Project #2 – Renovating my Grandad’s Bungalow

I’ve always wanted to get involved with renovating properties from scratch. My mum and I are just the same. Before the pandemic, if I wasn’t going out on a Saturday night I’d go round my parents’ house and usually after dad goes to bed me and mum would put on a recorded episode of Homes Under the Hammer. Since I’ve been living with my parents during the pandemic that’s been pretty much every night. I’ve said before that mum and I have a lot of shared interest in anything to do with property and when I was very young we used to drive past some derelict houses on our way into town. They’ve long since been done up, but even at that age I used to hate seeing them, wishing I or someone else could breathe some life into them.

The trouble is, unless you’ve got the money it can be difficult to get started with. The last time I checked my bank account I am pretty sure there wasn’t 50k sitting there to buy that one bedroom flat in town! I’d always wanted to makes homes out of neglected houses, but financially there can be a barrier.

However, it looks like soon I will be getting stuck into a second project after all. It’s going to be a bit of a family affair, but a 1970s bungalow, which belongs to my grandad, is about to undergo a renovation. It’s clearly something I’ve always wanted to do but been inspired even more to do it from having followed the totally amazing and inspirational Danielle over at House to Home at Last for so long. Now it seems my time has come.

The bungalow has three bedrooms, but they are tiny and are set to be expanded into the garage, with a new garage being built elsewhere. The basic work has started, though there is a lot of old stuff to first dispose of and we have already had skips round. Progress has been slow here due to places like rubbish tips and charity shops being closed.

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In the meantime though, we have been popping round to do some basic maintenance outside. There have been some bits that have been quite badly overgrown.

Prior to this, last year, my parents had a project of their own where their somewhat disused garage was converted into accommodation for my grandad to live in so that we could better care for him. I never covered this here or anywhere else because I didn’t have any real involvement with it and it wasn’t really relevant to what I was doing. But as it is relevant now, here are some photos of it as it neared completion.

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With this, my parents’ house gained a second living room, an extra hallway, a fifth bedroom, an en-suite bathroom and a temporary kitchen. After a couple of health scares last year I’m pleased to say that he is very happily living here and is in very good health.

With the pandemic, getting started with the renovation at the bungalow has been a challenge. Hopefully by the end of the summer though we will be getting in there and getting stuck in. I will surely learn a lot doing it and I will no doubt feel like I’m doing something I’ve always wanted to do with my life but never really had the opportunity to beyond my own home.

Posting about this on my insta will be a bit of a challenge alongside my own home, as will finding a way to keep posts organised here, but I’m sure I can make it work. I look forward to doing it, and writing about it here as it gets done bit by bit, and if it inspires one person then that’s a great bonus.

On that note, I will likely at some point change the name of my insta, Pinterest and this blog, since it all won’t just be about my home anymore, so the current name doesn’t make sense. I’ve got a couple of ideas in mind, but there’s no rush with any of it.

Here’s hoping we can start properly with a new chapter soon.

L x