Thomas Cook Blog

I bought my first house in July 2022, in a small town called Loftus on the north east coast of England. I moved our belongings down to the house in August 2022 from Newcastle where we had spent the better part of a decade whilst I was at university and then afterwards as I was starting my career in software development.

I knew this house needed renovations doing to it when I bought it, but I hadn’t quite estimated the extent of the works that would need to be done nor the amount of time, sweat, tears and cash it was going to swallow up.

This isn’t to show off, well ok maybe it is a bit, but I quite literally did all of this myself, bar just a couple of jobs which really needed an external contractor (heights outside, and laying expensive Karndead flooring downstairs), but all the plastering, plumbing, painting, joinery, tiling, stud work etc was all done by yours truly. It has half bloody killed me, and I’m sure my finish isn’t as good as the professionals but I’m happy with it, and most importantly my wife is, and my kid has a stable and nicely done out place to grow up in.

I’m almost done now, 4 years later. The kitchen still needs tackling, but I’ve run out of steam after having what I can only describe as a major burnout late last year due to doing these renovations, having a stresful period at work and having to learn how to be a dad to my newly born daughter Penny. I think I will be paying contractors to the kitchen :)