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Anne (Just Another Victorian Reno)

@anneisrenovatingthings

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🏡 1901 Victorian house.
📍London z.3.
💁🏾‍♀️ solo homeowner, solo renovator.
🧡 period-sympathetic slow renovation. 🔨🫶

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As the reno slows down before the big spring job 👀, I’ll share a little about myself! I’m Anne 👋🏾, a mid-30s South African cat lady living in the UK for 25 years. Here are 12 finance-related facts about me:

1. I bought my house in London solo after a very long year selling my first shared ownership flat in the shires; I wanted a period house with character close to a zone 2/3 tube station.
2. I funded the purchase with my own savings earned through my PAYE job, no financial help from my lovely family, friends, benefactors etc — just scrimped, saved and bought in the normal way.
3. The mortgage scares me, so I overpay monthly, and stamp duty hurt the second time, badly (flat sale only just covered it).
4. The house really does have great bones so this is a relatively tame reno, but I nearly bought a money pit gut job down the road.
5. I fund the reno through my solo income only, no debt, no freebies (I wish!) hence slow progress!
6. I passively invest, but don’t intend to use that for reno, notwithstanding any major disaster.
7. I am very financially disciplined and love a bargain BUT equally happy to pay for quality and henjoyment (will not be the richest corpse in the graveyard etc).
8. My major current financial goal is to pay off my mortgage v. early — see note on discipline!
9. I am single and a happy creature of solitude, so this will likely remain a solo reno; also have never wanted children so my darling chonker cat will remain my only dependent.
10. I learn most of my reno “skills” by watching YouTube videos but mostly wing it if I can’t afford to pay someone actually skilled to do it.
11. I’m not looking to gain a big following here, monetise my account or advertise for brands, and will likely go private or stop posting after I reach a certain stage.
12. Finally, I am extremely grateful and recognise how fortunate I am, though sometimes I wish I had a helping pair of hands on this journey! I really also appreciate all the kind people I’ve met on here doing their own renos alongside me, it really keeps me going.

That’s all for now & see you in the plaster dust 🙏🏾 🤩 by @anneisrenovatingthings

A white plastic switch hates to see me coming 😂 #Halloween was the perfect opportunity to tackle this because it has been months since I last did any #DIYelectrics, so it felt unusually scary!

For that reason, I stripped the process down to absolute basics, drawing a wiring map and double checking every step instead of relying on memory!

Definitley used some new teckers I’ll be repeating next time I’m upgrading the rest of the switches and sockets one by one. #halloween #londonrenovators #solorenovation by @anneisrenovatingthings

#Slowreno reality check in 🫡 I’m sure many can relate who are also slowly renovating: some months, #practicalmagic happens; others, its prairie winds and tumbleweeds (like now)…

But looking back at my first #Halloween in 2025 vs this one has reminded me that the joy is in the journey too 🎃

If you’re in the renovation trenches: decorate your “unfinished” home! 🕯️ Throw the party (2 people and a furry creature IS a party)! 🥳 Enjoy every season! 🍂

Don’t wait for the house to be finished to start *living* in it. Life’s happening, even with the wonky walls and 3875 unfinished jobs! Happy spooky season to you 🧡🏡✨ by @anneisrenovatingthings

Saving this for next time I am ever tempted to skimp on prep… A little 1-2-3 could have avoided all this 😩 I’m so sorry @zinsseruk I will never forsake you again 🙏🏾!!

#primerisessential #zinsser #diypainting #londonrenovation #victorianhouse by @anneisrenovatingthings

Lazy person’s hack to kitchen efficiency: keep it small (and keep extensions expensive as heck) 😅 need to get my step count up elsewhere tho!

Yes, my cat is an absolute unit/heckin’ flonkersaurus.

What do you love about smaller kitchens? 🦦

#smallkitchen #galleykitchen #kitchentriangle #unextendedkitchens #victorianhouse by @anneisrenovatingthings

Money, money, money. It doesn’t make a #kitchenrenovation any easier but it definitely widens the options!

I’ve made my little kitchen’s little budget stretch far by saving the pennies 👜 where I could BUT there are some things I think were absolutely worth the spend 💸. Here are just a few!

Where would you save and spend when renovating your kitchen? Let me know for next time 😅📝 🙌🏾

(While I am currently saving up to finish this one… eventually) by @anneisrenovatingthings

Splashback fitting (and all the prep beforehand) took the kitchen one big leap closer to finished! Thanks to the @bespokeglassdesign team who I would 10000% recommend any day ⭐️

Only the final snags and decoration left for Kitchen Project 2026 — coving, wall and ceiling skim, painting, plinth snagging and that’s it… some things will probably still need doing in 2027 but progress since I ripped the kitchen out in February is so amazing, I really don’t mind!

All the small steps make up the whole. If you’re in the middle of your reno, solidarity! Little by little 🙏🏾✊🏾🫶🏾🙌🏾

#kitchenrenovation #mirrorsplashback #victorianhouse #londonrenovators #solorenovation by @anneisrenovatingthings

FINISHED RESULT! I am terrible at posting the end of my projects but getting better! Here is my finished #DIYtiling (also in this photo but not visible: special mention to my DIY’d underfloor insulation and DIY’d underfloor heating 😅).

I am so pleased with the result! Definitely not perfect and I still would hire a professional if I can in future, but this is good enough for me as a first-timer 🥹

Hope to share a vid rating the various tiling tools and apparatus for anyone who might be inspired to give tiling a go! 💪🏾 I went from 0 knowledge to this in 3 weeks with no help besides YouTube; if I can do it, you probably can too 🫵🏾 *at your own risk tho 😂 by @anneisrenovatingthings

Well that escalated quickly 👀 welcome new friends to my London house renovation! 🏡 You likely joined us at the kitchen floor… You’re still early, there’s lots to do! Let me show you around…

Here be trial and error, dodgy DIY (for every successful project, there’s 1 I give up!) and the main character: my big booty boy Mbaku 😻.

We are just going with the flow 99% of the time, because this is a house we love, not a flip; I’m living out my teen Sims dream IRL (with no Motherlode cheat, sadly)! 🫠

Really glad to have you along for the journey, slow though it will be! Let’s goooo!!🧍🏿‍♀️🛠️🙌🏾💪🏾🤓

#LadiesWhoDIY #SoloRenovation #VictorianHouse #AllTheGearAndNoIdea #LondonRenovators by @anneisrenovatingthings

How I DIY tiled my marble checkerboard kitchen floor part 2. I’ll share the final result next week, plus a quick reel on the tools I used and what I’d rate them out of 5 for usefulness/need!

You can hear my voice wane from the exhaustion over the 5 days this has taken so far 😅, still I would say it’s very DIYable if you need to, especially with some great tutorials:

Tiling over decoupling membrane basics: https://youtu.be/h6AABdEfpwI?is=_JEfMonWokhDp_S6
Cutting for edges: https://youtu.be/utGiAuqiBcM?is=PSmZiUznBCYJCrKs

Tiles are Di Scacchi tumbled marble from @mandarinstoneofficial

#DIYTiling #checkerboardfloor #marblestiles #victorianhouse #solorenovation by @anneisrenovatingthings

4 days later and it’s not even finished 😅 just taking a moment to appreciate the laser precision on my first go at tiling! 👀 I confess: I’d rather pay a professional every time but unfortunately my bank balance is saying nooooo!

#WhenTheRenoBudgetRunsDry #DIYTiling #NeedsMust #londonrenovators #victorianhouse by @anneisrenovatingthings

#DIYTiling for the first time — I had to overcome a few fears to finally get started on this 👀; I must admit having a strict deadline helped!

Here in part 1 I’ve prepped the cement backed underfloor heating boards and adhered decoupling membrane.

❔Why decoupling membrane, praytell? It acts as a flexible buffer that absorbs subfloor movement so your tiles don’t crack.
❔But why primer, precious? That I don’t know but my reno rule of thumb: a little primer never hurts; not priming may hurt.

Come back for part 2 when l cut and lay the marble tiles before my kitchen fitter comes back to fit my plinths… and please wish me buckets of luck! 🫣 #londonrenovators #victorianhouse #solorenovation #tiling by @anneisrenovatingthings