling the floor ready for the new flooring, all of this at the same time we had central heating installed so was kind of a stressful place to be in, it was all worth the effort though as now the kids have fab play room and we have some space back and as every mum out there will appreciate, the risk of stepping on Lego is reduced dramatically!!

Having this space has made a huge difference to us over the Christmas period, usually we struggle for space with more than a few visitors but we were able to have our friends and their kids over, the kids had somewhere to go and play and we had a bit of peace to enjoy a festive wine or two, It also meant we had some where to keep all the additional toys the kids had received. 

A successful project and a real improvement to our family life.