Introducing The Vicarage

Please let me introduce you to my new home, The Old Vicarage, De Beauvoir. I walk past this incredible 19th century Victorian residence most days and always romanticised about who lived there. It was so overrun that I thought it must house an old eccentric who never sees the light of day.

It turns out that I wasn't far from the truth. Owned by the local authority, it had been derelict for decades and overrun by prostitutes and drug addicts. A group of 18 squatters then moved out and tidied up somewhat, even planting a vege patch.

The beautiful house was bought by developers in September who installed plumbing, painted and did a general tidy up for a quick sale. I couldn't believe it when I saw it up for sale and contacted the agents immediately. We saw it the same day and put in an offer just two hours later. Our offer was accepted two days later and we're waiting to complete any day now. As you can imagine, I JUST WANT THE KEYS NOW!

While the house is perfectly livable now, we want to restore it back to its former glory starting with the period features. Most of the fireplaces have been boarded up and decorative plaster work stripped away. We also want to open up the back of the house so that it flows onto this beautiful garden. Don't you think a summer house will look great at the back here? I also can't wait to plant out some vegetables and make this a beautiful eclectic English garden.

There should be two fireplaces in this room which have been boarded up. We plan on making this our family room and playroom for the boys and move the kitchen to next door as it is overlooking the garden.

This will be our kitchen and will (hopefully) be opened up at the back to link into the garden. There is actually a large chimney at the back wall which will make an incredible feature between the modern glass room at the back (subject to planning of course) and the kitchen/family room at the front.

I can just picture bold wallpaper and numerous coat hooks and Hunter boots sitting in the entrance hallway.

The first task is to sort out the floorboards. Unfortunately they were painted black many years ago hiding the natural beauty of the wood. Ripping up and sanding or even replacing 4,000sqft of floors would be too expensive so I'm considering white washing them. Over time they'll wear down beautifully to show the black and the wood underneath. We will need to replace some boards and want to have the gaps repaired. I'm quite excited to see what we find underneath when they're ripped up. As a crack den I'm expected syringes. A friend suggested that we might find hidden drug profits. Given the estimated cost of the renovation we'll need to find a lot of gold under those floors.