Bathroom remodel - advantages of hiring a professional

* Collaborative post

The problem with many bathrooms across the country is that they are often inherited suites from previous homeowners or have not been updated in many years and starting to show their age and lack of style.

If you hate your current bathroom’s style and want to give it a new look things like giving it a fresh lick of paint, adding a new shower curtain, introducing new bathroom accessories or boosting the bathroom’s storage with shelves or a new cupboard can overhaul a bathrooms look. These simple changes are often ones you can DIY and thanks to resources such as pinterest you can find bathroom redesign inspiration to help you find the perfect colour scheme and bathroom style.

Top Ways To Update a Small En-suite

Owning a small house or flat needn’t mean compromising on life’s luxuries. Many people assume that an en-suite is a privilege only afforded to those who live in large, spacious homes but that’s simply not true. There’s very little to stop you adding a beautiful en-suite to your master bedroom or in fact to any bedroom if you don’t mind giving up a little floor space or perhaps even a cupboard.

En-suites are a great solution for larger families and particularly those with a teenager in residence. It might be that the family bathroom is no longer enough to cater to everyone and it makes sense to add an extra in the form of an en-suite. A well-designed en-suite, even a small one, will most definitely add value to the property in addition to making it more comfortable to live in.

Caring for elderly and disabled loved ones - how we made the home safer

Whilst we may not want to admit it time creeps up on all of us. Not only do the years pass us by and we grow old but those around us do too. Many of us fondly think of ourselves as our younger self - it only seems like yesterday that I was 21 and carefree - and not notice how many years have actually passed since that magic number. As well as forgetting how much we have actually aged it is often

Over the years I have witnessed and helped care for a number of my loved ones as they suffered from all types of illnesses and disabilities.

I sadly watched my great-great-great aunt Nansi disappear thanks to Alzheimer’s. Heartbreakingly I watched my beloved Mamgu (grandmother) bravely fight a battle with cancer that she sadly could not win.

I have seen my mum struggle with afflictions galore including spinal injury, arthritis, and fibromyalgia to name but a few, that have made her life a daily struggle.

I have also witnessed my Dadcu (granddad) suffer from aches and pains leftover from a hard life working on the farm which has seen him have two hip replacements and a shoulder replacement.

Home improvements wish list

In a dream world I would win the lottery and be in the fortunate position to buy or build our dream home. Unfortunately we have yet to hit the jackpot and win big.

For the foreseeable future we will remain living where we are. Whilst we love our current home and it has many bonuses there are a few home improvements that I would love to do to make our home better than it is.

Shower goals

Showers; the area of the house where we have imaginary arguments, solve all the world’s problems, sing like a superstar, cool down after a hot day and, of course, wash ourselves in!

There’s nothing worse than staying at a hotel or apartment that has a lacklustre shower; with little more than a trickle of water coming out of the shower head (in this case, it’s likely that they haven’t installed a decent grundfos shower pump) or mouldy tiles on display as you try to relax.

So we wanted to pay homage to four of the most luxurious showers from around the world that will have you wanting to upgrade your own bathroom to compete!

Living independently when older

Next month my Dadcu (grandad) turns 80. It only feels like yesterday that we were celebrating him turning 70 with a big birthday bash with all his friends and family. As it seems unreal that 10 years has passed and that his will soon be 80 – I still think of and see him as the young, fun Dadcu from my childhood – I find it hard to accept that he is getting older.

My Dadcu is passionate about being independent. He lives an active, independent life with a better social life than I have.

As his independence means so much to him he hates having to rely on others for help with daily life and would be devastated if he needed help from carers or if he had to leave him own home to live in a care home.

#BreakingBarriers - Bathing Solutions campaign to inspire seniors to learn new skills.

I've always been close to my elderly relatives and neighbours. I love spending time with the older generation and love their wealth of interesting stories of adventures and life over the years.

Of the older generation I know the ones who have thrived and been the most happy are the ones who have thrown the saying 'you can't teach an old dog new tricks' out of the window and had the desire and drive to learn new skills, do what they want, have adventures and simply live life to the fullest.

With the number of people living longer increasing every year so that the senior generation makes up a large proportion of our population I find it sad that negative stereotypes about seniors are still commonly viewed as correct. Yes there will be some of seniors who fit into the stereotypes commonly connected old people but thanks to advances in mobility aids, innovations and progression in healthcare and improvements in the standards of living seniors seniors are being given an improved quality and length of life that enables them to live life to its fullest, do what they want and brush off the stereotypes of old grumpy people who do nothing and cannot learn any new skills.

Home Improvements

Whilst I often dream about winning the lottery and being able to buy or build from scratch the perfect house for us, the reality is that until the day that my numbers come in (I live in hope) we are stuck with our lot and have to make do with the home that we have.

There are many reasons why I love our house. It is in a great location for us, is a great size, has character with rustic slanted beams in the bedrooms and quaint farmhouse style doors with beautiful latches.

However there are a few things that I don't love about our house. The issues I have with our house are for the most part cosmetic and have not really bothered me too much since we have lived here as I am grateful that we have a roof over our head and the benefits and other lovely things about the house outweigh the bad. Whilst they do not make me hate the house or make daily life difficult, I would love to change a few things about our house.

Hello Spring.....time for some spring cleaning and DIY!

There is something about this time of year as we welcome spring that I feel inspired to spring clean and improve the home and garden with some much needed DIY and TLC.

With upcoming Easter bank holiday providing us with a long weekend at home as well as enjoying some family time and Easter egg hunt and activities with the kids, we have plans to tick off some of the household jobs that have been on our DIY to-do-list for too long now!

Whilst neither of us can boast good skills to do with home improvements we do like to turn our hand to DIY projects and have managed a number of projects and home improvement jobs without any major disastrous or huge arguments that has ended up with us breaking up over wallpapering the walls or assembling furniture.

Updating a bathroom on a budget.

Giving your bathroom a new lease of life doesn’t have to cost a fortune or mean gutting out the bathroom and fitting a completely new bathroom suite. Whilst I am sure the idea of having a completely new bathroom suite is appealing unfortunately sometimes money cannot stretch that far, but fear not you can still update your bathroom and give it a new look without breaking your budget.

You can update your bathroom and revive a tired bathroom by simply changing a few elements of the bathroom to give your bathroom a refreshing new look.