The Transformation…

The House, until we bought it, had been empty for quite a long time. It had been used as a family holiday home, but was in need of an immediate injection of warmth and a bit of TLC. Although we do have renovation plans, these are a bit further down the line as we work out what we want to do, and then who can do what. So, we took the decision to just titivate initially and get rooms in a state where we could actually have people staying – while planning the bigger reno jobs. And, this is exactly what our last few weeks have largely been taken up with. The house, now that we are in it, has revealed itself to be a lot bigger than we remembered, when we did our initial viewings. On the uppper floor, the vaulted ceilings are soaring – they are all pitched and held up by original beams, making painting a little tricky. Ceilings are lower downstairs, but walls are a mix of exposed original stone and plaster – some of which had been painted, some not. We decided the easiest option would be to go for white in every room, giving us a blank canvas and making this temporary stage a lot less expensive. So, here’s what we’ve achieved so far…

Small Bathroom

This downstairs room was initially earmarked to be ripped out, but we realised that having an additional shower & toilet will be great when we have visitors. It was a bit grotty, not having been used for so long, but a mini makeover has made a huge difference…

Kitchen

This room will very soon be undergoing a major transformation, but we had to make it feel clean – and just well, like ours, especially as we’d be spending a fair bit of time in here. We were going to spray paint the cupboard doors, but we decided against this as it would ultimately be a waste of time and money. The same decision was made about painting the walls – this  is the one room where we have a very definite idea about what we want to do, and fairly soon, so a general scrub down was the order of the day here.

In the meantime, we’re working now with a clean, bright space full of our things – plus some new white goods, which are much less expensive to buy in Croatia than back in the UK.

Main Bedroom

This is by far the largest room in the house and the one that needs the most thought. There is no storage space so we have to think carefully about how to integrate this into the room. We’ve cleaned it up but this will be the room that we return to – especially as we’ll be turning the very small main bathroom into an en-suite.

This was what we started off with…

This is what we have now…

And this is the kind of inspiration we’ve been mulling over…

Main Bathroom

This room is tiny and very badly laid out and will become an en-suite for the room above, the main bathroom being moved into one of the other bedrooms. In the meantime, though, we’ve gone from this…

to this…

but would eventually like to go to something maybe, like this…

Guest Bedroom

We needed to create a little haven, away from the chaos of the rest of the house and so decided to move out of the big bedroom into what will become a guest bedroom. It’s quite a lot smaller – although still with a high, pitched ceiling – so quicker and easier to get ship-shape. It was another room that really needed a bit of TLC…

It’s amazing what a new bed, bedding and a lick of white paint can do – and we’re very happy in this little haven until we can sort the other room out…

Living Room

This is the current work in progress. It was a very dark room – the windows in the house, although many, are small – and we needed to lift the room. These were taken before we actually moved in…

The work-in-progress…

Still a long, long way to go, but we’ve feel started to scratch the surface of what’s going to be a big reno project. Big, but exciting! Next up – what we’ve been doing outside…