After all the tears, headache, heartbreak and suspense, it’s happened. We started looking for houses in May, found this period property, prepared all the requirements and had a survey done to the house. We planned to move in October but when dad died, it also meant we couldn’t touch Mike’s share in the old house till after probate. We had only 75 per cent of the funds ready.

We fell in love with this house. That kind of love when you walk into the entrance hall and think, now this is different. We knew from that moment it was what we wanted. This property simply had the character that swept us off our feet. We had to do something or the owners who were emigrating would let the house for another six months, worse, put it up again for sale. We decided to rent it ourselves till probate was sorted out, then we could buy it.

And two weeks ago, after two months of waiting, we completed the sale.

Our former house with my parents-in-law is a 6-bed with a huge garden, a very pretty house, different in the sense that it is very modern. We occupied most of upstairs. Mike even built me my own kitchen there. But with the sprog coming, and who knows another one, we thought it was time to move on.

I see no point in recalling all the details of the frustrating journey now that we finally came to this.

It’s here, a house with both our names on the deeds. Which means we are also skint, i.e., slaves of the bank for the next 25 years :-)

Welcome, let me show you around!

GROUND FLOOR

Entrance hall: left photo is the door to the cloakroom/downstairs toilet. Right photo is the front door.

***Front room as it had been used by the previous owners.*** Currently, this is a mess as all the stuff from our old study are still in boxes. We'd like to use this room as a study, first of all to have a spare bedroom upstairs instead of using that as a study. Also, we thought (or rather, I THOUGHT), it would make a perfect library with the brick built fireplace with multi fuel burner in the room.

Our lounge (formerly used as a dining room) as we have furnished it so far. I've been trawling the internet for three years for that boat coffee table (in photo) and at last had found one that was shipped from Germany! The project for this room is to paint that red wall a lighter shade. Middle photo is our first Christmas tree in this house. Door leads to our kitchen/diner. Right photo shows french doors leading to the patio.

Cupboard/cloakroom under the stairs. It is much bigger in person than I could show in this photo. "I'd like to paint it," I told Mike. "And destroy the atmosphere?" He answered. He was right, the first time we saw this, we thought it really showed how old the house is. We could use it to keep the guests' coats. The only problem is, I could squeeze in only a couple of my own coats and it's full already.

***Left photo is the kitchen as it had been used by the previous owners, they had modernised it extensively*** Right photo is our kitchen, not much difference, except for the table. I think it's all right this way as it has a country kitchen feel to it. I know that the table might be too big for this kitchen but there is a reason behind that: this is the snooker table from the old house. In fact, it is the only furniture from the old house that I truly wanted. It was the parents' present for Mike on his 5th birthday as back then, he showed a natural talent for the sport. He was briefly trained by their neighbour who was a snooker world champion (the table itself was made by the champion's company). I just got over obsessing about this table as it's the first time that it sits in a kitchen and I was worried that the felt might be damaged. Underneath that PVC cloth is a plastic cover, a shower curtain and a table protector. I'll try to post more about this table some other time.

Hey, we serve Guinness in our kitchen and we have a snooker table, so come visit!

My favourite part of the house! The stable door! My little girl needs a pony. Or maybe a Great Dane?

(Let's go out to view the garden first shall we, before the rain starts to fall, you never know about this "glorious" British weather). Left: View of the garden from the kitchen. That's the sprog when she fell asleep after a walk. We didn't want to disturb her. Right: I'm not much of a gardener so I like this medium-sized garden which is on the side of the house. I thought it's better to have the garden on the side as when it's at the back, you will sometimes miss callers. The shed/garage will ultimately become the hubby's workshop once insulated. I have a house, he has a garage. Everybody happy.

FIRST FLOOR

A good-sized master bedroom. This is probably one of the few rooms in houses we had viewed where our super king size bed easily fits.

***Spare bedroom as it had been used by the previous owners.*** Right now I use this for my sewing, a place for the sprog's old stuff, currently just a dumping ground for anything really. Like I said I would want it to be vacant for a) when my mother comes over b) when another little person comes along?

I blogged about the bathroom recently here.

Probably the best part of the house. Pretty neat. The hubby guesses (and judging from the size) this was originally the third bedroom, as baths/toilets in very old houses were usually on the ground floor. Still, the house is considered a 3-bed house because of the converted loft/attic, which is the sprog's room (lucky girl!), pictured below.

SECOND FLOOR /ATTIC

She's got the best room in the house, as if she were Anne Shirley up in the attic, with all its exposed original beams. We've been teased that we're spoiling her this early. She absolutely loves this room.

Just pics of these two without whom nothing else matters :) Thank you <3 <3 <3

I’m very excited about putting our stamp on this house. I must admit that I fell in love with the cottage of Kate Winslet’s character in the film “The Holiday” and I’d draw inspiration from that although the ceilings in this house are too tall for that cottage feel, I think. The 1830s cottage we had looked at in rural Bath had the same look, but it needed a lot of work.

I just remembered that back in the Philippines, I have one of those three-dimensional Victorian dolls house books. I’ve always loved things Victorian.

Now I’m thinking of floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, stair runners and treasure chests.

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