Nice People Thread No. 15, a Cyber Summer

Pyxis

ivyleaf, older houses are fascinating!

I think it's a shame that so many if the 30s fireplaces were ripped out of interwar houses during 'modernisations'.

I saw a documentary once about DIY programmes, and there was one in the late 50s or early 60s where the presenter was telling people how to modernise their panelled 30s doors by attaching a large piece of plywood over it, to make it a flush surface!

Come the 80s, everyone was taking that plywood off again! The fireplaces were long gone, though. They were tiled, with the iconic stepped deco shape. .........

......this sort of thing....

chris_m

Pyxis wrote: »

I saw a documentary once about DIY programmes, and there was one in the late 50s or early 60s where the presenter was telling people how to modernise their panelled 30s doors by attaching a large piece of plywood over it, to make it a flush surface!

Come the 80s, everyone was taking that plywood off again!

That had been done in my parents' house, don't know if by them or the previous owner, I can only ever remember the flat doors.

One day, about ten years after I'd moved out, I called in to find panelled doors - and, even more of a surprise, open staircase banisters with lovely turned balusters. I'd only even known the banisters being solid flat-faced wood. It didn't half brighten up the hall once the light from the "halfway-up-the-stairs" window could get through the banisters again.
.

ukmaggie45

Pyxis wrote: »

Come the 80s, everyone was taking that plywood off again! The fireplaces were long gone, though. They were tiled, with the iconic stepped deco shape. .........

......this sort of thing....

We had a couple of them in our living rooms in our house. We got shot as it was a 1905 house, so they were the "modernisations" previous owner had made! When we knocked the 2 rooms into one we put a new gas fire in the front (there was a gas fire in the anachronistic fireplace) we just set it to the wall once fireplace gone. The one at the other end we put a solid fuel fireplace in. It was a bit of a mish mash at the time, and I wasn't very happy with it. But eventually we replaced it with an original fireplace of roughly same age as the house that a friend sold us as he wanted a wood burning stove instead of it.


Cosy Fire by Maggie, on Flickr


You can tell it's around Xmas as the Gnomes are on the mantlepiece!

Pyxis

I was part lucky and part not, with my house. It dates from around 1895, and when I bought it, it had picture rails and cornices in the hall and two rooms, picture rails in other rooms but no cornices, an original slate fireplace (open fire) in the living room, but all the other chimney breasts had been blocked and one removed. There was a small cast iron fireplace in the smallest bedroom, so I had it moved into my bedroom and blackleaded it. It looks lovely, but is non-functional as the chimney is blocked. I wouldn't want a open or gas fire in my bedroom anyway!

In another room, I had the chimney breast opened up above floor level to create a modern fireplace and put a very modern gas log fire into it! It's part of the kitchen/dining area so doesn't look odd at all!

The house still has the original single-glazed sash windows. They're pitch pine, and still in good order, so I put up with the odd draught! It has the original pitch pine front door, too, but no stained glass, unfortunately. Oh, and all the internal doors are the Victorian ones, too.

I've kept the front of the house looking as original as possible, but the back of it has gone more modern!

SingleSue

Mine's a late 1940's square prefab, very drab, very boring with no redeeming features but some odd cubby holes in weird and wonderful places....oh and an enormous back garden.

Pyxis

SingleSue wrote: »

Mine's a late 1940's square prefab, very drab, very boring with no redeeming features but some odd cubby holes in weird and wonderful places....oh and an enormous back garden.

I love cubby holes in unexpected places!

So often these are ripped out when a place is modernised!

Does your enormous garden have a vegetable patch?
My current house only has a small garden, so I've only been able to grow veg in pots or in small amounts. My previous house had a ready made veg plot, not overly large, but enough for me to cut my gardening teeth on!

Talking of post-war prefabs, though, they have an incredible place in history. I'm glad some have been listed.
As a child, I lived on the outskirts of London, and I can remember nearby estates of prefabs. When I went back years later, they had all been replaced by brick council houses, and I did feel a bit of a pang.
The documentary I mentioned before interviewed a long-standing occupier of a prefab. She said that they had previously lived cheek by jowl in a couple of rooms with a shared loo, no bathroom and a tap on the landing. When she saw the prefab she had been allocated, she felt she had gone to heaven! Her own bathroom, with a geyser for hot water over the bath and her own kitchen! And a garden! And her own front door.

Some of the older council houses are wonderful, too! My first job was with the government, and involved property, and I was involved in the first right-to-buy schemes. Some of the older council houses had incredible features, and would have been a gold mine for an astute council tenant!
The best ones I saw were in a very desirable part of London, overlooking a leafy part of the Thames! Can you believe it? Nothing between these semidetached council houses and the river except grass verges! Plus they had large front gardens and even larger back gardens. I remember thinking that the tenants that bought these houses, and at a discount, were incredibly fortunate!

Pyxis

Interesting Olympics!

I managed to wake up in time to see Mo do his thing!

I really felt for the poor Tae Kwondo bloke, who was leading until the very, literally, last second, when a kick by his opponent lost him the gold.
ONE SECOND! No wonder he was gutted!

It's true what they say about it not being over until the fat lady sings!


Is it my imagination, or have there been a lot more disqualifications in these games?

vivatifosi

Loved watching Mo! About the only benefit of my frozen shoulder has that I have woken up like clockwork to watch all of the most exciting races.

ivyleaf

Wondering whether we can manage to stay awake to watch the Closing Ceremony tonight....I know we can record it, or watch the repeat of it tomorrow morning, but it's not quite the same

SingleSue

Pyxis wrote: »

I love cubby holes in unexpected places!

So often these are ripped out when a place is modernised!

Does your enormous garden have a vegetable patch?
My current house only has a small garden, so I've only been able to grow veg in pots or in small amounts. My previous house had a ready made veg plot, not overly large, but enough for me to cut my gardening teeth on!

Talking of post-war prefabs, though, they have an incredible place in history. I'm glad some have been listed.
As a child, I lived on the outskirts of London, and I can remember nearby estates of prefabs. When I went back years later, they had all been replaced by brick council houses, and I did feel a bit of a pang.
The documentary I mentioned before interviewed a long-standing occupier of a prefab. She said that they had previously lived cheek by jowl in a couple of rooms with a shared loo, no bathroom and a tap on the landing. When she saw the prefab she had been allocated, she felt she had gone to heaven! Her own bathroom, with a geyser for hot water over the bath and her own kitchen! And a garden! And her own front door.

Some of the older council houses are wonderful, too! My first job was with the government, and involved property, and I was involved in the first right-to-buy schemes. Some of the older council houses had incredible features, and would have been a gold mine for an astute council tenant!
The best ones I saw were in a very desirable part of London, overlooking a leafy part of the Thames! Can you believe it? Nothing between these semidetached council houses and the river except grass verges! Plus they had large front gardens and even larger back gardens. I remember thinking that the tenants that bought these houses, and at a discount, were incredibly fortunate!

No veggie patch here, unfortunately I can't tend to things like that as I can't bend that easily anymore...oh and the fact that I have absolutely no green fingers to speak of! :rotfl:

My brother is a gardener, my sister was a florist, I just kill plants as soon as I look at them, doesn't matter what I try to do, how well I look after them, they just die...not helped by that fact that when I do attempt to do anything in the garden I cut down the ugly things and keep the pretty things. Not too much a problem really except that the pretty things tend to be the weeds and the ugly things some kind of expensive and planned plant my brother has planted, he has now banned me from messing with the plants and can only strim the grass (although I managed to strim down what I thought were weeds on the outside of the grass but later found out was planned planting and most def not a weed).

I don't think my house could ever be seen as desirable or good enough to be listed but it is a roof over my head and my home and for that, I am grateful.