Where Do You Think You've Been??!!...

Hello lovely people! I know, I know, nice of me to make an appearance! If you follow me on Twitter, you will know that over the past few months I have been trying to keep you updated about what I've been up to and why I haven't had the time to blog recently. Before I jump back in on here, I thought I would just give you all a little update and let you know what's been gwarnin.

As some of you may be aware, me and Si lived with my mom and around Feb/March time, Si was made aware that the flat above the pub where he works was going to be vacant as the guy that lived there was moving to London. So we were talking about it in general and working things out and realising that we would be saving over £150 a month with work travel, obviously because Si only has to go downstairs to work! It is also cheaper in terms of living here than what we were paying to mom to live at 'home' and with our wedding and stuff it was going to be better for us financially. Also, Si is going to uni in Sept to do a teaching degree and the uni in our town centre is literally just over the round from the pub where he works, so yeah we knew we were gonna be saving quite a bit in travel fare and also it's nice to have your own place/space, I mean my bedroom back at 'home' (I still call mom's house home lol), was like my haven, but now we have a whole flat to make haven like!

The manager of the pub was glad that we were interested in the flat and that a member of staff would be on-site. He told us that he would get the cleaners in to do a thorough cleanse and that if we made a list of stuff that needed to be repaired/sorted out in the flat he would see what he could do. We did that and then a new area manager was employed for the same brand pubs around here and everything that was going to cost something, so the cleaners and any repairs etc had to go past him first. Let's just say I cleaned the flat from top to bottom myself and let me tell you it needed a thorough cleanse! We had a whole list of things that needed to be done around the flat, but the bathroom was the worst of all and eventually the area manager agreed to pay up to £100 for any work to be done within the bathroom. The only thing we managed to get out of that was a new shower head (because the old one had mould on it, mankyness!) and a few white tiles (fair enough in a nice neat design/pattern so it didn't look stupid) to replace ones that were broken, so it didn't get us much because we had to pay for labour aswell. So yeah, pretty much for a good two months I was coming here every day from morning or midday to evening and cleaning, decorating etc and obviously Si was helping when he wasn't working. Luckily we have fab families, so they were helping out when they could. In terms of the cleaning, I wanted to do that myself so I knew it was being done properly lol cause people living here in the past must have just let things build up and up and not bothered making it into a home :/ shame really, I like to feel comfortable, but maybe they felt comfortable with it as it was, I dunno. So now you can see why I wasn't able to ever get on my laptop lol, I tended to have a couple of days off every week (between Mon-Sun), just to rest/chill because I was just shattered, especially from the cleaning cause it wasn't just a little wipe over, I had to put some proper elbow grease in and I got through a lot of cleaning products! The flat is quite large aswell, basically the whole ceiling area of the pub downstairs (it is quite a big pub) is the floor plan of our flat. I will do another post and take some pics but just to give you an idea we have a porch area that you are in after coming in from the flat door in the hall, then from the porch there are two doors; one that leads to the dining area, living area and kitchen and one that leads to the hallway where you can find the outer door/another entrance door to the living area, our bedroom, the second bedroom, the bathroom and then there are a few extra rooms that we aren't really using, which are a storage room (can be made up into a bedroom, but we have been using it for storage of boxes and bits and bobs) and the boiler room for the pub which is right at the other end of our flat. There are also some fire doors which lead to a little what I like to call 'veranda' area which we could clean up and make into a nice outdoor, garden type area...without the grass! Then down some stairs, through a locked gate is the garden area for the pub.

We moved into the flat on Sunday 2nd June, so the week of the 2nd Si had off work and he put the finishing touches to everything in the flat. I carried on helping until the Thursday and then I spent the Friday and Sat packing 26 years worth of stuff into boxes, suitcases etc. I actually didn't realise how much stuff I had until I saw everything that had to be moved, I was like :-0, this is all my stuff?! Si's mom and uncle had helped to move Si's stuff that was still at his moms to the flat the weekend before. I had to be ready and packed by the Friday night because my dad didn't know till the last minute whether he had the Sat or Sun off work. Like I said, it ended up being the Sunday that we moved, but that gave me the Sat to make sure everything was packed and ready and then just enjoy my last full day at 'home'.

The move took a few hours, dad came to moms and borrowed my grandads trailer so he could move more stuff in shorter trips. The door that we usually use to go to and from the flat is a side door to the pub, but there is a door just through those doors which staff use to go from the pub to the office and they have to go up the same set of stairs that we use to get to the flat. So considering we had wardrobes and big things to move aswell as boxes, we decided not to do it that way and we moved stuff into the flat from the back of the pub where the garage is. For the first trip, me, Si and dad went and then set everything down in the garage whilst dad went back to moms and got the rest of the stuff and bought mom to the flat aswell. Whilst he was doing that we had to carry things through the pub's beer garden and up the fire escape stairs and then into whichever room in the flat...it was a killer! The boxes and stuff weren't light, so we definitely did our fair share of exercise that day ha! It was easier when dad came back and we all unloaded the rest of my stuff from the car and trailer and then there was me, Si, dad and mom helping to move everything up to the flat. Si and dad carried the heavy stuff and me and mom had a little production line going, she was carrying stuff to the bottom of the fire escape stairs and I was taking the things from there up to the flat, it was much easier for us girlies that way! When we finally finished we had a well deserved drink and then my dad had to drill a hole from the living area into our bedroom and sort out an aerial from the tv in the living area to the tv in our bedroom...home comforts and all that :).

So, here we are now all settled in. It took us about a week to unpack everything, which isn't that bad considering what we had, but I enjoyed finding a place for everything. There are still some areas we want to sort out like the area outside the fire exit doors, in case we want to sit out there if the weather is nice etc and the hall and spare bedroom are still as they were when we first saw the flat, apart from I've cleaned them, but there is potential if we want to do something with those areas in the future. My dad should be coming sometime next week to do a few odd jobs for us as we haven't got our own drill or tools yet, so he said he would come and put some shelves up for us, put our kitchen blind up, fix our shower rail and shower curtain and fix our bedroom curtain rail and curtains...yep we've been living without curtains in our bedroom since we've moved in! To be honest it hasn't been too bad, I mean there are lights outside that kind of shine in so it isn't pitch black, which is always nice when you're trying to sleep, but we have managed fine. Si has worn an eye mask and I find them uncomfortable so I've managed without. It's going to be great when we have them up though. More so for the privacy when we're getting dressed! I have been trying to find secret areas within the bedroom to get dressed in or just going to the bathroom, so it's gonna be nice when they're up. The bedroom and living area windows are bay windows you see, so they are long and more open to people seeing in. You can't see all the way in from outside (I've tried and tested this ha ha), but if you're sitting on the bay window or right by it, if people were looking they could see you. I've waved a few times at people waiting to cross the road below our window in the bedroom lol...people I know, don't worry, I'm not just frantically waving at people outside ha ha.

We are buying things for the flat every month when we get paid and doing things bit by bit. I mean, we have all the main stuff, but it's like extra kitchen stuff cause I love cooking and baking and then we are eventually going to get a dining table and chairs. There's also stuff like blinds for other windows, a bookcase, dvd and cd racks, a new coffee table, rugs and then just bits and bobs to put our own stamp on the place and make it our own :). I can't wait till my dad puts our shelves up and I can put my pictures out. I'll prob show you some things we buy along the way and any cute little finds that I get :). I am also going to do a post on the rooms, so you can see how we've decorated and what we have done so far. A few of you have requested this already so I'm looking forward to showing you all our first home together :). For now, here is a pic of me jam-packed into my dads car when we were moving:

I do miss 'home' and it'll probably take me a while to get used to not seeing my mum come in from work, cooking for two people instead of four and you know, stuff that you get used to. Si said it's to be expected and that he'll look after me (bless). I've only ever lived in one family home since I was born, so it's a little different for me because Si has lived in a few family homes and then he's been living with me at moms for nearly 5 years, so yeah. I see my mom often though, but it's weird cause when she leaves or when I leave her I get a sudden feeling of upset for a little while. Like I said I've got to get used to it, me and my mom are close so it's going to be strange. I speak to her every day though. My sister comes over too, so yeah we're settling in nicely :).

Another bit of exciting news is that we have booked our wedding! We booked it during those months when we were busy with the flat aswell, but we'd been saving for ages so wanted to get it booked cause we wanted to get married next year. We've been engaged since 2010 and initially we thought we were going to be married within a couple of years but we've been saving and deciding exactly what we wanted. We are getting married abroad in Cyprus, next September with our nearest and dearest coming with us :). It's so exciting because we have actually had our date confirmed now and all information has started coming through on what reception options there are and all the rest of it, so it's very exciting and lots of organising is to be done in the coming months! I will prob do some sort of wedding series on my blog, I haven't decided what to do yet or how to go about it but let me know if you have any specific requests of things you'd like to know or things that you'd like to see.

That's it for now I think! Like I said I just wanted to fill you all in :).

Are you living with family or have you got your own place now?
If you have your own place, how did you feel moving out of the family home for the first time?

Speak to you all soon!
Gem x