The Maryport Move-In

It’s exciting, moving into a new house. On Sunday night, we packed everything up in Bristol and went to bed, raring to hit the road early the next day for the six hour drive to Maryport. I was so excited that I was up and dressed by 7am, long before Matt or Frankie had popped out of their bedrooms. The ride from Bristol to Maryport seemed to take forever, but when we pulled up in front of the house, it was all worth it. It’s such a beautiful building, and I can see why Matt fell in love with the place. It’s far and away the most interesting, quirky, and downright cool place I’ve ever lived in. It’s huge, too! There’s something in the neighborhood of thirteen rooms, counting bathrooms and the laundry area. It’s way more space than I’ve ever lived in before. I’m still getting a little turned around and confused as I ramble from room to room.


The first floor is for all of the common living spaces. There’s a living room, a dining room, a nice kitchen, a big foyer with super cool tiled floors, and a study.

Upstairs, there are four bedrooms and three bathrooms.

Remember when I said that this place used to be a bed and breakfast? From looking at the décor in the house, its past is pretty obvious. It’s all very Victorian in terms of style, and most of the rooms are filled with an assortment of very expensive and grown-up looking antiques: wash basins, silver serving sets, elaborate lacy floral curtains and even a baby grand piano.

Here's a random sampling of the decor round these parts:

(Accordians, anyone?)

There are a few rooms that seem to have been cleaned out of the “posh” Victorian décor and modernized, but not necessarily in a very cohesive way. It’s very catch-as-catch-can in those rooms. It seems like maybe the castoffs from two other households have somehow ended up here: an old computer desk from the 90s, a very expensive-looking and massive set of cherry cabinets from the 80s, an ikea day bed, some country-style knotty pine furniture, an old foosball table, and so forth. For example:

(Nothing matches in here, and it drives me crazy! Plus, must...burn... rug.)

Fortunately, we have a basement where we can stash most of the unwanted stuff. I have big plans for turning one of the “castoff” bedrooms upstairs into a playroom for Frankie, and the downstairs study (where the foosball table, several boxes of random junk, and two of the ugliest green armchairs I’ve ever seen in my life currently live) into an office for Matt.

Right now, it definitely feels a bit like living in someone else’s house. As soon as we personalize and de-clutter the place a bit (new bedspreads, rugs, curtains, some kid stuff), I think it’ll be great.

Oh, and did I mention the view?

(The small band of grey mist where the hills meet the sky is the Irish Sea.)