It definitely takes motivation to work on a garden and keep it nice.

Our existing house, being a new build, has a fairly small garden and we have always hated how restrictive it is, especially for Tom to play in.

When looking to move one of our main aims was to find somewhere with a much bigger garden. We have lots of plans for it over time. One of the biggest is to build a cabin in the garden that can be used as an art studio (Annabel wants to get back into pottery so that would be great to house a potters wheel) and also for painting, screen printing etc.. I've always wanted a dedicated art studio space for this.

Also at the moment the previous owners had the bottom of the main garden as a vegetable garden. However I want to move that down into the larger woods area as there is a perfect section to the right which seems to get a lot of light. Then the main garden can be a nice long grass area for Tom to play in. And maybe some decking and a summer house at the end with a BBQ.

The woodland is also at the moment fairly wild with bluebells coming up (as seen in the photos), but we want to turn it into more of a formal garden with grass and paths. That will take some time but will be an enjoyable on going project.

My dad has also said he will build Tom a tree house as there is a perfect Oak tree for this. Although I think at the moment the plans the 2 of them have come up with might be a bit too ambitious.

It also had a lot of fruit trees and bushes. Plums, Pears, Apples, Currants, Blackberries, Gooseberry's etc.. which is great as we really enjoy growing fruit.

Anyway, loads of possibilities and plans. First though the actual house needs the work. I want to repaint the outside as it's a pink colour at the moment from a brick render they had applies some years ago. I'm going to repaint it a light cream or white. The fireplaces in both the lounge and dinning room are currently closed off and we want to restore those to working condition so will source some period fireplace surrounds from reclamation yards. We also want to take up all the old carpets downstairs and expose the floorboards. Possibly sand and stain them. And the Kitchen and Bathroom will be ripped out as soon as we move in and replaced. Plus the rest of the house needs redecorating as it hasn't been updated in a very long time. nearly every wall is papered so some might need to be replastered/skimmed. And finally the electrics will need some work as there are not many sockets in some rooms (especially my new games/study room).