Renovating the old family home

Next month me and my boyfriend will start renovating their old family house for us two. It has been rented out for two families for a few years now and is not in a good condition.

The house has two floors, tiny back yard, big balcony, two living rooms, 6 bedrooms and 1 storage room. Because separate families have been living there, both first and second floor have kitchen and bathroom. The first floor’s are bigger and better so we will be mainly using those.

Second floor will have our living room, bedroom, home office and a walk-in closet kind of space. As you can see from the photo (second floor living room on the right), there is a lot to be done to make it livable for us, but at the same time we are on a minimal budget.

The most expensive thing will be to paint all the walls after cleaning everything up. Then we must first buy a water boiler and a fridge. Air condition can wait until spring when it’s needed again.

Furniture will mainly come from our room and living at the new family home, we try to buy as little new things as possible. We have been thinking of turning an old door to a dining table, but lets see how that works out.

The first floor living room will be turned into a dining room (if we get a table and chairs), but the three bedrooms will be empty for now.

The house has many lovely Chinese characteristics, but unfortunately many of those have been neglected or painted into white. The original grey bricks are beautiful, but can only be seen from the outside these days.

I will be sharing more photos as we start cleaning, that will hopefully be at the end of next week.