Edwardian North Yorkshire Renovation
Discussion
Good morning, I have been meaning to put this thread up for a while. We moved into the property nearly three years ago now and having lived in many already renovated older properties we wanted to do it for ourselves to create a long term family home with our tastes and style.
The House:
The property is a circa 5 floor (cellar and bad loft conversion)1900 Edwardian style Semi in Harrogate. One of the biggest challenges with the town its not always easy to find a property in the right area for schools and a close walk to the Stray (big open parkland) and the town, to have parking for at least 2 cars, a garden, minimal overlooking and potential to make it something ours.
Unfortunately it had suffered from years of bad DIY, conversion into 3 flats, conversion back again into a 6 bed house, a dodgy first floor conservatory and a lack of love and attention to anything.
The plan is to keep retain the charm of this period property whilst giving modern touches and turning it into a family home for a growing family
- Master Bedroom with large ensuite and dressing room
- Guest bed with Shower room
- 2 kids rooms
- Nursery
- Family bathroom
- large kitchen / living room open plan area
- Adult "best room"
- Outdoor entertaining space with garden fit for kids to play
We have completed a fair bit already and have just started the major restructuring works
The House:
The property is a circa 5 floor (cellar and bad loft conversion)1900 Edwardian style Semi in Harrogate. One of the biggest challenges with the town its not always easy to find a property in the right area for schools and a close walk to the Stray (big open parkland) and the town, to have parking for at least 2 cars, a garden, minimal overlooking and potential to make it something ours.
Unfortunately it had suffered from years of bad DIY, conversion into 3 flats, conversion back again into a 6 bed house, a dodgy first floor conservatory and a lack of love and attention to anything.
The plan is to keep retain the charm of this period property whilst giving modern touches and turning it into a family home for a growing family
- Master Bedroom with large ensuite and dressing room
- Guest bed with Shower room
- 2 kids rooms
- Nursery
- Family bathroom
- large kitchen / living room open plan area
- Adult "best room"
- Outdoor entertaining space with garden fit for kids to play
We have completed a fair bit already and have just started the major restructuring works
Garden Clean Up:
One of the first tasks was to clear out the jungle of a garden that had been left to its own devices for at least a few years
I decided to tackle this when we first moved in as we had no idea what sort of space we were looking at. After a trip to Le Mans I had a few days booked off which I was going to use as recovery time, the Mrs had different ideas!
3 days of hard slog, 2 skips full of garden waste and we now had a view of what the garden space could be.
One of the first tasks was to clear out the jungle of a garden that had been left to its own devices for at least a few years
I decided to tackle this when we first moved in as we had no idea what sort of space we were looking at. After a trip to Le Mans I had a few days booked off which I was going to use as recovery time, the Mrs had different ideas!
3 days of hard slog, 2 skips full of garden waste and we now had a view of what the garden space could be.
Will be watching with interest - after buying my first house and doing it up to my taste over the last couple of years I now find this sort of thing fascinating!
Looks like a big project you've taken on there, but the rewards will be massive!
I might have to start a thread on what I did/am doing to my place!
Looks like a big project you've taken on there, but the rewards will be massive!
I might have to start a thread on what I did/am doing to my place!
Fermit and Sexy Sarah said:
I'm in, love a good restoration thread (we have one going too, although it's been slow updating!)
When you say 5 storey, are you meaning it's originally a 3 storey house, with the addition of a cellar and a loft conversion?
When we got it it wasWhen you say 5 storey, are you meaning it's originally a 3 storey house, with the addition of a cellar and a loft conversion?
Cellar - dump for all sorts of crap
Ground - kitchen, dining living and lounge (3 rooms)
First - master, separate bathroom, 2 bedrooms and a weird ass first floor conservatory (no good for anyone)
Second - office, 2x bedroom and shower room
Loft - same as the cellar
The plan currently is
Cellar - currently is a mess and used for storage but might end up being playroom / wine cellar
Ground - kitchen living, WC, and reception room
First - Master with en-suite and dressing room & Guest with en-suite, and currently a WC which might end up a wash room (washing machine / dryer)
Second - 2 x bedrooms, nursery & family bathroom
Loft which is currently a room (plastered, electrics but not bed room) ultimately this will end up being something for the kids.
To get everything in a house you end up spending insane amounts of money in Harrogate (well for a tight northerner) so the only way we could do it was to roll our sleeves up and have some vision
Edited by andrewjamesroberts on Sunday 10th February 12:34
- looking forward to updates.Harrogate is lovey and the house is a fantastic starting point to make it something special. Looking forward to the updates. An additional impetus is houses tend to be quite pricey in Harrogate so you will get back what you put in which is a comforting feeling when spending the money.
I have been contemplating how to do these updates as we have been working on the house now for some time so what I think I will do is room by room until we are at present date then future update as and when!
Ground Floor Front Room:
Was (when we bought) - House main living room
Now - Reception / grown up room.
I am a firm believer that there needs to be a space in a house that is away from all the distractions. A space where you can spend reading a book or listen to music. We also wanted a space where you can have conversation with guests have a drink and eat nibbles. Some people call it "the best room" or "the adult room".
With this being the first room in the house that we started and finished we had no real budget in mind but wanted to utilise some of the furniture that we already had (2x Sofas & a mid century style sideboard) and try to mix the old and the new (which is a very hard balance to maintain)
When we moved in it the room was used as the main living space for the family where the main house TV was. They had kept the original coving / picture rail which was a plus point but had got rid of features such as the ceiling rose and covered floorboards up with crap carpet. The pictures below were just after we had moved in. The blue leather sofa was theirs and we donated it to charity the rest of the bits were stuff we stuck up on the wall simply to put it somewhere whilst we worked out what the hell to do!
The Fireplace was not working so replaced all the key components including adding a IR remote control starter onto it
the first job was to rip up the carpets and see what we were dealing with underneath. I don't have any pics of the before floor but apparently this is fairly common there was a layer of tar around the edge of the room which needed dealing with before we can start sanding. I can tell you don't attempt to do this on the warmest day of the year whilst hungover literally blood sweat and tears are now encapsulated into the floor!
The sanding was a fun job which took a while to get used to but left the boards in a fairly decent state.
we decided to stain the boards darker as after reading online speaking to various people a dark room should be embraced (west facing) so use that as a strength and go darker!
![](https://thumbsnap.com/sc/7KWGg0GN.jpg[/img]</a> <a href="https://thumbsnap.com/7KWGg0GN" Target="_blank" rel="nofollow">[img]https://thumbsnap.com/sc/7KWGg0GN.jpg)
There ware a few steps that I don't have pictures for and that was around replacing sockets / wiring + windows which were all rotten & single glazed. the controversial step was to put a residency 9 / quick slide solution in place which we don't regret doing at all. The were a reasonable price, the company who put them in did an amazing job of retaining all the original woodwork, sills etc. and to the untrained eye were wood now they have had time to get a little dirty.
We then gained some help via a friend who knows interiors for suggestions on how to go about joining up the space and utilising the furniture we already had.
The final output is below:
this took approx. a month to finish and in total (including furniture but not 2x sofas) was circa. £3000 (not including our labour). We used a mixture of Made.com, Ikea, Laradute and marks and spencer to finish it.
the cars outside (now both gone are a Mk2.5 MX5 and an Abarth 500 convertible).
Ground Floor Front Room:
Was (when we bought) - House main living room
Now - Reception / grown up room.
I am a firm believer that there needs to be a space in a house that is away from all the distractions. A space where you can spend reading a book or listen to music. We also wanted a space where you can have conversation with guests have a drink and eat nibbles. Some people call it "the best room" or "the adult room".
With this being the first room in the house that we started and finished we had no real budget in mind but wanted to utilise some of the furniture that we already had (2x Sofas & a mid century style sideboard) and try to mix the old and the new (which is a very hard balance to maintain)
When we moved in it the room was used as the main living space for the family where the main house TV was. They had kept the original coving / picture rail which was a plus point but had got rid of features such as the ceiling rose and covered floorboards up with crap carpet. The pictures below were just after we had moved in. The blue leather sofa was theirs and we donated it to charity the rest of the bits were stuff we stuck up on the wall simply to put it somewhere whilst we worked out what the hell to do!
The Fireplace was not working so replaced all the key components including adding a IR remote control starter onto it
the first job was to rip up the carpets and see what we were dealing with underneath. I don't have any pics of the before floor but apparently this is fairly common there was a layer of tar around the edge of the room which needed dealing with before we can start sanding. I can tell you don't attempt to do this on the warmest day of the year whilst hungover literally blood sweat and tears are now encapsulated into the floor!
The sanding was a fun job which took a while to get used to but left the boards in a fairly decent state.
we decided to stain the boards darker as after reading online speaking to various people a dark room should be embraced (west facing) so use that as a strength and go darker!
There ware a few steps that I don't have pictures for and that was around replacing sockets / wiring + windows which were all rotten & single glazed. the controversial step was to put a residency 9 / quick slide solution in place which we don't regret doing at all. The were a reasonable price, the company who put them in did an amazing job of retaining all the original woodwork, sills etc. and to the untrained eye were wood now they have had time to get a little dirty.
We then gained some help via a friend who knows interiors for suggestions on how to go about joining up the space and utilising the furniture we already had.
The final output is below:
this took approx. a month to finish and in total (including furniture but not 2x sofas) was circa. £3000 (not including our labour). We used a mixture of Made.com, Ikea, Laradute and marks and spencer to finish it.
the cars outside (now both gone are a Mk2.5 MX5 and an Abarth 500 convertible).
Edited by andrewjamesroberts on Tuesday 12th February 12:57
In for updates.
Really like the blue & 'aztecky' tile pattern & carpet. And the metal edging. Much more audacious than I was expecting you to go for - Classic period e.g. dado rail, burgundy/ivory colours etc.
My only contribution to this thread: Based on every project thread on PH, check if you've got any external masonry with cement render and remove it for lime mortar..
Beers.
HH
Really like the blue & 'aztecky' tile pattern & carpet. And the metal edging. Much more audacious than I was expecting you to go for - Classic period e.g. dado rail, burgundy/ivory colours etc.
My only contribution to this thread: Based on every project thread on PH, check if you've got any external masonry with cement render and remove it for lime mortar..
Beers.
HH
Bullet-Proof_Biscuit said:
In for updates.
Really like the blue & 'aztecky' tile pattern & carpet. And the metal edging. Much more audacious than I was expecting you to go for - Classic period e.g. dado rail, burgundy/ivory colours etc..
HH
Hi ! Thanks for the comments. We are definitely not the classic “Harrogate” period rinse and repeat types. Really like the blue & 'aztecky' tile pattern & carpet. And the metal edging. Much more audacious than I was expecting you to go for - Classic period e.g. dado rail, burgundy/ivory colours etc..
HH
They are not tiles it’s wallpaper. The print style dates back to 1800s with an Art Deco touch we just placed some modern touches in there (yes I know it’s mixing decades!)
The coffee table has gone and has been replaced with a different one that is more in keeping with the overall design
The room was featured in some magazine last year I think “Real Homes”
Downstairs Hallway:
Whilst we had the sander we also decided to get rid of the crappy carpet to expose more of the fantastic floorboards.
The hallways will be one of the last things we decide to decorate as during all the renovations these will just get destroyed!
This is on the day we moved in (hence all the boxes).
We then stripped the boards and painted the door. At some point in the future we will get the leaded light encapsulated in a double glazed unit.
The Mrs wants to tile the hallway in traditional tiles or we might just end up staining it a similar colour as the blue room.
Ultimately we will want a traditional cast iron rad in here and a bench for shoes etc.
Whilst we had the sander we also decided to get rid of the crappy carpet to expose more of the fantastic floorboards.
The hallways will be one of the last things we decide to decorate as during all the renovations these will just get destroyed!
This is on the day we moved in (hence all the boxes).
We then stripped the boards and painted the door. At some point in the future we will get the leaded light encapsulated in a double glazed unit.
The Mrs wants to tile the hallway in traditional tiles or we might just end up staining it a similar colour as the blue room.
Ultimately we will want a traditional cast iron rad in here and a bench for shoes etc.
Lovely house and the front room is gorgeous. I thought I recognised the room as it has appeared in articles in the Houzz site.
We have a 1906 house which we are in the process of rescuing/decorating/updating and all the reading I am doing on the Edwardian era is making it my absolute favourite. It took a whole heap of great Victorian stuff, updated it, threw in some mad Arts and Crafts thinking and brought in more modern (for the time) building techniques to create beautiful houses. Looking forward to more updates.
We have a 1906 house which we are in the process of rescuing/decorating/updating and all the reading I am doing on the Edwardian era is making it my absolute favourite. It took a whole heap of great Victorian stuff, updated it, threw in some mad Arts and Crafts thinking and brought in more modern (for the time) building techniques to create beautiful houses. Looking forward to more updates.
First floor - WC:
Was family bathroom (Toilet, Bath & Sink)
Now: 1st Floor W/C
Long Term: Washing machine / Drying room
We now move onto the first floor where the fun and games start to happen with weird layouts. As I have previously mentioned this house at some point has been multiple flats back to a house back into flat and a now a house again.
This floor when we bought it was housed the master bedroom (with a weird enclave dressing area) but some of the room had been taken for the family bathroom (to put the bath, two tiny bedrooms and a weird first floor conservatory . The ultimate plan was to turn the old master room (with enclave) into a fantastic guest bedroom with ensuite shower & W/C. We would use this room initially as our master bedroom until we had got the next phase complete (approx 6 months).
Pictures from Right Move when we bought: bathroom
Below is the weird cutout in the to be guest room which needs to go (covered by the wardrobe)
First thing was to reclaim this into the bedroom
As there was coving round the room we had our fingers crossed that whoever had butchered the house had taken a shortcut and just covered it over with the stud walling so we then didn't have to go through the process in templating and having it made up. With luck this was the case! All we had to do was a bit of sanding to smooth out where they had put some sort of adhesive for the stud to attach to (first bodge of many)
We then built our very first Stud wall out of the reclaimed wood taken from the wall we had just taken down
It was then boarded up and we also had to take some of the old crappy plaster from the adjacent wall as it would have just looked a mess if we hadn't.
This was then plastered to make good in the guest bedroom.
Was family bathroom (Toilet, Bath & Sink)
Now: 1st Floor W/C
Long Term: Washing machine / Drying room
We now move onto the first floor where the fun and games start to happen with weird layouts. As I have previously mentioned this house at some point has been multiple flats back to a house back into flat and a now a house again.
This floor when we bought it was housed the master bedroom (with a weird enclave dressing area) but some of the room had been taken for the family bathroom (to put the bath, two tiny bedrooms and a weird first floor conservatory . The ultimate plan was to turn the old master room (with enclave) into a fantastic guest bedroom with ensuite shower & W/C. We would use this room initially as our master bedroom until we had got the next phase complete (approx 6 months).
Pictures from Right Move when we bought: bathroom
Below is the weird cutout in the to be guest room which needs to go (covered by the wardrobe)
First thing was to reclaim this into the bedroom
As there was coving round the room we had our fingers crossed that whoever had butchered the house had taken a shortcut and just covered it over with the stud walling so we then didn't have to go through the process in templating and having it made up. With luck this was the case! All we had to do was a bit of sanding to smooth out where they had put some sort of adhesive for the stud to attach to (first bodge of many)
We then built our very first Stud wall out of the reclaimed wood taken from the wall we had just taken down
It was then boarded up and we also had to take some of the old crappy plaster from the adjacent wall as it would have just looked a mess if we hadn't.
This was then plastered to make good in the guest bedroom.
First Floor W/C Part 2:
The next job was to then start building the W/C.
After getting a mate in to do the plumbing we laid the floor. The floorboards in this rom were in a terrible state as they had been tiled onto directly by mr bodge so they had to go. We decided to go fo a engineered floor (I'm sure the mrs will love me for posting this!)
found an old top cistern toilet in the cellar that had been at some point ripped out and dumped (it was in still great condition) but needed to have the down piper reduced due to height restrictions (I must have spent 3 hours fitting a refitting this down pipe as we had to mess around with the flow reducing bungs to ensure that A) it would not be reminiscent of the log flume at alton towers and B) be able to flush solids down the pan!
I need to say, before I started this project the most DIY I had done was painting walls & replacing light fittings.
Next we decided to have some half height cladding which actually was fairly straight forward!
It was a fairly slow start but we got I got into the groove and found it fairly therapeutic!
We are as lover of old cast iron radiators so was really lucky to find this one on Ebay and it belonged to a chap who literally lived across the road (he delivered for free)
Again we found a brand new (second hand) Burlington sink 2 streets away (we had to pick this up)
I would like to put it out there I am a fan of a novelty (but not to tacky) W/C. I like them to have slightly quirky features but not over the top!
We both have a love of winter sports and love Vintage ski posters. After spending ages looking through House for inspiration we found this wall paper !
We weren't sure if it was going to work but bit the bullet for the 50 quid or so that it cost.
I know this is a personal thing but actually it worked really well (in our opinion)!
This room is now finished its a temporary stop gap until we get a downstairs toilet in (2 years) in which we will transfer all the hardware downstairs. And ultimately be a washing machine room.
The next room I will post will be the guest bedroom and ensuite (next time I get 45 mins spare)
The next job was to then start building the W/C.
After getting a mate in to do the plumbing we laid the floor. The floorboards in this rom were in a terrible state as they had been tiled onto directly by mr bodge so they had to go. We decided to go fo a engineered floor (I'm sure the mrs will love me for posting this!)
found an old top cistern toilet in the cellar that had been at some point ripped out and dumped (it was in still great condition) but needed to have the down piper reduced due to height restrictions (I must have spent 3 hours fitting a refitting this down pipe as we had to mess around with the flow reducing bungs to ensure that A) it would not be reminiscent of the log flume at alton towers and B) be able to flush solids down the pan!
I need to say, before I started this project the most DIY I had done was painting walls & replacing light fittings.
Next we decided to have some half height cladding which actually was fairly straight forward!
It was a fairly slow start but we got I got into the groove and found it fairly therapeutic!
We are as lover of old cast iron radiators so was really lucky to find this one on Ebay and it belonged to a chap who literally lived across the road (he delivered for free)
Again we found a brand new (second hand) Burlington sink 2 streets away (we had to pick this up)
I would like to put it out there I am a fan of a novelty (but not to tacky) W/C. I like them to have slightly quirky features but not over the top!
We both have a love of winter sports and love Vintage ski posters. After spending ages looking through House for inspiration we found this wall paper !
We weren't sure if it was going to work but bit the bullet for the 50 quid or so that it cost.
I know this is a personal thing but actually it worked really well (in our opinion)!
This room is now finished its a temporary stop gap until we get a downstairs toilet in (2 years) in which we will transfer all the hardware downstairs. And ultimately be a washing machine room.
The next room I will post will be the guest bedroom and ensuite (next time I get 45 mins spare)
Hi again !
Apologies for the lack of updates things have been crazy busy with work and the latest parts of this renovation
This morning its all about the main guest room with adjoining ensuite Part 1!
When we moved in:
This room was used for the previous owners master bedroom / dressing room. The challenge was it sits on a main road and we didn't want our main bedroom to have traffic noise.
The room is a decent size with a small extra bit on the side which was being used as a dressing room. As you can see from my previous posts there was also a weird cut out where the bathroom had nicked space for the bath (which we fixed above).
Looking through the planning portal at when this building was flats we noticed that the extra bit being used as a dressing room used to be a kitchen so we were hoping to leverage this for our plans.
This was the first thing we tackled:
This was the layout plan which had everything we needed for a guest room.
Our hopes had come true that all the water pipes and some of the waste pipers were already in the floor making life that little bit simpler!
One of the features of this room was a awesome window which was just enough opaque to not become some sort of voyer paradise !
Shower try studs and hidden cistern now installed
Wall plastered in
Room plastered
Toilet in.
Sink in.
Shower area waterproofed
Tiles in
Completed Room:
Part 2 will be the actual guest room!
Apologies for the lack of updates things have been crazy busy with work and the latest parts of this renovation
This morning its all about the main guest room with adjoining ensuite Part 1!
When we moved in:
This room was used for the previous owners master bedroom / dressing room. The challenge was it sits on a main road and we didn't want our main bedroom to have traffic noise.
The room is a decent size with a small extra bit on the side which was being used as a dressing room. As you can see from my previous posts there was also a weird cut out where the bathroom had nicked space for the bath (which we fixed above).
Looking through the planning portal at when this building was flats we noticed that the extra bit being used as a dressing room used to be a kitchen so we were hoping to leverage this for our plans.
This was the first thing we tackled:
This was the layout plan which had everything we needed for a guest room.
Our hopes had come true that all the water pipes and some of the waste pipers were already in the floor making life that little bit simpler!
One of the features of this room was a awesome window which was just enough opaque to not become some sort of voyer paradise !
Shower try studs and hidden cistern now installed
Wall plastered in
Room plastered
Toilet in.
Sink in.
Shower area waterproofed
Tiles in
Completed Room:
Part 2 will be the actual guest room!
Edited by andrewjamesroberts on Saturday 16th March 09:18
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