when you have to put up with what you have

[frazzled74]

We will not be able to move house in the forseeable future, but there are so many things wrong with this house and ive started to be a bit negative about it, when i really need to spruce it up a bit and concentrate on making it a lovely family home. Anyone else in the same boat? can anyone spur me on?
we need an extra bedroom but no money to convert attic so i am in process of turning cellar into playroom which will help.Kitchen is too small and i love cooking, garden is small and shingled which isnt really any good for dcs.I need some ideas for small renovation projects that i can do myself, on a budget (dh is also not happy with house but not interested in doing anything about it ,so down to me)

Snap... I would love to move as we have a flat (with very loud and often drunk people living down stairs) I am desperate to move to get a garden for our son but it council so we can only swap and who wants to swap a flat for a house?
Its been getting to me alot! The flat as not had any work done to it until a few month ago due to a lack of funds for the past 2 years and me. Im the only one in the house who does DIY and I have been so down that I just could not face that we had to stay in a flat (I lived on a farm as a child hate the no out side space plus PND did not help)
But a few months ago I thought this is silly so I went out and brought a lovely yellow kitchen paint and spent my birthday painting the our very small kitchen.
The kitchen was the best place for me to start as love to cook and hate my small kitchen but after a coat or 2 of new paint it looks so much better making me feel better.
I have now set too on the bath room as it was small easy to paint and will look so much better. I hope it would make me want to do more (thats the plan any way)

Sorry this post is long I hope I have not borred but hope it might help inspire.

thanks, i think i was just getting really negative. I cleaned up the kitchen today, made more workspace and am going to go out and buy paint tomorrow. That will be a start, am also going to buy a book on small gardens and try to make it a nice place to sit. we do live near beach and nice parks etc, and neighbours are nice, but we always have dog mess outside on pavement and drunks and druggies congregate at the end of the road,but will try to ignore them, thanks for reply.

Very glad to hear that you are feeling abit more upbeat and that you have started to think about ow you could use your garden. I dont know if you have a Wilkinsons near you but if you do try there for garden bits. They often have lots of lovely plant, flower and veg seeds. My Balcony is all full up with a tiny plastic green house from there and trays of home made news-paper pots in a hope that if I fill the balcony up with pots and flowers and any veg I can grow in pots then hopefully I may feel abit better about the flat.
I hope you can start to feel a little better about your home soon.

Our flat had a tiny kitchen and one thing that helped brilliantly was a pan rack like this one - easy to put up and saved a surprisingly large amount of cupboard space.

Butadream: Snap to that one too only I have this one www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/50022764
and www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/00011428
with out there two I would have no space for food or any thing to stir any thing with. there great to free up space.

Another idea is to put some things in storage, if there are any storage warehouses near you - we had a locker filled with boxes of baby clothes and baby toys and other things we didn't want to throw out but didn't need for a while.

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How about going through your ktichen cupboards and throwing unnecessary things away? We did this, and it was amazing how much junk we got rid of. Then we could have clear worksurfaces all the time, and that meant we could put nice jugs on the windowsills, and it all looked much better!

thanks everyone, have decluttered kitchen but am going toinvest in storage shelves for cupboards so thy stay clutter free.Next room on hit list is dining room. it has table and chairs, large bookcase full of books, in one alcove is desk and 2 shelves (have sorted this alcove into a nice office area for me, with pretty binders etc.the other alcove is big enough to house another shelf unit(have been given a nice one by mil)will this look too cluttered? was thinking of keeping stereo etc on there and maybe nice storage boxes with cds and dvds in.can a room have too many shelves? at the moment, alcove is full of toyboxes, but these are going in cellar/playroom once decorated.

Having things in both alcoves should look fine, esp. if you are using nice storage boxes. Sounds lovely actually, at your nice office.

office is prob stretching things a bit far, but nicer for me when on mumsnet and avoiding what im supposed to be doing on pc.

Try getting some tubberware to put sugar and other ingredients in in your kitchen cupboards. You'll be amazed how much space you can create if you use the full height of your cupboards.

We have a tiny kitchen too and a coat of paint, declutter and a lovely blind make a big difference. Could you redo the flooring or replace the cupboard doors?

Maybe get some quotes from gardening firms to do something with your garden. It shouldn't be too expensive to get it re-turfed.

thanks purple, was just thinking about turf actually, it is a tiny garden so i could probably turf it myself, would be more child friendly than shingle and cheaper than paving or decking.