We’ve finally started on the hallway, and tackled one of the things I have been most excited about since I moved in to the house - the floor!

It is probably a bit weird, but when I was growing up my friends would talk about the men they would marry and the dresses they would wear, and I would dream about buying a big old house and finding all sorts of treasures whilst doing it up.

Now in my dreams, the house probably looked a bit like this one (Chateau Gudanes - probably worth checking out their Instagram feed; it’s fabulous), but never-the-less when we moved into our Edwardian semi I felt like a dream had come true. And even more so when on the first night I ripped up a corner of a pretty worn carpet in the hallway to find a beautiful hardwood floor.

We have waited until most of the building work was done in the house before we started the hall so it didn’t get ruined, and finally we have started making progress in there including having the original hardwood floor sanded and treated.

Here’s the befores and afters.

It was pretty mucky with years and years of dirt and grime, and loads of splattered paint too. Now it is shiny and glossy and ready to please.

It didn’t come out the colour I was expecting, but now I love it. What do you think of the floor? The next stage is to figure out what to do with that hole fireplace right there. What would you do?