You know the articles that there have been in the past few weeks about people being 'over-housed'? There are, apparently, 25 million spare bedrooms in the country. I have to say that some of them are in this house. And I'm sorry if you think we're 'hoarding' our housing, and I'm also sorry if you are short of space where you live; but I don't think that the two situations are directly linked. And we're not moving anyway.
But it's true that we've got rather more space than we regularly use, and that's a pity. There are four living rooms, and we use two or three. You might think that even that is a lot for two people, but we're the spreading sort. So the drawing room and the study are used all the time and the dining room is used all summer and only heated in the winter if there are enough people here to make it worth the bother. And the Sage puts stuff in the other room, which is not a brilliant idea because it ends up with boxes and trayfuls all over the place and it is unusable much of the time.
Now, we are planning to redecorate the drawing room, and while we're about it, we can do some other work there. When we moved here 25 years ago, we bought a Multiyork sofa and two chairs, and 14 years ago we bought new loose covers for them. However, the third time I had the cushion covers dry cleaned, the colour ran and they were ruined. So I put the old covers back on, and did some repairs as they wore out. I've been looking into getting new loose covers, but the cost is huge for 25-year-old soft furnishings and it would make more sense to buy new ones. But it does go against the grain, the chairs themselves are in very good condition and haven't even started to sag or wear. Anyway, I've gone through all the covers I've got and I've found that I can put together the sofa and a big square footstool in one material and a chair and a footstool in another, which would only leave one redundant chair, and we've got loads of armchairs, a shortage of furniture is never our problem. However, the two materials do not go together and can't be put in the same room.
That was all the preamble to my good idea, sorry it's taken so long.
The unused room, which is so unused that it doesn't even have a name, will be turned out and have a new life as the dining room, the present dining room, which leads into it, will be another sitting room - I love that room, it's wasted as a dining room because it's got a beautiful inglenook and you hardly notice it. Then we can move into those two rooms (instead of the study, which is full of my stuff) while the drawing room is done up, and then we can sit in comfort, each in our own space, and never have to meet again in the evening except at meals. Which is, you have to agree, leads to happiness between two long-married people who work together and need to have something to talk about at dinner time and for bedtime to be a joyful reunion.
What is good about this too, is that it will give us somewhere to put my pianola when it eventually returns. End of July, my left foot.
But the best part is, the Sage and I have another project (this is going to take weeks, nothing is ever simple in this house). What I love is that we adore each other's madcap projects and enter into the spirit of things at once. It's all completely unnecessary, of course, but it'll be fun.
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16 comments:
I have, in theory, three times as many bedrooms as I need to sleep in (and similarly toilets, but that's another matter). None of my rooms are unused though, and I would scratch my head how to cope in a one-bedroom property.
We live in a four bedroomed house, and we're not moving either!
The bedrooms are all used at some times and only one of them at others. In fact, we downsized when we moved here.
Extra space? Blog Meeting Room! Problem solved!
Too right, LX, already planning at least one blog party for next year. We've made more parking space outside already. And there will be room for 20 people to sit at two dining tables, instead of some of us having to perch with plates on our laps. Serving will be easier too, it's all good!
Sounds like you're going to have fun with it, which certainly is the main thing.
There are technically 3 of us in this house, but the Cat and I tend to sleep together...and I need the little bedroom as my study.
When Boy moves out, it'll be the spare bedroom, for hiding stuff in until someone threatens to visit. Whereupon it will be moved into my study while they visit, moved back upon their departure.
I've got the Plan.
I heard something on Radio 4 the other day about this 'unused bedrooms' thing and it made my rather cross. Who gets to say how many bedrooms people are entitled to? Bloody do-gooders.
Sir Bruin and I keep a spare double bedroom (with the bed always made up ready) because we have family scattered all over the place and occassionally they like to come and stay. We didn't intend to buy a 3 bedroomed house, 2 would have been enough, but we couldn't find a 2 bed place with a garage, hence we ended up with 3, good sized bedrooms, one of which is the office/toy room that houses Sir B's model railway and the computer that I am typing on now. This is a great improvement on keeping the PC in the dining room, which I had to do at our old house (not that we even have a dining room at this house, although that issue will shortly be solved by means of a conservatory).
930 square feet here, quite cozy. Though I'd like more space it would be more costly to heat etc. Your home sounds very welcoming and comfortable.
Yes, I could downsize, but that would just mean the same number of rooms but smaller ones. And I doubt very much that my house, if it became available, would contribute to solving the homelessness problem.
Your project sounds fun, though. (So does your party ...)
Are people with more bedrooms than people supposed to sell them for knock-down prices to those who have chosen to over-breed beyond their means?
We won't be, for sure.
Yet another stupid media story.
Well, a large part of the problem is that developers have been allowed to build "family" houses that are no such thing, they are crammed in to tiny plots and a so-called third bedroom is tiny. Weeza and Phil would love to move, but they got their mortgage with her salary, so would have to renegotiate and they are paying so little now, it'd be a huge increase - and an extra bedroom and bigger house would cost £100,000 more than the one they have. That's why they don't move (they built on a room-size conservatory instead because they have a good-size garden), not because there aren't houses available.
Anyway, they can't make us move! And you are invited to the party, all of you, of course. Which will be sometime next summer, I think.
I'm happy to move! My house is jinxed for sure.
The problem isn't me hoarding the rooms, it's finding someone to buy them off me....
We've downsized twice (at least) but then we're born 'movers on', and tend to 'upsize' again when the mood takes us. We've only got three bedrooms here, and although the small one has bunk beds in it it's really Ann's sewing room. My cellar fortunately is large, dry and carpeted. We can, and have on occasion, put up four single beds in it, and to my astonishment the grandchildren fight to sleep in my cellar. When I asked why it was so popular they explained patiently that it was because my cellar is 'SPOOKY'!!!
Strange creatures, some of my grandchildren.
P.s. wandered from the subject -Sorry.
With regard to the latest scheme for elderly couples to move from decent housing into single bedroomed flats, the only reasonable comment I can make (at least from our own point of view) is :-
FAT CHANCE.
P.P.S. SO THERE!
That's the other side of it, Macy - someone actually said that the price of larger houses should be reduced so that younger people could afford to buy them.
I think there's an assumption that retired people are never visited by their family, Mike - but maybe we all have strange grandchildren! One of mine is asleep upstairs right now!
"However, the two materials do not go together and can't be put in the same room"
Being dim in a blokey way now - what will happen? Will they achieve critical mass and explode, thereby bringing the universe to an abrupt end?
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