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I created an instagram account to document the process of giving our new build some character, so if you’re interested in following along, find me @obvhome.
My 2022
- chrisobv
I did it again, I sat at my desk on December 28th 2021 telling you that I’m going to post more to my blog and I ignored you, I’m sorry.
If I’m honest, 2022 was a year filled with growth, death, depression, excitement, nerves and struggles….to name a few, but I sit here, in 2023, in my cloffice, in my dream house ready to tell you all about it.
Picking up from my last post, I had big plans for 2023 and was determine to get the year off to a good start, I wrote down some goals and things I wanted to buy (which I feel holds me accountable) and set off on my merry way to begin ticking everything off on the list. The first item on the list was a new house, which is something I mentioned last year. We’d been looking to move into a much bigger property for a while, with both of us working from home and my business growing, we were living on top of each other, coupled with the fact both of our families aren’t spring chickens any more, we wanted to make sure that they were able to visit us without the dread of stairs to get into the house. After what seemed like a life of searching, we eventually found our dream house on January 25th, all we had to do was wait for it to be built.
The UK housing market in 2020/2021 was at an all time high, houses were selling for 30-40% over their asking price due to the demand and during this time, we saw and missed out on so many beautiful properties because they sold WAY above our budget, that’s when we decided to look at a new build. I’ve always had this idea that new build houses, especially in the UK are notoriously small with virtually no storage but after looking at 5/6 houses we found one that ticked all of our boxes. We paid the deposit and the wait begun, it was a long 9 months but I really enjoyed the process. Our old place wasn’t too far form the new house so every week we’d find ourselves coming to visit the site to see what had been done. If you don’t know how a new build purchase works, you have the option to customise everything in the house, the kitchen, flooring, tiles, wardrobes…everything down to the positioning of your sockets! It was fun but we racked up a rather expensive bill. The build was completed in September and we moved in straight away with the aim to get the house feeling like a home by Christmas. We got to work on each room (which I’ll do another post on) and I finally created my dream cloffice (closet/office).
– Cloffice, view from one of the house visits & once my walk in was complete
Along side such a fun and exciting time, unfortunately we had a death in our family, my father in law. In 2021 some other family members had various health scares but it was a complete shock that the one who had been so supportive and strong through all their scares was in fact the one suffering in silence. At the beginning of 2022 his health took a pretty bad turn which ultimately lead to his passing in February. We’re all grieving and as we approach the 1 year mark, things are becoming tough.
With the house being our main focus of the year and saving as much as we could to upgrade our options, buy new furniture (the list is never ending), naturally my luxury purchases stopped and if I’m being completely honest, I weirdly enjoyed it, I viewed shopping totally differently…I’ve temporarily turned the tap off. I was focused on creating my dream house which gave me more drive than any bag would, so I have nothing to report on that front. I’ve kept my eye on collections throughout the year and honestly, nothing really jumped out at me – other than the Kusama 2023 collection…but I’m not sure that’s love or just FOMO. I really hope I can get back to shopping how I use to, after all, that’s what I enjoy and why most of you are here…so maybe something will come my way that I can share in 2023.
So what’s the plan for 2023? That’s the million dollar question. Last year I focused on being authentic online, posting things that made me genuinely happy and not always focusing on luxury. I will continue to prioritise authenticity over popularity – something that now, at the grand old age of 32, I’m able to recognise and really enjoy.
With all that in mind, I still haven’t firmed up many solid plans for this year, I tend to sit on these for a few weeks but when I’ve decided, you’ll be the first to know.
Until then, thanks for continuing to support me and hopefully, I’ll see you real soon.
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