in my spirit of new year optimism i am making an effort to learn to love this old house we live in. it is a 1930s house, of which there are many in england and we bought it for its "potential" {a much overused word} which really translates to it being the most dilapidated on the street. however, despite all our grand plans for this house, since moving in two years ago we have got married and had a baby and so improvements have been on the back burner. lately i found myself getting fed up with our shabby, tired old house and have been enthusiastically collecting inspiration to my this little house pinboard, dreaming of what our house might one day be.
but after reading soulemama's post on seeing their home in a new light {her home is beautiful and the sort i dream of} i decided to stop dwelling on what is wrong with this house and focus on the parts that i already love and to try to learn to love the less beautiful parts too.
with an impressive list of the broken and the worn-out around here it is easy to focus on the negative. we have actual threadbare carpet on the stairs, peeling wallpaper, draughty windows, a leaky roof, suspect and quite possibly dangerous electrics to name a few and that is ignoring the quite hideous choices of décor perpetrated by the previous owner {think dappled stencilled shells on the bathroom walls and a blue ceiling}. we often joke that we are living a real life verson of that old tom hanks film "the money pit" and that any time one thing gets fixed, something else must immediately break. a case in point would be when my husband fixed the hot tap in the bathroom which had inexplicably just ceased to work one day and the following day i came home to find the porch light on the floor, the ceiling having apparently given up holding on to such an old and useless light {the light itself had never worked since we moved in}.
no doubt one day my husband and i will look back with rose-tinted glasses on the romantic days of living in our ramshackle house. so why not put on the rose-tinted glasses now? above are some glimpses of the loveable and the almost-loveable in this little house:
1. we found the original 1930s wood doors in the attic and have had them stripped of decades of paint ready for our own choice. / 2. although i positively hated this towel hook in the downstairs w.c. its retro appeal is kind of growing on me / 3. i will never learn to love woodchip wallpaper but the old school light switches are quite cool / 4. this tap has certainly seen better days and i'm not sold on gold taps {or peach walls} / 5. i love our original bannisters and can't wait to restore them to their former glory.
what do you love about your home?
I moved from a 30s bungalow which had only one previous lady owner. I know what you mean about stuff breaking down etc - and woodchip - aarghh! one of my mistakes was rushing in and changing a lot ofthings before we moved in, instead of living with it first to see what the house was like, and what was good about it.In fact, it was perfectly liveable in and I probably could have saved a lot of time and work if i had been more contented and patient. You seem to have done that, and i am sure you will have a lovely home that is authentic to you.
ReplyDeleteNow we live in a characterless 70s box bungalow, and i am practising contentment and seeing what happens!
thanks The Barefoot Crofter, sound advice!
ReplyDeletei think my patience has been forced rather than voluntary but i am beginning to appreciate the advantages of not diving in and gutting the place from the start.
I LOVE old houses. I LOVE the character, the history and the little nooks and crannies.
ReplyDeleteMy moment is up: http://tc-twistedfairytale.blogspot.ca/2013/01/this-moment-princess-belle.html
I'm so jealous. I'd do anything for a house with character like yours. We have a new build and it sucks!
ReplyDeleteK x
Positivity is so underrated...but still, I get it. That seashell fixture. Just imagine you're at the beach ;)
ReplyDeleteCheers to a great weekend!
old houses are amazing. i love imagining who must have lived in them before. ah the stories houses could tell if only they could speak!
ReplyDeletethanks TC, Kirsty and Deirdre! xxx
That's awesome that you found the old doors in the attic. We too have recently purchased an old fixer upper. Our house was built in the mid-1950s (really old where we live) and it was renovated with an extension in 1972. I've been getting really tired of the old kitchen recently but we have to see the bigger picture for how we want the house to be & not just jump in & change something quickly that we're going to want later on. And as you mentioned, there are just so many things I do like about the house, it's much better to focus on them!
ReplyDeletei love my home, cracks and all, because it is where my children are growing up.
ReplyDeleteyeah Alli we were really excited to find the original doors! I love 50s architecture and furniture, you're lucky to live in a 50s house!
ReplyDeletethat's a wonderful way of looking at it Amy - i'm looking forward to marking Ava's height as she grows against a door frame.
Your house looks so lovely so far! I am quite smitten with the details. Although I do know how frustrating it can be living in an older place - but you come to love its quirks. I can't wait to see that banister - it's going to be gorgeous!
ReplyDeleteI live in a 1930s maisonette, we moved in when my eldest was 1; the kitchen was awful, the bathroom was awful, windows falling apart (literally), dodgy electrics, dodgy heating and the garden was a complete nightmare, we were full of optimism to, hmmm, turned out we bit off more than we could chew, refurbishing a property when you're childless vs. refurbishing a property when you've got one, then two children, harder than we imagined and a lot more expensive than we imagined to considering I had decided not to return to work. But over the years we installed soundproofing (out of desperation, our then neighbours were awful), a new boiler when the old one flooded all over our kitchen and after one drafty winter too many, new windows but there was still so much to do. But then after an inheritance from a distant relative last year, we could finally finish everything off, we hired the nicest builders ever, got the new kitchen, new bathroom, new back garden, new electrics and a fresh coat of paint on everything, oh and they dipped our doors (which are like yours), removing the layers of icky horrible varnish to reveal that they were much lighter than we thought they'd be and we could actually see the wood grain! Ironically though, we are fast outgrowing our little maisonette, so now, although it has been refurbished , we have, at the most 2 years left here before we move again .... to almost inevitably another run down property we can't afford to do up but it's the only one we can afford. BUT a big but, I don't know about you, I see all those modern, new build, nicely done up places and I would never want one of them, no soul, no soul at all. There have been times when I've absolutely hated this flat but specially when it's the place where your children are little, these buildings absorb so many memories, so quickly, I will hate moving out.
ReplyDeletethank you lacer for your wonderful comment! your description sounds exactly like what we are dealing with here but we are just a couple of years behind you! {also i don't imagine i'll be getting any inheritance so it might be slower progress with husband doing all the work!}.
Deletei totally agree that despite being run down, draughty and far from pretty in most parts; i do love this house and its character and i would never trade it for a souless modern home, all cream and generic!
you're so right about the place absorbing memories. it is also the source of many jokes between us and our friends so we do see the funny side. for instance we think it is a rule with this house that fix one thing and another two break. or when someone {brave} comes to stay, we do the tour which is mainly pointing out things to avoid {don't use that lightswitch, it's not wired properly} or things that don't work {don't bother trying to open that window, you can't}. we see the humour in it luckily! :)
I just so loved your “new old house”. I find it classy and elegant. :) It’s worth the improvements you are doing. A home is a good investment. I have read that the price of homes increased by 5.4% annually from 1963 to 2008 on average. So, you can be sure that if you ever decide to sell your home in the future, you can get a pretty good deal, especially with all the improvements you've done on it. Isn’t it cool? -Leona Gladen
ReplyDeleteyou're right, that is cool. we bought our house as a "forever home" but it is always good to know it is also {hopefully} a sound investment.
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