Me and Luke knew we wanted to buy a house together years ago when we first got together. I had a shared ownership flat which I sold last February so we could move back home with my parents. For the greater good we knew we’d be able to save more for our home renovation project being at home. And it would make us more prospective buyers if we had no chain.

We’d been looking online all year but did our first drive around at the end of November last year. As soon as December hit we did a mass viewing day which was exhausting. And the first house we saw ended up being the one for us. We took both our parents to view it a few days later and had an offer in and excepted within a week of our first viewing.

There’s no denying we’ve been in a privileged position to have been able to get our keys one day into lockdown. And having my parents house to live in while we completed our home renovation.

Why we chose to do a home renovation

Now there was nothing wrong with the house as such. It was totally liveable but as we didn’t have to move in straight away and we’d saved enough money we decided to do as much as we can before moving in.

There were some things which we knew would work better if we changed them. Some better ways of using the space and some changes to match our tastes more. Here are some of the biggest things we’re doing during our home renovation.

Tearing down a wall to make an open kitchen/ diner

This was actually something we did within the first week. As you came in off the little enterance way you came into the dining room with the stairs in one corner and two doors leading to the kitchen and the living room. We decided to knock down the wall between that and the kitchen to have one large open space.

We knew we’d use the dining table more if it was in the same room. But we also knew in our home renovation we wanted an island and this extra space permitted it. Every time I walk into the large open space which goes from front to back it makes me so happy.

Making liveable/ useable space in our garage

We have a double garage in our property which is amazing. But it’s not somewhere we’d store a car in as we have a driveway so we wanted to be able to make the most of the space.

Despite being connected to the house the door to the garage came from the garden. So we knocked through and created a doorway from the kitchen and the first square of space you enter is going to be a utility room. So we can have our washer/ drier, extra storage space and an additional fridge/ freezer in this space. The other quarter of the garage is going to stay as a traditional garage with racking and storage. Then half of it we’re going to turn into a full room with insulation, carpet etc and this is going to be Luke’s man cave. Doing this means we’re making the most of the space and adding extra rooms to the property.

Re-wiring the whole house through the renovation

Luke is an electrician so this one was given that he’d want to re-wire the whole house. Doing this means we have been able to put sockets in the wall in exactly the spaces we anticipate we’ll need them. And he’s wired in data cables throughout so we can ensure our internet connection is the best it can be.

Other things we’ve done/ are doing during our home renovation project:

• A brand new kitchen
• A brand new en-suite
• A brand new downstairs toilet
• New flooring and carpets throughout
• New internal doors
• New skirting and architrave
• New radiators throughout
• Air conditioning installed
• Moving the water tank to give us a bigger main bathroom
• Blocking up an internal door