The sensation of walking over the threshold into your first home is one of joy and terror. Sure, it feels amazing to have something to show for the years of saving, but the idea of having to improve and maintain a building is fairly horrifying. Just 3 months earlier we were living in a London flat where if so much as a lightbulb stopped working we’d ‘call the man’.
To be fair, there are plenty of houses that are in a worse state than ours when we moved in. The best way to describe it is probably ‘unloved’. Here’s what our house was like when we arrived in August 2019.
Downstairs
The downstairs is a pretty classic set-up for 1930s 3-bed semi. The front door opens into the hallway with stairs to the left, galley kitchen straight forward and 2 reception rooms to the right which share a wall with our neighbours.
The living and dining rooms are pretty much the same size and, like the hallway, have pine floorboards that are covered in a thick, dark varnish that’s badly scuffed and looks pretty grim. In the living room there’s a large original fireplace and big window out onto the back garden which is south-east facing. The dining room has had the fireplace boarded up, but there’s a lovely bay window that floods the room with light. The wall between the living and dining room has been semi opened up so it feels pretty open plan.
The kitchen is definitely our least favourite room in the house because it’s small, outdated and only one of the gas hobs work! It’s also ridiculously cold. AND there’s no dishwasher which is surely one of the worst first world problems.
Upstairs
The bathroom and master bedroom face the back garden whilst the other double room and box room are at the front of the house. All 3 bedrooms are in need of some serious TLC – the carpets are knackered, walls are dented, wallpaper is coming off etc etc…
Within an hour of moving in I’d pulled up the master bedroom carpet and found some glorious original floorboards so they’ll be staying. There used to be a fireplace in this room but some maniac sacked it off so we’re going to have to do something about that too.
The spare room is in need of some serious attention. It looks like a kid put several thousand posters up so the walls and ceiling are grim. As with all the other rooms, the woodwork is badly painted and damaged. The original fireplace is still in place but painted light blue for some reason.
The box room has also seen better days but as it’s so small we’re hoping won’t take too long. There’s some weird stuff going on in this room eg: a dangling light switch in the far corner of the room which can be used for the main light…
The bathroom is just fine. It’s not exactly how we’d do it, but it’ll do for now as there’s way more pressing stuff to be done.
One day many years from now we might need a 4th bedroom. If so, we’ll probably follow the lead of most of our neighbours and do a loft conversion. For now, it’ll just be used for Xmas decorations.
Features
There’s a few quirky features to the house including the diagonal doors that come off the hall and landing. We really like them as they make the hallway/landing spacious and light, plus it’s a bit different which adds to the house’s character.
There are original picture rails running throughout the house which make the ceilings feel high and provide a nice way to break up the wall. We’re planning on getting some picture rail hanging equipment to use these back like they would be 90 years ago.
The doors are also original and thankfully haven’t been panelled over like so many doors from that era are. They are, however, caked in loads of layers of paint which doesn’t look great.
A big selling point for us was the amount of natural light throughout the house. The windows are humongous and because of the layout, light travels from room-to-room really well. We viewed similar houses with less light and they felt so gloomy compared.
Outside
The back garden is probably what turned this place from a maybe into our first choice. The previous owner was a keen gardener so it’s been well looked after and has a lovely old apple tree at the end. I’ve not lived anywhere with a garden for 10 years so to have our own outdoor space is dreamy. One not-so-dreamy part of the back garden is the pre-fab pebbledash garage which is really useful space but bleak to look at. It’ll either come down or get a makeover.
There’s a long, narrow drive down the side of the house which leads to the front garden and main road. There’s only practical space for one car so one day we’re going to do what the neighbours have done and take up the small patch of front garden to gravel it so we can get a couple of cars parked.
And that’s about it. We could easily make do with the house as it is but it’s that classic cliché of wanting to ‘put your own stamp on it’. Plus, as it is, the house isn’t particularly future-proof. So with that in mind, we have a fairly big ol’ list of things to change.
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