We've Bought an Historical Old Vicarage!

[seaurchin]

MORE pics, please!

 

[SparklieBug]

@Ally T Great visuals, from your description. If you decide to change careers, you'd be a great travel writer!

 

[Ally T]

@Ally T Great visuals, from your description. If you decide to change careers, you'd be a great travel writer!

I waffle too much. I can literally talk a glass eye to sleep

 

[seaurchin]

MORE pics, please!

I don't want to be too demanding or anything so new pics once per day would be fine. Along with descriptions, history and etc., naturally.

 

[DorotheaBrooke]

OK, so a quick count up & we have 9 huge fireplaces (kitchen one is already removed & bricked up) with 3 of those ginormous & ornate chimney stacks that I included a picture of further up. Each chimney stack has many pots on the top!

We are not sure about roof work yet, though there will be a degree of something as there are 2 tiny holes of daylight visible from the inside of the attic, but right down at the soffets where the roof meets the floor line below. The Coveyancer is there on Friday to do a full assessment & structural survey, so we'll know more then.

Regarding the pizza oven idea, I like it! But sadly there is no longer the kitchen hearth - it was properly removed & is gone, to make a more 'modern' kitchen in the 1960's. But we will be building an outdoor oven area under a permanent structure, which will include BBQ & an amazing pizza oven. So Yssie from the US, get your pizza muscles flexed & ready for next summer!

How funny that of all the fireplaces to remove, the prior owners chose to remove the kitchen hearth!

Last year I remodeled my kitchen and had a hearth-like area created around the range for a similar feel to an old converted kitchen hearth. (My mom could not understand why I didn't fill the wall with upper cabinets.) The influence of English Homes magazine at work!

 

[Ally T]

I don't want to be too demanding or anything so new pics once per day would be fine.

You would be bored senseless if I posted daily pictures! The contrast between the before & after pics will be more obvious for you to see the less I overload you.

The biggest visual change will be adding an Orangery & the absolutely huge kitchen diner extension. To the side of the house from the kitchen is a large brick courtyard that is partially roofed. Over the far side is a gardeners toilet, a store shed & a room with a big old Belfast sink with a hand operated water pump! It's very rusty & no longer pumps, but I will have it removed, cleaned up & mounted somewhere out in the garden. We are thinking of putting in a pond somewhere, so possibly there. It'll be useless but i absolutely won't throw it away because it's the original water source to the property & it belongs there. Will try & remember to take a pic when i'm there again on Saturday.

So this courtyard @yssie will be the basis of the kitchen diner extension. The thoughts at the moment are to pull outwards around 5 feet into the garden across the back of the current kitchen & then ALL the way into the full courtyard area at the gable end. This will provide a massive space with a wall of glass bi-fold doors into the garden. And also, across the back of the kitchen there is a large pantry & wine store. This will become the utility room & off from the end & into that immediate strip of existing courtyard, will be a gym. Gardeners toilets are so 1904

 

[Ally T]

How funny that of all the fireplaces to remove, the prior owners chose to remove the kitchen hearth!

Last year I remodeled my kitchen and had a hearth-like area created around the range for a similar feel to an old converted kitchen hearth. (My mom could not understand why I didn't fill the wall with upper cabinets.) The influence of English Homes magazine at work!

Oh my goodness, this is just STUNNING!!!

Hmmmm...... wonder if they can put me one back in?!!

 

[yssie]

Ttyuyyyhy

You're so funny!

OK, so on the main upstairs floor there are currently 6 bedrooms, one massive bathroom with no toilet (!), a seperate room across the other side of the large staircase with a lonely solitary toilet in (no sink), plus a shower room. The main staircase runs up the centre of the front of the house, with the landings sweeping left to right. Immediately to the left of the stairs as you come up, on the same side, is the large & sparse family bathroom. Adjacent to the right is the solitary toilet.

We are up the stairs & have turned left, past the bathroom. We come to:
Bedroom 1. This will become the main guest room. There isn't enough space to fit an ensuite due to the beautiful green Art Deco fireplace which I pictured, as that will remain & leaves the rest of the room too awkward due to dual aspect stone mullioned windows.

Bedroom 2. This is the smallest room at 11 feet square. This will become an ensuite bathroom for the master bedroom.

Bedroom 3. This will be the master. It has dual aspect stone mullioned windows & an Art Deco fireplace identical to the green one, only this is burgundy. This will come out, as otherwise getting a large bed & wardrobe storage in due to the large windows on the other 2 walls, will be extremely problematic.

Bedroom 4. This is immediately in front of you as you arrive upstairs. This will be our youngest daughters room. It is large enough at 20 feet x 18 feet to have a lovely ensuite fitted.

Next is the shower room, which is big & has a sink & toilet in there too. This will be knocked into an ensuite for:

Bedroom 5. This will be our eldest daughters room & again has dual aspect windows. Sadly these were replaced with modern double glazing at some point & the mullions were smashed out. We will look into having new mullions put back in.

Bedroom 6. This will be the second guest room & again no ensuite, as it's not large enough.

From here is the servants staircase that starts in the kitchen & goes all the way up to the attic rooms.

Next to this, which separates the 2 staircases, is the lonely toilet room without a sink. This will become a linen store room. Then we are back to the main stairs.

On the top floor there are 3 rooms:
The main attic, which will stay as it is, fully boarded, for storage.

Bedroom 7. This has a large dormer which needs completely replacing as it's rotten. This will become Mr T's office & the dormer window will be replaced by doors & a glass balcony, so that he can look out over the gardens & fields from his desk, rather than having to stand up to peer out of the currently very high windows. Obviously servants were only allowed windows for daylight purposes & not for pleasure!

Small attic room will remain for storage. This is a dark room with only a tiny window pane & is where we found the soldiers trunk pushed into a corner.

Now, i hope I haven't passed too much of your lunch break, but you did ask

Ooooh. Converting the second bedroom into the master bath. I like that. That will be lovely - and so spacious I'm laughing at the solitary toilet situation There's an oddity. Wonder how... Why...?

Your husband's office will be AMAZING once that balcony is in. What a transformation.

How did your girls choose their rooms? Did they each prefer different spaces or was there maybe some RockPaperScissors-ing going on

Now I'm wondering how all of the plumbing work will be done. You're obviously doing a massive overhaul so that's drops in the ocean for you at this point I'm sure!! We wound up having to replace all the copper in our older place with PVC for the most ridiculous reasons (that included "can't find fittings"). Kept the copper... It's in a big ol' pile in the basement, looks like something from a scene in The Shining

Cannot wait to see pics of that flooring under the carpet, too

I was Zillowing old vicarages last night. Because of course. I would love to own a place like i'm envisioning yours will be one day!! What a dream come true Realistically that's not happening, so we'll build up in upstate NY. We call that part of the US New England so you can pretty much imagine the climate and terrain. Turns out if you end up with enough forested land you need to do things like prescribed burns. And black bear relocation

Orangery!! Oh. See this takes me straight to France. Brisk sunny mornings, doors open, fruit bowl and cream, clothes out to dry on the line... (Let's ignore the gleaming spiderwebs and the daily temper tantrum over putting my school uniform on).

SO EXCITED FOR YOU!!!!
Omg. This really is the stuff dreams are made of.

 

[DorotheaBrooke]

You would be bored senseless if I posted daily pictures! The contrast between the before & after pics will be more obvious for you to see the less I overload you.

The biggest visual change will be adding an Orangery & the absolutely huge kitchen diner extension. To the side of the house from the kitchen is a large brick courtyard that is partially roofed. Over the far side is a gardeners toilet, a store shed & a room with a big old Belfast sink with a hand operated water pump! It's very rusty & no longer pumps, but I will have it removed, cleaned up & mounted somewhere out in the garden. We are thinking of putting in a pond somewhere, so possibly there. It'll be useless but i absolutely won't throw it away because it's the original water source to the property & it belongs there. Will try & remember to take a pic when i'm there again on Saturday.

So this courtyard @yssie will be the basis of the kitchen diner extension. The thoughts at the moment are to pull outwards around 5 feet into the garden across the back of the current kitchen & then ALL the way into the full courtyard area at the gable end. This will provide a massive space with a wall of glass bi-fold doors into the garden. And also, across the back of the kitchen there is a large pantry & wine store. This will become the utility room & off from the end & into that immediate strip of existing courtyard, will be a gym. Gardeners toilets are so 1904

This sounds more and more wonderful, the more details you share! I'd love to hear more about this Orangery! My next home project will be to convert my screened-in porch to a sunroom/four season room. Now I want to call it my Orangery project.

Also, a big old Belfast sink in the garden sounds dreamy!

 

[yssie]

You would be bored senseless if I posted daily pictures! The contrast between the before & after pics will be more obvious for you to see the less I overload you.

Um. Nope. You feel free to go right ahead and post daily.

 

[ItsMainelyYou]

I'm trying to keep it together. I aaaaam-hm-hm-hm but you're building an Orangery, the thing my little girl heart truly wants. I don't hahahaaaahaaaaave ooooooohooooone.

*Post whatever you want, whenever- this is the most exciting thing ever.

 

[yssie]

How funny that of all the fireplaces to remove, the prior owners chose to remove the kitchen hearth!

Last year I remodeled my kitchen and had a hearth-like area created around the range for a similar feel to an old converted kitchen hearth. (My mom could not understand why I didn't fill the wall with upper cabinets.) The influence of English Homes magazine at work!

I love this. So fresh and open. Looks like a place you'd sit down with a spiced chai to write a book...

When we renovated our kitchen the one thing I demanded was a fireplace in the kitchen. Architect thought that was odd... And assumed I wanted a gas gizmo. No. Real wood fireplace, please and thank you. There was one in the old dining area adjacent, so we changed the planned layout and extended the kitchen to include that space. Now I'm the quack who makes a fire in April or May and sits at the island in shorts and a t-shirt. Planning to convert that fireplace into a pizza oven - hence the angsting earlier - but I want to keep the Palisades stone, and that complicates the whole thing exponentially, so I've kinda just put the whole thing off until #Life calms down. So, y'know, 2030.

This is totally instagrammable!! Looks so airy and soothing. And - this is gonna sound weird but here goes - if you gave me ten pictures of random kitchens and asked me to pick which one must be yours, just based on your bling pics here, I think I'd have picked something like this!

 

[Ally T]

I'm trying to keep it together. I aaaaam-hm-hm-hm but you're building an Orangery, the thing my little girl heart truly wants. I don't hahahaaaahaaaaave ooooooohooooone.

*Post whatever you want, whenever- this is the most exciting thing ever.

The Orangery on our current house has a glass lantern roof & is really modern. At the 'new' house, we will have to work with timber & a solid roof. This is an inspiration pin that I have saved, because the house has similar features & the tiles on the roof are identical to ours:

 

[yssie]

Question for @Ally T. How's this place heated? Do y'all have gas - or will you put a line in? Is that a #Thing out there? Electric... Radiators? And what about cooling?

 

[ItsMainelyYou]

The Orangery on our current house has a glass lantern roof & is really modern. At the 'new' house, we will have to work with timber & a solid roof. This is an inspiration pin that I have saved, because the house has similar features & the tiles on the roof are identical to ours:

Eeeee, I can't wait. I am living vicariously, yesiree!

 

[yssie]

Eeeee, I can't wait. I am living vicariously, yesiree!

Vicar-iously. Indeed. I'm cackling

 

[Ally T]

Ttyuyyyhy


Ooooh. Converting the second bedroom into the master bath. I like that. That will be lovely - and so spacious I'm laughing at the solitary toilet situation There's an oddity. Wonder how... Why...?

Your husband's office will be AMAZING once that balcony is in. What a transformation.

How did your girls choose their rooms? Did they each prefer different spaces or was there maybe some RockPaperScissors-ing going on

Now I'm wondering how all of the plumbing work will be done. You're obviously doing a massive overhaul so that's drops in the ocean for you at this point I'm sure!! We wound up having to replace all the copper in our older place with PVC for the most ridiculous reasons (that included "can't find fittings"). Kept the copper... It's in a big ol' pile in the basement, looks like something from a scene in The Shining

Cannot wait to see pics of that flooring under the carpet, too

I was Zillowing old vicarages last night. Because of course. I would love to own a place like i'm envisioning yours will be one day!! What a dream come true Realistically that's not happening, so we'll build up in upstate NY. We call that part of the US New England so you can pretty much imagine the climate and terrain. Turns out if you end up with enough forested land you need to do things like prescribed burns. And black bear relocation

Orangery!! Oh. See this takes me straight to France. Brisk sunny mornings, doors open, fruit bowl and cream, clothes out to dry on the line... (Let's ignore the gleaming spiderwebs and the daily temper tantrum over putting my school uniform on).

SO EXCITED FOR YOU!!!!
Omg. This really is the stuff dreams are made of.

So the girls were just drawn to their rooms, bizarrely enough. We just let them wander & pick which they wanted, and bingo! The eldest daughters room is the furthest away from the master, so that might have been a factor considering she is now 13 & already lives in the pit that is her bedroom. We'll see her even less when she doesn't have to come out to go to the bathroom

The plumbing is not my headache. I'm paying to have zero stress on this thing. Besides popping in to provide freshly baked cakes & scones to the builders every few days to keep them sweet & check everything is OK, I plan to stay firmly out of the way! Although the ex project manager in me will not keep me away for long....

Bear relocation????! The worst we can get here are rabbits & pheasants. Though I did watch a heron steal a koi carp from my neighbours pond once, which amused me!

 

[DorotheaBrooke]

I love this. So fresh and open. Looks like a place you'd sit down with a spiced chai to write a book...

When we renovated our kitchen the one thing I demanded was a fireplace in the kitchen. Architect thought that was odd... And assumed I wanted a gas gizmo. No. Real wood fireplace, please and thank you. There was one in the old dining area adjacent, so we changed the planned layout and extended the kitchen to include that space. Now I'm the quack who makes a fire in April or May and sits at the island in shorts and a t-shirt. Planning to convert that fireplace into a pizza oven - hence the angsting earlier - but I want to keep the Palisades stone, and that complicates the whole thing exponentially, so I've kinda just put the whole thing off until #Life calms down. So, y'know, 2030.

This is totally instagrammable!! Looks so airy and soothing. And - this is gonna sound weird but here goes - if you gave me ten pictures of random kitchens and asked me to pick which one must be yours, just based on your bling pics here, I think I'd have picked something like this!

Ha! A couple of friends have mentioned that my kitchen is just like me. Good thing my husband is happy to defer to me on all decorating decisions. Your kitchen with a real wood fireplace (soon to be pizza oven) sounds amazing!

The Orangery on our current house has a glass lantern roof & is really modern. At the 'new' house, we will have to work with timber & a solid roof. This is an inspiration pin that I have saved, because the house has similar features & the tiles on the roof are identical to ours:

So beautiful! Will there be a tile or stone floor? If you've had a chance to think that far ahead yet. This looks a lot like my screened-in porch (do you have those over there?) except with glass instead of screens, so I'm definitely going to call mine an orangery.

 

[Ally T]

Question for @Ally T. How's this place heated? Do y'all have gas - or will you put a line in? Is that a #Thing out there? Electric... Radiators? And what about cooling?

So it is currently heated by a big old oil tank in the garden, but the system no longer works. We are planning on underfloor heating throughout & no radiators. We have looked at an underground water pump heat exchange system, but the architects initial thoughts are that it won't be enough to keep a house of this size at an ambient temp. Plus the digging up of the garden to install it makes us nervous. So it will probably have to be electrically heated (there isn't a gas supply to the property & gas is being phased out here in the UK, so new build properties for example cannot install it) which means a big old system needs to be installed. We may be able to fit some solar panels out in a corner of garden somewhere, but the house is in a Conservation Area & so we won't get the permissions required to put them on the roof. And nor would we want to, as the roof & all the ornate chimney stacks would be obscured too much. We don't need cooling. This is England. We hit the low 30 degree Celsius temps for about 5 weeks of the year

 

[Ally T]

Ha! A couple of friends have mentioned that my kitchen is just like me. Good thing my husband is happy to defer to me on all decorating decisions. Your kitchen with a real wood fireplace (soon to be pizza oven) sounds amazing!



So beautiful! Will there be a tile or stone floor? If you've had a chance to think that far ahead yet. This looks a lot like my screened-in porch (do you have those over there?) except with glass instead of screens, so I'm definitely going to call mine an orangery.

Haven't thought that far ahead, but I expect it will be parquet, as the room it is going on (as have all the reception rooms & hallway) have parquet hidden under hideous green carpets. We don't have screened in porches over here as we don't get nasty insects & flying bugs. It's too cold for them!

 

[yssie]

So the girls were just drawn to their rooms, bizarrely enough. We just let them wander & pick which they wanted, and bingo! The eldest daughters room is the furthest away from the master, so that might have been a factor considering she is now 13 & already lives in the pit that is her bedroom. We'll see her even less when she doesn't have to come out to go to the bathroom

Yes... And at 13 she's probably nocturnal - or close to - so maybe not even then? That worked out great for you and hubs, no bedroom squabbles to mediate.

What an opportunity for them. For real. Even if they had zero interest in houses or architecture... They sure as heck will now

The plumbing is not my headache. I'm paying to have zero stress on this thing. Besides popping in to provide freshly baked cakes & scones to the builders every few days to keep them sweet & check everything is OK, I plan to stay firmly out of the way! Although the ex project manager in me will not keep keep away for long....

A-freaking-men. Hire people you trust and then let them keep the headaches to themselves. SO on board with this.

Bear relocation????! The worst we can get here are rabbits & pheasants. Though I did watch a heron steal a koi carp from my neighbours pond once, which amused me!

Nothing like hitting the road for a meeting at the Pentagon with Environmental Conservation and nuisance wildlife control on the phone

 

[Matata]

big old Belfast sink with a hand operated water pump! It's very rusty & no longer pumps, but I will have it removed, cleaned up & mounted somewhere out in the garden. We are thinking of putting in a pond somewhere, so possibly there. It'll be useless but i absolutely won't throw it away

Useless! Sacrilege! As a holder of multiple Ph.Ds in HGTV, DIY, and several Gardening shows, I can say with certainty that it is not useless. It can be a fountain, a planter, a birdbath and/or it can be artfully painted or tiled and make a unique statement piece. These suggestions are offered free of charge. My usual fee is $200/hr.

 

[Matata]

P.S. This should be made a sticky as it's the most exciting thread to come along in a long time.

 

[yennyfire]

Add me to the list of daily followers on this thread. It really is the stuff dreams are made of and will be so exciting to see the progress and agonize with you over paint colors, fabric swatches and light fixtures!! Oh my!! SO MUCH FUN!

 

[Ally T]

Apologies, I thought I had added a picture of one of the chimney stacks for you. The brickwork is INCREDIBLE. There are three of these huge towering things!

 

[SparklieBug]

I can hardly stand how thrilled I am for you, @Ally T! And so incredibly delighted and grateful that you so generously share photos and your vision for this lovely property.

 

[canuk-gal]

HI:

I've bought some new LV trunks and am awaiting for an invitation!!! (think carefully with your reply, I might be there a while!! ya know like the relatives in Jane Austin novels....)

cheers--Sharon

 

[stracci2000]

@Ally T
With all those bedrooms, you can host us all for revolving bling get -togethers!
We can lunch on the lawn!
But seriously, this home is awesome, and I'm so happy for you!

 

[kah42]

The more I hear about this project the more excited I get for you! I'm insanely jealous, but will try to reign it in so long as you promise to keep us very in the loop about the renovations.

Have I missed pictures of the gardens? My goodness did your description of Mr. T's office make me revise every dream I've ever had about a home office!

 

[Ally T]

The more I hear about this project the more excited I get for you! I'm insanely jealous, but will try to reign it in so long as you promise to keep us very in the loop about the renovations.

Have I missed pictures of the gardens? My goodness did your description of Mr. T's office make me revise every dream I've ever had about a home office!

Thank you! I haven’t taken any pictures of the gardens yet, but will try to remember when we are over tomorrow, along with the hand water pump in the courtyard. Hopefully it will stay dry - the weather here is literally ALL over the place at the mo. Last week was nudging 21deg Celsius all week & yesterday it snowed & was -1 overnight