Our new home, three months on

I can’t believe it has been only three months since we moved into our new home! It seems as though we have been here much longer. I feel very settled, even though there are lots of renovations and bits of DIY we would like to do.

Mostly, I feel very grateful to be here. It is such a beautiful little town. It is on the estuary in North Essex. Anyone who has read or watched the series of the Essex Serpent will have an idea of the place. I don’t think I will ever get tired of the views.

We also have much nicer neighbours. One of the reasons we decided to uproot ourselves was because we lived next door to an aggressive nutter. We endured him for five years, but finally decided to crack two birds with one stone. To relocate to a town we loved, where we had done lots of walking and visiting in the past, and leave behind the horrible neighbour.

We don’t regret our decision! You can see the story of our house move here on my YouTube channel.

Our plans

So, what are our plans for Shoestring Cottage Mark II? As ever, our budget isn’t huge. We need to be pretty frugal in our approach and recognise that we can’t do everything at once in our new home.

A new front door

Having said that, a new front door is first on our list. It is an ugly, draughty thing! It also has a temperamental lock. The other night I returned from a dog walk and couldn’t get in! The lock was stuck. Justin wasn’t home to help and, although I had the back door key as well, I had left a key inside in the lock and couldn’t get that to budge either.

Just as I was about to give up and call the emergency locksmith, I jiggled the keys and it opened. Since then, we have been using the patio doors to get in. It’s not worth getting it repaired if we are going to replace the whole door, so we are in the process of getting quotes.

Creating more parking

We do have parking for one car already, but have to park one car in the road outside. We plan to pave the small front garden so we can use that.

We have plenty of garden at the back to grow things, and this tiny patch could be put to better use as a parking space.

I want to get some nice large pots for plants at the front too, so will look out for some suitable ones second hand,

Carpets

The flooring downstairs is completely wood laminate. This is practical for us with the dog, and easy to keep clean.

Upstairs there is some rather tatty carpet. This will need replacing at some point. However, we have two cats who, despite having scratching posts, like to get their claws into the carpets! The carpets weren’t in great shape, but are looking even worse now! I think we will put more laminate on the landing initially, as that’s where they tend to scratch.

When we get round to painting the bedrooms, we will look at the carpets. We can’t do everything at once!

General DIY

Unlike our last house, which had very uneven walls, the plaster and woodwork here are in good order. This means that we can just paint and refresh each room in our new home.

The storage is brilliant in this house – there are lots of large built in cupboards. However, we aren’t using them properly. We could do with more shelving and some good storage boxes to organise our belongings better.

We also need another shelving unit in the kitchen/diner. I am on the look out for a IKEA Kallax type one, as we already have one of those on one side of our small Welsh dresser. I hope to find one second hand.

I’m going to repaint the dresser, so may do the shelves too.

The garden

The garden is a long term project. This year we want to see what arrives on the existing shrubs and trees, maybe plant some more colourful flowering shrubs and just keep it tidy. We plan to grow a few vegetables in grow bags in the patio this summer, although we will probably dig a vegetable patch in the future.

It’s a very steep garden. Really it needs proper stepping landscaping, but we won’t be able to afford to do it in one go. We are going to have a go at doing the first step ourselves at some point, but this is a long term goal.

I am looking forward to getting on with things and making the house our forever home. We certainly don’t want to move again in a hurry! It’s true what they say about moving house being one of the top stressful life events!

I will update you on our progress. Let me know in the comments if you have done up your home on a budget and please share your top money saving tips when it comes to DIY. I would love to hear them!

Join the frugal community on my Facebook group, My Second Hand & Frugal Life. Until next time, keep watching those pennies!