We're moving. Mad, or what?

Evilmags

Beautiful. Just finished restoring mine and it took 3 years!!! Until you pull things down you never really know what's in their. Retrospective fitting of proper foundations is an asspain to say the least. When actually getting a place up to scratch the only tip I'd give is natural materials. 

merlin

Looks absolutely wonderful and if I had the ability to be jealous, then I would be. Looks exactly like the kind of place I'd like to end up living in. Well done and good luck, I'm sure you'll enjoy the process. Godspeed. 

ESBlonde

Looks like a great way to put off retirement but then really enjoy it when you get there I see a tractor in your future!

Budgie

What a lovely house... Have fun with the renovations. 

littlethoughts

Looks great! I'm sure you know it is going to be painful and take years...


but in the end you get to live in a property that has stood for 500 years and will stand for 500 more. A friend of mine's parents did the exact same thing 20-odd years ago, and they are still doing it. Where they used to have some ancient store rooms/barns/stables they now have a music studio and two studio annexes - one of which they do as a holiday rental and the other as a permanent rental. I think they have one more to do but it is safe to say that they have done a wonderful job.

TTony

mellowsun said:

Looks amazing, living the dream as lord of the manor! Congratulations.

Thanks Phil @mellowsun.
That's far from "lord of the manor" property in that particular village though.  There are some very impressive properties just along the road so there was obviously money in the area in years gone by.

Evilmags said:

Beautiful. Just finished restoring mine and it took 3 years!!! Until you pull things down you never really know what's in their. Retrospective fitting of proper foundations is an asspain to say the least. When actually getting a place up to scratch the only tip I'd give is natural materials. 

I'm hoping for 2 years to get the initially recognised list of jobs done, and thereafter it'll be the on-going cosmetics and the like-to-do jobs.  Being 500yo it has nothing resembling "foundations" atm, and there's no way we're going to mess with that arrangement.

ESBlonde said:

Looks like a great way to put off retirement but then really enjoy it when you get there I see a tractor in your future!

Going for this is definitely something of a lifestyle choice.  Any thoughts of a shiny new car are long gone, and you're absolutely right re the tractor!

littlethoughts said:

Where they used to have some ancient store rooms/barns/stables they now have a music studio and two studio annexes - one of which they do as a holiday rental and the other as a permanent rental.

We'll probably still be working out what to do with all the outbuildings in 10 years time.  My wife has already prioritised my workshop space though on the basis that I'll need to build more guitars have access to my tools for loads of house related jobs.

TTony

Went for another look around yesterday.

We'll be able to keep chickens!!!





That's a 75m long chicken shed.

octatonic

Pic fail.

stickyfiddle

TTony said:

Went for another look around yesterday.

We'll be able to keep chickens!!!





That's a 75m long chicken shed.

You could get an awful lot of Kawais in there...

TTony

I'm thinking Gibson UK manufacturing plant ...

gusman2x

Looks amazing. Good luck with the survey, but you know it'll throw up loads of misery right? Especially if it's been "neglected" for 20 years.

However, if you can afford and have the stomach for it, you're going to have the most amazing experience, and home, by the end of it.

TTony

gusman2x said:

Looks amazing. Good luck with the survey, but you know it'll throw up loads of misery right? Especially if it's been "neglected" for 20 years.

However, if you can afford and have the stomach for it, you're going to have the most amazing experience, and home, by the end of it.

We're going to have to change our outlook & expectations.

We're moving from "home" into a "project".  So, it's not going to be comfortable.  It's not going to just work.  Everything won't be how we want it.  

But in 18-24mths time (and a lot of discomfort, work and money), it will be very different and feeling a lot more like home.  We may never get to the end as there's a lot to do and it'll be a bit like painting the Forth railway bridge, but it's going to be an interesting experience and definitely one of those things that - if we didn't do it - we'd always wonder "what if".  

The original house has had 3 extensions that we can see, so it's far from an original, to-be-preserved, example of a C16th cottage.  Yes, we'll have to work with the timber frame / wattle & daub walls in one section, but there are existing brick-built sections, and we're planning (subject to PP) on putting a further properly-modern extension on it which will be our "comfortable" place when its done.  The extension will be far enough removed from the original building to avoid compromising the original building, so we should be able to avoid the normal issues of extending a non-foundation building.

We'll have to live as-is (although it'll be re-wired, re-plumbed, re-bathroomed & re-boilered) for the first 12mths while the extension is being built, but we'll then be able to move into that part and focus on working on the rest of it.

But it does depend on the full survey (next week) not uncovering anything too unexpected/horrible, and on getting a favourable response from the planning people (already submitted for pre-application advice).

chrispy108

Looks like you should be contacting one of George Clarke's many TV shows. Looks a fantastic project, I'd love to live in a bit of history.

octatonic

Am I the only one that can't see the last photos that were posted?
More forum gremlins?

chrispy108

I just see a white box that says photo on my iPhone.

TTony

octatonic said:

Am I the only one that can't see the last photos that were posted?

@octatonic - there's something wierd going on between Google Photos (formerly Picasa) and the new text box editor.

octatonic

Ah.

TTony

TTony

octatonic

Also a good place to grow weed.