Deborah & William Hillyard
Deborah & William Hillyard
Deborah & William Hillyard
Deborah & William Hillyard
Deborah & William Hillyard
Two pictures of the upstairs landing in original condition. 

The first picture looks north towards the top of the stairs.  The opening you can see at the back to the right of the stairs is the door to the servant's quarters.  As they had their own back staircase from the kitchen, this allowed them access to the bedrooms without servants using the main stairs.  I know; it is all a bit anachronistic today. 
 
This second picture faces south out of the windows at the front of the house.  You can just see the door open into my study, showing the green walls before it was renovated.  The door to Deborah's study is opposite mine, to the left of the windows, hidden by the linen press.  These windows have been replaced with modern dual pane double hung windows. 
The linen press is gone; we managed to sell it, as we did not want it.  It will cover the costs of renovating the landing.  Unfortunately, when the floors were last re-finished, they did not move the press, so the floors where it stood have a totally different finish.  Guess we will have to re-finish the whole lot.  Yet another job to add to the list.  In fact, we plan to start the renovations in early 2010.  I have already worked on the new windows, and on some of the door frames, and this all needs finishing.  I have bought four new solid wood doors to replace the existing doors, most of which are in very poor condition.  The walls are not in good shape, so I will either skin them with ¼ inch sheetrock, or remove the existing plaster and use ¾ sheetrock.  Whichever way I go, getting 10 by 4 sheetrock panels round a triple return staircase is no fun! 

Upstairs Landing

Storage Room
The Loft
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Our c. 1860 House -

Upstairs Renovations