Hold my hand: pregnant and moving into a 1950s time machine

Topher

Oh Wow, Keep it keep it keep it!
Realistically, I've managed to retain a 1940s look when updating my horrendous 1980s kitchen. (We have a foot in each eara - today and the 1940s). Love the gift you have. Book: the 1950s House by Mike Brown is a good sourcebook for creating a look. There are a wider variety of groups who recreate different eras, they might be delighted to take your Kitchen cupboards, bedroom suites etc. if you're bent on getting rid of them.
Essentially I am so deeply envious of the house you've hit upon, and think if life had given me such a gift, I'd love to live in it as intended, We've put a lot of work into our 1940s life & house, and friends and guests always admire it, and say they love the atmosphere we have, all are reluctant to leave. I'm sure you could do the same without sacrifices the benefits of modern life & technology if that's what you're hooked on.

MandM90

Ohhh Topher that sounds magical, have you got any photos?

The kitchen is definitely staying as is, especially the larder/pantry cupboard thing which I'm quite excited about. But we'll probably have one foot in modernity too - so once the windows go (though my uncle - a retired surveyor - thinks they've got plenty of life in them) we'll probably replace with double glazing but avoid plasticy looking UPVC. And I think in the bedrooms we'll go for a 'classic look' rather than out and out vintage. Our current bedroom has new curtains, but they were handmade by me and with William Morris print fabric.

For the kitchen in particular I'd like to find some vintage style tiles and fabric and make little curtains to cover the white goods. I think the peeling and stained brown floral wall vinyl (which I didn't know was a 'thing' until seeing it!) has to go! It reminds me too much of the Royle family's kitchen!

We're a sucker for 'original features' and spent a small fortune in our current Victorian - we replaced the rattling sash windows with bespoke wooden ones in the original frames rather than getting UPVC for half the price, we also spent a lot reinstating original cast iron fireplaces. And we kept the wooden floorboards. I do like my home comforts though. When I leave the house for work with the dishwasher, washing machine and bread maker all set or humming away I say a quiet thank you for the wonderful clever people who've made life so easy!!

MandM90

I'm on track - we also managed to pack 6 more boxes last night. We're actually already running out of stuff we can pack. The movers will take the wardrobe contents as is (I will wrap them in bin bags the night before) and verything non-fragile in drawers will also go as is. So it's mainly the kitchen that will need packing up, and also the small drinks cabinet in the dining room. Yay for minimalism!

Right, time for a quick bath, swizz around the house, drop DD to her granny's and then I'm working from home.

This weekends mission: more boxes!

I'm going to ask at our local Majestic if they have any boxes they can give me. If not I'll try the supermarkets. I'd like to pack the wine glasses and drinks neatly in boxes with dividers. Also need to try and get my hands on some newspaper or packing material.

Fingers crossed the survey goes well today. Feeling anxious. Had a weird dream I had the baby (a lovely, quick labour) but then that DH forgot to tell anyone and made me go out the very next day. Which is funny, because I don't think DH has ever 'made' me do anything!

Topher

MandM90 wrote: »

Ohhh Topher that sounds magical, have you got any photos?

The kitchen is definitely staying as is, especially the larder/pantry cupboard thing which I'm quite excited about.

For the kitchen in particular I'd like to find some vintage style tiles and fabric and make little curtains to cover the white goods. I think the peeling and stained brown floral wall vinyl (which I didn't know was a 'thing' until seeing it!) has to go! It reminds me too much of the Royle family's kitchen.
I do like my home comforts though. When I leave the house for work with the dishwasher, washing machine and bread maker all set or humming away I say a quiet thank you for the wonderful clever people who've made life so easy!!

If you're interested in what I consider to be mistakes we made in our modernisation, I regret almost daily losing our pantry when the gas central heating fitters thought it was the ideal place to put the new boiler. The pantry was originally deliberately built on the coldest corner of the house, I'd been brought up knowing how to use a pantry for keeping all kinds of fresh produce cool and dry even through the 1970s heatwaves and power cuts. The joy of gloating over summer produce as jams, pickles etc. stored and labelled & sqirrelled away is one of my domestic pleasures, as is defying the electricity bill by storing things the old fashioned way. I now have a monster American fridge, but it isn't the thriftiest way of managing things.
I also regret the style of flooring we had put into the kitchen. I wanted to repeat the chequerboard tiling I knew of my past, and maintain the green and cream theme from the 1940s CC41 kitchen (larder) cabinet I'd obtained. I also needed to be sure of not slithering around on a too smooth surface once steam and spills were there to hinder my dashing around a kitchen.The tiles I chose were brilliant for all purposes, unfortunately being a roughinsh irregular stone -style surface (for grip), they are awful to clean, and collect dirt with appalling efficiency. So I regret not thinking about maintaining the floor surface when I chose them.
Sarah Beany suggests not decorating children's bedrooms for now, but for ten years time, and it's wise advice. You can always add in transient details to create a "nursery" look or a teenager's room. I see some 1960s 1970s details in your house photos, I've been attracted to some 1960s/70s teenage girl bedroom things myself and am setting up the spare bedroom in our house to be a throwback to that era. (Rugs, mirrors, dressing table items). That kidney shaped dressing table with drapes & matching stool you've pictured lends itself to an upgrade by replacing the drape fabric on both items with one contemporary to whenever, or even just removing the drapes.
One feature I love in my house is the sound of curtains opening and shutting on brass rails with brass fittings (collected from all over, restored and fitted for us), that swish is so evocative for me. They run better (more smoothly) than any of our plastic modern ones, and have outlasted about two consecutive lives of their plastic counterparts. It's also a noise feature I really wanted as part of the environment I live in.
Best of luck, & I'll try to dig out some photos. Our living room looks mostly authentic, but was in fact de modernised, pelmets made from an old second hand wardrbe for example.

littlegreenparrot

That is a very lovely house.

If I was in your position I would be calling in all the favours, with promises of a thank you/house warming party at some very vague future point when you can face it.

You could probably persuade some of DD's friends to help with the leg work with promises of pizza, if you know them (or the parents) well some might have older siblings who could also be useful.

MandM90

Thanks Topher all sage advice, especially the '10 years from now' bit. For next bedroom for DD we've decided on white walls and a cast iron style double bed. She is quite into pink at the moment - maybe on mat leave I can make her a quilt and curtains. Probably being a bit ambitious...there is always Dunelm

littlegreenparrot I hope the pregnancy card will help me get a bit of help. My mum is an expert DIYer and retires next month so fingers crossed I'll be able to rope her in! DH is NOT very confident but I often need his cautious nation to temper my enthusiasm :eek:

So survey is done, surveyor has promised buyer he'll email it over on Monday. By Tuesday we will either be starting to attempt to exchange, or the whole thing willbe called off. :beer: Yay to the end of ambiguity!

Had a bit of a wobble this afternoon. House prices seem to be dropping. We're paying £502k for this house which is quite a step up from the current one, and our deposit is about 27%. Another house we looked at which is far more modern but a semi and on a smaller plot, has been reduced from 525 --> 500 and now ---> 475! A really ugly boxy 60s/70s house which is massive but with a smaller garden has gone from 525 --> 500 -->450. I guess I'm worried that there will be a huge dip and we won't be able to remortgage at all in 2 years and will end up on variable rates.

DH (who works in financial services, lending/mortgage product creation specifically) is staunchly anti Brexit but reckons we will still be ok because if everything goes to pot, the BoE will have to keep interest rates low anyway and if everything is fine then there may be a slight correction but not a huge 30% dip. I will blame him if we end up living under a bridge :rotfl: I'm hoping that - as we're planning on keeping this house very long term - it'll all come out in the wash eventually, but who knows eh? Scary times, indeed.

MandM90

Sorry this is turning into a lengthy journal, I need to vent!

Buyer sent this:

The surveyor did find a few things I will e-mail you the report when I get it, not sure if it is the full report. There is damp in the kitchen and the utility room it needs to be treated and would cost around £1,500 he said the back window in the second bedroom should be double glazed and it should be changed as it is a fire exit. The loft could be more insulated. One small thing the door between the kitchen and the dining room has to has the glass replaced and it is single glazed. Also the electric metre now should be in a metal casing and it is now a requirement so would have to be replaced. I think that was all.


Personally I feel these are all quite minor for a house built in 1901, considering I accepted a £15k reduction and she was the only person to see the house, on the first day it came on the market - and it didn't even make it onto RightMove!

The damp issue is a mystery to us. A plumber came and looked at it (it's a small patch above skirting board in utility) and couldn't find any source at all, so no idea how they'd treat it without removing the source. As for the second bedroom - she'd be using it as a dressing room as she'll be living here alone. We did point out we hadn't replaced that window yet (the front two were done in wooden sash and we only had the cash for those!) I know fire regs are important and there for a reason but I can't help but wonder

Also interesting he pointed out the internal door and electrics. The electric box regs were introduced in 2016 (we bought the house in 2015) and isn't retroactive. The doors been here 40+ years I imagine, so I doubt any work has been done 'illegally'. I'm not sure why anything would be a problem for an owner occupier. Or am I looking at this with pig headed vendor rose tinted glasses?!

What's quite frustrating about the email is there's no indication if it's just an FYI or she's inferring she'll be asking for a reduction/some rectification. I assume the latter because she mentions a figure.

If she pushes for a reduction we're pulling out. We don't have any cash to spare unfortunately. :o:o There is a house across the road which is terraced, and smaller with a smaller garden (ours is semi) on for £15k more than our agreed price.

Silver linings silver linings...if this all falls through we will save ourselves £22k in fees and moving costs and continue to have a very small mortgage (under 10% of our take home pay). That means that, though we'll be a bit crowded in this house for the next couple of years, we will be able to afford to get out of the house every weekend and to go on some lovely long holidays :beer: I will definitely have to have a good cry over it, though!

Topher

If the damp patch isn't a plumbing issue try looking into condensation, for example a damp patch under our bedroom window was assessed as a plumbing issue (not a pipe anywhere near) & turned out to be condensation gathered from whoever had been sleeping in there. I'm not suggesting someone's sleeping in the kitchen, but it's not beyond wit (of most surveyors anyway) to figure out it could be a ventilation issue just as easily as a more "reduction-worthy" plumbing issue. Grit your teeth and withstand the bartering chip nonsense.

Artytarty

Oh no! I sincerely hope your sale doesn't fall through over these relatively small issues.
I can understand your anger but don't cut off your nose to spite your face!
It would be such a shame to miss out on thta fabulous home you have agreed on.
Keep us posted, fingers crossed.

MandM90

Feeling in turmoil!

DH says see what they say on Monday. If she’s insisting on a reduction we have to pull out. Her language is very imperative “it must be replaced” when in fact if any of those things were illegal or deal killers a) we wouldn’t have been able to buy the house 4 years ago and b) half the houses up and down the country would be condemned for one reason or another!

If we do pull out he’s saying we will use some of the moving money to go on a fabulous holiday (we cancelled two this year due to my morning sickness) and get the bathroom here done as I’ve always wanted a bath with feet and walk in shower (the bathroom is huge for a tiny Victorian) and then the extra £900 a month staying will save will go on the mortgage. That means in 2 years, even after scary nursery costs, we will own 60% of this place. Then if sh*t hits the fan here we could instead buy something like this https://www.daft.ie/kilkenny/houses-for-sale/the-rower/hennessys-farm-ballynunry-the-rower-kilkenny-2216241 which would have such low mortgage payments I wouldn’t have to work and he would only need to contract part of the year.

We will see, not sure if he’s annoyed or serious. For once I’ve deferred the decision to him as I’m finding it all too stressful!