Through the door and up the wooden hill

Well, think it's time to leave the snug - the original door was still in place here, but had been turned into a sliding door, faced with hardboard(!) It had some old wallpaper set into the door frame, so instead of stripping it - we just painted over the top to tone it all together, as I quite liked the look of the paper.
Out in the hallway you can see the side of the staircase - this was all blocked and faced with hardboard, but the original stair case was still hiding underneath - so it awaits some restoration - as do the stairs as you can see. I quite like the trace of the unpainted surface, left from where I suppose there used to be a stair runner at some point.

Multi-functional. Table setting.

Sunday morning

Sunday evening

Working table

Tea party table

The kitchen table is probably the most used area in the house; it acts as a place to eat, work, read, drink, talk, and more. The table is relatively new due to the fact that I burnt the previous one by leaving a candle burning away.

The chairs are a mix, some inherited, some new, and as mentioned in an earlier post, non-matching. This wasn’t a deliberate decision initially – in all other houses that we have lived in, we always had a pew on one side of the table and chairs on the other, so there has never been a case for buying four matching chairs. The pew looked wrong here as the proportions of the new table meant it couldn’t be placed against the wall; more chairs were gradually added, initially four, now six.

You can see the pew in the photograph above,  taken shortly after we moved in.

As a child, whenever we sat down as a family to eat, we all had ‘a place’ where we sat and this never changed. Mum was nearest to the kitchen, whilst I sat opposite my Dad and next to my brother. D and I have more chairs and less people to accommodate so we don’t follow any ‘regime’ in terms of where we sit – however, it is more practical for whoever is cooking to sit nearest the oven or hob, and I do have a preferred place to sit when I use the table to work at.

A Bare Breast and No Mantelpiece.

The snug follows on from the studio and is a really nice room to relax in. There is a music system in the alcove on the left, in which sits an old valve amplifier. It lights up when switched on, and has a nostalgic glow. A pair of home-made speakers sit either side of the chimney breast. A small original G-Plan coffee table, and a foot stool are placed in front of the tongue and groove paneling, where the original fireplace would have been. The blue colour tiles are still there (see pic above), underneath the rug, and the brickwork is still there too, but alas no fireplace or mantelpiece. The chimney breast is bare - S was saying the other day about purchasing a mirror to go there, but I'm not sure about a mirror (always get caught out for a moment in shock when I see a reflection), and perhaps would prefer to put some artwork there instead. TBCt'd.
In a previous post ('Wooden Floor, Feet Pointing Snugward') you can see that we had some plates hung from a picture rail above the sofa. Now, a couple of weeks on, and they are in a shelf unit (rescued from the 'old' Art Shop at Bath Spa University) along with two Staffordshire dogs (with rather comical expressions) in the other alcove. The walls are very bare, but will get some additions soon - and you can see the inherited items (plate and deer ornament)on the shelf, just near the door to the hallway.

The room has changed rather a lot. Couldn't resist putting in some 'before' and 'during' photos to show you the room in Audrey's day, the 'hole in the wall' during our renovations, and also the blue colour wash, which was the original colour of the painted walls of the house when it was built in 1877.
Discovered under rather a lot of layers of wallpaper.

Pin-up. Memento

I am being a bit greedy with this choice, and have selected to show the object that holds lots of mementos – a church notice board. The wood carving at the top, which is partly obscured by lights, reads St. John the Evangelist Notices.

The contents of the board are rarely edited, but simply added to as time goes by. Printed ephemera and other objects accompany personal photographs and small mementos from holidays, trips and events. The American flag was from NY; I was there the day Obama was inaugurated as President and this was handed to me as I watched the event on a large outside screen. Other items include chilli seeds from Goa, a cardboard deer (gift from a friend) wearing 3d glasses, a sheriff’s badge found in Rome, cigarettes from Goa – bought purely for the packaging (I don’t smoke), a red rosette, theatre tickets, and an assortment of drawings and cards from my young nephew that chart his artistic progress.

I like the fact that the board enables things to be on view, where I can see them, rather than hidden away in a drawer or album.

Wooden Floor, Feet Pointing Snugward ...

So here I am (well my feet, anyway) standing in the studio, facing the double doors that open into the 'snug' (as we call it), which traditionally would have been the dining room. We had to re-lay some of the floorboards, as a few has perished and also a couple had been replaced with pieces of heavy skirting board (Albert?)!

I really like the fact that the gaps between the wooden floorboards are not equal, and some gaps are rather large. You find all sorts of things that have fallen in between the boards. Though, sometimes I have to unscrew one to retrieve a lost earring!

The snug is when Audrey's inherited objects live.

Inherited

The viewing. We had booked 7 house viewings in one day, and were running behind schedule. 'Our house' was our second to last viewing. We had about 5 minutes for a quick look round before our next booking, which was kind of ok, as it was just around the corner. As we entered the house, it was like going back in time - to an era before we were born, but one we were too familiar with, when visiting the houses of elderly Aunts, or Grandparents. The atmosphere of calm and security was gently enveloping, as the tour progressed, we navigated ourselves around the rooms, upstairs, downstairs and outside. The house had only come on the market the day before, so we were the first prospective house-buying visitors. We liked it very much, although it needed rather a lot of renovation.

It was as though the owner had just stepped out for a moment to give us some privacy to view their property without hindrance. I thought, "how kind."
A nightie was hung behind the door in the master bedroom  upstairs. There were three packets of cough sweets placed on the kitchen side. Everything was in it's place.
The truth was very different. Audrey, who had lived here for over 45 years, had suddenly been taken poorly, was admitted to hospital and died after a few days. Although this was such a sad fact to know, this place felt like one that had been loved.
We bought the house that evening.
When I entered the house for the first time after our purchase, there was someone already busying in the kitchen. Margret. She explained that she held a key for Audrey's house - they had been best friends for over 40 years, and Margaret lived next door. She was trying to pack up all the glassware into newspaper, to be given to charity, and she hadn't quite finished before I had arrived. She had packed up all of Audrey's clothes the week before, and tried to clear the house as much as she could. Audrey had a brother who was visiting later in the day (to collect a dining table, a couple of chairs and a fan), but most of the organising of the disposal of personal items and furniture had been left to Margaret, as far as I know.
I said that I would help pack up the glass ware and take it to the charity shop. We chatted for a while made a drink, and looked out of the kitchen window together. Margaret told me that all the daffodils in the back garden had been planted to give Audrey 'a nice show' in the Spring ... it was such a shame that she never got to see them. I immediately warmed to Margaret, and felt so sorry for her loss of a dear friend. It was in my mind that over time, we may become friends, too.
In clearing the rest of the glassware from the kitchen cupboards, I came across a Homemaker plate, and a Staffordshire jug, and also a small deer ornament that was left alone in the dining room. I decided to keep them as an inheritance from Audrey, a small mark of respect, that she, and her late husband Albert's memory, would dwell within these objects, as long as we lived here.

Margaret and I are now great friends, and she still holds a key to this house. We talk about Audrey and Albert from time to time. The stories she has told me ...

Wooden. Duo

Finally, within the hall, in a narrow space between the door architraves nestles another inherited piece – the barometer from my grand parents house. This was positioned in a similar place in their house, although it wasn't a conscious decision to imitate its placement.

In contrast on the opposite wall is a pinball table; I’m particularly partial to the cowgirl-themed design; we weren’t responsible for dismantling an entire pinball machine, there were a pile of these being sold in a junkyard, and regrettably we only bought one. The painted woodwork is in really good condition, considering they were in a shed, although the metal casing is a little rusty.