Bringing 7 High Street Back to Life
It was just after Christmas on the way into work when Susan noticed that a 'For Sale' sign had gone up on the Old Shop. We then discovered that like most of the village we had each looked at it over the years and wondered what it would be like inside and more importantly what it would be like to bring it up to date. Well, be careful what you wish for as that was the start of the 'journey' that we are now on and this is your opportunity to follow our progress.
It snowed on the day that we went to view with our builder in tow thinking that as we had booked an appointment that we would have time to look at the house in detail. However, it turned out that the estate agent had so much interest that they had decided to have an Open Day and we were there with about half the village. It wasn't surprising really as undoubtedly curiosity had got the better of most people given that the house had looked abandoned and unloved for as long as most of us have been living in the village.
At the beginning of the following week Mike had an acceptable offer on the London flat and that made us think that perhaps the planets were beginning to align and when the estate agent contacted us the following weekend to say that an offer had been made on the house and were we interested it didn't take us very long to decide that we were. Eventually our offer was accepted and we began the long tortuous wait for the solicitors to do their job and eventually on 24th May we completed and became the proud owners of 7-9 High Street.
Mike removing the Sold By sign on Saturday (26th May) morning.
The photos below are a record of the house and garden as it is at the start so that you will be able to see - eventually - how it has been transformed.
The fireplace in the currrent kitchen which will become the Snug in due course - keeping the fireplace of course
We believe that this was the first fridge in the village which was used in the Old Shop. It's a 1936 Crusader fridge and it still works - in fact Mr Hammond was still using it to the end of his days.
This is ~1960's wallpaper which has been put on top of wood panelling in the Old Shop, soon to become our Dining Room.
The fireplace in the Old Shop
The Shop window and door which opens from the High Street. This will become one big window in due course.
The room behind the Shop which will become the Kitchen after renovation.
The window looking out into the courtyard to become French Doors.
The view from the back of the house looking through into the Old Shop, this is coming down to make it into a large Kitchen Dining Room.
The front bedroom over the Old Shop which we believe was the sitting room originally as it is a huge room - all of the rooms upstairs are 3 metres high.
The back bedroom which will be our bedroom in due course as it is at the back of the house - complete with bed and wardrobe - thankfully the mattress had been removed by the time we completed!
The middle bedroom at the front of the house which will become an ensuite guest bedroom.
The bathroom - what can I say - it speaks for itself!
The bath - it's a good old traditional bath but not in great condition.
The fourth bedroom at the front of the house is accessed through the bathroom which is a bit quirky and therefore we have decided to make this into a shower room and dressing room for the middle bedroom as all the services run along that end gable wall of the house over the archway.
The electrics - electricians please don't despair they have been disabled as the whole house will be rewired as part of the renovation. There are the original bakelite light switches in the house and the upstairs plug sockets are all round pin plug sockets - I had to plug in an extension lead downstairs in order to get the hoover plugged in only to discover it needed a new bag so it wouldn't work anyway!
The landing (the day we viewed so random viewers in the pic) with a rather small loft access - consequently the only person to have seen the loft so far is the Building Surveyor - to be remedied as part of the renovation.
This is the old cart shed and stables - in need of work as the slates are sliding off - will eventually be a garage.
This is a make-shift cover for the archway on entry to the courtyard. The little building to the side is an outside loo! This is all coming down!
The back of the house from the courtyard. The doorway is getting blocked up in due course.
The old pantry will become a utility room in Phase 2
This was originally a door out of the main house and we will open this up again as this will eventually lead into the sitting room but that's Phase 2!
The old Bakehouse - the ovens are still there and we will keep those as a feature for the sitting room eventually with big glass doors out onto the courtyard which faces South West and therefore gets the sun all day.
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And then of course there is the Garden. It's a bit like a Secret Garden as you have go out of the courtyard and to the left of the house to find it. At this stage it's more like a neglected forest as you will see from these photos. Apparently there is an old pig sty under this mass of brambles and the elder tree is growing out of the middle of it - as they do.
A couple of Ex-Christmas trees randomly planted and overgrown with ivy - they are not long for this earth!
Believe it or not this is a Monterey Cypress but it has been so badly butchered that it won't recover so will have to come down.
This is a rather nice Scots Pine that will hopefully be saved and the canopy soted out once we can get to the point of bringing in a Tree surgeon.
A small pile of branches to be disposed off - hopefully chipped and used in the garden for mulch.
A somewhat scorched Lawson's Cypress which is fighting for space with a rather nice Silver Birch - can you guess which one will survive the chain saw!
A random Rhodendron in the bottom half of an old plastic drum - we might find a space in the garden for it eventually.
