Living room before and after...

We bought our house 4 1/2 years ago and it was in a state. Apart from an eighties extension it hadn't been touched for 40 years. The thing that we liked about the house was the floor plan, location and the garden (although the garden was knee high like a meadow!)
EVERYTHING on the inside needed changing!

Sadly, whilst researching images of red hair whilst I was summoning the courage to take the plunge with my blond locks a few years ago, my computer got a virus and had to be wiped. I'm pretty sure we've lost all the pictures of how bad it was when we moved in here, unless my husband has them backed up somewhere and he's too busy to look.

I did find the brochure from when we bought the house though, and I found this charming reminder of the living room...

Imagine if you will, aluminium double glazing, oh yes, the kind that creates condensation on the frame when it's cold. Then secondary glazing too so there are no window sills left. All panes of glass were orange with tobacco.
Burgundy brushed nylon curtains on aluminium tracks. The rather dated green carpet I've shared before
The walls and ceiling were peach. Well, they were white with tobacco staining. It was funny, but it never smelt smokey in here, despite all the evidence of heavy smoking. Perhaps because the house had been empty for a year? 
The door, like all the others, was green with tobacco staining too.

We also had a gas fire with a back boiler that was condemned shortly after we moved in. As we needed to redesign the whole central heating layout and get several quotes this meant our first* winter without heat. And it just happened to be the coldest winter since time began. Or something.

It was very similar to this one. Without the glamourous surroundings...

It was removed when the central heating was put in leaving a hole in the wall.
One Sunday morning I went on ebay and spotted our now fireplace which was here in town. The seller described it as stone and it was a 'buy it now' for £30.
I quickly emailed him in a frenzy of excitement to try to clarify it it was 'real stone' or 'stone coloured'. When he hadn't got back to me four minutes later, the suspense was killing me and I bought it, just in case someone else did.
And it was stone! The man had taken it out of a newish house as they wanted a log burner and he just wanted rid of it.He even brought it round for us for free.
I am very jammy. (You can hate me a little!)

Firplace: ebay, crates: flea market and boot sale, mirror: charity shop, wall colour: Dulux York White

We did have to get a new granite hearth as the one that came with it was too long for our chimney breast, but I sold the original one. Probably for £30! Haha!
We also had to get a gas insert and get it all installed which was seven or eight hundred, but that £30 fireplace has to be the best ebay bargain EVER.

We put in new windows after a wooden frame fell out. My husband phoned me  in such a flap as he thought I'd be devastated but I wasn't surprised at all. The windows were rotten and we had penetrating damp upstairs. We actually still do thanks to the astonishingly bad work that was done by our window installers. (I'm talking about you Safestyle UK.) But I'll save that for another post.

New windows meant real windowsills for the first time. Oh the joy!

So here's the before and after, pretty much the same angle.

(demolition?)

Er, forgive the Xmas tree. There is currently a 'spare' dining table in the way...

Dresser: ebay (was pine)

Leather chair: junk shop (it was pink!) Sewing table: facebook local selling page, Cushion: home made

Laura Ashley Stowe curtains: ebay,  Radiators: B&Q, rug: ebay, suite: ebay.Tv stand charity: shop (needs painting...) wicker fishing creel (toys): fleamarket.

Cupboard: ebay, Moppe drawers: boot sale, Lampshade: under construction!

Sofa bed: Ligne Roset, ebay. Not loving the green but we can't change it yet...anyway the cats wreck it. Hence patchwork throw! This is where I blog!

There's also another armchair and a desk behind the door that I've not pictured...

So there we have it. I sill have to paint all the skirting in here and fill some cabling holes. The light is falling off the ceiling and I started building a unit next to the fire and er, stopped again. But this is the most finished room in the house and I'm mighty proud of it and how far we've come.

(* We had two further winters without heat but only when temperatures dipped below freezing and the pipe which comes out of the loft got frozen. (Often!) This has now been fixed and we've had our first winter without the heating cutting out at all! Thank you British Gas for your pipe heating element installation! )

Linking with Ta daa Tuesday at Faith, Hope and Charity Shopping

and Whimsical Perspective: Your style in Pictures