General Chat

Are there any near you? Would you live in one?

I have come across oast houses, churches, schools, warehouses, lighthouses and even public toilets that have been converted into living accommodation. Personally I have always fancied living in an oast house or a converted lighthouse. What about you?

oooh a lighthouse sounds good doesnt it :-) worse conversion i know of is public toilets becoming a fast food outlet! could never buy anything from there

Sheila, I'm not sure I'd want to buy food there either Dee x

Hi Dee I'd love to live in a converted building if I could afford to! They're converting a lot of the derelict mills around here but they're all apartments and I like a garden too much! Debby

Debby I saw a programme the other night where 3 women were considering converting a warehouse and the guy said they could have a roof garden, the structure of the building would mean that it could withstand the weight. Dee xx

I've always dreamed of living in a converted lighthouse or windmill. I remember seeing some photos once of a windmill where the owners had spent what must have been an absolute fortune on having a bespoke circular kitchen made that fitted perfectly into one whole floor of the windmill - it looked incredible. I also love some of the converted Victorian water-towers that are about - such fantastic architecture in what was originally just a utility building. Can you remember a few years ago when they dug that lighthouse up by its foundations and then moved the whole building on rollers a few meters in land, as the cliff erosion was endangering it ? Simon

Hi All Quite a few conversions near me...down the road a converted Tannery into apartments and in town a converted 1880's Police Station where the cells are part of the maisonettes' bathrooms!! Also where my parents live in North Wales alot of converted chapels Sarah :)

Hi Simon Don't remember that, where was the lighthouse, do you remember? Dee x

No, I can't remember where it was unfortunately - somewhere near the sea I assume ;-) I seem to remember that later on it was featured on changing rooms, where one team 'did-over' the room where the light would have been (and pretty much ruined it, if I remember correctly !). Simon

Simon In my opinion Changing Rooms often has that effect, ;-)) Sarah, I love to see the converted chapels, guess they must be expensive to buy Dee xx

We have a converted chapel over the road. Husband used to live in the converted stables of an old brewery.

We don't live in a converted building as such, but a mill used to stand on the same spot in a heritage area. The builders had to make the new terrace, on the canal bank, look like a conversion on the outside. They reused the stone for facings and we have mock filled in windows and winch apetures. It does fit in with the surroundings - with all mod cons!

Hi Dee you do have good taste! I would love to live in an old schoolhouse (comes from my mum as a teacher, wherever we went she would look for old schools). Or a barn, or oast house, or chapel, yep, pretty much any of your examples. I recently said to a friend that we want to live in a really cool and unusual place one day, like a riverboat, log cabin or whatever - she said 'ooh yeah, I'd visit you more often then'. Charming! There's a tv program called Grand Designs which has some amazing homes on. xx Jen

I think the lighthouse that was moved was on the South Coast by the Seven Sisters (Between Brighton and Eastbourne) It had already been converted and incorporated into a new house......If it is that one then some of you will remember it from the TV series 'Life and Loves of a She Devil' which was filmed there before it was moved. Chris

I think it is a shame that so many old factory buildings are being converted into living spaces, especially in town centers. My town was famous for the shoe industry and all the now redundant factories are being converted. All the people that buy these multi thousand pound home then have to travel out of the town for employment. seems crazy. if you can strip out a factory for conversion, why not strip it and use it for another form of employment? Some of the buildings have such character Jess x

In our town we have a converted water tower opposite the railway. When the conversion was done it was reported that the water tank would be a swimming pool, but you'd have to be Fred Dibnah to use it as it covered the whole roof. We also have a converted granary. In the area there are several converted oast houses, in Littlebourne ther are two converted water mills. A fried in France has converted an old forge into apartments. How he did it in two years, I don't know as it was huge. David

In paris there was a youth hostel in the middle of the road which was obviously originally a public toilet. David

I can understand where you are coming from Jess. The other thing that is annoying is that the housing provided by the conversions is usually way beyond the budget of most people, and what we really need is affordable housing Dee xx

my son started his aprenticeship helping to convert an old factory into flats when he was 17, the flats were then owned by the housing association, and were let at low rents. he is now 24 and still doing his aprenticeship. jean