Another new hovel

[livias]

Hi everyone

I joined the forum a few months ago to keep me entertained while we were in the 'frustrating wait' stage of getting our new hovel. Now finally, we are the proud owners and after two weeks of mad rushing around it is very nearly habitable.

The house is a 1650s ish timber frame in East Bedfordshire (so I must remember to change my location on this forum from Suffolk to East Beds) and the old lady who owned it died five years ago so there is a LOT of work to do and I am sure that I shall be popping up here looking for advice and support as it all progresses. This is the third house that I have renovated and the last one was a medieval hall house in Suffolk so I do know what I am letting myself in for. I am not sure that my other half does though ...

I will add a link to some pictures and if anyone in the St Neots / Bedford / Sandy area would like to say hello then they are welcome to come and visit and drink tea and poke around. That is me fishing for new friends cos I don't know anyone yet in the area

https://picasaweb.google.com/116616768366929442739/TheNewHouse?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCNXRyMzTs6mALw&feat=directlink

Anna

 

[parkview094]

Fantastic!

 

[TheRoost]

Looks great 8)

 

[jackpoint]

Hello and good luck!
Looking forward to more pictures

 

[jocelyn plummer]

Hello! Welcome to PPUK, which you will find informative and fun, and welcome to Bedfordshire (no comment--we are moving back to Norfolk shortly) Your house looks very interesting and I am sure that you will enjoy living there. We had a similar property in Walsingham and I regarded it as a privilege to be the custodian of such an old house!

Best of luck !

 

[LadyArowana]

Looks nothing like a hovel :lol: but places sometimes have to pass through a period of hovelness before reaching the other side. Good luck

 

[Penners]

So, Livias - what was wrong with Suffolk, then? :evil:

That's a lovely looking house. It's particularly nice to see a tasteful living room carpet, even though the roof looks decidedly dodgy! I imagine your first major project will be at the top of the house!

Good luck with it.

 

[livias]

Hi

Here I am at the kitchen table in the sitting room of the hovel and all is fine

Kitchen and bathroom and sitting room and bedroom are all tidy and useable. Central heating is on and the sun is over the yard arm and I am finishing off a bottle of Cremant.

Malcolm from the forum and Mrs Malcolm honoured me with a visit to the hovel earlier today They had a poke around the house and garden and said various complimentary things We rounded our first meeting with a cup of coffee in the sitting room while they told me about their own house project. I will be visiting them and their house next week after the nieces have left. From their description I have a clear idea of what their house is like which will probably turn out to be totally wrong

Anna

 

[malcolm]

Thanks for the coffee and the tour - turned out to be in the next but one village.

Your house is fabulous, not too messed around with, and in a lovely setting. I envy the gardens and outbuildings especially. The house is lucky to have you to look after it and sort the concrete render etc.

Look forward to seeing you over here next week.

 

[jocelyn plummer]

Great to see another generation of PPUK'ers meeting up-------Penners, Moo, Plummers and others were the amongst the first ( as far as we know) to meet up and share house experiences and hospitality, way back in 2004 onwards------

 

[JoceAndChris]

A sweet house, wish you all the very best with it.

 

[Zebra]

Ooh, very nice!

 

[Penners]

Great to see another generation of PPUK'ers meeting up-------Penners, Moo, Plummers and others were the amongst the first ( as far as we know) to meet up and share house experiences and hospitality, way back in 2004 onwards------

Good grief! Was it really ten years ago? I must have been in my youthful prime.

 

[livias]

Just off on an IKEA run cos we need more wine glasses ...

Jocelyn - are you prepared to be blunt and say why you don't want to live in Bedfordshire now? I am a Norfolk girl myself so I can see the pleasures of living there but I am sure that being here is the right thing for us now; my partner does not need five and half hours of commute to London each day, it is a new project for me and has the added attraction that it will be so much easier to get to places. East Anglia is lovely but a bit stuck out on a limb

Anyhow, back to the hovel. I have uploaded some more kitchen photos.

https://picasaweb.google.com/116616768366929442739/TheNewHouse?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCNXRyMzTs6mALw&feat=directlink

The kitchen has a set of 1930 fitted units around the north west and the south east corners so the circulation area is diagonal in the room. Not something you generally get with a modern fitted kitchen but it seems to work well. In general I am pleased with the kitchen and tending more towards keeping it long term. A couple of its special features are

Rotating corner wall unit
Pop out shelf, which must have been very hi tech back in the day

Underneath layers of paint, the cupboard handles are blue and the doors were a much yellower shade of buttermilk than they are now. The woman who owned the house before us was a shareholder in a long established Midlands furnishing company so she got the best. All the curtains in the house are interlined which we are going to be thankful for this winter.

Anna

 

[Keithj]

Oh dear! Those links to Picasa tell me the pictures weren't found I feel left out of the Bedfordshire fest now.

 

[Keith Bowman]

Oh dear! Those links to Picasa tell me the pictures weren't found I feel left out of the Bedfordshire fest now.

Not found for me either. Is it an anti Suffolk thing or just an anti Keith thing?

 

[Moo]

Me too!

 

[MatthewC]

Oh dear! Those links to Picasa tell me the pictures weren't found I feel left out of the Bedfordshire fest now.

Me too!

 

[jocelyn plummer]

Jocelyn - are you prepared to be blunt and say why you don't want to live in Bedfordshire now? I am a Norfolk girl myself so I can see the pleasures of living there but I am sure that being here is the right thing for us now; my partner does not need five and half hours of commute to London each day, it is a new project for me and has the added attraction that it will be so much easier to get to places. East Anglia is lovely but a bit stuck out on a limb

Livias--- for you, as probably a much younger couple, the quick commute to London is clearly the key, we finished with all that in 2000!! Apart from 5 years in Norfolk 2003/9 Ampthill has been my home since 1969. A Georgian Market Town which has sadly lost its charm whilst being swamped by developments to the total of approximately 800 houses in and around its perimeter. The infrastructure is not there to cope. Added to that, just 3 miles away in the village of Millbrook, permission has just been granted for a Technology Park, bringing in up to 1000 jobs, and planning consultation is under way for the construction of a gas power station. Ampthil Park, having gained Lottery funding is now recreating the Capability Brown scheme but, as a result, has become very commercial and does not seem to belong to the local Townsfolk any more. I guess my quibble is mainly on environmental grounds. Quite simply, we have seized an opportunity to go back to North Norfolk where we have many friends and where we can comfortably and safely enjoy the countryside.

I am sure that you will enjoy your project, and , yes, you can easily get to anywhere you want from Bedfordshire--enjoy! Whereabouts in Norfolk where you?
Joss x

 

[livias]

Ooops sorry about the bad link. Try this one and see if it works better ...

https://plus.google.com/photos/116616768366929442739/albums/6067313648971091761?authkey=CNXRyMzTs6mALw

Joss ... I was a teenager in Norwich and also lived in Mattishall, though more recently I have been living in Suffolk, in a little village just outside Bury St Edmunds which I loved. Am hoping that the new home will prove to be as good and a plus point so far is that the neighbours are being very friendly and helpful and easy to get to know, much more than the insular people of Norfolk and Suffolk