I am sensing that as always, what we all want is one thing and paying for it all is another. With that in mind, how about some modest but achievable changes? Alter the existing bathroom by removing the separate WC and Block up that door. Make that space the walk in shower with a glass panel and now you can fit a solid polycarbonate shower floor that fits flush with the tiles/floor covering. With the separating wall removed, reset the WC pan and redecorate the bathroom to be one harmonius but useable room. Next, remove bedroom 3 completely and use that space for a new staircase up to a loft conversion. In the loft, simply board and line out the loft space leaving the roof as it is and fit several Velux roof lights. Make the space to a large bedroom and an open plan ensuite with a bath and source a good long one for you to enjoy. Have a Velux above the bath, another over the stairs and maybe one or two overhead above your bed. Now outside, a new, full size and vaulted roof conservatory full of light and space opening onto a new wide patio. As for the front door...costs mean it staying where it is but a new path and fence would help and carry it around to the patio. It is not the most perfect plan and will still cost a good £40/50,000 but it would make a big difference. Remember door widths in all this for future convenience..my Dad was in a wheelchair and it was a big help. So....I hope this gives a few more ideas without being impossible to implement!

Susangirl, thank you for your understanding. It is not merely that you show some basic human sympathy and decency, though; it is that you have identified the some of the practicalities. I'd like to know what Jan Johnson thinks I should have done instead. I was very well aware of the risk of feathering the owner's nest, but because I was grateful to have any place to stay, as I have said, I worked on the house. And there is also the issue which JJ hads not picked up on, which is that we did not have any choice. The place was essentially unfirnished and in a terrible state. Should we have abandoned any hope of a decent quality of life in case we were finally mistreated? This place was our home. Should we have applied the same approach wherever we went thereafter? What kind of life is that? Not so far from the kind of life people led in the shacks and tied-cottages in pre-war WWII plantations in Louisiana, perhaps, which I'm reading about just now. The comment "Did you think to keep a diary?" is seeking to blame the victims of greed and utter lack of scruple, and indeed conceivably downright fraud. I think about many things, Jan Johnson! A diary does not cut a lot of ice evidentially. What's your point? The kind of fraud which, as the Inland Revenue told me, does not get investigated as often as it should because there is so much of it - I refer to the avoidance of CBT, which is why we were told to leave furniture items behind. So that the house looked occupied. Note too that it was an ex-council house. The owner had bought it from council tenants who had themselves bought it. That's one more affordable property removed from the system.

Be careful - replacing original windows may devalue your house. If you are in a conservation area or your house is listed, changing windows would require permission that would may not be granted. If however your house is in an area where everyone has changed to modern alternatives then you will likely be assured there would be no problem. If the building is historically interesting I say renovate your existing windows, replace rotten wood, repair sash cords and have the work done off site where they can remove the glass, strip all the paint, make the repairs, prime all the wood and then replace glass. Expect a window to be repaired every other day and then a few days for final coat painting at the end.

I think it would look lovely. I don't know how hot electric fires get but the tv looks too close to it for me. You would also not have much usuable shelf space. Another option might be to build a frame out of battens and fill it in with MDF or plasterboard and have a gel fire or a long thin electric fire for a more modern look. If you look at the link below you would require a false chimney breast which could easily have shelves or niches. A carpenter should be able to build this easily. https://www.thefireplacecompany.co.uk/product/gazco-radiance-105r-inset-electric-fire/?gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAACfH0XS0X3wOfHrPabbKRYb3vgk2q&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIwJ_0loCziQMVRpJQBh10QCopEAQYCCABEgKHzPD_BwE