Thrifty But Glam

So part of the flat over-haul is depersonalizing our home - a somewhat sensitive subject between my husband and I.  After almost two decades of being addicted to interior design and house selling programmes (started with changing rooms and evolved into a fully fledged Sarah Beeny crush) I know that most buyers can't over-look the array of personal items and see the potential of a home.  There is a reason that staging and show home chic is a design staple when it comes to selling, it works.  With this in mind our beloved wedding photos had to come down. In hind-sight, it would have been a good idea to actually show you a before and after photo, but being as rushed and forgetful as I am, I didn't remember.  Basically once all the wedding photo frames were removed (bar one canvas, as we do want the flat to actually feel lived in!) we were left with a giant blank mucky purple wall. I have hording tendencies, and so even though we painted the feature wall in Octo...

So, we've reached another sad chapter in the current ongoing saga that is our life.  Chris has been medically retried, and as a consequence we are now a one income family; mine.  We need to make cut backs and one of the biggest is our lovely flat by the sea :( We are fortunate enough to live on the South coast of England, and in our town you are never more than 10 minutes from the sea.  Or in our case, a five minute walk. We bought our flat in 2009, and it was a whopping £193k - now there is now way that we could firstly afford that, and secondly that we would spend that much money on a flat with no garden - despite the beautiful views! We were lucky enough to be eligible for a government grant (First Time Buyers Initiative) so that we only had to get a mortgage on 51% of the property.  The mortgage was much cheaper than renting, the location was wonderful and we had enough money left over each month to finally get married! Fast forward to now and...