I’m feeling energised after a couple of hours spent shifting logs and this update is long overdue….

The title of today’s post has won the prize for ‘comment of the week’ regarding the house and comes courtesy of a contact in the world of finance.  He’s a sensible guy and since the scope of works has been compiled and we’re now in a period of tense anticipation, trying to ignore that gnawing feeling in the gut before we are presented with an estimate of how much the refurbishment will cost, he may have a point.

In the meantime I am ignoring such unromantic cynicism and throwing myself into planning the finer details of bathrooms and kitchens.  SO MUCH FUN!! Partly due to the conditions of the Listing and in part due to our own intent to preserve as much of the original detail of the house as makes sense in a 21st Century setting, we will change very little.

So, our new en suite will consist of reclaimed / restored original 1930s/40s sanitary ware. I’m on a big hunt for the right things now and will need to book in a visit to some reclamation yards soon.  I’m thinking English Salvage and Lassco as starting points but if anyone has suggestions for salvage yards in East Anglia I’m all ears. I’m also researching new kitchens.  I’m looking for the look and feel of modernism but with a contemporary functionality.  Not that easy actually and so many options.

Of course, while I’m focussing on the fine details of the interior design, there are many more decisions to be made that are less visually enticing and harder for me to get my head around as I am definitely not tech-savvy.  We will have to make decisions soon about heating and so we are weighing up the various benefits of ground-source, solar panel and various other technologies.  Our thinking is that modernist architects were stretching the boundaries of what was possible then and so in our refurbishment project we should honour the building by installing technologies that are stretching the limits now. Well, we will do what we can within the grasp of our budget.

I’m so excited to now be getting so close to some more tangible progress.  Next time, a guided tour of our historic and unique dining room and also my quest to take care of the lily pond .