Start Small

When we moved to this house from our previous large newbuild home, we were overwhelmed by all the work that was required.  On the day that we moved into the house we dropped Jacob off at school and the twins to nursery then with the help of some very good friends we set to work moving in.

The first thing I had to do before any furniture was taken off the removals van was to have the men rip up all the filthy stained carpets. I couldn't bare the though of my 6 month old babies touching those floors.

 I found my friend upstairs in the bathroom sitting in the bath sobbing her heart out and scrubbing away at the dirt !  "Karen , what have you done !  You can't live in this filthy house"  She was beside herself, she knew how we lived and the beautiful home we had come from.  But we had no choice, we had to make this house work, there was no going back.

I have found the way to cope when a situation seems overwhelming, is to start with something small.  Something you can control and make an immediate difference to (this goes for all aspects of my life and not just decorating).   For me it was important to get rid of the carpets, even if it mean bare, cold floorboards. I knew I would freak out if I had to put my children and furniture down on those carpets.  We lived with those cold bare (but clean) boards for 4 years.

and  all down to my husbands hard work we went from this ......


to this ........