LEYTON BURGER

The search for project number two is well underway! We spent all Saturday on foot going from open house to open house. One thing's for sure, the profit margins have narrowed significantly, so maybe we need to change our game plan slightly. Maye stay in the next one for 18 months or so, and let the market move itself. The elections coming up will certainly have a huge impact on property, so we need to make sure we buy somewhere we would be happy staying if needs be! As we were strolling we came across Uptown Burger, on the corner of High Road Leyton and Vicarage Road. It's been open a couple of months, and I can vouch is absolutely wonderful!

I loved the interior, OSB board table tops, exposed brick work and metal chairs. They do a cracking lunch menu of £5.99 for burger, chips and a drink! No excuses! Go, go, go!

GYSOPHILA

Our new shelf in the bedroom got a little makeover for the photographers, including new fave flower gypsophila!

HOUSE DOCTOR

The House Doctor light fitting FINALLY went up. We had to get an electrician to fit it annoyingly, which is why it took so long! It's been sitting in a rather large box (taking up alot of room!) for a few months now. They do them in a few different colours, but we loved the copper!

 

Light fitting: House Doctor

BEDROOOM 1

Hallelujah! The first bedroom, needed NOTHING doing to it barring a lick of paint and work on the sash windows. The light in this room is wonderful. I actually, in hind sight, regret not keeping the wooden floors in this room. I probably fought for it at the time, and there was very probably a valid reason, which I have clearly decided to forget about.

 

 Above: The room in its original state.

 

Above: White paint makes everything look wonderful. Clean and crisp.

 

Above: Tadaaaa. White, white white!

FLOORPLAN

One of the first things we did was to get a scale drawing done of the flat. I find it alot easier to see things from this perspective, without standing in a floorless grease pit. All emotion removed, literally leaving it to the maths. I've always seen things as black and white (possibly something to do with being a Geordie?) and when you're standing in a room with the windows hanging off and damp patches I find it hard to take myself out of that and imagine anything other than what's in front of me.

With a floor plan, a blank canvas, it all comes to life and the possibilities (budget permitting) are endless. You can also easily see if things will fit where you want them to (like a 1700 bath, which we realised would NOT fit in the space we imagined) What looked like a large space, was purely a trick of the eye, and we in fact, ended up going with as 1500 bath!

HAUSED

On December the 20th, we secured our first project, after a long time dreaming, and being fed up of paying other people's mortgages. We became official owners of a (rather run down) beautiful two bed Warner property in the ever growing east end delight, Walthamstow, or better known by it's new desirable buzz name"E17."

There was an awful lot to do, when I say alot, I mean everything really... From the windows, to the floorboards, to the kitchen (horror scene,) to the bathroom (there was no floor and you could see into the neighbours downstairs...) But this did not phase us one bit (maybe it should have?) We were too excited to watch our first little project grow!

You will notice I use the work "project" as opposed to "home.." All part of the greater plan... We will be buying, restoring, and selling on, or "flipping them" as the estate agents say, for the foreseeable future, to secure that end goal of the family home. It helps that we really enjoy doing it. There will come a point where we will want to stay there for a while, but for now, I invite you to join us on our journies, our ups and downs, our milestones and our mistakes as we do up property in London's eastend!

Samantha x.