[kiara]

Originally Posted by MandyD

Hey Kiara, I was in the exact same position four years ago, with a one year old boy and a three year old girl. Trying to furnish and otherwise make a house liveable with no partner and two babies toddling around. There were concrete floors and bare plaster walls. Not even a lick of horrible paint I could paint over lol. The grant I received was paltry and hardly supplied half of what I needed - in fact, if it wasn't for my family, I'm quite sure I'd still be walking on stone floors! Do take whatever advantages you can - St. Vincent de Paul, Community Welfare Officer, MABS even! JT can be a great help to you right now. Just remember, as long as you have somewhere to sleep and something to cook on, you'll get by if you have to. If you can't find any old lengths of pole for a rail in your alcoves, you can always use curtain wire...cheap as chips and will at least last until you can find something a little more permanent. Choose your floors wisely - I picked any old thing at all to cover the concrete and regretted it in the end. I'm still trying to replace it all. I have the kitchen, sitting room and hall floors replaced...one room every few months is my aim.
As for curtains and the rest of it...I had cardboard boxes celotaped to my window in my bedroom for a while lol..not pretty..but it done the job and at least I could get changed without worrying if there was someone seeing me! Actually Argos do some really nice bamboo blinds for 7.50 each and they can be cut to size with a scissors! I have them all over my house now.
If you have floorboards upstairs, sand them down and varnish them up...they look fantastic. Your local carpet showroom will have offcuts of lino for half nothing for your bathroom floor.
And you can get paint cheap enough in your local hardware stores because some tins are mixed wrong and the person they were intended for refused them. Take advantage!
Instead of buying expensive curtains, buy unlined ones and use old bedsheets to sew some lining into them. If you need to cordon off a part of your garden, or need to erect some fences, you can use pallets - free from any place. Simply take them apart and put back together inside out!


I think that's your lot lol...my brain is shutting down now...

Oh my god, you really were put through it, thankfully things are starting to look up for us, with help from family friends and fellow jumbletowners we will get the basics done soon, and everything else we can work on gradually. I hope things are starting to come together for you now and that you like your home. One question though can you pm me about MABS I don't know what they do? Did you know that if your not happy with your grants you can appeal? Kiara x