A Nest of my Own...

I've been keeping a secret from you!  About 6 weeks ago I put an offer on in on a teeny, tiny, unbelievably cheap top floor one bedroom flat...and it was accepted!  I've been waiting for all the paperwork and solicitor-y bits to go through, but now....it's mine!  So, may I introduce you to my new Susie-nest...

You come in through the front door (actually you come through the front door on the bottom floor, the up 5 flights of narrow stairs wondering how you'll ever get any furniture up them!), which is the one with the letter box (does the post man climb all the stairs to deliver your mail??) into a little hall with 3 cupboards!  This is most exciting as I am a girl of many possessions! 

Above is a photo of the airing cupboard, also in the hall, but it backs onto the boiler cupboard in the bathroom to keep it toasty warm.  Speaking of bathrooms, the first door you come to takes you to the little bathroom.  I'm soo pleased it has a bath (Lush - here I come!).  The plan is to clean it A LOT, then put in a shower and try to remove the black tiles and huge mirror without damaging the white ones, then tiling with white all the way up to the ceiling and painting the remaining walls (either lilac or blue)...

Next you come to the bedroom, which is bedroom-y and will be given some carpet and painted white (I HATE magnolia!)

Ahh the kitchen, which is disgusting and will be removed and replaced with a nice white wickes kitchen,  spotty door handles and sugar pink paint!  I shall also have to get all the practical things like a cooker and a fridge, but mostly I'm dreaming of the pink paint!

This is the living/dining room...I'm going to paint it white and have a sofa one end and a table the other and put up some shelves on the walls for my books...

And you can see my balcony!  Just big enough for a couple of chairs and a few pots, but lovely to have some  outside space and a big window to let in lots of light and see a bit of greenery (unfortunately there's not much of a view, so I shall have to watch the road and the church across the road!).

Apparently the flat was rented out before to a lady who had a breakdown, which is why it's in quite a state...I think it was very dirty before the seller painted it all magnolia...she was just about to put in a new kitchen and carpets when I put in my offer, and I managed to stop her which I'm pleased about...if she'd chosen something I hated (like the magnolia walls and the shiny shiny white gloss woodwork she's already done in there) then I'd have been stuck with it!

I'm lucky that I have lots of furniture to take with me (I'm that person that gets given all the random all stuff other people find in their garages cos they know I'll 'find a use for it'...currently all that stuff is in my mums garage!) I only need to buy a sofa, kitchen-y electric stuff and a TV stand and I'm sorted...as well as paying for paint, tiles, carpet, an electrician (it has original 60's light switches, which makes me worry about what's behind them!) and a man to do the kitchen and I can be in!  Hurrah!

Any tips for a first time home owner/renovator?  I'd be especially interested in hearing about any eco-friendly tips or products you recommend, I'd like to do this as green-ly as possible but so far everything I've looked at that has the word eco in front of it seems to have a humongus price tag!