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The Cottage in England

~ Inglenooks, bats, beams, and the death watch beetle: restoring a 300-year-old farmhouse and barn in the Peak District of Derbyshire

The Cottage in England

Monthly Archives: October 2016

Could this be the one?

23 Sunday Oct 2016

Posted by jennyrobinsonauthor in Uncategorized

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Screen Shot 2017-08-16 at 5.26.22 PMFor the past twelve years I’ve been looking for a cottage in or near my parents’ village in the Peak District of Derbyshire, England. This morning at my home in New England, in America, I have just received this listing on Rightmove.co.uk, one of the UK’s top online property website.

My heart starts to race as soon as I see this first photograph of the outside of the cottage showing what’s called a “character cottage” (meaning with some history and original features).  But the question is, Will the rest of the property live up to it?

The next photo is clearly the sitting room.  The beams look original, but you don’t know for sure, though the low ceiling is typical of older cottages.  Otherwise, the room could use some substantial fixer-upping, but still, the “bones” appear to be good.

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The kitchen (below) also has beams–nice!–but there are only a few counters, a kitchen sink, and what appears to be a washing machine.  There’s no evidence of an oven, stove, fridge, dishwasher, or microwave.  Putting in a new kitchen will be a major additional cost that I must factor in.

Screen Shot 2017-08-16 at 5.27.05 PMScreen Shot 2017-08-16 at 5.26.51 PM

Screen Shot 2017-08-16 at 5.27.20 PMThis photo appears to be of a room leading from the kitchen.  There’s a ledge on the right, which could either be what it appears to be–a ledge–or perhaps something more interesting, such as a mantle for a small fireplace hidden behind a wall.  The sunlight is coming through the window nicely, but the carpet looks worn, and it’s suspiciously dark over to the left.  The reason for the discoloration could be an indication of a major problem that could cost tens of thousands of pounds to fix, and make the cost of this cottage skyrocket.

Screen Shot 2017-08-16 at 5.27.33 PM This is the bathroom on the ground floor, and appears to be what is called in England “a wet room,” which basically means that it also serves as a shower area.  I stayed in a B&B with a room like this, and didn’t like it because when you took a shower, water got all over the floor.  Because the floor never dried properly, you were always getting your feet wet.

Screen Shot 2017-08-16 at 5.27.46 PMThis is the master bedroom, and it’s dingy in the extreme.  It appears to have at least two layers of vinyl on the floor (or else wide wooden boards–it’s impossible to tell from this photo), no base molding (called skirting boards here), but it does have a little fireplace.

Screen Shot 2017-08-16 at 5.28.10 PM

 

The upstairs bathroom is again rather odd, and appears very cramped.  The white triangle on the floor is actually the base of a shower, but there are no glass doors or curtains around it.  The window over the sink appears to not be to the outside, but perhaps to a corridor. Like the kitchen, this will be a major job of renovation.

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This is the second of the three bedrooms on the second floor (which in the UK is referred to as the first floor).  There’s another small fireplace, but this is a room that will clearly need more renovating.

 

And then three photographs that indicate a rather nice amount of lawn perhaps suitable for the garden I would love to have.

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So far, the cottage looks promising, but I’m not completely sold on it because the renovations will cost a great deal of money and time.

And then I see it.  What clinches it for me. Screen Shot 2017-08-16 at 5.29.21 PM

Oh my God, this cottage has a barn!  So this property is not just a cottage, it’s a farmhouse with a barn!

And I, the American/British granddaughter of an English dairy farmer who farmed just three miles from here, have just found the cottage I’ve been dreaming about!

 

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To Be Sold by Public Auction

22 Saturday Oct 2016

Posted by jennyrobinsonauthor in Uncategorized

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And then, one morning, I click on my Rightmove.co.uk site, and I see this.

“A rare opportunity to acquire this stone built three bedroomed former farmhouse with workshop and two storey barn offering superb development potential . . . 

“TO BE SOLD BY PUBLIC AUCTION”

 

Screen Shot 2017-08-16 at 5.26.22 PM

My heart starts to pound so hard I feel blood pulsing in my neck.

Rare opportunity.

                              Stone built former farmhouse.  

                                                                                       Two storey barn.

                                            For sale by public auction.

             FOR SALE BY PUBLIC AUCTION!!!!! 

Everything I’ve been looking for, that perhaps I can afford!

I don’t give a rip about any “superb development potential.”  Or the condition of the cottage.

Whatever’s wrong with it, I can get fixed.

This stone built farmhouse with a barn could be everything I’ve been looking for during the past twelve years!

 

 

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The 12-year search; and despair.

11 Tuesday Oct 2016

Posted by jennyrobinsonauthor in The search

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The search

Right after I graduated from college in America, I moved back to England to work as a lowly typist in a publishing company based in Oxford.  I was making only 56 pounds a week for a 40-hour week.

My compensation came to a little more than a pound an hour, but at least it was slightly more than I made during my previous summer, operating a saw in a pool table factory, and it was in my chosen field of publishing.

My lowly typist salary was nowhere near enough to buy a cottage, although cottages in the Peak District at that time were extraordinarily inexpensive.  You could buy one for 10,000 pounds.

Later, which means after graduate school, again in America, and 15 years working in book publishing in New York, I had money.  But then three kids came along, and the money dwindled, but still, I had enough for a cottage if I sold up and moved my family across the Pond.

So I had to decide which kind of cottage I should look for.  A “character cottage,” which would be the most expensive;  something built more recently; or what is called a “new-build”?  A detached cottage (again, the most expensive), a semi-detached, or a terraced cottage (least expensive)?  1, 2, 3, or 4 bedrooms?  In immaculate condition, in acceptable condition, or a total fixer-upper?

Hoping for the best, on Rightmove.co.uk I tracked all the 3-4 bedroom, detached, character cottages with enough land for a good vegetable and flower garden within 5 miles of my parents’ village.

And here’s the rub:  they were no longer going for L10,000, or even L50,000, or even L200,000, but for a minimum of L450,000. (“L” here stands in for “pound sign” because my computer doesn’t have the pound sign.)

There was the lovely 4-BR character cottage with an expansive view over the valley for L450,000.  I went back three times, but had to face the sad truth:  out of my price range.

There was the captivating old pub, now a house, with 4 or more bedrooms and enormous character, but pushing L400,000.

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An old pub, complete with a wonderful kitchen with original beams (below).
Screen Shot 2017-08-11 at 8.14.10 PM

My mother nixed it as having too many stairs for her to easily navigate, but cost was the real issue.

I looked briefly at a 2-bedroom Edwardian row house which I could afford, but knew it was unrealistic;  my family wouldn’t fit.

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There was a lovely character row house that was around L350,000, but it was down a steep track and would be difficult to reach in the winter.

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A beautiful cottage down a hillside and in the woods.

And there was my favorite:  a character cottage with tons of land. It had a farm outbuilding, which I could use as a writing studio, a huge lawn to front and side, and probably at least 1/4 an acre for my gardening.  It also had planning permission for a house to be built in the lower area by the road.  It needed work but hey, I’ve done quite a few house renovations, and when it was finished, everyone in my family would fit.  So I made a low-ball offer.  Emphasis on low-ball.  Quick rejection.  The house remained on the market for a year with no activity, so I revived my offer, and again, a no.

Screen Shot 2017-08-11 at 8.10.10 PM
View from the front, with a large lawn and garden at the front and side.
Screen Shot 2017-08-11 at 8.11.35 PM
View from the side; an unusually wide cottage for this area.
Cottage near Wesleyan Chapel
The little outbuilding I would love to use as a writing studio.

I looked seriously at another cottage that was next to a pub, and when I told one of my cousins about it, she said that it had belonged to our mutual great-grandparents, and that as a child she had the task of collecting the rent!

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I didn’t pursue this cottage, due to the very real possibility of loud, drunken revelers during the weekends.

Throughout these twelve years of looking, I had the on-ground help of my Dad’s sister, who lived nearby and knew the inside story on many of the properties.  “It was owned by an old man who died, and his daughters want to sell,” she told me about one.  “There’s possible radioactive waste in the nearby quarry;  best to stay away.”  “There’s no height;  I banged my head as I went up the stairs.”

I checked out many of the properties during my summer visits, and my aunt checked out anything I was really keen on when I was in America–a good tag-team.

But reality was starting to hit me:  with two kids now in college, I could kiss goodbye a character cottage with 3-4 bedrooms, and any chance for a decent garden.

In fact, this was all I could realistically afford:

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Reality–and despair–hit me.  I wouldn’t be getting my long-dreamed-about cottage in the Peak District.

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