Tuesday 4 May 2010

the weekend

Image above from www.highpeak.gov.uk

Hope you all had a good weekend and (here in England) Bank Holiday. I spent it up in Birmingham with my family. Lots of marvellous things were achieved: we went shopping, attended a charity fashion event for which I made a promotional film a while ago, went on a random family jaunt to Buxton, and, most importantly of all, I wore those peg leg trousers I wrote about a while ago. Yes, I was brave enough. OK, I was in Buxton - hardly the place to exhibit ones sartorial edge - and got a few weird looks from passers by who must have thought I was wearing pyjamas, but I enjoyed it anyway.

We went to Buxton because the husband and I spotted a few magnificent townhouses in need of renovation that were for sale at very affordable prices. Buxton is not at all in our first choice of area, but we have been spreading our search very wide in order to find a house that suits our requirements. My family has been in the business of buying and selling property for a long time, so we all piled into the car and went off for a day trip and to nose around some houses. There were houses with turrets, B&Bs, eight bedroom townhouses, blocks of flats... it is amazing what you can get there:


I had a day of fantasizing about running a bed and breakfast business (the bottom two images) - imagining how I would decorate the rooms with clean whites and simple furnishings, imagining the delicious breakfasts I would serve... and then I thought about having to do all the washing and cleaning myself and thought better of it!

Alternatively, this beautiful grade II listed townhouse in Ruthin has just come on the market and I am drooling buckets over it. It has original shutters in one of the downstairs rooms (can you see them in those right-hand windows?), four bedrooms, four attic rooms, sitting room, dining room, kitchen, huge pantry AND a good sized garden. All in need of a whole load of renovation. I want!

3 comments:

  1. Loving the chintzy living room in Ruthin! :D

    I'm very glad you enjoyed Buxton, you weren't a million miles away from me there!

    x

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  2. Yey, my family used to go on day-trips to Buxton as a kid! The park there is awesome.

    I still prefer Glossop though-less touristy and more "dark peak".

    I think my rental search in Nottingham (decided not to buy) is not going to yield anything more exciting than a modern house (probably with fake old features). Oh well. My friend has a 70's house in a village in Yorkshire and she's done it up lovely inside.

    Its all what you make of it :)

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  3. That lilac is something else, isn't it? Yeurch!

    Buxton was nice, but a little tired in the town centre - it was a bit grim at the dodgy end, but very nice all in all. And yes teh gardens are lovely. I don't know Glossop at all - I fear it might be a little too 'dark' for me there :-)

    I think that you can make some houses really amazing on the inside, despite what they look like outside. The advantage of a more modern building is better insulation and possibly fewer problems. I'm sure you could do a great job of making any place nice.

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