Why I Haven't Blogged for Nearly a Month/The Big Project

*Hangs head in shame*

Hi guys.

I haven't blogged for nearly a month, but I have many-a-reason to justify my absence. I'm pleased to inform you that my leave has been productive and positive.

Where to begin.

My family home, where I currently reside (off to uni in September!) hasn't been decorated for over 10 years. The paintwork and furniture look shabby (without the chic), but my parents haven't had the time, or money, to spruce it up. Two rooms that we found to be particularly sad were the hall and lounge:

I will never understand the terracotta craze of the 90s, but supposedly it was the fashion at the time. Hmm.

Our lovely wingback armchairs and sofa were recently acquired on eBay for £30 (for all of them!), to replace our previous frumpy sofas. They were also, funnily enough, terracotta.

The dullest rug to ever exist. 

Very non space efficient glass cabinet.

The main issue with this room, structurally, is the terrible plaster job (the walls are wonky as anything) and the textured wallpaper used to try and hide them. Even if painted a completely different colour, the colossal bumps would still be visible.

Then there's the hall:

It actually looks alright in this photo, but the walls, once again, were plastered *terribly*

Our cat has made an absolute mess of the stairs.

The devil! We've replaced the bottom step multiple times as well. 

Old bureau in real need of a paint. 

Sun faded tapestry put up to hide lumps on the wall.

How has this impacted on your blogging, though?

At the beginning of 2013, when my family really began discussing the changes we desired, I evaluated the two issues in our way and came up with a plan:

ISSUE 1 - Time - My parents both manage very stressful and time-consuming jobs, leaving them little time to even think about decorating. Considering I would be finishing my art foundation course in May, I'd have a good four months to get really stuck into the work until uni, making things much easier for my fam.

ISSUE 2 - Money - Time is irrelevant if you don't have the money for decorating, and there's no way my parents could splash out to freshen things up. The good thing is that 10 years of not having time to decorate also meant 10 years of not having time to clear out, and that is when the idea materialised to raise money through selling unwanted belongings on eBay.

Since March, we've raised a grand total of £1082!

I kid you not.

It was tedious, and it took stamina, but it was oh-so-worth it. Only a third of that, max, was raised selling expensive items. The rest was lots and lots of small things which added up over the months. My family went through their stuff frequently, and although at first in doubt as to whether it would amount to anything, it certainly did!

At the beginning of July we only had £700 of this, so the past month has been a gloriously painful effort of finding anything and everything worthy of rehoming for a good price. We managed to raise £100 of it at a car boot sale for the less eBayable bits and bobs.

This is why I've been an appalling blogger for the past month!

Now that we have the money, we're rectifying the wrongs of these two rooms. It's majorly on a budget, but we have a plan. Check back tomorrow to see where we're at so far!