Progress at No 11

You either love old houses or you don't.  Whether you live in one or prefer to simply look there is no denying that behind every exterior lies an interior that intrigues, fascinates and holds a key to a secret past life that is sometimes hard to imagine.

In the hallway and our bedroom we are lucky enough to have the original floor tiles dating back to when the house was constructed sometime in the early 1600's.  I couldn't resist peeling back some tacky carpeting in one of the other bedrooms and chipping through the thin layer of concrete.  A sensible person might have left it there, the simple option being to re-carpet and turn a blind eye but tantilizingly of course the entire floor area has wonderful deep red polished tiles, or rather could have ....

Made rather good progress this week even though I say so myself.  Seem to have found a very agreeable team indeed to do the electrics and plumbing and this is of course worth a mention in itself. Not only do they appear when they say they will but they turn up on time, enthusiastic, smiling and doing a competent job.  His Lordship took himself off to the attic where he set about cutting up old German camp beds.  'No wonder they lost the war' he said,' if they had put less iron in the beds and more in their Panzers the outcome may have been entirely different'.  Meanwhile I have to rise above the urge to tear off the carpeting that envelopes the bath and crawls up the walls.  I know the tub has dainty little feet as I've had a peep but I am under strict instructions to progress with order.  Instead I have to transport myself to the day when it will be luscious but who could have resisted the huge old French elegant wash handbasin to start with ? not me.

But it takes commitment to renovate and live in a house of a certain age if you are going to retain its character and appeal.  It is not for the fainthearted and woosies of this world.  There are draughts, spiders, grime and discomfort along the way  but you won't catch me whinging as I recognise that I am priviliged to be in the position to live somewhere so special in the first place. 

Wouldn't it be lovely though if everyone who was fortunate in life just stopped for a moment and counted their blessings once in a while ?