Our new home

So, these are the photos that Beverly took when she collected the keys after we had completed the purchase of St Abbs.  I freely admit that they make for somewhat grim viewing, what with the damp, mould and dated decor, but we have a vision for our new home and I am convinced that one day it will be beautiful once more 😊

The entry into St Abbs is through the sun porch.  The grape vine in the corner had long since died before we moved in, but we have been told that in its heyday it flourished and actually produced lovely bunches of grapes.  Eventually, this room will be completely refurbished but we have more important work to have done first.

The entrance hall is off the sun porch.  It's not a large area but in time we will use the sun porch for coats, etc.  We have already set up our computer in the space beneath the stairs, and that works very well so we will be keeping it there.  The stairs and bannisters are very attractive and there is a window on the half-landing that lets in lots of light.

The living room is a fair bit larger than in our previous home, which is rather nice!  We have a gorgeous view from the windows, and it's lovely to have windows in two aspects.  Whilst the decor isn't to our taste, this room is in quite good condition.  It will be one of the last rooms to be tackled. 

Again, the dining room is larger than our previous one but it will need a fair bit of decorating.  In fact, the whole of this side of the house is in much worse condition than the other side.  The chimney on this side needs work as it is letting in water, which has affected all the rooms below.  

This little lobby separates the dining room from the bathroom.  There is a little hatch in the ceiling in front of the cupboard which gives access to the roof space where the water tank lives ~ which we had to call Davey the plumber in to look at on the day we moved in!  

The bathroom is very damp indeed, and will need a lot of work in due course ~ including replacing the dated suite!

Coming back through the dining room towards the back of the house, there is another little lobby between it and the kitchen.  This is the cupboard beneath the stairs, which also has storage to the left.

Still in the kitchen lobby, opposite the cupboard beneath the stairs, is a useful built-in cupboard.  It's in quite a state of neglect but I have plans for its future LOL

And then we come to the kitchen!  What can I say about the kitchen, eh??  Beverly took one look at the cupboards on the wood-clad wall and declared them to be "hideous" 😏  Well, I agree that they are not my cup of tea either, but they are amazingly well made and still going strong ~ I should imagine that they must date from the 1960s, don't you think?  I am very excited about the potential for this room!  It is so much larger than any kitchen I've ever had before in my life, and I have all sorts of ideas floating around in my head.  At the moment, though, it is somewhat low down on the list of things-to-be-done.

Back out into the hall and up the stairs brings us to a small landing area and the bedrooms.  This is the guest bedroom and as you can see, it is on the very damp side of the house.  In fact the chimney that needs repairing is above this room.

This strange little room is the boxroom.  It is very small but we have plans to move the door so that it is opposite the window, and make the room into an upstairs shower and loo.  It's not much fun having to traipse all the way down the stairs and through the house to go to the loo in the middle of the night!

Finally, we come to the master bedroom.  Even more than in the living room, the decor here is in very good condition.  It's a tad  flowery for my taste but it will be fine whilst we get on with the work on the rest of the house.

As you can see, there is a lot of work to be done ~ and this is only the interior!  We are going to concentrate on making the house watertight and warm this year, and anything else we get done will be a bonus.  The work on the roof, chimneys, etc, is a priority and we are currently waiting for our builder to come back to us with his quote.

We have already made a start, though, and have ordered new windows and doors (except for the bathroom and boxroom, and the sunporch), in uPVC with a woodgrain finish.  The bathroom will need to be gutted, so we decided to wait until the work has been done before replacing the window.  We didn't know whether we would be able to have the boxroom converted, so again we will wait now until the work has been finished.  The sun porch needs a new roof as well as windows and a door, but it is quite a way down on the things-to-be-done list!

The current windows are, I think, most likely the original sash windows and they are rotten beyond repair.  The replacement windows are also (white) sash windows, as we want to keep to the original look of the house as far as possible.  We are having a new front door, i.e. the door from the hall which opens out into the porch, which should cut out much of the draught which currently blows through like a gale at times!  It is in a half-glazed, stained wood finish with a coloured glass design in the glazing and the fanlight above.  The window on the half-landing is going to replicate the original, but with the addition of coloured glass in the little corner squares to echo the front door.  The new back door, in the kitchen, is also half-glazed (which will let in more light as the room is somewhat on the dark side) and is in a shade called Chartwell Green 😊

We have also ordered the new heating system.  We currently have old storage heaters which don't work very well and eat up the electricity quite horrifyingly!  We are having an air-to-air system fitted, with the addition of simple panel heaters if we need to supplement the heat, and electric towel rails in the bathrooms.

So there, you have it ~ our new home in all its glory LOL  More updates in due course!