Nigel Watts
Member
- Messages
- 1,779
- Location
- London N7
I have not posted anything here for a few years because I had more or less sorted out the house I was living and found other ways to occupy myself, including learning tailoring and clock repair.
That changed on Friday when my wife and I acquired a new house. It's the principal part of a former farmhouse c.1800 with some later additions, listed Grade II. This is the East-facing front:
The windows are replacements in what seems to be an appropriate style, done with listed building consent. The house is semidetached and you can see the start of the neighbour's house on the right. The garden wraps around the house to the left.
This is the West-facing back:
On the right is a two storey extension in stock brick, probably mid 19th C, The conservatory is early 21st C but replaced a smaller, earlier, verandah-like structure (hence presumably the granting of listed building consent) as is the single story infill in the "L", in modern brick of a similar colour to the Victorian extension. Part of the neighbour's house can be seen more clearly in this - a short range in similar red brick, possibly the same age as the front, then the start of the main part of the house built in painted brick, from the 1970s.
The house is in pretty good condition but has been much restored internally. As far as I can tell, none of the mantlepieces is original (their replacements are mostly in an appropriate style (one is repro Louis XV!) but all are set on modern, raised hearth stones - a style which irritates me as they should be flush with the floor). The house has fitted carpet throughout so I haven't yet been able to inspect the floor or staircase properly. Some simple panelling over two ground floor fireplaces and in the stairwell could be original. I am dying to rip the interior apart and start again but my wife will, very sensibly, veto any such move.
Importantly, the garden has a garage/workshop - not quite as big as I might have wished, and with the listed status not easy to extend - but sufficient.
That changed on Friday when my wife and I acquired a new house. It's the principal part of a former farmhouse c.1800 with some later additions, listed Grade II. This is the East-facing front:
The windows are replacements in what seems to be an appropriate style, done with listed building consent. The house is semidetached and you can see the start of the neighbour's house on the right. The garden wraps around the house to the left.
This is the West-facing back:
On the right is a two storey extension in stock brick, probably mid 19th C, The conservatory is early 21st C but replaced a smaller, earlier, verandah-like structure (hence presumably the granting of listed building consent) as is the single story infill in the "L", in modern brick of a similar colour to the Victorian extension. Part of the neighbour's house can be seen more clearly in this - a short range in similar red brick, possibly the same age as the front, then the start of the main part of the house built in painted brick, from the 1970s.
The house is in pretty good condition but has been much restored internally. As far as I can tell, none of the mantlepieces is original (their replacements are mostly in an appropriate style (one is repro Louis XV!) but all are set on modern, raised hearth stones - a style which irritates me as they should be flush with the floor). The house has fitted carpet throughout so I haven't yet been able to inspect the floor or staircase properly. Some simple panelling over two ground floor fireplaces and in the stairwell could be original. I am dying to rip the interior apart and start again but my wife will, very sensibly, veto any such move.
Importantly, the garden has a garage/workshop - not quite as big as I might have wished, and with the listed status not easy to extend - but sufficient.