My Dream House!

There is a house opposite my office being renovated at the moment. Work has been gong on for several months and I can see daily progress from my desk.

This is a double fronted four storey mock Georgian house in Kensington, including basement.  Goodness knows how much it is worth – gazillions probably – and it has been completely gutted and refitted out. They’ve done new plasterwork outside and presumably in, new windows, doors and frontage with off road parking. Must have cost a packet! Bet they’re either movie stars or foreign diplomats.

As I speak there is a van from ‘The New England Kitchen Company’ painted in tasteful cream and sage green reversing out after having delivered a load of what looked like shaker style solid wood kitchen cupboards and worktops. No B&Q Formica or mock marble for these people, only the real solid oak will do!

I’m just jealous of course! There’s nothing I’d like better than being able to spend as much cash as I like fitting out a new house with the kitchen, bathroom, fixtures and fittings of my dreams and not worrying about the money in any way, shape or form.

I often day dream about the sorts of features I’d include if I could start with a blank sheet; definitely in my kitchen I would have a larder and space for an enormous American style fridge and freezer as well as an Aga and a large, porcelain butler’s sink with a sloping granite draining board. A separate laundry room would also be essential with indoor drying space for the winter (I hate tumble dryers – I think they ruin your clothes – and we all have so many items of clothing that if something takes 2 or 3 days to dry so what?). I’d like an old fashioned flower arranging room which would really just be a dumping space for the wellies and dog leads.

A separate dining room and lounge would be good (I dislike open plan living space – it’s always good to have a bolt hole where you can get away from everyone else) with a study and luxury of luxuries, a separate ‘withdrawing room’ which would be mine and mine alone where I would set up my paints and sewing machine and fiddle away with badly done and pointless arts and crafts to my heart’s content as well as watching a considerable amount of the old comedy programmes on Gold without someone saying “Not again!?”. An activity room for the teenagers would be good too, with their telly, games consoles and other noisy electronic activities behind a soundproofed door.

Upstairs I think you should have a suite of bedrooms for permanent occupants as well as a guest suite. My own would ideally include one decadent double room adjoining two separate singles. That’s because, quite frankly, the joy of sharing someone’s bed for sex very quickly tarnishes if they are bad or noisy sleepers, and to be able to get away into your own room to simply get a good night’s rest is a luxury which cannot be underestimated. Adjoining each single bedroom should be a private bathroom (ie in mine no men allowed with their bad aim and habit of not shutting the bathroom cupboard door), and a walk in dressing room with separate walk in shoe cupboard. Adequate storage for life’s essentials is so important, don’t you think?

Of course this is all pie in the sky. I’m never going to be rich enough to afford any one item on my list, let alone a whole new house. At the rate we’re going I’ll be lucky if I can kit out a new garden shed!

But it’s nice to dream, isn’t it!?