Although we loved the village and the cosy cottage we lived in for three years in Berkshire, by the time we left we were ready to move. It had become too small, cramped, the low ceilings a constant source of irritation for my 6’5″ tall husband.

I realise how privileged that makes me sound – we were lucky to have a roof over our heads while others don’t even have that luxury – but still, falling over toys, being cold because there was no central heating, dealing with a recurring rat problem, all these things got me down after a while. Not to mention the fact that the house wasn’t ours, so we never felt able to put down secure roots in the village. I couldn’t imagine my toddler at the local school because I didn’t know where we’d be in the next six months let alone 2 years.

Cut to the summer and we moved to a temporary rented house in a lovely town on the edge of Dartmoor in Devon. The town was great, the house was not. With barely any floor space downstairs, steep steps to get to it (not ideal when you have a hypermobile child who still needs a buggy) and damp, we were relieved it wasn’t a long term home. We took it because it was literally the only house available on a six month lease within budget, in a 20 mile radius. Rentals in Devon are slower than Berkshire – it seems all the nice places are used for holiday lets round here.

Anyway, here we are. In our proper home. I say “proper” because this is the first place we’ve ever lived as a family that we’ve been able to make plans in. The long slog of saving for a mortgage deposit was more than worth the wait. Those endless hours of working and working and working some more paid their way.

It feels impossible to be grumpy in this house, and believe me I’ve tried. Despite a stinking cold and chesty cough, the odd huge tantrum from my threenager and a traumatic incident involving a brown mark on the sofa, I’ve felt genuinely calm and content for the first time in AGES. Even my stern Northern husband has returned from a tough day’s teaching with a big grin on his face. We have space, walls that are our own to do what we like with, plans for the future and inspiration for home projects.

That panicky feeling I used to get when I’d look six months into the future has gone. I regularly find myself smiling for no good reason, which would probably look a little weird to an onlooker.

I won’t waffle any more, I’ll just share some snaps of our new place. They’re all Instagram pics, so apologies if they’re not straight out of the pages of a glossy interiors magazine. In the interests of keeping it real, I’d also like to point your attention to the tin of Asda Smart Price chopped tomatoes on the kitchen work top.

Frog’s room:

We have lots of ideas for Frog’s room, including a proper story corner with a home-made tree shaped bookcase. Pinterest is my best friend at the moment. But, for now, my favourite thing about her room is the fireplace.

She also has a pretty view…

I’m pleased with the upcycle job I did on her shabby chest of drawers too.

Our room is just as airy, but with a calmer feel from the (again, upcycled) furniture. We need a new bed, but that will have to wait for now. If we ever do buy a new bed then the rules around jumping on it will have to change…

My favourite room in the house is the family / dining room. High ceilings, an open plan feel with the interior wall knocked through to the living room and a cosy log burner. I love it.

You can see into the dining room and living room beyond from the kitchen, as it has a big inside window cut into the interior wall. Handy for spying on children while cooking tea…

We haven’t spent much time in the garden due to the weather…

Once the endless rain stops I’m looking forward to getting out there and learning about a bit of gardening. We have a big vegetable patch at the very end of the garden and I’m determined to attempt to grow some veg (“attempt” being the key word here).

I wander around the house and see things I want to do: paint a few walls, bring up the carpet and sand the floorboards in the hallway, put insulation and a carpet in the sunroom to make it a cosier office space, create a reading nook at the top of the stairs… but these are all things that we can take our time over.

We’re going to be here a while. *Happy face*

(By the way, if you’re at all interested in interiors and pretty things, then I’ve got another blog – Play Love Grow – where I’m blogging about upcycle projects, homeware finds and my ongoing love of cushions.)

The post Worth the wait appeared first on Mother's Always Right.

As the couple were shown around the little cottage they exchanged smiles. They knew this was to be the house they would bring their baby back to. It was perfect.

A few weeks later, on a freezing day in December, the couple collected the keys to the little cottage, their new home. Walking around the rooms excitedly, they planned where their baby’s cot would go, what to do with their bookshelves and where to put the TV. Then they went to explore the village.

They found a pub, nestled between a canal and a lake, with a roaring fire and a tempting menu. They toasted their future with a beer and orange juice (the lady was still pregnant) and booked a van to carry their furniture.

On a dreary January morning, a big van pulled up outside the cottage. The couple tumbled out, with friends and family, lugging sofas and beds, shelves and clothes. After a day of carrying and unpacking, they shared a huge portion of fish and chips, sitting amongst boxes of books and kitchen utensils.

A knock on the door the following morning signalled a welcome from their new neighbours. A little boy handed the lady a card. As she watched him toddle away, the lady wondered if he might become a friend for her baby, due to be born that summer.

You can pack a lot into three and a half years. A baby, a wedding, a new career. The couple were happy. They made new friends and discovered a whole new life beyond their town centre existence of pubs and nightclubs.

A little girl was born in the summer after the couple moved in. As they arrived back from the hospital, the lady showed her baby around the little cottage that was to be her home. The thick cottage walls sheltered the baby girl from the hot sun outside. It was peaceful.

The little cottage became the scene of many firsts; first smiles, first words and first juddery toddler steps. As the baby girl grew, she referred to the little boy next door as her “big brother”, copying him in everything that he did.

On sunny afternoons, the pair would wander into each other’s gardens, playing in paddling pools, imaginary building sites and sandpits.

The family stored away memories of their time in the little cottage, first as two, then as three. They remembered the barbecues in the garden, the Christmas dinners in the dining room and the cosy evenings in front of the log fire.

And they took those memories with them to their new home, 200 miles away, near the sea. It was time for a new chapter in the family’s life.

But they would never forget that little cottage, or the friends who lived in that village.

It would always be the place where their story started.

The post Goodbye appeared first on Mother's Always Right.

As ever, Shopcade has been useful. If you haven’t come across this site yet do take a look. It’s like a cross between Amazon and Pinterest, in that you can easily browse through pretty much any category of shopping product you want (fashion, interiors, gadgets, books etc), but it’s social, meaning you pick up points as people “follow” the lists of wish items you create, which lead to free stuff. Genius really.

Obviously we don’t want to spend a fortune, so I’m keeping any purchases to around the £15 – £25 mark, unless it’s for something I know we’ll want to have for a while (a new bed, for example). So, here are some of the ways I’m planning to make our rented house a home, without knocking anything down or painting any walls.

Wall stickers and prints are a quick and easy way to add colour to a bland magnolia wall, and they also mean you don’t need to hammer hooks into the wall to hand blackboards or signs.

Accessories like letters, fun noticeboards and clips help add your own unique style to a property that’s been decorated with a faceless tenant in mind. And glassware gives you another opportunity to make the most of the light coming in through windows (it’ll reflect off the glass and make pretty patterns on the walls) to stamp your own taste onto a room without painting it.

It goes without saying, cushions, rugs and throws are another staple of choice when it comes to putting a mark on a house and making it feel like your own.

Have you got any other tips to ahare? Now’s the time to tell me – we haven’t actually moved in yet!

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Disclosure: As a Shopcade ambassador, I get sent monthly goodies for flying the flag for the site. For more information please see my disclosure page.

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Because I’ve been like a stuck record. I’ve been all “I want a mortgage” and “we have to move so we can afford a house” and “we’ll NEVER be able to buy – a 25 percent deposit is out of the question!”

Yes, boring indeed.

We don’t own our own home, see. Like many other young(ish) couples, we missed that window of opportunity where banks were offering mortgages with a reasonable 5 or 10 percent deposit. So now we’re a bit stuck.

It never bothered me before. I was confident we’d eventually get “on the property ladder” but was too caught up with moving to where the jobs were and then meeting the (self-proclaimed) Northern Love Machine and then having a baby.

But now all I want is a house.

It doesn’t have to be big. It doesn’t have to be nice. It just has to be ours. All ours. So our fate isn’t in someone else’s hands. So we move when we decide to move.

We have a plan (and it doesn’t involve robbing a bank or winning the lottery), so I’m not too worried about it anymore. The thing is, that plan involves moving 200 miles away. It means Frog won’t grow up in the village where we currently live and she won’t go to school with the other babies she knows.

It also means she won’t have to put up with a fenceless garden for much longer.

You win some, you lose some.

This is my entry for this week’s Gallery. Pop over to Sticky Fingers to see the rest.

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