The sinks in the bedrooms, grab rails everywhere, extra security features on doors and windows etc - I think it probably used to be an old people’s home with many residents in their own rooms with communal dining and living rooms. Seems just like the residential house my grandma lived in towards the end of her life.
First off, it was obviously some sort of asylum: locks on the outside of rooms and bars on the windows... hmmm. Ao anyway... I would open up the kitchen into that breakfast area to create a much larger kitchen, adding a nice doorway into the adjacent living room. With that said, I would also swap the dining room and living room, so the dining opened to the new kitchen and to the garden in the rear, for a grilling/BBQ patio. The only other thing that pops out to me is making bedroom 4 into an ensuite for the main front bedroom. So there you go, dusted and done.
Just to put some finishing touches on this, as was the same idea i had, i would add double doors at the end of the hallway into the new kitchen area (formerly Breakfast room), and rather than add a door between new kitchen and new dinning room, i would take new dinning room wall out as well as kitchen/breakfast wall, making one large open kitchen/breakfast bar/dinning table area, with agreed the double doors going out to a patio/BBQ/Outdoor Kitchen area. Brilliant for parties. Block off the existing door from hall into original living room, leaving door from hall to new living room (at front of house) with the double doors from there to new dinning (again, can be blocked off in the evening to make a cosy living room/tv room on a dark evening, but again gives more through space/flow if having a party) Upstairs, combine the WC and bathroom into one large luxery family bathroom. but rather than turn 4 into 1's ensuite, could space be stolen along 1 and 2's dividing wall to put an ensuite into one of those, or even both if space allowed. But agreed, the big pest will be rewiring and replumbing. theres some damn old systems in there!
Great ideas sir, had all the same ideas. One idea I also have is in the kitchen, have a door going into the garage instead of having to go out the back door of the garage and into the back door of the house. Would be good when picking up groceries and drying to dodge bad weather. Also the locks and the bars and the padded door....he mentioned older folks lived there, maybe one was suffering from Alzheimer's or dementia, those folks tend to wander off when not being watched 24/7.
A friend of mine has wire mesh on the inside of the front door as their dogs would try to "dig" through the door without it. The letter basket also suggests dogs.
Hi Andy, As a child, growing up in Reading from the late forties to the mid 60's, our 4 bedroom Victorian semi detached house had a wash basin and mirror in 3 of the 4 bedrooms. The fourth bedroom was part of a flatlet on the 3rd floor of the house where a lodger lived. The 'family bathroom' had only enough space for a bath and wash basin as did the bathroom for the flatlet. As to the work on the house - there are already some good ideas. In addition to the removal of some walls I would close off the kitchen door and add a small utility room on the side of the house with a door from the kitchen where the side window is. That would give you the closed access to the garage you alluded to, and also access into the garden.
Additional bedroom on top of the garage. Knock down wall between kitchen and breakfast room. Deal with all minor issues (sagging floor etc.), fell the large tree. Possibly swap dining room and kitchen and maybe even join to make a much larger room. Equally, you could go for open plan between existing kitchen, breakfast room and living room. Remove excess chimney if feeling motivated. Hope you had a great time of it!
Wow, I love that property, so much potential! I'd definitely knock through kitchen and breakfast room to get a nice big kitchen in. Potentially swap living and dining room around and make dining room access directly from kitchen. Upstairs, make toilet and bathroom one room definanately! Bedroom 4 into an ensuite for master bedroom at front? If you could spare the room. Exciting, can't wait to see what you did!
What’s the fascination whither having en-suite bathrooms it’s just more expense and the separate toilet is a great idea when someone’s in the bathroom you can still use the loo
Our family moved into a similar large house of the same era. We were told that the rooms with basins were for live-in staff. We also had what we called a morning room and that had an electric bells board for 4 rooms with electric bells plus front and back doors. Very enjoyable set of videos - thanks for sharing.
Hi, 1. Close off the wall between gf dinning and living room. 2. Make the kitchen, breakfast and back room into a large kitchen/dinning/ lounge. 3. Update electrics. Install new boiler in garage, get rid out outhouse and chimney. 4 build master bedroom above garage with en-suit. 5 update all wc's and bathroom. 6 Add additional roof over new bedroom (pitched and merged into existing roof). 7 trim trees in rear garden.
Part of current kitchen (garage side) converted into utility room, access door to garage. Rest of the kitchen + breakfast room converted into new kitchen. Upstairs bedroom 4 converted to ensuit for bedroom 1, toilet + bathroom joint together. Nice outdoor area above garage access from landing next to current toilet. All windows, plumbing, electrical to be replaced. Any floor/foundation issues to be sorted. Big tree removed or trimmed. 2 car driveway in front of the garden and workshop on garage.
lots of people have preconceptions about combi boilers. let me tell you I am so happy with my Worcester combi 35w in our 4bed detached we are saving lots in bills we saved space in the cupboard, we have a smart termostat, super hot and pressure is amazing all through the house, we got rid of the old stupid water pressure pumps the previous owners put in... honestly be open minded combis are really good
I would add a bbq on top of the outside boiler cupboard and extend it to suit a pizza oven. Then I would add a proper staircase to the attic and extend the door to suit an upstairs storage room/spare bedroom.
My two pennies worth. Merge kitchen and breakfast room,swap dining and lounge. Replumb,rewire and new more efficent windows. Probably at one time a resident was mentally unwell/dementia and the other rooms may have been let to tenants/lodgers. - Obviously remove spare sinks in the bedrooms, make bathroom and toilet one room. Possibly make an on suite by sacrificing a bedroom, depending on the local demand for 3 or 4 bed properties at the time.- Costs/budget( depending on the state of the ground hall floor,plumbing,windows and wiring) guessing around a third of what you paid for the property? Looking forward to the next video to see how wrong I am. - Never had enough money to even consider owning a propery so I'll have to get my thrills from other peoples hard work.
We are doing up a 30s semi at the moment too. It is a box of surprises! Lovely house. I would knock down walls between kitchen/dining/sitting room. Change sitting room/dining room around. Have a huge space for dining/family time at the back and french doors/bifolding into the garden. Steels and doors quickly up the budget but the end result is worth it. Can't wait to see what you will do!
Lovely property, loving the garden! And I'm amazed at your voice, it is so comfortable to listen to! My list of improvements: - Break through the kitchen and breakfast room to make a big kitchen with breakfast nook - Double doors for the hall to the new kitchen - Close up the door to the living room and create an opening from the kitchen to the living room (with or without door) - Create doorway between the garage and kitchen or hall - Close up the kitchen side door and add double door to the back garden - Get rid of the curves in the dining room :D - The built-ins I’d leave in, paint, change the handles, on some change the doors - Loft can stay as is for now We used to see the sinks in the bedrooms here too, I guess with lots of kids they can just brush their teeth and stuff in their own oom, instead of occupying the bathroom, but it's not done anymore in new houses.
Regarding the bedroom sinks, you're absolutely right about taking care of teethbrushing, hand and face washing before bed, particularly for a household with lots of children, and only ONE original bathroom for the whole house! Not uncommon in the 1920s and 1930s. On a more historical note, in the States any way, these individual sinks in bedrooms took the place of the individual wash stands that were present in every bedroom. A wooden stand which was designed specifically for the purpose held a china wash basin, a pitcher of fresh water, a shelf or rack to hold a towel, soap, and perhaps a face cloth, which was used by each person to wash up face and hands each morning, and often before it was common to bathe completely each night before bed. The indoor plumbing concept took their place especially when a large family occupied a large home which still had only one indoor bathroom. Even before the 1920s, I've seen vintage homes with a sink in each bedroom in the late 1800s or early 1900s as well.
Consider replacing electric consumer unit with RCBO version (Residual Current Breaker with Over-current) which is like-for-like a 'traditional fuse box' in that each circuit is individually protected and much safer than basic RCD because RCBOs detect earth faults and overload resistance faults before they can become dangerous.
Asbestos is quite possible with the artex I'd imagine. Has great potential...speaking from an enthusiasts perspective I'd knock the breakfast room and kitchen through into one, and do the same with the upstairs wc and bathroom. Get rid of all the additional sinks, and generally modernise the rest. Garden is stunning, so definitely have some decking! Best of luck with the renovation!
The building has soo much potential, I’m jealous!!! 1 get rid off the locks and prison bars. 2. Incorporate the redundant alleyway and breakfast room for a bigger kitchen in keeping with what you would expect for a house that size. 3. I recommend a herringbone style flooring to go with the classic exterior 4. The front room looks dark and in need of natural light replace the doors between the dining room and front room with translucent glass wood doors, possibly even reccesed into the wall sliding doors for added space. It will allow you to chose open plan or closed living when you feel like it. And not waste too much space. And make the front room Bright and airy. 5. Use the same double glass doors in the downstairs corridor too for light. 6. Use the small front bedroom as an en-suite for the master bedroom .if you need the extra room think about a making a room above the garage (you will have to break down the toilet but you can incorporate that in the upstairs bathroom to make an entrance for the new room) There’s no point having a huge en-suite so section off a bit of the room for a in wall fitted cupboard for the new room. ( this is a lot of work as you will have to reposition the old bedrooms window
I'd knock through the kitchen into the breakfast room. If you're not looking to use the garage for a car then I'd borrow some for a utility and move the back door into it. Maybe swap the dining room and lounge around, although with young kids I'd maybe use the back room as a playroom/second lounge and have the kitchen-diner for meals and hosting. Knock through the bathroom/WC and update. Rewire. Replace double glazing.
They might be the original leaded glass, but it's pretty easy to push a pane out. Glad to hear someone else who doesn't like open plan - I always thought it would be nightmare trying to keep the kids out of certain areas and have always had separate rooms downstairs. Kitchen in the breakfast room. Old kitchen becomes a utility area, with a door into the garage. Sort the hall floor out. Strip out the panelling, make good and paint. Rewire the house. I thinks sinks in bedrooms were more 50s - my grandmother had one in a bedroom, which my brother took out - remove the lot. Knock the bathroom into one room and update the suite to white. Yeah, redo the windows - it would be nice to keep some of the stained glass, but I'm not sure how one does that. Leaded lights were very draughty according to my memory. Remove that chimney. Turn the chimney breasts into a feature like incorporating a wine rack or bookshelf, so they're not wasted space and still retain them as a focal point.
@@GosforthHandyman my parents bought a bungalow next door to our family home in the mid 2000's after the elderly couple who lived there both died. It had a dark mauve bathroom suite; made your turquoise look positively contemporary!
The Wylex consumer unit is the same model that installed in a house I bought in 1982. You could do such jobs as a DIY-er in those days. I fed the tails from the meter through an ELCB (RCD now) which was quite revolutionary at the time. A long time ago - but I was a father of one with a second on its way then too!
Some people are suggesting that you swap the living room and dining room but I don't agree. You want to be sitting at the back of the house in the evening and during the day you want direct access to the garden from the main family room. If you open the three back rooms it'll be big enough for a kitchen/diner/family room. The front room can then be a smarter sitting room for when the grown ups have guests or a formal dining room if you need one, or it could even have a home office corner with a sofa and extra tv for options in a sport versus Mrs situation.
I'm from South Africa. Here, if you do NOT have burglar bars in front of every window and security gates at the outer doors, you are certainly mental! Looking forward to next episode
I live in Australia so no idea about radiators and double glazing. Those windows look fabulous to me so hopefully adding double glazing still keeps the originals as well? My thoughts have been mentioned below by others - bigger kitchen, swap dining and living. Don't need formal dining that large, so could make the kitchen/dining/family room. And the front living room a separate space you could close off by keeping the doorway. I like the idea of the ensuite also. You made me laugh about the decoration being old people. I'm not far off being an old person. Hope I don't get stuck in a time warp! Looking forward to seeing what you did.
Security stuff looks like it was to stop people getting out, not in. With the sinks in every room maybe it was used for something else at some point? Like shared accommodation?
I think that the bars on the windows, and slidelocks on the outside of the doors, might be to keep someone in rather than someone out. Or perhaps it was used as a rental dividing the rooms into homes, and that might be why there are sinks in the rooms.
I think it looks like a halfway house for people on probation, there is one in the town I live in which has the bars etc. They have to have a secure place for people to go back to but are often in residential houses.
I would use the dining room as a living room and turn the living room into a kitchen at the back of the house. The small kitchen I would make as a mud room and give yourself a door into the garage. The leftover room next to the kitchen I would use as an office. Ditch the dining room. With the new kitchen/ solarium you would have tons of space for an eat in kitchen plus island with chairs.
I love this property! Like lots of others have said, I would knock through the kitchen into the breakfast area (though at first glance that does look to be a supporting wall which may explain why it hasn’t already been done), pop a door in the new kitchen to the garage, pop a nice big sliding door in between the living room and dining room and swap those over for easy access. I would try to keep or buy a similar replacement front door as thats beautiful! Rewire the property, maybe move all the electrics into the garage so you can use the under stairs cupboard, fix up the bathroom and remove the excess sinks, and turn bedroom 4 into a en-suite for the master! Obviously the garage has to be a workshop too!
14:40 still got fuses like that in our place, should probably get that thing replaced. Also bars on the outside to prevent people from getting in, bars on the inside to prevent people from getting out.
I would exchange the dinning and living room open kitchen breakfast and current living room to an open concept kitchen family/dining room. Upstairs combine the two front bedrooms to a master suite with onset master bath with walk in closet. Redecorate the upstairs bathroom and 2 additional bedrooms for children’s rooms.
Re-purpose the garage into a workshop storage and down stairs shower and loo, office if you need four beds, use the existing loo as storage, breakfast room knock it into kitchen and modernise. Swap function of dinning and living room extend out onto the yard for garden Room come extra sitting room. The hallway corridor underfloor cupboard and acces to the breakfast room seems messed up. I would move door to end of the hall, and have a pantry off the breakfast room under the stairs. For the rest just do it up and decorate.
Lovely house. I’d make a big kitchen out of the kitchen and breakfast room, and a utility room from a bit of the garage with a new door through to the house. I’d be happy to keep the original bathroom suite but change the tiles and lighting. I’d consider a small en-suite shower room in the corner of the large bedroom where the basin in a cupboard now is.
That is one gorgeous house Andy, I'd kill for it :-)) First for me would be a rewire, followed by knocking kitchen into breakfast room. Would then insulate beneath and put in UFH on ground floor. These days I'd definitely install smart heating. I've been running an Evohome setup powered by a combi in a 5 bed end terrace for years successfully. I'd be very hesitant about de-installing sinks in bedrooms cos they can be amazingly useful in unforeseen circumstances. The bars have to go pronto obviously then after lunch you could start on ....... A seriously lovely house mate!
Was it an old folks home ? With sinks in each room and locks outside? I like the wrought iron bannister ! Very mid century- and believe it or not I like the turquoise bathroom suite too So work - double glazing windows and doors and remove bars in windows - re wiring/ check gas / check plumbing - hall floor - Knock kitchen and breakfast room together - knock bathroom and loo together ? Although if only 1 bathroom I like having a sep loo, though you have one downstairs - remove sinks from bedrooms, though as a teenage girl (in the 70s ) I appreciated having my own sink and a vanity unit with sink built into a cupboard is a trendy thing to have - bedroom curtains - the ones you said were expensive and they probably were Id save up specifically to change - if central heating Ok then put that on a later to do list - presume roof ok and loft space - insulate if necess - doors between dining and lounge keep as they are ok - I’d check out reclamation yards to try and get period internal doors Back garden - fabulous
Switch the living room with the dining room, make the kitchen bigger by moving it all into the breakfast room. Remodel the upstairs bathroom by having one room instead of two. Maybe give up the separate shower and just have the bath for more room. Take out the sinks in the smaller bedrooms, and possibly add an en-suite to the larger back bedroom with the sink.
Definitely, as others have mentioned, knock breakfast room/kitchen into 1 room, that’s so obvious. New boiler, wall mounted in garage, then you can demolish the strange existing boiler arrangement, and the redundant chimney. Funds allowing, I’d put a new bedroom above the garage (you could salvage the coloured glass panes from the landing window and use them here. Current bedroom 4 could be converted into a Jack and Jill bathroom for the current master and the new room over the garage.
1. Open up the kitchen and breakfast room. 2. Replace whole kitchen. 3. Replace doors between living room and dining room with large sliding doors. 4. Take out the kitchen and breakfast room windows and install one large window. 5. Replace hallway sub floor and install a hard floor of your choice, (I hate carpets in hallways) 6. Remove bars on windows and either encapsulate the old leaded windows or replace them, they are a nightmare for condensation. 7. Knock through the WC and bathroom into one bigger room (including that window). 8. Replace whole bathroom. 9. Remove all sinks from rooms. 10. Replace front door. Apart from that, there is not much more I would personally do if I was just looking to flip the place. If I was going to live there, I would defiantly look at having part of the garage converted into a mud room, I would install a megaflow system, Install a modern consumer unit, board the loft for storage, install new loft and cavity wall insulation and install a log burner in the living room.
Not watched your second video yet but I would certainly merge that breakfast room with the kitchen and swap the dining and living rooms. I'd also add a doorway to the garage
Knock down the wall between the kitchen and morning room to make a big dining kitchen and convert the garage into a downstairs playroom or sitting room.
It may have been a bed and breakfast at one time by the looks of it. Very similar style to my house in Liverpool built 1936, same windows and wall paneling only ours has barley twist everywhere with oak staircase, and high fireplace (once I took all the paint off) and parquet floors everywhere.
Swap living and dining, turn kitchen into utility, open up breakfast and dining rooms to create kitchen diner. Bathroom and WC into one. Rewire, replumb, windows, etc. Poss add bedroom above garage and create ensuite in bed 4 (reluctant to lose a bedroom otherwise) or downstairs shower room if it would fit in utility/back of garage.
Really nice house and a great renovation project. I suspect one of the elderly previous owners had dementia and the bars and internal door locks were to stop them wandering off. Can't wait to see what you did to the house!
This to me looks like one of the post war B&B's used by ex soldiers during the rebuild and expansion when the country was getting back on its feet. That would account for the bedroom basins and the security measures. I can tell you the cream colour of the consumer unit suggests it was more than likely installed in the late 70's into the 80's. The outside boiler looks like an old coal bin repurposed for a boiler room as the first boiler it would of had in a property like that would of been a backboiler. As a gas/sparks I would replace heating system and electrics, Combo would have coped with original layout but if you're doing any additions a system boiler and pressurized hot water would be the go to. Original curved radiators are rare and expensive as hell on the second hand market as they were all custom rolled to the property they were put in. Swap living and dining room, knock kitchen>breakfast>dining room into one to expand kitchen. Extend over Garage for a new bedroom and have a main bed with en suite and family bathroom. and new double glazing. Also reposition radiators under windows for better heat circulation.
Interesting - very possibly Mark! There was some slight charring on some of the joists in the loft - rumour is it got slightly damaged from bombing during the war. Think the last rewire was late 60's - there's a story there. 😂👍
@@GosforthHandyman Yeah those boards used to be wood backed brown plastic fronts, then full bakerlite brown plastic then cream. One of the longest running consumer unit designs. Property looks a lot like the ones my father stayed in when working after the war. The bars on the windows weren't always to do with breakins but actually to stop anyone scarpering without paying the landlady or sneaking back in after a drink/smoking in the rooms.
Mark I was working for a damp proofing company nearly 25 years ago now,we were installing wall ties,the house had half round bays just like on this one. This idiot who was working with us drilled through the single skin bay with a big spit sods,he got through the brick and then right through both sides of the curved radiator right at the top part where it's at it's thickest. How he didn't hear the noise it made or feel the vibrations il never know. The old black sludgy water in the rad pissed out all over the bedroom carpet. This same bloke drilled through another single skin and actually installed a wall tie in to the board that was holding the main electric board. I seriously hope he doesn't still work in the building game!
The elec board looks like it originally had wire fuses. The trips are an 80's replacement. I remember my dad fitting them to our old board. They are thinner than the original wire fuse spacing. You just replaced the collar and they plugged in to the same blade point in the board. Some one spent some money in that property in the past.
Extension over garage, make bedroom 4 into en suitebathroom for bedroom 1, make over garage into bedroom 4, smash through toilet into bathroom to make main bathroom bigger
swap kitchen and breakfast room or open up, but like you i think its smart to have defined spaces which you can repurpuse eventually, not a big fan of knocking walls down tbh. Bathroom and windows first i guess. maybe garage insulation into usable space and build a large shed in the garden for tools etc. looking forward to see what you'll do!
Them windows will be expensive to replace lol. Usually if the central heating system is bang on, everything else will be EZ PZ. Reduce all french doors to singles and add/move partition walls. All radiators preferably under windows. At least 2 double sockets per blank wall. RCBO consumer unit and stainless steel heat exchanger combi boiler. All solid door with rose handle. Laminate flooring and simple flat skirting boards. Opinions on upvc skirting boards?
My first thought is that all the security features are to prevent an elderly occupant with dementia leaving or causing harm to themselves or others when in a dissociative fugue state. But I’m only 14 mins in and excited by the potential of this property!!
Gosforth Handyman may have been a parent or sibling of those you purchased from, won’t have been recent additions but for someone living there 20/30years ago perhaps 🤷♀️. Cannot wait to see what you did with it 👍🏻
I absoloutely love these renovations video's. Funnily enough, I am never so keen when I am living amongst it... :-) I would move the lounge to the front of the house and do away with the breakfast room leaving a much larger kitchen , diner and family room at the rear. I would add a door to the garage from the kitchen and create a small utility room from garage space. Upstairs I would build ( rather my husband would build ) another bedroom on top of the garage and convert bedroom 4 into an en suite. Cannot wait to see what you do. Is it possible that at some point the house was used as a woman's refuge or emergency foster care for older children? It could explain the safety / security features, the bedroom sinks and bedroom locks.
I'd have done the same with the living room and had a dining space in between then the kitchen at the back, a small snug TV room, or an extra bedroom could have been fitted. Also upstairs I'd have tried to fit ensuits into the two bigger bedrooms.
Firstly, regardless of the old fashioned decoration it looked very clean and well kept. Maybe it was an old couple who asked their grown up children to make the house more secure hence the bolts and bars etc. Lovely home, I’m sure you did a good job.
I love the colour of the bathroom suit and the style. As much as I like white bathroom suites. It just has a little bit of style about it and is in keeping with the house. I would definitely take the bars off the windows and change the windows. Also I would knock the kitchen in the breakfast room into one room. Or use the old kitchen as a utility room.
Bedroom sinks were a common feature in middle class housing between the wars. As for the rest...Garage=workshop, Kitchen=paint shop, Breakfast room=office, Living room=showroom for the fantastic works already done, Dining room=Client entertainment suite. Live upstairs, eat out! Sorted! ;)
Bars on window & padded door to keep someone IN!! How could you leave such a gorgeous property? I’d kill for those views and that garden! 😢 Definitely knock kitchen into breakfast room. I’d switch the living room & dining room around and maybe even knock down the wall between the now dining room and breakfast room too. Then you’d have had a gorgeous kitchen, diner, family room. It’s very similar to a ‘Manse (Methodist equivalent of a Vicarage)’ my parents in law lived in. Can’t wait for no.2 video.
I had a school friend who's house also had bars on the windows on the stairwell, it wasn't for security purposes but the children of the family could accidentally break the stained glass windows if they fell while running up . (She was 1 of 8) The windows were there from the time house was build in the later 1880,s
Watching from Durban South Africa. In the ground floor,bI would open up the kitchen right throught to the living room. Close off the dining room so it can be a bed. If the entrance issue can be sorted, u would have a nice first unit there.
Upstairs I would convert bed4 into a kitchen, then build a dining room on the flat roof, keep all else as is just have a unobstructed connection between the flat roof and bedroom 4
Lovely house!! I would make the kitchen & breakfast room into one big kitchen with maybe a breakfast bar 👌then I would do a dinning room/play room so it faves the nice garden. I would deffo have the frontroom at the front of the house. Upstairs I would get rid of all the sinks 😂😂😂 and have the biggest room for adults and then next size down for the first child then the next smaller room for the youngest and the smallest room I'd make it into a small office or a spare room for when company stay :) can't wait to see what you've done with it. I'd deffo cut the tree down thats touching the property and have more space for the kids to play in the garden xxx
I would changes the hinges of the living room and dining room / bed1 and bed2 doors, so opening the door shows the room not the deviding wall inbetween. If you want to get old in this house you should enable a bigger shower in the 1st floor, maybe as a part of the kitchen or the breakfast room ang get rid of the stairs to the toilet lower the light switches to 110cm, more fuses, I'd recommend one per room where is North? Maybe the garage top could be a sun deck
Bars on inside of windows ,well you said you're in a conservation area would spoil the look with them on outside and i assume it's a security detail.Padded door was a sixties seventies feature and as for locks on outside of doors possibly to control children or elderly person?
I’m also curious about the boiler part. Not a big fan of conventional boiler, prefer instant hot water from combi boilerbut for multiple bathrooms/sinks in this house, it may be tough. So really appreciate if you could talk about the boiler choice in the next videos. Thanks
Great video and love this series as in the middle of a live-in renovation myself! I would: Double glazing - shame as old lead looks great and hate to think of cost of double glazing that place Obviously knock through kitchen breakfast room BBQ terrace above the garage, again fairly obvious Then hanging beads in doorway between lounge and dining room using the latter for tarot card reading and necromancy Cheers!
Change dining room to rear, bathroom and loo into one, new double glazed windows, replace electrics, make kitchen into utility room with a door into the garage, knock breakfast room and rear room into one and make open plan kitchen dinner.
I’m still only 6 minutes into the video but my first thought was. New windows and doors, rendered exterior walls. Knock the kitchen and breakfast rooms into one for a more family friendly space. Definitely an en-suite in bedroom one or two or maybe a larger jack and Jill bathroom between both. But I’m not a builder. A beautiful property though. I can’t wait to see how it turns out.
make kitchen/breakfast room one room, make a utility room in garage, make bath/toilet into one move door into bathroom nearer to top of stairs, turn bedroom 4 into en-suite for bed room 1, also possibly put a shower whb in bed 2 get rid of wood chip paper
It's a lovely property! So much character and roominess! I would NOT modernize it, ruining the integrity of the structure, but go with the architecture, putting your own spin on it, of course, but please don't do what I've seen many homeowners do, taking all the personality away for the sake of "modernity."
I would just clean up everything to look nice, not too much change. But that kitchen is where I would put all the effort. Enlarge it into the eating area and then switch living room to the front and dining room next to the kitchen. Otherwise, it’s a lovely home.
Beautiful bones on this property! Besides the obvious updates to electric and plumbing, I say in a similar spirit to what another commenter said: swap the living and dining rooms as the formal dining should be close to the kitchen where the food comes in warm. Knock the kitchen and breakfast room into one larger kitchen with room for either a breakfast bar or a bistro size table for informal eating. Extend the interior over the garage to make a new bedroom and have a master bedroom with the en suite where the smallest bedroom now sits. Now it is a four bedroom with 2.5 bathrooms! 😊 That is for certain, a 21st century home life.
@@GosforthHandyman Thanks for the reply! 😊❤ I am very much looking forward to the big reveal next week! You really are a very talented renovation expert, especially when turning around a property within a budget constraint! I'm quite taken with the beauty of these transformations.
The kitchen looks to be an extension so knocking through to the breakfast room might be unwise structurally. If that's the case I'd make the kitchen into a utility/freezer room and the breakfast room into the kitchen if you can cope with it being that small. Definitely knock the bathroom/loo together. If the hallway has timber issues I'd have the whole ground floor looked at, including the state of any underfloor void. I'd also would be looking to see whether it has cavity wall insulation and getting that done if possible.
Kitchen expand into breakfast room, open up fireplace downstairs and paint over the wallpaper to give a cleaner and more open expanse. Remove the hall carpet and check if the flooring is a problem there. If it is you probably have to check the whole of the downstairs. If it needs major work redo the flooring at same time and add Underfloor heating and stone/tiles rather than carpet. For a house with out cavity walls this will massively reduce heating costs long term and raise the price of the house as you are expanding the kitchen. Change the boiler to a hear exchange environmentally friendly non gas. As you have the tanks this again will save costs down the line. Redo the electrics and remove sinks from the bedrooms, the more water pipes mean more chances of leaks. Change the doors on the fitted wardrobes either by painting or just buying new ones to modernize the place and paint the rooms. New bathroom and insulate the loft space. Remove all locks and doors to the bedrooms as this was obviously a institution of some sort, and a very scary one if there are external locks on doors. The doors look to be fire doors and not the greatest. all in cost 15 for ground floor flooring, 10 for kitchen, 15 for boiler' electric and plumbing. Decoration say 5 if you do it yourself for doors and paint etc. All in say £50,000 for refurb
This maybe is not so sensible but besides all the boring fixes that need to be done, replacing the windows and modernising the rooms I'd be tempted to break through the kitchen, breakfast area and back living room to make one large open plan kitchen/dining/living area and have the front dining room as a more private/formal living area. I'd all try to put a door between the kitchen and garage and have a laundry/utility area in the garage. I know that would require support beams and might be more expensive and hassle than its worth but it would make a lovely bright, open space
I forgot most importantly I would be keeping that bath...seriously. I know in 2008 that was not in style but now people would pay a lot for that. I would completely modernise the bathroom, make it much cleaner more minimal but that bath would be a feature of the room. It's amazing
A ocuple of floating alcove shelves surely! I didn't think the bannister was that bad - but I am guessing you replaced it with a handrail and ballusters.
Some of the non-residential features (bars on decorative windows, additional security measures on front door, small staff dining room (breakfast room) and the over-engineered boiler bunker/ Dibnah-esque chimney indicate this was done with corporate or public funds for a specific purpose. Perhaps accommodation for workers, church retreat or children’s boarding house of some description? Perhaps the large bedrooms had multiple bunks in?
I would guess that the boiler housing used to be a coal bunker. The manhole being where they dropped in the new coal. There would have been a hole at the front to shovel out the coal or coke.
Hi Andy, I think those triangular windows are called "oriel windows". Although I don't think oriel refers specifically to the triangular shape, more the location and mini bay window design.
First! Kitchen Breakfast room and Living room would be knocked through completely to make an huge kitchen diner for entertaining. Move the living room to the front where the dining room is I’d potentially make a reception room out of the garage (as there is loft space for storage and off road parking for the cars garage not essential) Upstairs mostly cosmetic new wardrobe doors new flooring and decorating. Then if i was made of money I’d build on top of the garage to create a 5th bedroom or even better and upstairs laundry room (American style instead of the typical british way of washing clothes in the kitchen then back upstairs lol)
When the house was built the kitchen would have been called a scullery and my thoughts are the original owners might have had money and possibly employed a cook. Also there would not have been fridges, dishwasher and washer so it would have been enough space for the cook. It also looks like at one time in its past they had lodgers and the mesh on the front door could have been for messages.
Lovely home with so much potential. It seems like the security was to keep someone in rather than out- would explain the sinks too. Perhaps it was a sanitarium? It would be interesting to research the history of the house. Reno’s- I would enlarge the kitchen into that breakfast room and swap dining and living rooms. Those double doors are keepers. Upstairs I would make one of the smaller rooms into an en-suite +/- dressing room for the master.
Looking forward to next week. Your reply about the house being a black hole for money makes me wonder what is coming. Like many of the comments, making the kitchen and the breakfast room into one kitchen seems to be a gimme. Also, adding an en suite to the master bedroom with the second bathroom for the children. As far as that tree goes, I live in South Devon, and the trick in Salcombe, which seems to be all expensive second homes, is to get a so-called tree surgeon to say the tree is diseased, and immediately cut it down before the council can intervene. A few years ago, a beautiful old chestnut tree, in a prominent position was removed in this way.
Good tip with the tree! There were lots of trees far too close together so the 'tree lady' from the council had no problems with us removing it, luckily. 😀
The sinks in the bedrooms, grab rails everywhere, extra security features on doors and windows etc - I think it probably used to be an old people’s home with many residents in their own rooms with communal dining and living rooms. Seems just like the residential house my grandma lived in towards the end of her life.
First off, it was obviously some sort of asylum: locks on the outside of rooms and bars on the windows... hmmm. Ao anyway... I would open up the kitchen into that breakfast area to create a much larger kitchen, adding a nice doorway into the adjacent living room. With that said, I would also swap the dining room and living room, so the dining opened to the new kitchen and to the garden in the rear, for a grilling/BBQ patio. The only other thing that pops out to me is making bedroom 4 into an ensuite for the main front bedroom. So there you go, dusted and done.
Great ideas Rob! Asylum... I did wonder! 😂👍
Just to put some finishing touches on this, as was the same idea i had, i would add double doors at the end of the hallway into the new kitchen area (formerly Breakfast room), and rather than add a door between new kitchen and new dinning room, i would take new dinning room wall out as well as kitchen/breakfast wall, making one large open kitchen/breakfast bar/dinning table area, with agreed the double doors going out to a patio/BBQ/Outdoor Kitchen area. Brilliant for parties.
Block off the existing door from hall into original living room, leaving door from hall to new living room (at front of house) with the double doors from there to new dinning (again, can be blocked off in the evening to make a cosy living room/tv room on a dark evening, but again gives more through space/flow if having a party)
Upstairs, combine the WC and bathroom into one large luxery family bathroom. but rather than turn 4 into 1's ensuite, could space be stolen along 1 and 2's dividing wall to put an ensuite into one of those, or even both if space allowed.
But agreed, the big pest will be rewiring and replumbing. theres some damn old systems in there!
The bars make me wonder if one of the older people had dementia and had been caught trying to climb out the windows?
My first thoughts exactly, but the view from the back living room is so beautiful! You want to live in that space more often than a dining room...
Great ideas sir, had all the same ideas. One idea I also have is in the kitchen, have a door going into the garage instead of having to go out the back door of the garage and into the back door of the house. Would be good when picking up groceries and drying to dodge bad weather.
Also the locks and the bars and the padded door....he mentioned older folks lived there, maybe one was suffering from Alzheimer's or dementia, those folks tend to wander off when not being watched 24/7.
1:45 I worked on that swimming pool in that house, was a beautiful house and pool. Something I could only dream of
A friend of mine has wire mesh on the inside of the front door as their dogs would try to "dig" through the door without it. The letter basket also suggests dogs.
Hi Andy, As a child, growing up in Reading from the late forties to the mid 60's, our 4 bedroom Victorian semi detached house had a wash basin and mirror in 3 of the 4 bedrooms. The fourth bedroom was part of a flatlet on the 3rd floor of the house where a lodger lived. The 'family bathroom' had only enough space for a bath and wash basin as did the bathroom for the flatlet. As to the work on the house - there are already some good ideas. In addition to the removal of some walls I would close off the kitchen door and add a small utility room on the side of the house with a door from the kitchen where the side window is. That would give you the closed access to the garage you alluded to, and also access into the garden.
Additional bedroom on top of the garage. Knock down wall between kitchen and breakfast room. Deal with all minor issues (sagging floor etc.), fell the large tree. Possibly swap dining room and kitchen and maybe even join to make a much larger room. Equally, you could go for open plan between existing kitchen, breakfast room and living room. Remove excess chimney if feeling motivated. Hope you had a great time of it!
I really like your voice, very comforting
I would kill for a property that size to just update and personalise. Great vid yet again 👍
We had to jump on it! Paint was barely dry on the last place. 😂
Wow, I love that property, so much potential! I'd definitely knock through kitchen and breakfast room to get a nice big kitchen in. Potentially swap living and dining room around and make dining room access directly from kitchen. Upstairs, make toilet and bathroom one room definanately! Bedroom 4 into an ensuite for master bedroom at front? If you could spare the room. Exciting, can't wait to see what you did!
Cheers Kim! All great ideas! 👍👊
What’s the fascination whither having en-suite bathrooms it’s just more expense and the separate toilet is a great idea when someone’s in the bathroom you can still use the loo
Our family moved into a similar large house of the same era. We were told that the rooms with basins were for live-in staff. We also had what we called a morning room and that had an electric bells board for 4 rooms with electric bells plus front and back doors.
Very enjoyable set of videos - thanks for sharing.
Hi, 1. Close off the wall between gf dinning and living room. 2. Make the kitchen, breakfast and back room into a large kitchen/dinning/ lounge. 3. Update electrics. Install new boiler in garage, get rid out outhouse and chimney. 4 build master bedroom above garage with en-suit. 5 update all wc's and bathroom. 6 Add additional roof over new bedroom (pitched and merged into existing roof). 7 trim trees in rear garden.
Part of current kitchen (garage side) converted into utility room, access door to garage. Rest of the kitchen + breakfast room converted into new kitchen. Upstairs bedroom 4 converted to ensuit for bedroom 1, toilet + bathroom joint together. Nice outdoor area above garage access from landing next to current toilet. All windows, plumbing, electrical to be replaced. Any floor/foundation issues to be sorted. Big tree removed or trimmed. 2 car driveway in front of the garden and workshop on garage.
lots of people have preconceptions about combi boilers. let me tell you I am so happy with my Worcester combi 35w in our 4bed detached we are saving lots in bills we saved space in the cupboard, we have a smart termostat, super hot and pressure is amazing all through the house, we got rid of the old stupid water pressure pumps the previous owners put in... honestly be open minded combis are really good
I would add a bbq on top of the outside boiler cupboard and extend it to suit a pizza oven. Then I would add a proper staircase to the attic and extend the door to suit an upstairs storage room/spare bedroom.
My two pennies worth. Merge kitchen and breakfast room,swap dining and lounge. Replumb,rewire and new more efficent windows. Probably at one time a resident was mentally unwell/dementia and the other rooms may have been let to tenants/lodgers. - Obviously remove spare sinks in the bedrooms, make bathroom and toilet one room. Possibly make an on suite by sacrificing a bedroom, depending on the local demand for 3 or 4 bed properties at the time.- Costs/budget( depending on the state of the ground hall floor,plumbing,windows and wiring) guessing around a third of what you paid for the property?
Looking forward to the next video to see how wrong I am. - Never had enough money to even consider owning a propery so I'll have to get my thrills from other peoples hard work.
We are doing up a 30s semi at the moment too. It is a box of surprises! Lovely house. I would knock down walls between kitchen/dining/sitting room. Change sitting room/dining room around. Have a huge space for dining/family time at the back and french doors/bifolding into the garden. Steels and doors quickly up the budget but the end result is worth it. Can't wait to see what you will do!
Lovely property, loving the garden! And I'm amazed at your voice, it is so comfortable to listen to!
My list of improvements:
- Break through the kitchen and breakfast room to make a big kitchen with breakfast nook
- Double doors for the hall to the new kitchen
- Close up the door to the living room and create an opening from the kitchen to the living room (with or without door)
- Create doorway between the garage and kitchen or hall
- Close up the kitchen side door and add double door to the back garden
- Get rid of the curves in the dining room :D
- The built-ins I’d leave in, paint, change the handles, on some change the doors
- Loft can stay as is for now
We used to see the sinks in the bedrooms here too, I guess with lots of kids they can just brush their teeth and stuff in their own oom, instead of occupying the bathroom, but it's not done anymore in new houses.
Regarding the bedroom sinks, you're absolutely right about taking care of teethbrushing, hand and face washing before bed, particularly for a household with lots of children, and only ONE original bathroom for the whole house! Not uncommon in the 1920s and 1930s.
On a more historical note, in the States any way, these individual sinks in bedrooms took the place of the individual wash stands that were present in every bedroom. A wooden stand which was designed specifically for the purpose held a china wash basin, a pitcher of fresh water, a shelf or rack to hold a towel, soap, and perhaps a face cloth, which was used by each person to wash up face and hands each morning, and often before it was common to bathe completely each night before bed. The indoor plumbing concept took their place especially when a large family occupied a large home which still had only one indoor bathroom. Even before the 1920s, I've seen vintage homes with a sink in each bedroom in the late 1800s or early 1900s as well.
Consider replacing electric consumer unit with RCBO version (Residual Current Breaker with Over-current) which is like-for-like a 'traditional fuse box' in that each circuit is individually protected and much safer than basic RCD because RCBOs detect earth faults and overload resistance faults before they can become dangerous.
Asbestos is quite possible with the artex I'd imagine. Has great potential...speaking from an enthusiasts perspective I'd knock the breakfast room and kitchen through into one, and do the same with the upstairs wc and bathroom. Get rid of all the additional sinks, and generally modernise the rest. Garden is stunning, so definitely have some decking! Best of luck with the renovation!
The building has soo much potential, I’m jealous!!!
1 get rid off the locks and prison bars.
2. Incorporate the redundant alleyway and breakfast room for a bigger kitchen in keeping with what you would expect for a house that size.
3. I recommend a herringbone style flooring to go with the classic exterior
4. The front room looks dark and in need of natural light replace the doors between the dining room and front room with translucent glass wood doors, possibly even reccesed into the wall sliding doors for added space. It will allow you to chose open plan or closed living when you feel like it. And not waste too much space. And make the front room Bright and airy.
5. Use the same double glass doors in the downstairs corridor too for light.
6. Use the small front bedroom as an en-suite for the master bedroom .if you need the extra room think about a making a room above the garage (you will have to break down the toilet but you can incorporate that in the upstairs bathroom to make an entrance for the new room) There’s no point having a huge en-suite so section off a bit of the room for a in wall fitted cupboard for the new room. ( this is a lot of work as you will have to reposition the old bedrooms window
Also flip the dining and living room around
And just checked again no need to break the first floor bathroom to make access to a bedroom above garage
We have a very large detached 1927 house and the combi boiler is more than adequate to heat it!
I'd knock through the kitchen into the breakfast room. If you're not looking to use the garage for a car then I'd borrow some for a utility and move the back door into it. Maybe swap the dining room and lounge around, although with young kids I'd maybe use the back room as a playroom/second lounge and have the kitchen-diner for meals and hosting. Knock through the bathroom/WC and update. Rewire. Replace double glazing.
They might be the original leaded glass, but it's pretty easy to push a pane out. Glad to hear someone else who doesn't like open plan - I always thought it would be nightmare trying to keep the kids out of certain areas and have always had separate rooms downstairs. Kitchen in the breakfast room. Old kitchen becomes a utility area, with a door into the garage. Sort the hall floor out. Strip out the panelling, make good and paint. Rewire the house. I thinks sinks in bedrooms were more 50s - my grandmother had one in a bedroom, which my brother took out - remove the lot. Knock the bathroom into one room and update the suite to white. Yeah, redo the windows - it would be nice to keep some of the stained glass, but I'm not sure how one does that. Leaded lights were very draughty according to my memory. Remove that chimney. Turn the chimney breasts into a feature like incorporating a wine rack or bookshelf, so they're not wasted space and still retain them as a focal point.
I might keep the blue bath tub and basin and try work with them, they seem original to the house.
WOW that bathroom Hahah! Never seen that lighting before with the transparent panels?! Fab size house with loads of potential
Mad wasn't it? Would have been all the rage in the 70's! That bath... still gives me nightmares today. 😂
I liked the turquoise suite ! Unique and I’d have kept it I presume you took it out but hope you sold it and didn’t scrap it !
@@GosforthHandyman my parents bought a bungalow next door to our family home in the mid 2000's after the elderly couple who lived there both died. It had a dark mauve bathroom suite; made your turquoise look positively contemporary!
The Wylex consumer unit is the same model that installed in a house I bought in 1982. You could do such jobs as a DIY-er in those days. I fed the tails from the meter through an ELCB (RCD now) which was quite revolutionary at the time. A long time ago - but I was a father of one with a second on its way then too!
Some people are suggesting that you swap the living room and dining room but I don't agree. You want to be sitting at the back of the house in the evening and during the day you want direct access to the garden from the main family room. If you open the three back rooms it'll be big enough for a kitchen/diner/family room. The front room can then be a smarter sitting room for when the grown ups have guests or a formal dining room if you need one, or it could even have a home office corner with a sofa and extra tv for options in a sport versus Mrs situation.
I'm from South Africa. Here, if you do NOT have burglar bars in front of every window and security gates at the outer doors, you are certainly mental! Looking forward to next episode
I wouldn’t swap living room and dining room - I’d want to be sitting with doors on to the gorgeous back garden
I live in Australia so no idea about radiators and double glazing. Those windows look fabulous to me so hopefully adding double glazing still keeps the originals as well? My thoughts have been mentioned below by others - bigger kitchen, swap dining and living. Don't need formal dining that large, so could make the kitchen/dining/family room. And the front living room a separate space you could close off by keeping the doorway. I like the idea of the ensuite also. You made me laugh about the decoration being old people. I'm not far off being an old person. Hope I don't get stuck in a time warp! Looking forward to seeing what you did.
Security stuff looks like it was to stop people getting out, not in. With the sinks in every room maybe it was used for something else at some point? Like shared accommodation?
Our house is 2000 square feet and 3 stories we have a new combi gas boiler in, fitted last year fantastic job.
Agree, our house is similar, needs to be a good combi though, at least 35 kw
I think that the bars on the windows, and slidelocks on the outside of the doors, might be to keep someone in rather than someone out. Or perhaps it was used as a rental dividing the rooms into homes, and that might be why there are sinks in the rooms.
I think it looks like a halfway house for people on probation, there is one in the town I live in which has the bars etc. They have to have a secure place for people to go back to but are often in residential houses.
I would use the dining room as a living room and turn the living room into a kitchen at the back of the house. The small kitchen I would make as a mud room and give yourself a door into the garage. The leftover room next to the kitchen I would use as an office. Ditch the dining room. With the new kitchen/ solarium you would have tons of space for an eat in kitchen plus island with chairs.
During WWII, home owners were encouraged to rent rooms. Lavatory sinks were added to bedrooms to shorten time spent in shared bathrooms.
I love this property! Like lots of others have said, I would knock through the kitchen into the breakfast area (though at first glance that does look to be a supporting wall which may explain why it hasn’t already been done), pop a door in the new kitchen to the garage, pop a nice big sliding door in between the living room and dining room and swap those over for easy access. I would try to keep or buy a similar replacement front door as thats beautiful! Rewire the property, maybe move all the electrics into the garage so you can use the under stairs cupboard, fix up the bathroom and remove the excess sinks, and turn bedroom 4 into a en-suite for the master! Obviously the garage has to be a workshop too!
Oh and knock through the bathroom toilet to create one larger bathroom!
14:40 still got fuses like that in our place, should probably get that thing replaced.
Also bars on the outside to prevent people from getting in, bars on the inside to prevent people from getting out.
I would exchange the dinning and living room open kitchen breakfast and current living room to an open concept kitchen family/dining room. Upstairs combine the two front bedrooms to a master suite with onset master bath with walk in closet. Redecorate the upstairs bathroom and 2 additional bedrooms for children’s rooms.
Very nice property with great potential and perfect for a growing family. Cheers from the colonies.
Cheers Steve and hello to the colonies! 👍👊😀
Re-purpose the garage into a workshop storage and down stairs shower and loo, office if you need four beds, use the existing loo as storage, breakfast room knock it into kitchen and modernise. Swap function of dinning and living room extend out onto the yard for garden Room come extra sitting room. The hallway corridor underfloor cupboard and acces to the breakfast room seems messed up. I would move door to end of the hall, and have a pantry off the breakfast room under the stairs. For the rest just do it up and decorate.
Lovely house. I’d make a big kitchen out of the kitchen and breakfast room, and a utility room from a bit of the garage with a new door through to the house. I’d be happy to keep the original bathroom suite but change the tiles and lighting. I’d consider a small en-suite shower room in the corner of the large bedroom where the basin in a cupboard now is.
That is one gorgeous house Andy, I'd kill for it :-)) First for me would be a rewire, followed by knocking kitchen into breakfast room. Would then insulate beneath and put in UFH on ground floor. These days I'd definitely install smart heating. I've been running an Evohome setup powered by a combi in a 5 bed end terrace for years successfully. I'd be very hesitant about de-installing sinks in bedrooms cos they can be amazingly useful in unforeseen circumstances. The bars have to go pronto obviously then after lunch you could start on .......
A seriously lovely house mate!
Was it an old folks home ? With sinks in each room and locks outside?
I like the wrought iron bannister ! Very mid century- and believe it or not I like the turquoise bathroom suite too
So work
- double glazing windows and doors and remove bars in windows
- re wiring/ check gas / check plumbing
- hall floor
- Knock kitchen and breakfast room together
- knock bathroom and loo together ? Although if only 1 bathroom I like having a sep loo, though you have one downstairs
- remove sinks from bedrooms, though as a teenage girl (in the 70s ) I appreciated having my own sink and a vanity unit with sink built into a cupboard is a trendy thing to have
- bedroom curtains - the ones you said were expensive and they probably were Id save up specifically to change
- if central heating Ok then put that on a later to do list
- presume roof ok and loft space - insulate if necess
- doors between dining and lounge keep as they are ok
- I’d check out reclamation yards to try and get period internal doors
Back garden - fabulous
Switch the living room with the dining room, make the kitchen bigger by moving it all into the breakfast room. Remodel the upstairs bathroom by having one room instead of two. Maybe give up the separate shower and just have the bath for more room. Take out the sinks in the smaller bedrooms, and possibly add an en-suite to the larger back bedroom with the sink.
Definitely, as others have mentioned, knock breakfast room/kitchen into 1 room, that’s so obvious. New boiler, wall mounted in garage, then you can demolish the strange existing boiler arrangement, and the redundant chimney. Funds allowing, I’d put a new bedroom above the garage (you could salvage the coloured glass panes from the landing window and use them here. Current bedroom 4 could be converted into a Jack and Jill bathroom for the current master and the new room over the garage.
1. Open up the kitchen and breakfast room.
2. Replace whole kitchen.
3. Replace doors between living room and dining room with large sliding doors.
4. Take out the kitchen and breakfast room windows and install one large window.
5. Replace hallway sub floor and install a hard floor of your choice, (I hate carpets in hallways)
6. Remove bars on windows and either encapsulate the old leaded windows or replace them, they are a nightmare for condensation.
7. Knock through the WC and bathroom into one bigger room (including that window).
8. Replace whole bathroom.
9. Remove all sinks from rooms.
10. Replace front door.
Apart from that, there is not much more I would personally do if I was just looking to flip the place.
If I was going to live there, I would defiantly look at having part of the garage converted into a mud room, I would install a megaflow system, Install a modern consumer unit, board the loft for storage, install new loft and cavity wall insulation and install a log burner in the living room.
Not watched your second video yet but I would certainly merge that breakfast room with the kitchen and swap the dining and living rooms. I'd also add a doorway to the garage
Knock down the wall between the kitchen and morning room to make a big dining kitchen and convert the garage into a downstairs playroom or sitting room.
With those bizarre bedroom door and window features, I wouldn't dig too deep in the garden if I were you!
Lol that might explain a few things... 🤔😂
@@GosforthHandyman When I went to clean up the backyard that had been neglected, I found all sorts of strange stuff. I halfway expected a body.
It may have been a bed and breakfast at one time by the looks of it. Very similar style to my house in Liverpool built 1936, same windows and wall paneling only ours has barley twist everywhere with oak staircase, and high fireplace (once I took all the paint off) and parquet floors everywhere.
Swap living and dining, turn kitchen into utility, open up breakfast and dining rooms to create kitchen diner. Bathroom and WC into one. Rewire, replumb, windows, etc. Poss add bedroom above garage and create ensuite in bed 4 (reluctant to lose a bedroom otherwise) or downstairs shower room if it would fit in utility/back of garage.
Our roughly similar 1930s house in London has a combi boiler (fitted in 2014) so yes, it is possible now
Perfect Sunday video!
Cheers Rian! 👍
Really nice house and a great renovation project. I suspect one of the elderly previous owners had dementia and the bars and internal door locks were to stop them wandering off. Can't wait to see what you did to the house!
This to me looks like one of the post war B&B's used by ex soldiers during the rebuild and expansion when the country was getting back on its feet. That would account for the bedroom basins and the security measures. I can tell you the cream colour of the consumer unit suggests it was more than likely installed in the late 70's into the 80's. The outside boiler looks like an old coal bin repurposed for a boiler room as the first boiler it would of had in a property like that would of been a backboiler.
As a gas/sparks I would replace heating system and electrics, Combo would have coped with original layout but if you're doing any additions a system boiler and pressurized hot water would be the go to. Original curved radiators are rare and expensive as hell on the second hand market as they were all custom rolled to the property they were put in.
Swap living and dining room, knock kitchen>breakfast>dining room into one to expand kitchen. Extend over Garage for a new bedroom and have a main bed with en suite and family bathroom. and new double glazing. Also reposition radiators under windows for better heat circulation.
Interesting - very possibly Mark! There was some slight charring on some of the joists in the loft - rumour is it got slightly damaged from bombing during the war. Think the last rewire was late 60's - there's a story there. 😂👍
@@GosforthHandyman Yeah those boards used to be wood backed brown plastic fronts, then full bakerlite brown plastic then cream. One of the longest running consumer unit designs. Property looks a lot like the ones my father stayed in when working after the war. The bars on the windows weren't always to do with breakins but actually to stop anyone scarpering without paying the landlady or sneaking back in after a drink/smoking in the rooms.
Mark I was working for a damp proofing company nearly 25 years ago now,we were installing wall ties,the house had half round bays just like on this one. This idiot who was working with us drilled through the single skin bay with a big spit sods,he got through the brick and then right through both sides of the curved radiator right at the top part where it's at it's thickest. How he didn't hear the noise it made or feel the vibrations il never know. The old black sludgy water in the rad pissed out all over the bedroom carpet.
This same bloke drilled through another single skin and actually installed a wall tie in to the board that was holding the main electric board. I seriously hope he doesn't still work in the building game!
The elec board looks like it originally had wire fuses. The trips are an 80's replacement. I remember my dad fitting them to our old board. They are thinner than the original wire fuse spacing. You just replaced the collar and they plugged in to the same blade point in the board.
Some one spent some money in that property in the past.
Yep I would have said coal hole, especially in Newcastle for a 30s house.
Kitch breakast room knock through, change door from garage to kitchen, open up stairway to get the space.
Extension over garage, make bedroom 4 into en suitebathroom for bedroom 1, make over garage into bedroom 4, smash through toilet into bathroom to make main bathroom bigger
swap kitchen and breakfast room or open up, but like you i think its smart to have defined spaces which you can repurpuse eventually, not a big fan of knocking walls down tbh. Bathroom and windows first i guess. maybe garage insulation into usable space and build a large shed in the garden for tools etc. looking forward to see what you'll do!
Very Interesting ! I actually liked theBath and Sink !
Them windows will be expensive to replace lol.
Usually if the central heating system is bang on, everything else will be EZ PZ. Reduce all french doors to singles and add/move partition walls. All radiators preferably under windows. At least 2 double sockets per blank wall. RCBO consumer unit and stainless steel heat exchanger combi boiler. All solid door with rose handle. Laminate flooring and simple flat skirting boards.
Opinions on upvc skirting boards?
It seems that it might have been used as a small residential care home. Good luck. Looking forward to part 2, 3 etc.
My first thought is that all the security features are to prevent an elderly occupant with dementia leaving or causing harm to themselves or others when in a dissociative fugue state. But I’m only 14 mins in and excited by the potential of this property!!
Cheers! I don't think they had dementia but I could be wrong. Lots of potential! 👍😀
Gosforth Handyman may have been a parent or sibling of those you purchased from, won’t have been recent additions but for someone living there 20/30years ago perhaps 🤷♀️.
Cannot wait to see what you did with it 👍🏻
I absoloutely love these renovations video's. Funnily enough, I am never so keen when I am living amongst it... :-)
I would move the lounge to the front of the house and do away with the breakfast room leaving a much larger kitchen , diner and family room at the rear. I would add a door to the garage from the kitchen and create a small utility room from garage space. Upstairs I would build ( rather my husband would build ) another bedroom on top of the garage and convert bedroom 4 into an en suite.
Cannot wait to see what you do.
Is it possible that at some point the house was used as a woman's refuge or emergency foster care for older children?
It could explain the safety / security features, the bedroom sinks and bedroom locks.
I'd have done the same with the living room and had a dining space in between then the kitchen at the back, a small snug TV room, or an extra bedroom could have been fitted. Also upstairs I'd have tried to fit ensuits into the two bigger bedrooms.
Cheers! RE refuge - I don't think so. Was just an older couple in it when we bought it and I think they'd been there for many years. 👍🤔
Firstly, regardless of the old fashioned decoration it looked very clean and well kept. Maybe it was an old couple who asked their grown up children to make the house more secure hence the bolts and bars etc. Lovely home, I’m sure you did a good job.
I think you're right. It was VERY well maintained - you can tell they really cared for the property. 👍
I love the colour of the bathroom suit and the style. As much as I like white bathroom suites. It just has a little bit of style about it and is in keeping with the house. I would definitely take the bars off the windows and change the windows. Also I would knock the kitchen in the breakfast room into one room. Or use the old kitchen as a utility room.
Wish you'd been around when we were trying to sell that bathroom suite. 😉👍
Agreed, fantastic old suite.
Bedroom sinks were a common feature in middle class housing between the wars. As for the rest...Garage=workshop, Kitchen=paint shop, Breakfast room=office, Living room=showroom for the fantastic works already done, Dining room=Client entertainment suite. Live upstairs, eat out! Sorted! ;)
Love it! I'll not mention this to my wife. 😂👍😂
Bars on window & padded door to keep someone IN!!
How could you leave such a gorgeous property? I’d kill for those views and that garden! 😢
Definitely knock kitchen into breakfast room. I’d switch the living room & dining room around and maybe even knock down the wall between the now dining room and breakfast room too. Then you’d have had a gorgeous kitchen, diner, family room.
It’s very similar to a ‘Manse (Methodist equivalent of a Vicarage)’ my parents in law lived in. Can’t wait for no.2 video.
I had a school friend who's house also had bars on the windows on the stairwell, it wasn't for security purposes but the children of the family could accidentally break the stained glass windows if they fell while running up . (She was 1 of 8) The windows were there from the time house was build in the later 1880,s
One of 8!! Oh wow! 😬😂
Watching from Durban South Africa. In the ground floor,bI would open up the kitchen right throught to the living room. Close off the dining room so it can be a bed. If the entrance issue can be sorted, u would have a nice first unit there.
Upstairs I would convert bed4 into a kitchen, then build a dining room on the flat roof, keep all else as is just have a unobstructed connection between the flat roof and bedroom 4
Lovely house!! I would make the kitchen & breakfast room into one big kitchen with maybe a breakfast bar 👌then I would do a dinning room/play room so it faves the nice garden. I would deffo have the frontroom at the front of the house. Upstairs I would get rid of all the sinks 😂😂😂 and have the biggest room for adults and then next size down for the first child then the next smaller room for the youngest and the smallest room I'd make it into a small office or a spare room for when company stay :) can't wait to see what you've done with it. I'd deffo cut the tree down thats touching the property and have more space for the kids to play in the garden xxx
8:30 if you will fault on stairs, then you will slide direct in toilet. :D
I would changes the hinges of the living room and dining room / bed1 and bed2 doors, so opening the door shows the room not the deviding wall inbetween.
If you want to get old in this house you should enable a bigger shower in the 1st floor, maybe as a part of the kitchen or the breakfast room ang get rid of the stairs to the toilet
lower the light switches to 110cm, more fuses, I'd recommend one per room
where is North? Maybe the garage top could be a sun deck
Not efficient but the windows are so lovely, I’m not a fan of modern except in the kitchen. I’d open up the kitchen and breakfast room to expand it.
Bars on inside of windows ,well you said you're in a conservation area would spoil the look with them on outside and i assume it's a security detail.Padded door was a sixties seventies feature and as for locks on outside of doors possibly to control children or elderly person?
I’m also curious about the boiler part. Not a big fan of conventional boiler, prefer instant hot water from combi boilerbut for multiple bathrooms/sinks in this house, it may be tough. So really appreciate if you could talk about the boiler choice in the next videos. Thanks
Great video and love this series as in the middle of a live-in renovation myself! I would:
Double glazing - shame as old lead looks great and hate to think of cost of double glazing that place
Obviously knock through kitchen breakfast room
BBQ terrace above the garage, again fairly obvious
Then hanging beads in doorway between lounge and dining room using the latter for tarot card reading and necromancy
Cheers!
Change dining room to rear, bathroom and loo into one, new double glazed windows, replace electrics, make kitchen into utility room with a door into the garage, knock breakfast room and rear room into one and make open plan kitchen dinner.
Great ideas! 👍👊
I’m still only 6 minutes into the video but my first thought was. New windows and doors, rendered exterior walls. Knock the kitchen and breakfast rooms into one for a more family friendly space. Definitely an en-suite in bedroom one or two or maybe a larger jack and Jill bathroom between both.
But I’m not a builder. A beautiful property though. I can’t wait to see how it turns out.
Never mind all that. Just get rid of the bathroom. It looks like the one from ‘The Shining’ with the old lady in.
RE Shining 😂😆👍 We couldn't change too much about the outside of the property due to it being a conservation area - but all good ideas! 👍
make kitchen/breakfast room one room, make a utility room in garage, make bath/toilet into one move door into bathroom nearer to top of stairs, turn bedroom 4 into en-suite for bed room 1, also possibly put a shower whb in bed 2 get rid of wood chip paper
It's a lovely property! So much character and roominess! I would NOT modernize it, ruining the integrity of the structure, but go with the architecture, putting your own spin on it, of course, but please don't do what I've seen many homeowners do, taking all the personality away for the sake of "modernity."
I would just clean up everything to look nice, not too much change. But that kitchen is where I would put all the effort. Enlarge it into the eating area and then switch living room to the front and dining room next to the kitchen. Otherwise, it’s a lovely home.
Beautiful bones on this property! Besides the obvious updates to electric and plumbing, I say in a similar spirit to what another commenter said: swap the living and dining rooms as the formal dining should be close to the kitchen where the food comes in warm. Knock the kitchen and breakfast room into one larger kitchen with room for either a breakfast bar or a bistro size table for informal eating. Extend the interior over the garage to make a new bedroom and have a master bedroom with the en suite where the smallest bedroom now sits. Now it is a four bedroom with 2.5 bathrooms! 😊 That is for certain, a 21st century home life.
All great ideas and very close on some of them! 👍
@@GosforthHandyman Thanks for the reply! 😊❤ I am very much looking forward to the big reveal next week! You really are a very talented renovation expert, especially when turning around a property within a budget constraint! I'm quite taken with the beauty of these transformations.
Would extend 10m for an indoor pool flat roof with summer house at the end of the garden. Have similar house but tiny garden
The kitchen looks to be an extension so knocking through to the breakfast room might be unwise structurally. If that's the case I'd make the kitchen into a utility/freezer room and the breakfast room into the kitchen if you can cope with it being that small. Definitely knock the bathroom/loo together. If the hallway has timber issues I'd have the whole ground floor looked at, including the state of any underfloor void. I'd also would be looking to see whether it has cavity wall insulation and getting that done if possible.
Another superb video, Andy!!!
Cheers John! 👍👊
Kitchen expand into breakfast room, open up fireplace downstairs and paint over the wallpaper to give a cleaner and more open expanse. Remove the hall carpet and check if the flooring is a problem there. If it is you probably have to check the whole of the downstairs. If it needs major work redo the flooring at same time and add Underfloor heating and stone/tiles rather than carpet. For a house with out cavity walls this will massively reduce heating costs long term and raise the price of the house as you are expanding the kitchen. Change the boiler to a hear exchange environmentally friendly non gas. As you have the tanks this again will save costs down the line.
Redo the electrics and remove sinks from the bedrooms, the more water pipes mean more chances of leaks. Change the doors on the fitted wardrobes either by painting or just buying new ones to modernize the place and paint the rooms.
New bathroom and insulate the loft space. Remove all locks and doors to the bedrooms as this was obviously a institution of some sort, and a very scary one if there are external locks on doors. The doors look to be fire doors and not the greatest.
all in cost 15 for ground floor flooring, 10 for kitchen, 15 for boiler' electric and plumbing. Decoration say 5 if you do it yourself for doors and paint etc. All in say £50,000 for refurb
This maybe is not so sensible but besides all the boring fixes that need to be done, replacing the windows and modernising the rooms I'd be tempted to break through the kitchen, breakfast area and back living room to make one large open plan kitchen/dining/living area and have the front dining room as a more private/formal living area. I'd all try to put a door between the kitchen and garage and have a laundry/utility area in the garage. I know that would require support beams and might be more expensive and hassle than its worth but it would make a lovely bright, open space
I forgot most importantly I would be keeping that bath...seriously. I know in 2008 that was not in style but now people would pay a lot for that. I would completely modernise the bathroom, make it much cleaner more minimal but that bath would be a feature of the room. It's amazing
Man I wish someone would have paid for that bath - couldn't give it away! 😭😂
A ocuple of floating alcove shelves surely! I didn't think the bannister was that bad - but I am guessing you replaced it with a handrail and ballusters.
Some of the non-residential features (bars on decorative windows, additional security measures on front door, small staff dining room (breakfast room) and the over-engineered boiler bunker/ Dibnah-esque chimney indicate this was done with corporate or public funds for a specific purpose. Perhaps accommodation for workers, church retreat or children’s boarding house of some description? Perhaps the large bedrooms had multiple bunks in?
I would guess that the boiler housing used to be a coal bunker. The manhole being where they dropped in the new coal. There would have been a hole at the front to shovel out the coal or coke.
Hi Andy, I think those triangular windows are called "oriel windows". Although I don't think oriel refers specifically to the triangular shape, more the location and mini bay window design.
First!
Kitchen Breakfast room and Living room would be knocked through completely to make an huge kitchen diner for entertaining. Move the living room to the front where the dining room is I’d potentially make a reception room out of the garage (as there is loft space for storage and off road parking for the cars garage not essential) Upstairs mostly cosmetic new wardrobe doors new flooring and decorating.
Then if i was made of money I’d build on top of the garage to create a 5th bedroom or even better and upstairs laundry room (American style instead of the typical british way of washing clothes in the kitchen then back upstairs lol)
When the house was built the kitchen would have been called a scullery and my thoughts are the original owners might have had money and possibly employed a cook. Also there would not have been fridges, dishwasher and washer so it would have been enough space for the cook. It also looks like at one time in its past they had lodgers and the mesh on the front door could have been for messages.
I literally laughed out loud when I saw the kitchen
Lovely home with so much potential. It seems like the security was to keep someone in rather than out- would explain the sinks too. Perhaps it was a sanitarium? It would be interesting to research the history of the house.
Reno’s- I would enlarge the kitchen into that breakfast room and swap dining and living rooms. Those double doors are keepers. Upstairs I would make one of the smaller rooms into an en-suite +/- dressing room for the master.
Believe it or not Andy back in the day that Cannon grill was the Rolls Royce of appliances. Regards geriatric gas fitter.
Looking forward to next week. Your reply about the house being a black hole for money makes me wonder what is coming. Like many of the comments, making the kitchen and the breakfast room into one kitchen seems to be a gimme. Also, adding an en suite to the master bedroom with the second bathroom for the children. As far as that tree goes, I live in South Devon, and the trick in Salcombe, which seems to be all expensive second homes, is to get a so-called tree surgeon to say the tree is diseased, and immediately cut it down before the council can intervene. A few years ago, a beautiful old chestnut tree, in a prominent position was removed in this way.
Good tip with the tree! There were lots of trees far too close together so the 'tree lady' from the council had no problems with us removing it, luckily. 😀
Padded doors bars on windows and doors that looks like it's to stop someone getting out 😅
It amazes me why so many people buy a house and never renovate it during their lives. It's like going back in time.
Break through from breakfast room to kitchen. ENLARGE the teeny tiny kitchen!