Welcome to English Country Home Blog!

We survived! The renovation complete.
Jonathan and me with the boys

 Thank you for dropping in to take a look!

A year and a half ago my husband Jonathan and I bought this house because of its fantastic location, renovation potential and our desire to turn in into our very own English country home.

Throughout the year long renovation we stayed put, living on-site with our 3 boys Oliver, Henry and Freddy and 2 dogs Poppy and Suki.  

It was hard work and at times we definitely wondered whether we had bitten off more than we could chew - but it was worth it!

Our new house prior to renovation

We have had some experience of 'doing up' houses and have previously lived through re-wiring, re plumbing, basement conversions, new kitchens and bathrooms in previous houses, but this was to be our biggest challenge to date. 

Our English country home finished....
although there is always more to do!

This  site was inspired by our experiences.  Having shared contacts, hints and tips with many friends we thought it would be a great idea to create a blog to share our story with a wider audience.  You never know when issues we have faced might provide a time saving solution - or confirm that you definitely don't want to do something!

For us, renovating was a constant series of decisions, compromises, about turns and problem solving with a great team of builders, plumbers, electricians, plasterers and craftsmen to help us along the way.

We had to change our minds on aspects of layout, design and even colour due to planning restrictions or issues we faced when we started peeling back the layers of the house but as a result we have ended up some features that we love. 

Encasing an unsightly RSJ in the hall with oak gave
us a stunning feature rather than an eye-sore

A good example of this is when we found we needed to have an enormous steel inserted in the ceiling right through the hallway.  Usually these are plaster boarded and painted the same colour as the ceiling but we felt it would be too intrusive as the ceilings are quite low. I suggested putting in an oak beam (incredibly expensive and heavy option) but the idea led us to consider encasing the beam in oak. Now it is a really stunning feature!

We will share these and other experiences from the design choices we made, to roof or not to roof, soft furnishings, interiors and more.

I hope you like what we have done...it will continue as the story of renovation never really ends!

Whatever your reason for being here I hope you enjoy looking around. If you like my blog please follow me, and share my blog with your friends on Facebook. 

Come and visit again!
Lucinda
englishcountryhomeblog@gmail.com