We made the most of the first lockdown last year and our being at home every weekend to plan and carry out some decorating we have been meaning to do for ages.
We obviously had to wait until tradespeople were allowed into houses again but as soon as they were we had a decorator paint our lounge. Four coats to get rid of the old butterscotch blancmange colour and make it a more pale cream (or to give it the proper colour, natural calico) on the hottest day of the year. Then we had the hall, stairs and landing painted grey with a darker wall up the stairs, a cupboard built under the stairs to tidy up our tiny hallway, and then had the hall, stairs, and landing re carpeted. It has been lovely to see it all come together and to be able to spend the winter at home in rooms that made us happy.
The trouble is though now that the lockdown has continued we have an ever growing list of new year house resolutions we want to do to make the most of weekends at home. We are also keen to try and do our bit for the environment and make our home a bit more energy efficient.
Being greener
I wrote last year about the things I wanted to do this year in an effort to be greener this year and am committed to making those changes. (see this post about being greener in 2021) Using the shower flow bag that came in that kit was a real eye opener so I am vowing to use less water.
We have also recently put EcoEggs in our tumble drier because their research suggests that in doing so we can reduce our tumble drying time by as much as 28%.
Replacing windows
We replaced our front door last year because the last one didn’t fit properly and we could often feel like there was a gale blowing through it which isnt great for the fuel bill when we are basically heating the drive! We are now keen to get the bedroom windows done at the front of our house. We live in an older style property that was butchered before we moved in so lots of things just don’t work because corners were cut. Such as windows that don’t fit the hole that was made. Go figure. We are prioritising those now and going to be getting new double glazed windows. We are hoping that by doing those upstairs it will make our home energy efficient and more free of draughts. Replacing windows, and upgrading them to double (or even triple glazed) is actually much easier than we might expect and typically can be done in a day (our door only took a couple of hours).
Which also talk in this article about noise reduction with double glazing which is something I hadn’t considered but given that we live on a fairly main road this really would be a bonus!
Once we have done the windows upstairs we can then move on to the kitchen which has never had curtains or a blind and I really fancy wooden blinds for the window.
Water butts in the garden.
We only have one water butt in the garden and we have vowed to get one on every down pipe on the house, and the garage this year. That way we can make sure we make the most of the rain water when we need to water the garden and house plants this summer.
Upcycling some old bits of furniture
When my granny passed away we put all her furniture in storage because we didnt have the head space to deal with it all. Some of it will undoubtedly need to be taken to the tip but there are some bits that with a bit of “thinking outside the box” could be given a new lease of life. Everyone has been talking about chalk paint recently so I am keen to get one or two of her coffee and side tables out of the storage unit this summer to see what we can do with them. All ideas gratefully received!