Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post, however, all thoughts and opinions are from my own experience. 2020 hasn’t been the greatest year now, has it? Everyone’s plans for half terms and summer holidays abroad have…
View PostDisclaimer: I paid for this service, all thoughts and opinions are my own.
We moved into our house 5 years ago, it was a new build with no storage what so ever. Over the years we have had to shop smart and every piece of furniture we have brought has needed to have built-in storage of some sort otherwise it was no good.
The only storage space that we could potentially have in the house is the loft and that packed with high insulation which we are not supposed to flatten, David found an area up there where he could lay a couple of boards between the rafters so that we could store our Christmas decorations away but it wasn’t enough for anything else.
We went online looking for options and came across Instaloft. David is the sensible one who likes to research things in depth so I left him to it and we found we had two companies local to us who did what we needed, so we arranged quotes with both of them and they both came up very similar in price so I turned to Facebook to check out the reviews and decided to go with Instaloft.
This photo shows what my loft looked like before Instaloft.
We enquired online directly through Instalofts website and received a call back the next day booking us in for the following week. Charlotte who is the surveyor for our area text me on the morning of the appointment to make sure everything was still okay to go-ahead and arrived on time. She adhered to the government guidelines for COVID and kept her distance, she was also wearing a face-covering. They bring their own telescopic ladder with them.
After she did what she needed to do, we sat down and went through everything. I didn’t understand all the terms she was using so she drew me a diagram to explain which really helped me to visualise it better. She was able to give me an instant quote and a date for installation if I wanted to go ahead. We only had to wait around two and a half weeks.
I don’t want to say how much I paid on here because every loft is different, but what I will say is that It was less than a grand and is worth every penny. We decided to take advantage of the 12-month interest-free credit, there is a 10% deposit required which comes off your total.
The credit application is done online and doesn’t take long, once we said yes Charlotte sent us the link to the finance and once that was complete, someone from the team would call me to take the deposit, which they did.
With Instaloft, you can decide whether or not to have a fitted light and ladder installed, we wanted both of these. A few days before the guys were due to arrive, someone from the office will call you to let you know what time the team are due to arrive and how they will stick to the COVID government guidelines and let me know that the electrician (in our case) was due to come to us the day before to fit our light.
The electrician called me on the day to give us his eta. He arrived on time, introduced himself (I forgot his name, I am so sorry) he was very polite and was in and out within an hour.
Our fitting team were two men called Ian and Keiran, Kieran texted me to let me know that they would be arriving ready to start at 8 am to which they arrived on time and again adhering to COVID guidelines, they covered the stairs and landing with dustsheets so they could walk freely up and down it and not ruin our carpet, they also covered what they could in the room they were working in to minimalise the dust. They cleaned up their mess afterwards and vacuumed before they left, it was like they were never here.
After they had finished but before they had left, they came downstairs and asked us to come and have a look to see if we were happy with their work, I knew I was before I had seen what they had done and It met every expectation, they did a fantastic job.
I was really surprised at how quick and efficient they were, they arrived at 8 am and left at 12.10 pm
All in all, the whole process from start to finish was an absolute breeze, there was nothing stressful about it from the moment we made the initial enquiry to the follow-up call to check if we were happy after the men had left.
The whole team have been great and we will be getting back in touch with them in the new year to finish the rest of it off as we want shelving on the other side and the boards extending to the other wall ( Youll see what I mean in the pics).
Going from having zero storage in this house to a whole new floor feels so amazing and I can hand on heart thoroughly recommend this company.
You can check out their website here.
If you have found my Instaloft blog post helpful and would like to use me as referring you, then please make sure to mention my blog on your initial phone call. I would very much appreciate it and we could both be rewarded.
A referral scheme is available, however, to be eligible you need to meet certain criteria. Speak to your surveyor for more information. one key point to note is to receive any referral reward you have to notify them at the time of enquiry.
Disclaimer – This is a collaborative post
You will see me often browsing on Pinterest or scrolling through the endless posts on Facebook groups such as “DIY on a budget” and most recently “The Frenchic fan forum” which very quickly became a firm favourite with me as I really enjoy upcycling old, dated and scruffy pieces.
A few weeks ago, just before the kids returned back to school for the new academic year from being at home for the last six months. David was making us lunch and I was pondering in the living room, looking around thinking what I could do to update and freshen it up. For the past 5 years, we have had these grey walls and this silver/grey striper wallpaper on the other two walls. I needed change.
I have a large grey corner sofa and mostly white furniture so I knew I definitely wanted to keep grey walls but they were getting grubby and I wanted the brighten the room up so I just went over to the wall and started to rip the wallpaper off and that was it, no going back, and now we had to carry on.
The wallpaper luckily for us, peeled off surprisingly easy and didn’t leave any behind which saved us so much time. We prepped the walls by washing them down with sugar soap and off I went with my roller, This time I decided on a lighter shade of grey called Polished pebble by Dulux, we have it in the girls’ room and it’s a lovely fresh, bright colour. I then went over my skirting boards with Frenchic Dazzle Me white, which really makes them stand out.
Next on my to-do list to replace is our wooden floor, I want a grey or lighter wooden floor and David wants the same colour as we have now. I have browsed through my usual sites, which I mentioned at the beginning of this post, and my mind hasn’t changed, I still want light grey and have come across Engineered wood flooring from Flooring365 who stock over 45 different shades of grey to pick from and that is not including the other 300+ colours on their website.
Engineered wood is a fantastic alternative to solid wood. It has the same high-quality finish and beautiful look as solid wood but is lower maintenance and more durable in the face of moisture or heat.
Engineered wood is created from real wood, giving it the same look, but rather than being one plank of pure wood, it is constructed from multiple layers of different timber. The top layer is the highest quality and most beautiful, giving the floor its final appearance. All the layers are fused and compressed together under intense pressure, creating an extremely stable floorboard.
Disclosure- We were sent this product in return for a review
My girls are all about being pampered, from face masks down to pedicures. They especially enjoy having their fingernails painted and will often come up to me with a bottle of their favourite colour varnish. Like myself, they are also big lovers of anything glittery and sparkly which is where Shaky pop nail studio becomes super ‘handy’ like what I did there?
Shaky pop Nail studio is a unique style and beauty range for young girls and boys that captures fashion and beauty trends and transforms them into cool aspirational toys. Suitable for 8 years and above.
2. Decide what nails you want to paint and how you want to paint them. I found that the nail paint dried very quickly so we did two nails at a time. If you are only doing a single nail or two at a time, decide which fingers you are going to do and pop the buttons that you first took out of the applicator, back in the applicator to block off any excess glitter coming out of the holes.
3. Choose which glitter you want and twist it into the bottom of the applicator. This is where the piece of paper on the table to catch any glitter so you can pour it back into the tub is very handy.
4. Paint your nail/s using the nail paint and then squeeze your finger/s through the holes in the shaky pop applicator making sure they are in far enough to fill any gaps so that no glitter can escape.
5. SHAKE SHAKE SHAKE
6. Take them out slowly being careful not to scrape your new nails. They will look messy at first as the glitter will escape as you pull your nails out and will stick to your skin like glitter loves to do.
7. Take the nail brush and brush off any extra glitter that is sticking to your skin around the nail to neaten them. The nail paint is easy to peel so if you get that on your skin, you can just peel that straight off.
And just like that, you are done, it’s as easy as that. Then you can simply peel them off and reapply again and again.
The Shaky Pop Nail Studio is available to buy from Smyths
Disclaimer- I was sent these products in return for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are our own.
Playmobil has been around forever, I remember playing with it when I was little and my eldest, Leo (14) playing with it when he was little so I was so pleased when my two girls took a liking to it last year when we got a sent a Mars space station to review and from then on their obsession and collection has grown.
Milly and Lydia can spend hours in their bedroom making up stories and mixing sets together to create one big adventure with all the different characters and they love it when I join in, so you can imagine their little faces when we got sent the Ever Dreamerz Series two dolls to review.
The EverDreamerz are five friends Rosalee, Viona, Edwina, Clare and Starleen. Who venture to Edwina’s colourful Comic City dreamscape, where everything can be both drawn and erased. The girls make a big mess, ending up with all colour being removed from the world. The five friends have to team up with several unique characters along the way to restore the colour.
The Evil Lady Nightmare tries to turn the girl’s dreams into nightmares, but the power of friendship unites them, and they go on to meet plenty of unique supporting characters along the way. There is also a catchy theme song which you will love and won’t be able to stop singing, even when the kids are at school you will find yourself either humming or singing it.
The EverDreamerz is aimed at slightly older kids aged 7 years + and this due to them containing some smaller parts. There are two different product ranges within the EverDreamerz Comic World. The five main girls figures in a big surprise box (£14.99 each) and 12 surprise characters in smaller surprise boxes which are £5.99 each.
Each main girl box will show you their character on the front but don’t worry as there are plenty of other surprises inside to keep the kids excited and in suspense. There is a tear line where it says ‘Open me here’ so that your child can open this easily and then the sleeve will slide off and reveal the inside box which will look like this and on the other side is a poster of your character for you to keep.
Inside you will see a really cool colouring box where you can colour in all the little pictures as well as reveal the magical amulet. Open it up and you will find a secret box.
Keep in mind that these yellow boxes are reusable and you can store all your new little bits from the blinds bags inside to keep them safe, but be careful not to rip them when opening them.
Inside the first box is your collectors guide which will show you all the characters you can collect in the series including the Ultra-rare figure ‘Colorista’ and her golden charm. You will get a bracelet with some beads and your characters lucky charm and their EverDreamerz magic pet.
I have to admit that it took me a good few minutes to figure out how to get the beads on the rubber band but when it clicked it was easy to do. The beads go on the end with the ring and you need to squish it together to poke it through the hole.
Once you have finished unboxing this part, just open up your box and there are two more re-usable yellow boxes as well as more surprises under the flaps which will have more blind bags inside.
The only thing that confused me about this unboxing set was that there were no instructions on where to put some of the stickers that weren’t self-explanatory, so we had to guess. I think this is something that they should maybe rethink for the next series.
These are perfect for little pocket-money gifts or stocking fillers as they only retail for £5.99 each. The 12 figures you can collect in here are a complete surprise as on these boxes they do not show you what character you are going to get.
Inside you will find a collectors guide, Playmobil character, a charm, colour changing sticker and a trading card and accessories. This set does not come with a water pen but you can just wet your child’s finger and they can colour there sign in that way.
We love them and I think they are priced very reasonably for what you get inside. The whole unboxing experience is so much fun with all the different compartments to open and I love that they have reused the packaging as storage for all the little bits you get. What I also love about Playmobil and have always have loved is their attention to detail in their accessories.
There was minimal plastic used and I love the bright colours and the creativity behind the story. I think that this is a great set for any Playmobil fan to collect and has not disappointed. I know my girls, especially Emily will get hours upon hours of fun including her EverDreamerz into her collection.
You can see the full range of EverDreamerz on the Playmobil Website
