This is the first time in forever we’ve had a room that we can say, hand on heart, is completely “ours”.

Before moving into this house we’d always lived in rented places – a flat, then a cottage, then a little house while we went through the process of buying where we are now. Our rooms were filled with second-hand furniture given to us by kind relatives, because all our money went on saving for a huge mortgage deposit.

Our homes were loved and comfortable but not necessarily entirely of our own choosing. We couldn’t paint the walls or look for beautiful furniture to upcycle, because we didn’t know where we were going to end up and didn’t own the houses we lived in. If we ended up in a tent somewhere, that huge sofa purchase would have seemed like a hasty purchase, you know?  Continue reading »