My lovely old old house part III

Thank you for all your lovely comments about my old kitchen and old house. I promised to take you upstairs so here we go...

The main bedroom hadn't been used for years. The house had been rented and the owner stored her stuff in here. We didn't really see it or how huge it was until we got the keys to the house. Much stripping of floorboards, doors and wallpaper followed. We uncovered a pretty Georgian hob fireplace that had been boarded up and some nice pigeon skeletons!

Anyway here it is looking lighter and brighter.

The same treatment followed in the rest of the rooms. T

his was to be my first born's bedroom!!

 With Cooking Apple Green walls and curtains made from eiderdown covers, it became my favourite bedroom.

The first landing and a peak into the other rooms.

 You will see my love of old beds started quite some time ago.

So there you go, my tardis cottage!

 



My lovely old old house part 2

Thank you for all your lovely comments about my vintage kitchen. I ploughed my way through the photos on the estate agent's CD from when we sold it eight years ago and put together some collages to show you beyond the kitchen.

It's a Georgian stone cottage. One of a pair and owned for many many years by the local church.

When we bought it it had been rented out for years and had the most spectacular rockery in the living room!

Just a trace of the original behind.

 
  A sledge hammer took care of that along with a trip to the reclamation yard for a fireplace and a load of wide floorboards. It's not often you lift the carpet to find the rotten holes have been covered with flattened catering size baked bean cans.

 Damp proofing and replastering revealed interesting structure.

 Well eventually we got there. For a couple of years it was a deep red - lovely in the winter but very dark the rest of the time so out came the brushes and it ended up in Skylight. One of my F&B faves I've used it in every house since.

The pretty cottage garden with my chapel doors.

The bath was another auction bargain. Only once we'd hired a flatbed truck to bring it home and roped in several strong friends to lift it down did I start to have doubts as to whether it would fit in the bathroom... in the meantime a friend snapped a leg (of the bath not his) off lifting it down from the truck and it came to rest in our hallway for a couple of years. resting on it's remaining three legs because of course it wouldn't fit where the bath was. Oh no we needed to reposition the whole bathroom. As with so many bargains it turned out not to be one after all!

The high level cistern was rescued from an old loo at the end of the garden and shotblasted and painted to match the bath. It had the original makers name somewhere in Dorchester embossed on it so it seemed only right to make use of it.

So there you go, that's downstairs.

 

I'll take you upstairs another day!



Vintage kitchen love

After much hunting around through 'real' photos and my very first digital ones I've cobbled together a post that will hopefully explain my excitement at the 1940's kitchen.

You see many moons ago kitchenalia was my thing. Not just a passing fad, a full on addiction!

So for starters here's a collage of our kitchen a couple of houses back. We lived here for seven years I think until eight years ago. I wish I'd got 'before' photos to show.

As you can see I had a bit of a 1940s cream and green thing going on...

I loved this kitchen. It was the original cottage kitchen complete with a Rayburn number 1 then you went up two steps into the 1980s extension. Gopping if I remember rightly but we ripped it out the first night. It then stayed in a state of disrepair for a few years before we had the money to lay a slate floor, install a gas Rayburn and put in a stunning pair of chapel doors. I bought these on a whim at auction for £50, as you do!

Whilst all the cream and green was happening in my own kitchen I was collecting and selling like mad at my stall in the antique centre. I must explain that at this point I had a proper job (and still do) but with jammer number 1 on the way we needed more space at home. A major declutter was needed and Mr Jam got me my unit as a maternity leave 'project'...

So here it is at the beginning, that's 12 years ago now. A long maternity leave for two children!

It's a hobby that perhaps got a bit out of control.

then maybe a bit more than a bit...

I could spot a Tala from a Worcesterware tin a mile off.

Ebay had just started and the spare room was a often a photo shoot for Saturday night auctions. We'd wake up in the morning and find they'd all been snapped up with Buy it Nows and were on their way to Japan if they were white and the USA if they were coloured.

 Strange but true! It amazed me that they $100 for a bread and flour bin and then nearly the same again for airmail shipping. The Post Office must have wondered what on earth we were up to.

It was a funny old life living in a vintage kitchen with stuff coming and going. In between we raised a baby in a vintage highchair. No wonder she loved the museum kitchen, it probably brought back memories!

The fridge was a bit of a one off. A cream beauty we stumbled on by chance. Often I would get phone calls from people wanting to sell kitchenalia and more often that not it was a load of old tat. When a chap rang about an old fridge I quietly ignored it but he was persistent. He called back and insisted I would love it and it would be great in my unit. I didn't even know if I was allowed to sell electrical things and probably not antique ones.

Anyway he won and we went to see it. One look inside and there was no way it was for the unit it had to be mine! He'd had it resprayed and it was stunning and the pink surprise inside never failed to delight.

 Eventually growing numbers meant we had to get something more practical with a freezer so old fridge was collected by a lovely couple from Falmouth who were opening an oyster bar. I hope it's still going strong.

Now I've got all nostalgic for my old old house. I might have to show you around the rest of it another time.



Growing up and moving on...

It's been a while but I've inspired by some followers (whoever you may be?) to have a bash at another post. We've had a bit of a 5 year anniversary here at the Jelly Jam HQ. September has been busy with new schools to start and I hunted out this picture of the oldest Jammer on her first day at school five years ago.


Five years on and she's moved up a school and the smallest Jammer is just starting out too! It's frightening how quickly the the nervous looking child above has grown into a confident and independent young girl. I'm just imagining the same scene in another five years!

It's also five years ago this month since we moved into our quirky pink house. Sadly 'Pinky' does not offer the garage/workshop we so desperately need for furniture nor the grass the Jammers 'need' for the much wanted guinea pigs. So up for sale it went and was snapped up by some ****er from London. "Hurray" we all thought as we found something else (not as quirky but it hey it ticked all the boxes). Mr London was prepared to wait for our vendors to find their house and in my head I redecorated our future home. How silly was I? Good news last week - the chain was complete! But where was Mr London? Did he return the agent's calls? Did he answer texts? Did he listen to his wife who said he'd call back? NO NO NO! Did he still want our house we wondered? Of course he didn't!

So here we go again...

We mustn't complain, the house is fab and we're lucky to live here. I thought I'd share some pictures of 'then and now' just to remind myself what Mr London is could have had wherever he may be!

Note the tidiness is not at all normal. One of the things that is most annoying for a clutter queen like me is having to tidy everything away (into the van, the car, the shed...) ready for viewings.

It does make me smile whenever I return home! You don't know what you're missing out on Mr London.