We bought an old Mill house 4 years ago and are still decorating and renovating. I think we always will, but absolutely no regrets! I love it! I will confess that I have made a few mistakes, which we are now fixing, as we now know what we would like and what suits the building. I completely agree with the comments on lime plaster. All of the rooms are light but soft colours and I have fallen in love with Crown and Rose Authentic Chalk paint. We have dogs and I love the way that I can clean off any small tail wag splatters and the paint looks brand new afterwards. We have lots of beams and stone, so have decided to go for a rustic but comfy look, but with a few rather French looking items, like a big French dresser in the dining room. Light walls in soft whites and creams, which don't clash too much with the different stone and woods types. I have tried other colours, but it just doesn`t really look right and ended up going back to the neutrals. These houses have low ceilings and small windows, so keeping light was an important issue for us. The colours come from the cushions, throws and soft furnishings in sage greens and warm purples. The dining room, looks stark but rustic and interesting. Currently would like to find a large rustic wood or antler chandelier for above the table. Floors downstairs are currently old school quarry tiles in half and wooden floors in the nest, with a cheeky bit of rhino vinyl floor in the main hall. The quarry tiles are original, but long term, I would love to rip up the wood/vinyl and add in flagged floors, so been bothering our suppliers about how well under floor heating may work with flag stones... :) Upstairs is thick underlay, as when they built houses in that day, they didn`t really worry about sound travel, then carpeted. Best move I have ever made!!! Even when things go wrong, I don`t really care, as I am renovating for the love of it this time, not for money! Exciting times!!

TRADESMEN. It's a miracle when one bothers to quote at all ... as such, I now build walls, can plaster, and drive a digger lol... I tile, fit carpets, fitted the kitchen, all with only half of one of my lower spinal discs left. By the time you get a quote back, its more often a month or more down the line and have already hired a couple of lads on a daily rate doing things how you dictate after weeks of research. I hired a roofer to replace my cast iron guttering with aluminium ones, he put up new soffits and fascias BADLY, ran off to assume weigh in my old gutters and ran off with the money for my new ones - steep learning curve there, and a CCJ is no use getting my money back. I purchased a kitchen, it turned up in bad shape, then commenced over 8 months to get to court for my money back... Hired a tree co to remove a load of trees overhanging the house and clear the boundary... an old man cried about a tree that wasnt his anyway so the tree folk abandoned the job. Thankfully I have a great electrician and a reliable plumbing company, but only call them for either gas or. heavier electrical work.... the husband does to electrics and plumbing but he hates it and we do get it checked. I keep trying to find a good builder though. Everything takes so long and its physically and mentally draining on me.... I would MUCH rather have someone I can trust but no luck yet.

Thats a big enough challenge, If you need any assistance with lighting you can always give us a email and i will work with you to assist you with the best prices :) Hope all goes well! Tony

Would you post an upstairs plan please. Also a pic of the front. The reason to consider the whole house is that if you consider all the options now you won’t do something now that might limit your options later.