Striplight

This light fitting is my personal favourite. It's in Ella's bedroom, though we've had to dissuade her from using it in case the dust sets off the smoke alarm...

Switch

It's the little touches that make a house a home.

Ding Dong

North-facing hall, but the 1960s design means huge windows and plenty of light. Oh and that doorbell. Avon calling.

Skip

Thoughtful of them to leave such a collection of glass and rubble....

Some alternative rear views. The garden faces south.

Backside

Not sure the rear view's any better. Note the 'smoking shelter' and sliding aluminium windows, which have to be seen working to be believed.

Greenthumb came out to kill the moss. Apparently its removal will leave 40 bin sacks for the tip....

Glorious

The house in it's full, unrenovated glory, boasting original features alongside more recent additions, like the three inches of moss coating the roof.

Cedar cladding was quite the thing in 1961.

Spring

It's not that I object to the crocus. I'd just prefer it wasn't sprouting from a pink wash basin hanging off my kitchen wall.

Welcome Home

I was so certain we weren't going to renovate another house. Six years after completing our previous home, we put it on the market. We loved the house; a 1931 semi we'd bought 12 years previously, but two children later, we'd outgrown it. We needed more space, a bigger garden, a study, a playroom. A year in Sydney had fuelled a desire for open space and wider skies.

Problem was, there was nothing suitable to buy. The 'perfect' house had a north facing garden, the south-facing victorian pile had dark, narrow rooms. We didn't want a boxy new-build, and we didn't want to blow the budget buying somebody else's kitchen. And then came this.

'I have something possibly coming to the market,' said the estate agent as he jotted his valuation onto a business card. 'It needs work, but I can see what you've done to this house and I can see you'd have the vision.'

'No way,' I replied. 'I've got two small children, I couldn't face it - I remember the last time.'

'It's on a big plot,' he continued. 'And the price is rock bottom for the neighbourhood.'

Six months later, we're living in it. And so we start again.