My New House - When I bought it

Ok so time for a confession, I've been thinking about writing this post since summer 2017 when we found the house for me to live in on moving from Northumberland to Lincolnshire. And now it's nearly summer 2019 Yikes!!!

In my defence, it's taken this long to work out how the new house needs to be adapted for my needs, but as I've nearly got my act together on the downstairs, it seems a good time to pull my finger out and get started!

So. This new house? What's it like?

Front elevation of the house from estate agent particulars 2017

It's a 3 bed 1930s semi detached house about half a mile away from the town centre of Gainsborough in Lincolnshire. It's about twice the size of my last house and it does feel overly large sometimes for one person, but the tricky thing about being disabled so that you need wheels is, that wheels need an awful lot of space to be able to move around in!

It's been knocked about over the years and the downstairs interior has been changed pretty significantly. Originally there was a sitting room at the front right, with a dining room directly behind it, and the kitchen was a tiny room at the back of the house on the left. Behind the kitchen there was a back door with two tiny rooms, one for a WC and one for storage and behind that, a coal hole. That entire space behind the kitchen has been incorporated into the house as a split level utility area with a WC.

From the left, Original House layout, Current Layout in the middle and Possible Future Layout on the right

At some stage the living and dining room were knocked into one, then additional changes added a new stud wall between dining and living rooms level with the end of the hall, and knocked through into the kitchen. 

The floor height between the front and back rooms in the house (originally dining and living rooms) are slightly different so someone had put in a step platform in the part 'stolen' from the dining room for the living room - that part is just about the width of a single bed. Obviously a step taking up a quarter of the living room wasn't going to work for me, so I never saw it, the family organised builders to take it away and re-lay the laminate flooring so it was all one level in the 2 months between me buying it and moving into it, the family also organised the builders to change the radiators for new ones as it's easier to do that when the house is empty than when it's full of my stuff. The final change started before I moved in was putting a utility sink into the Utility area and a cat flap, as well as my washer dryer.

So here's the pictures from the Estate Agent Particulars when I bought the house in August 2017 so you can see what it looked like before I moved in (with previous owner's furniture etc)

Living Room
The living room is in shades of brown, which when I lived in that room for a year after moving in as I wasn't getting a stairlift any time soon, I soon found enormously oppressive. So, note to self, you don't like living in these really cozy but dark colour schemes.

Living Room from Estate Agent Particulars August 2017

 

I was also quite excited to be in a house with a fireplace and mantelpiece. And whilst I do love having the mantelpiece, the fireplace was merely a fan heater that I found expensive and uncomfortable to use, also, as my kingsize bed was filling up most of the room I kept jabbing my toes on the hearthstone.

The sellers kindly left the blinds and whilst I adore the shape of roman blinds, living entirely in this room for a year made me realise the downsides as a disabled person using the living room as a bedroom with only a small privacy garden strip to the pavement - that the majority of the light comes from above and is cut off, they're hard for me to pull up and let down, and they didn't give me partial privacy.

This room gets very little direct sunlight, the sun rises on the right of the window and sets where the window doesn't catch any more light, so it's actually quite a dark room apart from at the bay where it's flooded with light.

Kitchen
This room is long and thin, being 2/3 of the original dining room and all the original kitchen. That suits ablebodied people, but for me the distances between sink, microwave and fridge have been exhausting!

Kitchen from dining room end, looking into original kitchen area from Estate Agent Particulars August 2017

One thing I did like about this kitchen was the open nature of the window/sink area with range cooker, however that cooker had way too many knobs for me and the carers to cope with, so I asked the sellers to take it with them.  My fridge/freezer was too tall for the Utility area, so ended up in the Range space, and yes, I've lived without a hob or oven (I have a combination microwave) for a year and a half. It's been doable but I'll be pleased to get a proper kitchen again eventually!

At the end under the window there's a space for an undercounter fridge and also a cupboard on the left, that was moved to the Utility to make a foundation for my Utility sink/countertop as I needed that space for my disability equipment.

Kitchen from original kitchen area looking into dining room end from Estate Agent Particulars August 2017

Much as I love the lime green of the wall, it is fighting with the reddish colour of the countertop and the grey textured unit doors pick up both colours.  The room is light filled with direct sunlight from mid afternoon for a few hours even in winter.  The window over the sink looks out over the patio and down the garden. The cherry tree flowers first, then the redcurrant next door, then the apple tree then more bushes next door so the view is full of the changing seasons.

This room would make an excellent sitting room (that is able to be used for sleeping in also) as it's more private than the front room and has better light.  Eventually I hope to turn the window into patio doors and a raised patio with ramp at the end for wheelchair access.

One difficulty I had was the ceramic tiles in the Kitchen, they were laid unevenly and also the latex glue wasn't regular so many of the tiles were broken and I kept bruising my toes on them as I moved around the room on my Bambach saddle stool.  The units are old and falling apart too, so rather than repair/replace them, we decided to have a think about whether the entire ground floor worked or needed a redesign for my needs.

Utility Room
See that door next to the range cooker above? that takes you through to the Utility room. It has the back door and a patio door, both significant step downwards to ground level, then at the end of the room, a step down to where the sellers kept their fridge/freezer and washing machine and tumble dryer. Then on the left (behind the wall with mirrors) is a very small WC with toiler and basin. 

Utility Area & WC from Estate Agent Particulars August 2017

Hallway & Stairs

The Estate Agent didn't take a picture of the hallway and stairs, but I have.

Hallway and Stairs in Autumn 2017 partly moved in...

What you can't see very well in the photo is the glorious original 1930s front door that now forms the inner porch door with a uPVC external front door. Originally the house would have had the wooden door inset as an open porch. Again, a step down to the outside ground level.

Back Garden

There is a lovely brick patio filling in the return at the back of the house, with a concrete path along the back of the house, a border with bushes down the side and a raised area at the back with a shed.

Patio in return at back of kitchen Estate Agent Particulars August 2017

 This patio gets very little direct sunlight until late afternoon so it makes it a lovely shady place to sit. I particularly like the bamboo on the corner and love the rustling sound it makes in the breeze.

Garden to the right side Estate Agent Particulars August 2017

Rear of the house Estate Agent Particulars August 2017

 The lawn has quite a lot of moss in it, which the sellers raked out before the pictures were taken, it is not the muddy disaster it looks like in the photos! The back gate gives level access via an alley way between the two houses and is very useful for bringing my scooter around to the patio doors. Mum and I retrieved slate chippings from the border areas in the garden and used weed suppressant fabric underneath to make a pathway for the scooter as the concrete path wasn't wide enough.

Mum and I also worked out that by pushing a few of the railway sleepers off their double height onto the lawn and shoving small ones along, the raised area at the back of the garden could be made accessible for me with a single rather than double height that also looked better.

Upstairs 
The stairs are quite steep with mean treads but, they are straight, so that makes putting a stairlift in a LOT cheaper than one with curves or corners in it.

 

Bathroom
At the top of the stairs to the right is the bathroom, toilet behind the door, a bath with electric shower and sink, and a window that threatened to fall out every time you opened it! I changed out the window in summer 2018 and now I have an easy to open one!

Upstairs Bathroom Estate Agent Particulars August 2017

The whole room is tiled in not unpleasant marled grey/white tiles with mosaic inserts, with a grey vinyl floor. The toilet is old and doesn't flush properly, the shower head needed to be replaced and the cold tap pretends to be turned off then starts up again so in due course this room will need to be addressed but for now it works just fine!

Main Bedroom
Is at the back of the house above the kitchen (original dining room end). I adore the Laura Ashley wallpaper and specially made roman blinds in here. Eventually the hot water tank cupboard will be taken out now that a combi boiler has been installed (summer 2018) so there's no tank any more.  When the combi boiler was put in, I got them to move the radiator from behind the bedhead to underneath the window.

Main Bedroom at back Estate Agent Particulars August 2017

In due course the carpet will be taken up, ceiling and non papered walls repainted and electrics upgraded, for now it's a storeroom for the entirety of my belongings that ought to be downstairs but aren't due to building work being due. 

This room gets sunlight from mid morning to mid afternoon and will make a perfect upstairs living room/ craft room with sofa bed for overnight guests eventually.

Second Bedroom
This wasn't photographed for the sale but I did.

Second Bedroom to be my Permanent Bedroom

As you can see it has a full wall of mirrored sliding doors with fitted wardrobes behind. The layout doesn't quite suit me for hanging/shelf space, but will do until I've saved up to sort it out. There's just enough space between the door and window for a kingsize bed and two small bedside tables, but not much walking space between the end of the bed and the sliding doors.

This room gets sun in the mornings, and looks out onto the street so has a large expanse of sky for cloudwatching from bed.

This room is going to be my permanent bedroom in due course. I've had electrical work done, and the carpet has been taken up and the wallpaper stripped from the walls, so eventually once all the work has been done downstairs this room can be decorated and will be finished.

Bedroom 3

Is a small single bed sized room that is currently being used to house my collection of craft materials on Ikea Ivar shelving. It's at the front over the hallway and front door.

Third Bedroom Estate Agent Particulars August 2017

So there you go, my new (not so new now) house.

Why did I buy that particular house? and nearly 2 years on, did I make the right decision?

The killer questions!

For starters, why did the family move from Northumberland? Because we followed my sister who moved back to Lincolnshire for work. 

Mum and dad found their house close to the Library and the mediaeval Old Hall before I found this - they are in their 80s and wanted a house that they could happily live in without needing a car, they're only a few hundred metres from everything they need in the Town Centre.

The parentals house

So, once they decided that was the town they wanted to live in (Gainsborough) and the house, I decided I wanted to live close enough to them that they'd be able to walk to my house and I'd be able to trundle to theirs on my scooter (or other disability equipment) really easily, so I drew a circle on the Right Move house search and only looked in that area.

Further towards the town the houses were smaller, with tiny yards - with Ivorcat being pretty much an outside cat, I wanted a decent sized garden and with Tabithacat having no road sense at all and severely arthritic I wanted a secure garden that she couldn't escape from.

For myself I wanted separate garden access (as that was a nightmare at the last house having to take everything through the house), that would be easy to adapt for my disability - so no more than one step up or down on the ground floor between interior and exterior, enough space inside for using a wheelchair, and a straight staircase for a stairlift. I also needed a house that already had a toilet on both floors. I also knew it would take a year for any Disabled Facility Grant to happen so I needed enough space to be able to live downstairs initially in my pre-existing king size bed.

Why didn't I look for a bungalow? Because they are very rarely built close to a town centre, and cost a lot more per square foot than normal houses, and there weren't any near the old town only up the hill which is a long haul!

Did I make a good choice? I think yes: it's a road that people walk to get into town but not a ratrun, it's not very near any pubs or load noises, it's close enough to the parents' house and town to make it relatively easy for me to go out, it's also close to the river for a different view.  The house as it's currently laid out doesn't work for me and my energy levels but the parents are giving me an early inheritence on top of the Council's Disabled Facilities Grant so I can adapt it to my needs.  The house backs onto the local College so it's not overlooked much and Ivorcat has a 'green corridor' if he wants to venture further afield.

Even better, the town centre has been refurbished in the last 20 years or so and has modern pavements and dropped kerbs everywhere I've wanted to go. I've only been stranded twice here, both times where derelict factories haven't been repurposed yet.  The vast majority of shops are accessible for wheelchair or scooter - and there's a good range of shops from bargain pound shops and charity shops through to supermarkets through to higher end High Street like Laura Ashley and M&S food. There's buses and trains and reasonable transport links for visitors. The library is fully accessible and there's the English Heritage owned Old Hall virtually on the parents' doorstep (with actual fruit bearing Mulberry trees in season yum yum!)

The Old Hall - has a cafe!

There's also a fully accessible pub, The Trent Port a short walk along the river and over the bridge, which is right next to a paved river walk.

So yes, overall the town is great and the house has the potential to, and will be great too!

Next post - the changes I've made so far...