Four years ago last week Mr C and I moved into what is now our family home. Our first house. The place where we hoped to raise a family and live "happily ever after".
We'd had a long wait for this house. For nearly a whole year after getting married we spent weekend after weekend viewing potential houses. In that time we saw pretty much everything on the market locally that was in our budget. Some we hated, some we loved. Three of them we tried to buy and failed. We managed to sell our flat, but by a stroke of genius stay living there by renting it back from the new owners (and paying less in rent that our mortgage payments had been!) This put us in an excellent position when on Valentines Day 2009 we first saw the house that is now our home. We fell head of heels in love with it and after a second viewing just two days later put in an offer and soon after had it accepted and the house was off the market.
The wait wasn't yet over though. The vendor's job meant that she couldn't leave the area for nearly five more months, so we waited and started our planning.
There's something very exciting about moving in to a new property, especially when it's going to be your first proper house together. There were so many things we wanted to do and collecting those keys when completion day finally came was magical.
In the four years we've been here we've managed to do so much, but when dealing with day to day life in a busy family it's all too easy to forget everything that has been done. It's only when I look back at some of the photos we took when we moved in that I remember the horrible room colours that we inherited and the spaces which treasured items of furniture now fill. Even more drastic is the fact that the garden now has more than just a huge expanse of grass and there's a whole extra master bedroom been built in the attic.
There are also twice as many people living here than there were four years ago and therefore the way in which some of the rooms are used has also changed a bit. Rather than a relaxing den area for us grown-ups to relax in front on the TV in an evening after work, we now have a family space that is somewhat over flowing with toys. The sofa we chose when we moved in has seen a huge amount of wear and tear over the years. For months a very pregnant me sat on it for hours with my swollen ankles elevated and knitting needles working furiously. Once the babies arrived it then became the perfect place to sit whilst feeding them. Little Miss C has used it as a trampoline far too often and I can also see Master C eyeing up its bounce potential. As a result the sofa's no longer looking as good as it was when we bought it and there's a rather pronounced sag in one part of the seat. I think it's days may be numbered.
Four years in I'm starting to re-think some of the spaces in our home and imagine how they might look next. I've been lucky enough to recently spend time in a couple of houses that comfortably fit in the over £1million bracket and it's been rather inspiring. Today I saw the most amazing open plan kitchen/living space and I found myself looking very carefully at how they'd achieved the perfect mix between functional and comfortable family living. I think the key thing was choice and position of a sofa and I've been having a good look for a Chesterfield Sofa by BritishChesterfieldSofas.com. We need something comfortable for all four of us, but also a sofa that will look good as a statement piece of furniture without dominating the space.
I'm thinking that we could go one of two ways on this. Either a fabric chesterfield in a funky velvet fabric, or possibly a more classical looking Leather Chesterfield Sofas Design From BritishChesterfieldSofas with some handmade cushions on it. It'll all depend on what sort of overall look we decide to go with. First though we might have to come up with some storage solutions for the ever expanding toy mountain!
Disclaimer: This featured post was brought to you in association with British Chesterfield Sofas.
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