Some pics of our houses - old and new.....

[mims&pip]

Hi everyone

Just wanted to share some pics of our new project and also a couple of our last house.....

This first post contains three pics of our new house....can only add three per post so will have to do a follow-up post(s) with more :wink:

Hopefully this will work!

Mims x

 

[mims&pip]

That seemed to work ok, so here are a couple more of the new house......built in 1854 (left side) and extended in 1924 (right side)....pics aren't great, but you can perhaps get an idea of the character as well as the triffid-like wisteria which threatens to consume the place, lol!

The house isn't listed, but is in a Conservation Area and is of 'townscape merit' with an Article 4 (2) direction.

Don't have any of the inside to add just yet - will need to take some better ones than those I took on iPad - which is all parquet floor and Arts & Crafts beams, fireplaces etc

 

[mims&pip]

Finally here are a few of our last house - we spent three and a half years restoring it from an uninhabitable wreck, doing majority of the work ourselves. Despite being a Georgian thatched house it was not listed, nor in a Conservation Area, which surprised us.

Fortunately the one decent thing the PO did - for he was rather an *odd bod* with a peculiar penchant for hooks - was to have it re-thatched in 2008 :wink:

 

[plasticpigeon]

What lovely properties. Your arts and crafts house is a beauty (what I can see of it!!!)

 

[TheRoost]

Wow! both houses very nice, good luck with your project.

 

[Penners]

I love your old house. The new one is somewhere in there, is it?! :wink:

I confess that I'm not totally in love with the yellow paintwork of the new house, nor the phoney strap hinges and studs on the front door! But judging by what you did on the old house I'm sure you'll have some lovely plans for this one.

 

[mims&pip]

What lovely properties. Your arts and crafts house is a beauty (what I can see of it!!!)

Thank you PP

Our last house was lovely, but Georgian is not my favourite architectural period and I'd never buy another thatch.....I spent the whole time we were there worrying myself silly that it would burn down - more because I consider our collection of furniture & artifacts to be irreplaceable than for any other reason :mrgreen:

It had a fab 1/3 acre garden with a stream - although that in itself was a bit problematic when you factor in our two adventurous dogs - but tbh the only thing I'm missing is the kitchen, which was quite a good size. We plan to recreate something similar here as we are relocating the kitchen to a reception room whilst retaining the old (small) kitchen as a utility/butler's pantry.

Yes, the *new* house is a real hidden gem - not least because it has been allowed to become enveloped by the garden which was until fairly recently well-tended but left to go wild whilst the house remained unsold It isn't a particularly large garden, but has some wonderful features such as large walk-in brick arches built into the hillside - I guess these were originally intended as garden storage - that we will continue to use for logs etc, although I plan to turn one into a grotto

 

[mims&pip]

Wow! both houses very nice, good luck with your project.

Thank you TheRoost The plan is to take our time with this one - not go hell-for-leather at it as we did with the previous one as we intend to stay here long-term!

 

[mims&pip]

I love your old house. The new one is somewhere in there, is it?! :wink:

I confess that I'm not totally in love with the yellow paintwork of the new house, nor the phoney strap hinges and studs on the front door! But judging by what you did on the old house I'm sure you'll have some lovely plans for this one.

Thank you Penners Yes, the yellow paint is lovely, is it not? Pip was recently introduced to a neighbour (a builder :roll: ) who confessed to being responsible for that - if I'd been there I think I would have cheerfully strangled him, lol! I confess to quite liking the door furniture though - but then I do have rather unusual tastes.....I think it will look better when set-off against a more period-appropriate paint colour! Need to get that passed by the council though as we have an Article 4 (2) direction....

 

[plasticpigeon]

Yellow windows and greyish render, quite a good combo! Oh yes, a phony strap hinge, and phony studs too probably, but goes with the style.

 

[malcolm]

What did it do to deserve an Article 4? I love the doors and windows. Render looks a bit grey. They were doing concrete render back in Arts and Cafts days but they tended to make more effort about colours back then. Search Red house restoration on here
for period render.

wysteria is a shrub according to the folk across the road afflicted by the stuff. Can be trimmed to preserve the building without council consent.

 

[mims&pip]

Thanks Malcolm

Mmm, I think the render dates from the 1920s when the original three storey *cottage* was extended....but obviously need to look into this further.

As a long-time lurker and huge Arts & Crafts devotee, I've kept an eye on the *Red House* threads so yes, I recall the owner's dilemma over the render question.....should probably revisit the posts/blog :wink:

Regarding the Article 4, I believe that within our Conservation Area there had been so much infill of 1970s and more recent house-building that certain properties in our road (ours plus another three dating from the mid 1800s and one 1930s house by a respected local architect iirc) were considered to be of *townscape merit* and so warranted the direction in order to preserve the overall appearance of the area and prevent inappropriate alterations/additions/garden grabbing - for example, pre the Article 4, one of these (a lodge house for the larger property further up the hill, but now owned separately) had horrid UPVC windows fitted that are completely out of character.

Many of the original early-mid Victorian houses that lined the road were demolished in the 1950s/1960s and large gardens have been sold off in order to cram in more housing, which although detached and spacious are quite out of place. In addition, this is a leafy road built into an escarpment with amazing views - the houses on our side are built in such a way to take advantage of this with majority of the windows facing the view (for example, we only have three tiny windows facing onto the road). Any ill-considered garden grabbing for new builds would mar both the leafy/woodland setting and potentially obstruct the view.

The wisteria looks amazing in bloom - we've seen the pics - but definitely needs a *trim* as it is in danger of taking over. You can't see it in the pics, but we actually have a balcony - as well as a wonderful verandah, something I've always wanted - with a wood balustrade that the wisteria is cheerfully destructing! The trunk has a girth of approximately 60cm......yikes!

 

[88v8]

A well-planted garden is a lovely thing to inherit. Time and love spent. Something that money can't buy.
Wisteria just needs intelligent pruning at the right time, one with a 2ft trunk is obviously very old and has long been treasured. One does have to think ahead when steering the new shoots of woody climbers such as Petiolaris and wisteria, as they grow in girth and can loosen and bend things in time, but one so established is a very special plant to have.

Our last house, we planted ivy on the back (Goldheart) and Petiolaris on the front.

That was a super kitchen essay in your previous house. A far cry from the normal sterile units. You have a flair.

Thatch and box sash windows. Looks very odd. The upvc of the Victorian era.

Arts and Crafts interior... I shall try not to look, really wish we had found something of that period, envy envy.

Ivor

 

[mims&pip]

Thank you Ivor So lovely to know our efforts were not in vain!

I know, we feel highly honoured to have *inherited* such an amazing specimen of wisteria when we purchased this house and will do everything in our power to retain it whilst gently discouraging it from taking over!

I love petiolaris too - we planted one at our last house but two ( :roll: ) but didn't stay long enough to see it mature - need to check if there's one here somewhere. Popped along to David Austin Roses today and picked up a few of our favourites plus a couple that we just *had* to get (Munstead Wood and William Morris :wink: ) as we plan to re-establish the now somewhat scrappy rose terrace. Need to get the Rambling Rector we brought from our last house planted too - he was in a large planter there, but Pip managed to break it whilst moving it into position last week so it's forced my hand (as Pip wanted to plant him against a lovely old retaining wall) and he will now go in the ground (the Rector, not Pip :shock: )......

About the windows at the old house, Ivor - I have to confess that we were responsible for those, but in our defence we were replacing like-for-like what was already there when we bought the house.....Victorian replacement timber sashes that had fallen into total disrepair. By the time we got around to their replacement we had decided to sell up, but as we'd already gone way over budget, we opted to go with the (marginally) less expensive option of Victorian style. Still cost nearly £10k just for the front elevation though. As the majority of our neighbours had put in (vile) cheap white UPVC, ours stood out in the village for being the most *in keeping* with the character of the area :wink: