Sunday 1 September 2024

Why We Moved to Wales - Part V - "It's got a lot of potential" . . .




 "It's got a lot of potential" - that's what people used to say when they visited - looking back, they must have had SUCH a shock.  We were living in a complete and utter DUMP.  There were no two ways about it, the house had seen better days and it would be a good few years before we could do more than just do the minimum to put it right.  For the first few years we didn't even dare to apply for a Council Grant to improve it for fear they would condemn the place!
The top photo shows Keith (Hah! when he still had black hair!) showing you just how damp our sitting room was - and how excruciating the wallpaper!  You can see the awful fireplace too - that was one of the first things to go.  As you can see, wallpaper stripping was extremely easy . . .

Here is Keith reading little Tamzin a bedtime story (a Puddle Lane one, judging by the cover).  Look at the concentration on her face : )  As you can see this was before there was a fireplace revealed, so the grotty old Stanley (?) stove sat out in the room.

As you can see the decor of the kitchen left something to be desired . . .  Looking back, I honestly can't remember it being quite so truly awful . . .  As you can see, some foodstuffs had to be hung from the beam so that the mice didn't get them . . .

Here's a close-up.  My ma-in-law had a fit of the vapours when she came to visit and for years said we would never get our money back on the house!  She also insisted I put curtains up at her bedroom window because she knew for a fact that UFOs had been spotted in Wales, and "they took you up into the spacecraft and carried out very painful experiments on you."   !  And she was an intelligent woman . . . supposedly . . .


It was just as well really, that she wasn't here when the workmen came to excavate the old fireplace so the Hergom stove could go in.  We reinstated the beam, as it was missing, and I can remember driving around the Welsh lanes and seeing a falling-down barn and then trying to find out who it belonged to so we could negotiate to buy the beams in it to do up our house . . .  Thinking back, we got our money's worth out of those old Acro props down the years.

This was the rather grandly-named "Morning Room" which overlooked the paddock.  The wall to your left had quite a damp problem (down the chimney) and eventually we had to have the plaster hacked off and replaced, and it was only about 3 years ago that Keith and grown-up son Danny (not even a twinkle in his daddy's eye in this photo!) also replaced the beautiful dentil coving - hand-made by Keith.  Then, and only then, did the roll of carpet we had bought at auction some 15 years earlier, finally get laid . . .

Outside was still pretty grim too, as the limewash soon got washed off by the blasts of winter wind and rain.  About all that has happened in this photo is a brick path has been laid across the yard and we appear to have painted over the chocolate brown paint around the windows.

However, it wasn't all doom and gloom, as here you can see T's first pony, Jo-Jo, a little section A Welsh mare who we bought aged 11 from a showing family near Sennybridge.  Unfortunately she'd had Laminitis very badly and had dropped soles but she was 100% reliable in every way, and although we always had to watch her weight, she taught all the children to ride, and we had her for many years.  You can see from this photo that the "garden" was a tad . . . basic too!

Here is Tam, aged nearly 2 1/2 with two of Blackberry's kittens who we kept - Sooty and Bumble.  Gosh, that takes me back.

So, do you think we were completely and utterly bonkers?  I think most sane people would have thought twice before taking THIS house on!  It makes me laugh when I watch Escape to the Chateau type programmes and these people think that no-one has ever done anything like this before, "we must be mad".  Well love, we did it in Wales before you were even born!  Back in our day it was farmhouses people did up though, not French chateaus.

                                        *             *             *

I had a lovely visit from my friend Deb yesterday.  We'd not seen each other for a few years as our lives had gone in slightly different directions, but it was just like we had only seen each other last week.  She loved this house and said it reminded her of Ynyswen, which is what someone else who knows us and Ynyswen very well also said.  We talked and talked, and then dived into Family History, which was a lovely rabbit hole to disappear down.  The cake went down well and I sent her home with a third of it.  I'll take the final chunk to Tam later on today.

Since I have gotten rid of Sky I've had no end of trying to get the channels to watch up on the tv.  I bought an aerial which should be efficient enough - as long as I site it on top of my spinning wheel by the French windows that is.  Tam tried tuning it, but we only got ALL the BBC channels and nothing else.  Last night I wanted to watch Antiques Roadshow, but couldn't get ANY BBC channels up, only all the other one I couldn't get before and they didn't have any listings beside them so I couldn't get those either.  I ended up watching some really good programmes on Youtube.  The Irish Homestead (how to Do Up a Cottage Using Lots Of Concrete), Slow Sewing with Sherry Iris (which inspired me to finally do the last tiny leaves on the wildflowers on felt heart which Tam got me for Christmas), making a triangular cushion with Kate at The Last Homely House etc.  All positive and relaxing programmes.  

I now have to collect the folding table I bought, as it is at the Yodel depot in Aberystwyth.  It was meant to be delivered on Saturday but they spun a yarn of there being a problem with my address and being unable to deliver - please get in touch (timed 4 hours before it should have been here but that post wasn't there till gone 9 p.m. . . .)  I need it for the Fair at the weekend, so visiting Tam will allow me to go and make sure I have it.

It's 5.12 a.m. and has just started raining heavily.  Little Whale has decided that indoors is better than outside now, as Alfie decided earlier.  I hope it passes over before I have to go through the mountains.  That's a drive much nicer in sunshine.

27 comments:

  1. I am loving these posts. What memories! What a lot of back-breaking hard work! The 'Escape To the Chateau' types on tv always seem to have an army of 'mates' handily living just around the corner in rural France and available to do almost anything at a moment's notice. Real life, which doesn't involve a film crew and repeat fees, doesn't work like that, as your stories show. I can't imagine any of them holding onto a carpet for 15 years before it got laid!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, if we couldn't do it ourselves, we had to pay good money for someone else to do it. That said, eventually we did get an improvement grant, which reroofed it, replaced a couple of rotten window frames and removed the cracked rendering to let parts of the house breath. It was almost a vintage carpet by that time!

      Delete
  2. Absolutely loving these gorgeous old photos BB x Hope you get your table delivery ok and have a good if busy time at T xx Danette

    ReplyDelete
  3. 1950s decor plus a damp farmhouse...brings back memories!!
    Basic doesn't matter... happiness does.
    I've given up on live TV...saves me just under £180 a year...I looked at the programmes that interested me...and found that I could get them for free on the Channel 4 and 5 repeat channels or YouTube...brother set up Chromecast for anything I want on a larger screen... otherwise I watch on the tablet computer, where and when I want to!!

    "Couldn't find the address" reminds me of waiting for the delivery of a camera....it came a week overdue...the previous driver had seen anything with Farm on the address and pushed it to the back of the van...when it did arrive, the next driver had a laugh..our front door was twenty foot from the road!..and a lot of the late deliveries he brought with an apology were like us..but to be serious, the other one lost his job.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It does sound like we walked a similar path gz. I am going to have to fork out for a decent aerial or forgo tv in favour of Youtube, Netflix and Prime.

      Well, we WERE an hour and a half away from the Depot in Aber. They obviously didn't want to come this far just to DELIVER something did they? Anyway, I saved them the bother.

      Delete
  4. I used to call that "camping out"
    I cannot believe that you have to drive all the way to Aberystwyth to collect what should have been delivered. Disgraceful!
    It must be the week for seeing friends not seen for some time.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Gosh, it was camping out AND some. When we had the kitchen floor dug up so the membrane could go down, and then concrete and finally flagstones, I spent a week wobbling about on a scaffolding board to cook our meals!

      I decided to collect the table as I HAD to have it for Friday, and they clearly couldn't be relied upon to deliver it - it should have been here Thursday.

      Delete
  5. Wow, that is some project you took on. While the décor in our Devon farmhouse left a lot to be desired, red subway tiles with black grout in the kitchen! in fact a lot of red everywhere , the basics were there. We knew we weren't capable of major renovations ourselves so only looked at places that were ready to move in to. It was good enough that we were able to bring up our boys in a quiet valley and send them to the 2 room village school. The ground was unsuitable for growing veg, too wet and no topsoil but we had chickens and of course cats and dogs. Good luck with getting your table from the delivery people.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yup. Yet you know, had we been younger we would have done it all over again for the right property. Keith loved Ynyswen with a passion and didn't want to leave, but by the time we'd restored derelict rooms, the house was huge - 8 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, my mum's granny flat, plus stabling for our horses and 5 1/2 acres grazing to maintain. We simply couldn't afford the maintenance and the cost of oil when prices shot up must have been horrendous - they were bad enough here, and this is half the size.

      Delete
  6. More amazing memories, thanks for sharing them x
    Alison in Wales x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Happy memories - plus some Oh My God moments along the way, in many different ways. We were meant to be in Wales, that's for sure - AND to stay here.

      Delete
  7. I think we were all much more accepting of the need to do up our homes slowly, as budget and time constraints allowed back in the day. When I think about some of the places I have lived and the work I have done just to get them habitable at first, and then gradually making improvements and upping our standard of living later. These days it seems to be the norm to have everything done for you and all brand new before you move into a property.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Indeed, time was the only thing we had plenty of, as we certainly didn't have plenty of money! We did right by that house though, and its tremendous history, and the new occupants are true to it as well. He did a very sympathetic renovation of the cart shed and stables for his bookbinding workshops. I don't think we ever bought anything brand new all the time we were there (apart from shoes perhaps). Even some of the white goods came from auction - we've just had a freezer die on us that came from auction in 1999!!!

      Delete
  8. Lovely past history of Ynysen. I remember when I took the road to Wales and looked at smallholdings, the inside of the farmhouses could be pretty bleak, several different types of wallpaper in one room for example. I chose another road you both persevered and created a lovely house.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Perseverance was indeed the order of the day. I think Paul needed a house that you could just move into, and he liked everything in good order. At least you were close to family and even closer now!

      Delete
  9. Definitely a big job, then, wasn't it? :) Maybe I'm prone to fits of romanticizing (I am) but I feel like that's how the best memories are made, and the deepest connections to a sense of home. I'm also prone to falling in love with houses and wouldn't care what state they were in if it spoke to me. Hope the rain let up for your journey. ~ Melanie xo

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It was an absolutely ENORMOUS job as every room needed something doing to it! Some were entirely derelict and damp.

      The rain wasn't too bad but driving through the mountains was through thick fog (if it were rain it would be torrential) - it couldn't have gotten any thicker and I had to drive slowly as you couldn't see the road for very far ahead. Fortunately on the way home the clouds hadn't descended and as I got nearer to Llangurig the sun came out.

      Delete
  10. No. I don't think it was crazy. I think you and Keith were resourceful people and confident that with a dint of hard work, you could make it work. And so you did.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Resourceful - yes, that is the perfect word to describe us. It took a mint of money though . . .

      Delete
  11. Oh what a challenge. Only someone w your mental and physical energy could have tolerated such "potential"! I must go back and read previous posts, it is summer's supposedly last hurrah here at the beach [---tho autumn doesn't come til mid-November, lol], a busy time. I love seeing young Keith and the kids, what a walk down memory lane for us and for you too. I am happy for you thatyour children are stepping up and being with you now.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think that Keith and I were cast from a similar mould. I don't know where my "taking a chance" gene came from, but I think Keith's was from his grandfather, who was sadly killed on the Somme in WW1. Tam's definitely got a chunk of it, that much I do know. It is giving me comfort revisiting these memories.

      Delete
  12. I don't know how you and Keith managed it all! Clearly a labor of love for that house. I did a lot of work on my little old house here, but nothing like yours. I need to look back through your posts to see how it turned out!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. A labour of love it definitely was. We had the bare bones of a wonderful house, and that is exactly what it turned into, eventually and very expensively. I can't pinpoint a date where there are internal photos of it finished - you will just have to check back.

      Delete
  13. Not bonkers, but meeting a challenge as the bones of a wonderful home were there. You just had to dig a bit harder than most of us. Aww, such lovely memories of Keith and the littles.

    God bless.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, we could see how it might look - and how we wanted it to look. Yes, Keith was in his 40s then, and I was in my 30s.

      Delete
  14. I'm stunned. You weren't afraid of hardwork that's for sure. We are selling a house which is about 50% reno'd. We are getting older and don't have the energy for the rest. It is the lowest priced house in the area because of the work still needing to be done. Every single person to view it has said too much work. We have put in a new kitchen and bathroom and cleaned up two bedrooms and living room. I'm beginning to think young couples are no longer willing to roll up their sleeves.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hah - try telling my late ma-in-law that! Because I didn't iron sheets (I did everything else), I was a lazy so and so. She would tell me about doing housework at 2 a.m. in the morning as she couldn't leave a room dirty before she went to bed! More fool her I thought!

      Some people - those who want smallholdings - are usually willing to put in the work, here in Wales anyway, because land is so expensive in England and hence they get pushed to the margins house-hunting. There's a couple who bought a place worse than Ynyswen (totally uninhabitable) and now have videos on Youtube of them doing it up (The Irish Homestead I think it is). My son wants somewhere he can just move into as well - doubtless put off by what we went through at Ynyswen! Gabby is the same. Tam's the adventurous one.

      Delete