After initially deciding we wouldn’t travel to Charlton this Easter in favour of staying home and working on the Somerville house, we had a change of heart and decided on Good Friday to head off to Charlton the following day.

For a change the trip was without the trailer, and having left around lunchtime on Easter Saturday we found the traffic was reasonably light arriving in Charlton around 3:45pm.

After unloading the small amount of stuff we brought with us we headed off to Philip and Janet’s to say hi, only to find they weren’t home. Discovering they were at friends Ross & Peggy’s for drinks, we gatecrashed their “early fivesies” to join them for a wine, after which we joined Ross and Peggy for dinner at the East Charlton Hotel.

At the pub we bumped into Kamahl Rosewall, the nephew of The Charlton House’s previous owner John O’Brien, and his mum Eily, both of whom we had met sometime ago. Kamahl introduced us to his cousin, John O’Brien’s son Anthony, who was also dining at the pub that night. We had a long and interesting conversation about Anthony’s time growing up in The Charlton House, giving us an insight into more of the history of our home and it’s previous occupants.

Sunday was the day we earmarked to lay the floor coverings in the entry hall. Due to the heavy traffic we’re expecting up and down the entry and hallway we decided (ironically) to use hard wearing self adhesive vinyl planks which look like old timber, rather than carpet.  After much cutting, peeling off the backing, and laying of the planks the entry hall is now complete, marking a milestone in our project as the completion of the first renovated room.

We returned home to Somerville on Monday, pleased with our progress.

Entry Hall September 2015

Entry Hall April 2018