via this: 
to this: 
If you want to go from
this: via this: to this:
all you need is a lot of blood, sweat, and tears; an aching back, torn
fingernails, and sandpaper hands; and access to a friendly cabinet-maker. Andrew
and I did all the building work, laid the slate floor, and did the wiring. The
furniture, which is mostly two-inch-thick American ash, was made by Paul
Skidmore of Woodfinch Furniture 
, which is located in
the lovely village of Middle Barton in Oxfordshire. He has a web page and can be
contacted through that web page.
His furniture is not cheap – anything of real quality rarely
is cheap – but it looks really wonderful, and will last as long as
the house, probably! (The dining table and chairs are patinised pine, from Ikea,
but fortunately match fairly well.)
If you can't hide them: 
paint them green and
make a feature of them: 
(and I don't
mean Andrew!)
This: 
is a view of the
dining room, looking towards the courtyard.
While the chimney was being rebuilt, it had scaffolding 
round it. Andrew
braved the slippery ladder and vertigo to take pictures of the courtyard from
the roof.
This: 
is the sunny corner,
and the scene of many late-night conversations between the residents of the
court. Peter, one of the residents, does all the work to make the garden so
attractive.
This: 
is the shady corner,
in case the other corner is too hot! The archway leads out to Royston Road.
The living room wall started out as ugly flat plasterboard: 
but after damp-proofing 
and the careful attention of an excellent plasterer, looks like this: 
Having spent so much on the kitchen, we have only recently been able to
afford to have the bathroom done. This is what the bathroom used to look
like: 
. Then our builder
got to work: 
and the result is
This: 
is a picture taken
on the day that King George V passed through Baldock on his way to the races in
Newmarket (presumably in the late 1920s). The man directing traffic on the A1
(yes, this is the same A1 that's now the four-lane A1(M) motorway round
Baldock!) is an AA (Automobile Association) scout. Clearly, traffic has
increased somewhat since those days!
This: 
is a view of Raban
Court (though it wasn't called that then) taken in approximately 1920, looking
out through the archway into Royston Road. Our house is in the right foreground.
There was a large fireplace (still there) under the roof (now gone) at the base
of the very large chimney. We imagine that this was originally the blacksmith's
forge; later it became the bread oven; later still it was used for the
entertainers and ostlers from the inn to warm themselves.
Here: 
is an even older
picture of Raban Court, looking up Royston Road.
Raban Court from
Royston Road, showing the overhanging room and the entrance archway.
The whole of Raban
Court from across the road.
The Station Road
frontage of our house, showing the jettied upper storey.
Our entrance door is
just visible through the archway.
John Dawson can be contacted by email for further information.