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Dean & Paloma | DIY Renovation UK 🏡

@renothefive

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1900s budget bungalow reno • DIY cottage & garden makeovers • currently: ✨Garden Room✨ transformation
📍South East England
💌 [email protected]

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I’m not the first to say this and I won’t be the last: the housing crisis in the UK is shocking. Young people more than ever are can’t afford to buy and instead are stuck in the endless loop of renting and never being able to save.

For a long time it felt like we were stuck.

We were constantly looking at houses in the area we loved, but every time something came up it was either completely out of reach or snapped up before we even had a chance 🙃

Eventually we realised something: the “perfect” house we had in mind just wasn’t going to happen for us here. Not unless we changed our expectations.

So we started looking at the houses most people would scroll past and that’s how we ended up buying this 1900s bungalow.

What we didn’t realise at the time was how much was hiding beneath the surface — rotten floorboards, a single brick external wall that made the house unmortgageable, and plenty of other surprises waiting for us once we started pulling things apart.

We have such a long journey ahead, and sometimes it’s so daunting!

Buuuut it’s ours, and every day we are grateful for that. It feels so special to know that one day we will look at the house and say: we built that 🤍

#oldhouseproject #budgetreno #diyrenovation #renovationdiaries #shedbuild taken in Essex, England, UK by @renothefive

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7 months ago

This is what magic must feel like ✨

A little recap of the last six months building our garden room 🤍

Spring is really springing today and it feels full of possibility. I cannot wait to be working on our bungalow as soon as our planning permission comes through!

Grateful every day for this little corner of the world 😌

#oldhouseproject #budgetreno #diyrenovation #renovationdiaries #gardenroom by @renothefive

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6 months ago

Introducing our ✨new series✨ The Garden Room Diaries!

Now that the exterior of the shed is built, we can finally start calling it a garden room 😂

This series is all about the interior - the design, the build, the inevitable mistakes, and all the inspo!

We’re starting on the stud wall now so make sure to follow to see what we get up to in this series 🤍

#oldhouseproject #budgetreno #diyrenovation #renovationdiaries #shedbuild taken in Essex, England, UK by @renothefive

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7 months ago

I recently worked on a super fun project decorating my mums new office!

For context my mum is 70 and has just had her first publishing deal and is now writing a sequel to @mycountryafrica 🤍 this is the first office she’s ever had in her life and I really wanted to turn it into an oasis of calm for her to write in. She always said she wanted to feel like she was in a creative cocoon and I hope this does the vision justice!

Still need to add lots of bookshelves and some artwork or prints but we’re pretty happy with it so far! What do you guys think?!

This was a super super fun project because the space literally did transform over a weekend and when you’re renovating a house you know how long those before and afters usually take!!

If you’re curious about the book her mum wrote it’s called My Country Africa by Andrée Blouin and is a really fascinating story (@mycountryafrica)

It’s been so fun doing this project and I’m so grateful to all of you who’ve sent such lovely messages about it! 🫶

#mumanddaughter #mycountryafrica #officetransformation #diyproject #beforeandafter by @renothefive

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a day ago

Just trying to show the realities of a slow renovation 🙃 for every win there are hoursssss of work. Sometimes we smash loads out in a day and sometimes it feels like we’ve achieved sweet f all 😂

#budgetreno #diydiaries #oldhouserenovation #renovation #diyprojects

UK renovation · DIY renovation · Bungalow renovation · Fixer upper UK · Budget renovation · First time renovators · Cottagecore aesthetic · Cottage garden · English country garden · Autumn gardening · DIY garden projects · Garden transformation · Cosy home inspiration · Rustic interiors · Slow living · Upcycling · Renovating in your 30s · Renovation couple · Essex renovation · Renovation reality taken in Essex, England, UK by @renothefive

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4 days ago

Hello and welcome to our page! If you’re new here my boyfriend and I have bought the fixer uppers of all fixer uppers 😂

It actually goes beyond just being a fixer upper — it has been described by the council as derelict. Which yes, yes it is.

But it’s the worst house on the best street and we are here to give it our best shot at transforming it into a two storey family home!
 So give us a follow if you’re keen to see how we get on!

#diycouple #budgetreno #bungalowrenovation #diyhome #diyreno

UK renovation · DIY renovation · Bungalow renovation · Fixer upper UK · Budget renovation · First time renovators · Cottagecore aesthetic · Cottage garden · English country garden · Autumn gardening · DIY garden projects · Garden transformation · Cosy home inspiration · Rustic interiors · Slow living · Upcycling · Renovating in your 30s · Renovation couple · Essex renovation · Renovation reality by @renothefive

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6 days ago

We may be mid Reno but that won’t stop me from thinking ahead to how we want the garden to look at the end of the house build! That means buying shrubs early whilst they’re small and cheap and letting them establish over time. I am by no means a gardener but am determined to turn this garden into a beautiful oasis. I built this planter with the idea of replicating it along the whole fence - annoyingly we can’t plant straight into the ground as there’s a long concrete path running along the whole fence 😤🪴

#gardenlove #autumngardening #autumngarden #diyreno #diydiaries

UK renovation · DIY renovation · Bungalow renovation · Fixer upper UK · Budget renovation · First time renovators · Cottagecore aesthetic · Cottage garden · English country garden · Autumn gardening · DIY garden projects · Garden transformation · Cosy home inspiration · Rustic interiors · Slow living · Upcycling · Renovating in your 30s · Renovation couple · Essex renovation · Renovation reality by @renothefive

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8 days ago

Ad I’m turning these new beams into something a little bit more rustic using my @dremel_uk just to make our Garden Room look a little bit more autumnal 🧙‍♀️🪄🧚🏻🍄‍🟫🍂✨📚

Now that they’re nicely aged I’ll be ready to stain and paint them to turn them into a dark oak beam lookalike!

If a Dremel’s been on your DIY wish list…@dremel_uk is currently discounted for Amazon Prime Day ✨

Shop the limited-time deal on Amazon while it’s live!

#dremelblueprint #dremel #sharemydremel #diyproject #fauxbeams

UK renovation · DIY renovation · bungalow renovation · fixer upper UK · first time renovators · budget renovation · renovating on a budget · DIY home projects · renovating in your 30s · renovation couple · renovation journey · renovation reality · Essex renovation · first home renovation by @renothefive

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12 days ago

I was today years old when I realised I could do this 😂 obviously this doesn’t work if you’re not painting your fifth wall 🙃

Using a mini roller is sooooo much easier to get into your corners than a paintbrush

#renotips #budgetreno #bungalowrenovation #diyhome #diydiaries by @renothefive

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12 days ago

It would’ve taken me ten minutes to move them and saved me an afternoon of near death experiences 😅 did I know that? Of course I did. Did I do anything about it? Of course not.

#funny #millenial #budgetreno #officetransformation #beforeandafter by @renothefive

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17 days ago

Hey and welcome to our page! If you’re new here we are Dean and Paloma and we are renovating our 100 year old derelict bungalow with our own two hands and a tiny budget!

It’s honestly so true what they say about everything taking longer than you expect during a renovation but we’ve made our peace with that <3

So if you’d like to see our journey then make sure to hit follow and say hi in the comments!

UK renovation · DIY renovation · bungalow renovation · fixer upper UK · first time renovators · budget renovation · renovating on a budget · DIY home projects · renovating in your 30s · renovation couple · renovation journey · renovation reality · Essex renovation · first home renovation by @renothefive

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18 days ago

Welcome back to the Garden Room diaries! ✨

Here is part two of the faux beam ceiling challenge 😅 I’ve made the structure of the faux beams and next up is to distress and stain them! I am desperate to make this chipboard budget ceiling look better and this is the first step towards that challenge!

#fauxbeams #budgetreno #budgetdiy #budgetdiydecor #diyhome

UK renovation · DIY renovation · bungalow renovation · fixer upper UK · first time renovators · budget renovation · renovating on a budget · DIY home projects · renovating in your 30s · renovation couple · renovation journey · renovation reality · Essex renovation · first home renovation by @renothefive

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19 days ago