The house we nearly walked away from (is now ours)
It wasn’t love at first sight. Not even close. But sometimes the best stories start in places that feel a little bit wrong at first. Plus a LOT of photos ❤️
Ten months ago, we went to see a house on a whim. We had seen it whilst on holiday and fell in love with the very, very handsome Georgian facade.
But we didn’t book the viewing because we seriously thought it might be the one, but more for a fun day out. We’d already seen thirty+ houses and had learned to manage expectations. They just never were quite right.
So when we pulled up to this particular place and saw the majestic house with clouds of unexplainable sadness around it, we were mostly curious.
Nothing prepared us for the chaos inside. Especially not the estate agent’s brochure that had unhelpfully used 17-year old photos… There was more stuff than in your average home decor shop - every surface was covered, piles of things everywhere. Some rooms you couldn’t even get in as they were so full. Crockery, water bottles, cans of coke, clothes. Antique furniture piled on top of cardboard boxes, clothes racks in the bathrooms, shelves stacked three-deep. It was like walking into an estate sale in full swing.
Someone here had been living a full life and left abruptly- leaving everything behind. I felt completely overwhelmed by the amount of stuff, the stuffy smell and the confusing layout (thanks to my hopeless spatial awareness, it takes me time to get used to new spaces).
I didn’t even take photos. (That says a lot, coming from someone with 37,000+ on her camera roll.)
Except one snap of the front, which I sent to my friend Paula. Her response? “BUY IT. Let me live vicariously through you.” 😂
We talked about it the whole drive home.
Not in a “let’s do this” kind of way. More like “whoever buys this is in for a nightmare.”
A week later, Mr Nordic surprised me by suggesting we go back. “Should we see it again?” he asked. And that second viewing changed everything.
It still felt chaotic—still full of stuff (but less so as the house was being cleared) still a maze of wallpaper and forgotten furniture-but somehow… less overwhelming. Doable, even.
We began to see the bones. The potential. The faded grandeur tucked under years of pause.
Ten months (and several plot twists) later, it’s ours.
Slightly crumbling and unloved, but full of promise. And now, the start of a new chapter.
A project, yes. A challenge, definitely. But also a dream we didn’t fully realise we had until we stood in that hallway the second time and thought, “Maybe…”
I’ll be sharing more of the journey here—from stripping wallpaper to restoring windows, and hopefully, someday, to showing you a finished room or two. I have included some more photos of the house from that second viewing below - it’s for my paid subscribers only but you can upgrade for the price of a fancy coffee. In return, you’ll get a lovely bundle of posts each month - interior design guides, garden diaries, design musings, snippets of life in the Cotswolds, and creative inspiration from books, places and the quiet moments in between. Plus full access to the ever-growing archive. I’d thoroughly recommend it!
But for now, just this: sometimes the things that feel entirely mad at first are the ones that settle in and make themselves at home.