Saturday 3 October 2015

Old houses I have survived.

What is it with me and old houses.? Surely I must learn something from the past!

My new back door is now safely in! It's very smart but the rest of the house is not! It is big. It is comfortable . But everything in it is old including me .

Now when I walk into the kitchen I think I've left the back door open because it was never so light in there....

I've done old houses before. In North Wales I had an ancient cottage with its date on it. 1836! It was wonderfully eccentric, boasting two stair cases and two ingle nook fireplaces. It had oil heating which worked a little too well in that when the outside temperature outside dropped, it switched itself on to protect itself . As we were half way up a mountain it cost us a fortune!

When we moved to Essex we went modern...the bungalow was just a few years old...but lacked character as did my first house here in Cornwall...also a neat little bungalow with no built in problems!

My first home with David was wonderful, high on a cliff with views to die for and if we'd stayed that would have been true. There were fifty three steps up to the front door.

Moving here to Tregear Vean suited us both...there is plenty of parking space and a flat garden....about the size of a football field! It is old...the hall floor is paved with the same flags the cows trod to get milked...

It is not pretty...it is solid which is just as well when the gales batter it in all seasons.

Naturally slowly everything needs replacing. I'm trying not to mention the heating.....but it's still not working well....

We vowed not to tart the old house up..I am keeping the stair lift I put in for David which doesn't do much for the ambience but it's great for getting heavy things up and down the stairs. One day it will be me!

It's not convenient. It's not beautiful. But it has wonderful views over Falmouth on one side and the Nare Head on the other..it's home.

 

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Old houses, like older people, have character. They acquire changes to them which reflect their history. A degree of quirkiness.

With buildings it's mainly to their structure and decoration, with people it's mainly their attitude to life, others and what they wear, say and do. Vive la difference!! ( haven't sorted out accents on my Kindle yet!!)

UKViewer said...

We live in a terraced house, built for the influx of working class people working on the new industries springing up along the Thames Corridor in the late 19th Century. So, it's over 120 years old and we can tell. But it's been modernized internally to an extent to suit us. Externally, we can't change a thing, as it's in a conservation area, one of a terrace of 220 houses all built alike by the old Urban District Council (before local government reorganisation) between 1880 and 1910. We'd like do more, but planning restrictions so far have been refused -so we're looking to move, locally, but housing costs are spiraling making it unaffordable. So staying put is the option and spend more on making the house pensioner friendly as I'm now 66 and Jen is 62 - we need to continue living, but be prepared for what might come in 10 years or so.