OUTSIDE
This is the back of the house which faces the sea. The size of the dormer shows just how much the size of the loft bedroom has been increased. Not the prettiest house from the outside but we think painting the rendering has made a big difference, everyone who knew the house before thinks the painting alone has made the house a lot better! The planning officer wanted the dormer slate hung, which we were happy to agree with, but he wasn't keen on the house being painted as he thinks the town is in danger of becoming like Balamory! We promised to keep it subtle so hopefully he likes the outcome.
The house fronts onto the pedestrian lane, tucked away in a quiet little corner of town. These pictures look down the lane with the harbour and mountains just about in view:
And these pictures look up the lane (the little bit of wall painted white on the right hand side of the lane in the after picture - just in front of the white house at the top of the lane - is the rear entrance to the garden of the restaurant where we used to live so we didn't have to move far!):
UTILITY
The utility room is at the front of the house, facing onto the lane, the above pictures show the side window just above the gas meter and the larger main window to the front. Below the before pictures were taken on our second viewing of the house so it's nice to say this time it's not our mess! The new units were the original ones in the kitchen which we have re-used. We still need to get around to either buying or making plinths.
DOWNSTAIRS WC
The state of this really had to be seen to be believed. Clicking on the before picture to enlarge it gives you some idea!
LOUNGE
The huge slate fireplace stretched the full length of the lounge. This, along with the pine panelled walls and mock beamed ceiling made this room very dark. We had the small windows removed and French doors/windows put in which has given us easy access to the sun room and kitchen as well as lightening the room.
KITCHEN/DINER
The layout of the kitchen wasn't the best, with the gas cooker originally very close to the opening window. The sun is very strong on this side of the house so standing there cooking would mean that it's not just what's in the oven that is roasting! We moved the cooker to the other side of the room and didn't replace the wall cupboards by the window as they cut out a lot of light.
CONSERVATORY/SUN ROOM
According to the builders, our conservatory became a sun room when the polycarbonate roof was removed and replaced with a pitched slate roof with Velux windows. They opened this up by knocking down the dividing wall between the conservatory and kitchen and it is such a bright, sunny room that we spend a lot of time in here, even in the winter it's comfortable enough with the two radiators.
BATHROOM
The bathroom was probably the room that changed most, it was completely stripped out and the landing walls removed, new stud walls built to provide a shower alcove and a storage cupboard.
This is what we saw on our first and second visits:
The toilet was in a little alcove and the enormous airing cupboard was a waste of space. So the room was stripped and walls removed so that we could decide what to do with it:
The original toilet alcove became a storage cupboard with access from the landing:
The airing cupboard was halved, the rear half became the shower alcove in the bathroom and we could still access a smaller airing cupboard from the landing:
The new toilet was put into the alcove where the bath with cupboard above originally was and a new vanity unit replaced the old one in roughly the same place:
The old shower cubicle which had been built around an opening window was removed and the space left clear so the window sill can be used.
The new bath has been positioned where the new stud wall was built dividing off the old toilet alcove to form the storage cupboard on the landing:
BEDROOM 1
Bowed and cracked ceilings had to be removed and replaced, the damp outside wall had to be remedied and apart from one wall this room was one of only two that did not need a plaster skim. The fitted wardrobes were probably the worst case of DIY we've ever come across (but it did make for easy removal!) and how two people could need that much wardrobe space was beyond us! Removing the fitted wardrobes opened the room up and using free standing furniture has given it a sense of space. We just need to decide what to do for a wardrobe in the alcove, our old pine wardrobes are just temporary until we find exactly what we want.
BEDROOM 2
The outside wall of this bedroom had a major damp problem which left us wondering how, with lights and sockets in use, no-one was ever electrocuted! The builders again remedied the problem and we moved the bed and electrics to the inside wall. The radiator was moved from under the window to allow us to put a chest of drawers there and was sited on the outside wall instead. More poor DIY wardrobes which were again removed and replaced with free standing furniture. Again the ceilings were cracked and bowed and had to be removed and replaced.
LOFT
There is so much to say about the loft. The surveyor, architect and builders had never seen such a poor conversion and it was ripe and ready for bringing the house down. It was a recipe for disaster due to some of the roof supports being removed, the main purlin cut into by at least half of it's depth to provide headroom for the stairs, and the floor joists laid directly on top of the bedroom ceiling joists going in the same direction.
This has now become the guest room with en-suite and furnished mainly with the office furniture left over from the restaurant to provide me with a desk and storage for crafting. We still have to choose some floor covering, which will probably be carpet tiles due to the fact that we can't get a roll of carpet up the dog-leg stair case. Once we've done that we'll use the new bed linen and the room should look a lot better than the mish-mash it is at the moment.
