OUR HOUSE
On April 9th 2001 we moved into our new house in the Suttons in Lincolnshire, comprising a five bedroom building the basis of which was built around 1830, with a shop next door which was originally the village general store, the first building had been demolished and a new one built in the late 1930's. The photograph above is deceptive as it makes the place look quite tidy, however, in reality there was rising damp in all ground floor rooms, the electrics had been overhauled badly (there were three power meters!), the heating system was badly installed and many rads did not work, in addition the boiler was big enough to heat a school. Rotten floorboards, water under the living room and study floors, leaking and failing roofs, 15 windows needing replacement and collapsing ceilings completed the picture.
This village has existed for over 700 years. The church was partially damaged during the English Civil War, aircraft crashes by British, American and German aircraft were not uncommon during WW2. Generally very quiet and off the beaten track (there is a local caravan site) the village has recently begun to suffer from the regular traffic flow of 38 tonne lorries which have found this B road a better route than the A17 a few miles away. The village boasts a village store, butchers, garage, post office and a pub/restaurant, and hopefully next year a militaria shop.
	Photo taken from the church tower around 1900, our house is the building in the centre of the trees with the original shop next door
	1930's, looking away from the cottage. Note the yellow 'phone box and the pit fenced off in the middle. Steam engines used to draw water from here as they travelled through. It is believed that the pit was caused when material was excavated to make handcast bricks for our house on the building site
	Our house (on the right) with the new shop opened around 1938, so this must have been taken just before WW2
	Another view of the house in the 1930's, note the Austin 8(?) outside the Blacksmiths which also served as the local petrol station.
	A view away from the house, again in the late thirties or forties. There were two pubs at this time, the Hat & Feathers (still open) and the Checkers, along with a tailors, school, shop, etc. The village was nearly self sufficient in the winter of 1946 which saw most of the country snowed in. Only Coal had to be brought in from outside, there even being an abattoir, now closed of course thanks to EU rules on small slaughter houses which have closed nearly all of them in the UK.
The Renovation The photo's only give a tiny sample of the work that has been completed, the project was/is far to big to fit on these web pages, after 4 years of exhausting hard work virtually every weekend and many evenings, we finally have a house to be proud of (if we say so ourselves). We have both achieved huge learning curves and skills and completed tasks that proved huge challenges physically, mentally, emotionally and financially, but we made it. The sense of achievement is huge. There will always be odd maintenece jobs and there are a few projects on the go (some redecorating of the early restored rooms, and the shower needs redoing, badly fitted by a 'helpful friend' and planned as I write this in August 2005, but the hard work is largely behind us. We have both agreed, NEVER, Never, ever again!! AFTER MOVING IN, FIRST JOBS: Refitting and overhauling the plumbing and heating systems, roofing, new and recovering and new windows and a electrical check and rewire of the whole building. FRONT OF HOUSE Left: front of house as seen on the day of viewing. The windows are old aluminium double glazed units, the porch was added after WW2, we have removed this to reveal the original moulded surround to the door. Centre, work in progress, right as now In 2001 During Renovation Today   SHOP Picture on left of Mandy painting the shop in August 2002 This area is painted but awaiting decisions as to what to do with it, The garage doors are due for replacement this year   OFFICE: The office was the first room to be done and actually ended up being refitted twice to make a useable enviroment LIVING ROOM: Living room, don't be fooled by appearances, ceiling is loose in places, serious rising damp to the walls, rotten floorboards, and hardboard dry lining with a useless electric damp course throughout the cottage. the previous owners reckon they spent £40,000 doing the place up, we have yet to find £1000 pounds of work, but the builders were here we have been told for about three months, so they must have tied up their horses elsewhere...... The fireplace is so badly designed that it throws lighted coals out onto the carpet. One of the previous owners had ripped out the fireplaces in order to block them off, this had sealed up the property and prevented airflow, thus encouraging damp and mould. This fireplace has now been modified and makes a superb feature, complete with slate tiles hearth.   BATHROOM the tiny bathroom in dire need of remodelling. The airing cupboard hides an appalling display of pipework which looks like a plate of spaghetti, the pump runs 24 hours a day as the timer wiring is a bad DIY job. This lot had to come out.The airing cupboard being ripped out by Mandy and the shower going in, note the bathroom wall and toilet wall have been removed. the bath is coming out to. GARDEN The backgarden 100'x60' The garden is virtually complete, but no photo's yet STUDY DINING ROOM The dining room, one of the better rooms, not much to do here, we thought, apart from damp course and decorating. In the end the damp course was fine, the ceiling beams had to be redone, suspended floor put in over tile floor (and theres a 3000+ gallon fresh water cistern under there, still functions, so the garden won't go short of water in a drought!), wood on end wall paint stripped, cupboard doors and cupboard made in entranc eto old corridor, but it was ready for Christmas! |UTILITY ROOM AND CORRIDOR: The passageway covered in with a plastic roof and an insecure back-door (the frame was loose) BEDROOM 1 The main bedroom, we could nearly fit the top floor of our old house in here. the fireplace in the corner has of course been partially ripped out and chimney capped, we have now had the chimney rebuilt to a lower height.                                                                                 LANDING The landing, pretty good except for that staircase on the left which needs to betaken out and a new route through bedroom 1 created for safety. It is part of the joining together of the house (to the right), the only bit of the old shop (we think) which is this landing and the corridor below, and the 1938 shop (left).. We found a 1938 newspaper page when the staircase was taken out so it was obviously completed with the shop, the main staircase had 1929 newspapers behind the dado rail! but the first job was the electrics and these were completed in one week by our friend Neil, but while all this was going on Ian was standing as a candidate for the UKIP in the general election in Kings Lynn. Collection Room The room over the workshop which will house our collection once we can get started on it!. THE GARAGE: The main garage roof being completely replaced July 2001