30 October, 2004

Was a big day for us. We moved into the South London Semi (SLS, if you don't mind?). There were only three of us then, me, Mr SLS, and Miss SLS who was 15 months old.

I did have a few regrets about leaving our little house that we had renovated and brought little Miss SLS home to. It was a lovely house, but just too small for the longer term. So we packed it up, left it sparkling, and moved less than a mile away to our new home, our SLS. Sure, much bigger. But it was also colder, damper, mouldier, smellier... you get the picture. I can remember the first night putting little Miss SLS to bed and her screaming and screaming and I kept thinking she hated the place and would never settle here.

We knew we had work to do, it was just a question of where to start. The arrangement of rooms was totally impractical. I have tried to find an electronic copy of the original plans but have failed! So I will try to describe the lay out. When we moved in the ground floor consisted of the front room (lounge) the dining room, pretty typical Victorian lay out. Then there was a small kitchen with a pass through into the dining room. The kitchen had almost no storage or workspace at all. There were three doors in a room that was 10' x 10'. Behind the kitchen was a cloakroom (with very fetching pink tiles) leading a third reception room that was about 17' x 12.

Photo 1. Front reception to the left,stairs, dining room behind stairs, kitchen beyond. Note the lovely green carpet and delightful wallpaper.

Photo 2. Teeny kitchen with 3 doors and hardly any workspace or storage.

Photo 3. Rear elevation, rear reception was in the white painted bit.

Upstairs there were 5 bedrooms, 4 doubles and one very small single. And no family bathroom. Yes, you read that correctly. We had a toilet and sink on the first landing, and then on the third floor, a bath and sink. Very bizarre.

Clearly creating a family bathroom was high on the list of priorities. And the kitchen had to go. I had no where to store anything, and cooking a meal was so frustrating with no where to put anything down.

So sorting out the kitchen and family bathroom were our first priorities. We had some drawings made and the start of trying to make this place work for our family. I have the plans on my computer, but seem to be unable to upload them. I am going to consult with Mr SLS who is a bit of an IT guru to see if I can get them in another post for you and will continue with the story of our extension from there... so yet again stay tuned!!