October 8, 2012

4 Our (old) House: The Barn Conversion in Norwood, North Yorkshire

Today we're saying some last goodbyes to friends and leaving Harrogate. We're driving down to Heathrow, where we'll spend the night in a hotel ready for the pets' 7:15AM check-in tomorrow.
In the meantime, though, I'll make good on an oft-promised post: our house here. 
Granted, it is our second house- the first was a farmhouse built in 1782. 
But here you go. Sorry I didn't take pictures until it was empty... but these rooms are strange angles and really hard to photograph. I totally get why houses look different in person vs. on websites!


Our house. We lived in the barn conversion and it was a "semi-detached", as the farmhouse was on the right. You can just see its roof on the far right of the picture, behind our front door. 

Downstairs toilet. This wouldn't be called a 'bathroom', as there is no bath. It might be called a 'loo', or 'w.c.', but in most of the North it's just called the 'toilet'. 
Those are display cabinets on either side of the sink- the only ones in the house. This was strange... but, whatever.   The front door is directly behind me, the stairs are to my left alongside a small hallway leading to the living room. 

From the hallway, between the kitchen door and stairs.
Our living room. it is huuuuuuuge, as it was the dining room as well.  The door on the left leads to a lounge, which we used as a bedroom.  The door on the far right is the conservatory.
We had large rugs in this room for Max.

The other end. The conservatory door is shown.  The door on the far right is the kitchen.

The conservatory, which would be called a sunroom in the States. It's bigger than the picture shows- we fit a full-size couch in here along the wall on the right.  
There was a jute rug in here, too. 

 The kitchen. I say it's tiny- but that's relative to the house. Were this a London flat, it'd be huge. Since it's a Yorkshire 5 bed/2.5 bath barn conversion, it's pokey.  There is no refrigerator- we had to get our own.

The other cabinets and the cooktop and oven.  Glass cooktops are my nemesis- I will do my best to never have one again. 

 Upstairs on this side of the house (more on that later).  I am standing in the "master" doorway, the wardrobe room is next on the left and immediately to the left of the bathroom is another bedroom.

The big barn window from the landing.

 The only bedroom with built-in wardrobes. It's next to the "master".  The wall on the right is immediately to the right- all of the bedrooms are very small by American standards.

 This room is considered the master. It's not "en suite", meaning with its own bathroom. We had a queen size guest bed with two bedside tables, and those three pieces of furniture fit snugly across the wall in front of you.

 The large house bath.  Paul used this one, as he preferred this shower.

The other end. 

Now, to the other side of the house!

The lounge that we used as a bedroom since Max can't walk up stairs.  It's a big room- we have a large platform king bed, and we had both dogs' kennels up as well as two dog beds.

From the stairs. There is a gas stove (like a wood stove, not for cooking) that goes in front of that hole; it's out for repair.  Oh- and Max can do those three stairs :)

Yep, that's another outside door. This half of the house used to be a separate "granny suite", or cottage. The two halves have been combined to be one home now.  There is no access between the two upstairs areas. 
(Was 3 bed/1.5 baths and 2 bed/1 bath)

What used to be the kitchen of this half. We used it as a utility/laundry room. Our washer and dryer were on the far left, with the dryer on the counter there. 

The other side, and a "barn door", which I would call a "Dutch door". 

One of the upstairs bedrooms. This was Paul's clothes' room. 
See this post for a short tour of mine, in the next room.

The bathroom on this side of the house.  It was mine.

The funny little half-tub. This shower is a good example of showers in Europe- there is a string or switch to turn it on (often by the door), and then another on/heat dial on the unit itself. 

Wish us luck and please keep us in your thoughts/prayers/anything, as tomorrow is going to be a long and stressful day.  Let's just say I'm not wearing any mascara on the plane!!

4 comments:

  1. aaaaah good luck!

    a) that is huge. I think London has made me a pessimist about property in England - now I want to move north when we come back :)

    b) is that an Aga in your living room? decorative, or used as a heating unit...?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh, my gosh. I can totally see why your heart breaks to leave that house behind... in Europe! :/ Good luck with the move, dear friend! I'm sending you good vibes!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Love your house! That is the style we are looking at...that and more cottage-style. I'm swooning over it.

    Wishing you and the animals lots of luck! Safe travels, friend x

    ReplyDelete
  4. It looks huge! But did you go upstairs much besides to shower/dress? When we were looking at houses in 2010 I remember a few 2 stories with the master in the ground floor. I felt like we would rarely/never go upstairs! (At least not yet, no kiddos.)
    Well, I am sad that you are leaving Europe, England, York... But not as sad as you are, I'm sure. What a great adventure though. (Just realized, I need to go back to the beginning and read forward!)
    Safe travels!!

    ReplyDelete

Thanks so much for stopping by! I can't wait to read your comment!

Next Post Previous Post Home