Front of House

I think there has been a shortage of the front of the house being documented on this blog so far. I took a better picture from across the street. The neighbourhood is so peaceful and full of families. It is really beautiful and this particular street had block parties. There is also a book club on this street (for people living on it). The autumn makes it look really nice. We are also only a 5 minute walk from the Tube station which has a relaxing feel when you come out onto the street...unlike many London areas. Everyone has a distinct door colour. I am partial to a deep red, while Nigel loves the forest green ones. Our front yard, which I have barely taken notice of. Our next door neighbour has the traditional Victorian tile leading up to their door. A view from our door. I was under the stairs cleaning it out inside and noticed as I craned below the floorboards that I could see light from outside through several round holes. Hmmm. I ran outside to see where it was coming from and noticed these holes under that door frame. I noticed all the houses had them. They must be some Victorian method of allowing air to circulate in the house. The mouse poo droppings under the stairs now make sense. Of course, I call Nigel to come take a look. He comes out and the door swiftly blows shut locking us out. Hmmm. I knock on our neighbours' door to ask for her key to the back passage (ours were also locked inside) so that we could scale our back fence and get in through the back door which we have left open. This is the back passage door which is locked and only the neighbours own keys. Okay, maybe the local council does too. I don't know. At the end of the street the little stained glass shop is having a sale on today. Oh, I like that one!

Original Floor Boards

I had told Nigel I had found original floorboards under every carpet in every room, including the hallways. But he wanted to see for himself. He ran from room to room and pulled up the carpet to take a look. In this picture you can see the cement meant for the bedroom hearth. We will put the Victorian fireplaces back in and refinish the floors. For now we put the carpets back so that it doesn't look like a building site just yet (refinishing floors we have been told is the last thing we need to do). And remember those banisters and spindles that were encased? I noticed this tiny pencilled note "sides blocked 1958" which means the last owner who lived here for 40 years didn't encase them. It was the owners before him.

Back Yard

This is the first back yard we have had together. If you walk out the door you get a brilliant south facing garden. It took me awhile to come around to this yard. I don't think I could get over the way it is completely tiled. Nigel and I like grass too. But we didn't realise there is a whole soil section to the right and at the rear. You can see the random tiles, which I must admit, have a charm of their own, but really hinder new planting and growth. I love all the planters of things he has left. And I only just discovered some friends in the garden. Nigel doesn't know it, but I think these guys have to stay! Much to our dismay the entire back of the house has been coated in pebbledash (those small stones in cement). You can see the rest of the houses on the block are all nice old brick. We know there is original brick under the top layer. In the yard, as in most in London, is the shed. You can see the fence beyond it that connects to the back passageway. This is the back passage, thankfully in the other direction than we would use. With rows of terraced housing there is every so often a break between the rows and an entrance to the back passage. Our closest one is on the other side of our next door neighbour. Pretty close, actually. They were originally used for delivering coal. One of the real treasures is what is inside the shed. The previous owner left its contents to us, which is handy because it is full of garden tools (of which we have never had to own any). It is also full of antiques. There are boxes (I think 4 or 5) of old hand tools. And even more boxes full of boxes of old screws and nails. We have slowly come around to liking the garden layout as it is but want to add a few features. We would replace the cement stuff with grass for most of the yard and large stone tiles for near the house and under the terraced roof that will grow grape vines and have a table and chairs beneath. I have been offered a mature apple tree which I will replace one of the large bushes with on the right. The other large bush will probably be replaced by a vegetable garden. We want to have a lot of growth to cover the fence. Here is the apple tree with my studio-mate standing in front of it to give some perspective. My studio-mate's alotment has exactly what I was imagining going in the yard with grapes growing on it...a Pergola. I imagine a fountain like this hidden away below the trees in the very back...sitting near to the bee hive.

Bathroom

The last room in the house is the upstairs bathroom. Actually it is a shower room with pink carpets that measures 5x6 feet. Our plan is to remove the shower and sink, put a cast iron tub (and shower) in that spot, turn the toilet to face the tub, and put a smaller sink next to the door and toilet. We are thinking of white brick shape tiles for the walls, a black and white Victorian tile floor, and a feature window above the door going into the bathroom. I have already sourced out a cast iron tub at a great place in the UK that has all sorts of reclaimed antiques. I cut this picture out of a magazine and we might mimic the floor tile pattern. I like my dad's idea of an electric heat grid under the tile. Here is a picture of the bathroom from the hall. You can see the window above the door. We would like to fit something like this above the door.

Bedrooms

Traditionally these houses have two decent size bedrooms on the 1st floor (2nd floor for all you in North America) and one very small room/office/nursery. The master bedroom is traditionally at the front of the house and has the bay window that continues up from the living room below. Beside it, also facing the front is the small bedroom which can range as large as 9x6 feet to as small as 5x4 feet. I think ours is 5 x 8, but we may lose a few feet if we extend into the loft. The staircase takes up a bit more room. The second bedroom I have always found the nicest in these Victorian terraced houses. They look out onto the backyard and always have a peaceful feel (no cars). Our second bedroom has a nice built in closet (with a boiler inside!). Facing the door. The bedrooms will be the easiest rooms along with the living room to redo. The floorboards need exposing and recovering, the windows replacing, the walls stripping, and the original fireplaces put back in. The chimney from both the dining room and living room extend up into the two large bedrooms where many houses still retain the original coal fireplace facade as a feature. These bedroom fireplaces are smaller.

WC

We have a little toilet and sink under the stairs in this house which is actually very unusual in this style of house. We think it is a feature so are going to try to make it look very Victorian. We will keep the little sink and perhaps get older taps. The toilet looks to me like it used to have the back bit up high with a cord, which we would like to replace. Other than that it is all trim, tiles and wallpaper. If anyone remembers that wall paper we hand printed...you may see that go into this bathroom! Here is a view (looking through the wall) of how we would like to make it look.