The main bathroom at Seaside Lodge
The main bathroom at Seaside Lodge is complete.
The forecast is warm, with continual showers and occasional deep baths.
Fluffy towels in abundance
Little luxe touches make all the difference
If you’d like to stay in our newly renovated 1950s wooden lodge, on a lake and just 80m from a quiet, unspoilt beach, drop us an email at info@boltholeproperties.com
Some recent pictures of progress on Seaside Lodge’s renovation.
We’ve got our first 4 bookings (yay!), and are getting very excited about reaching the finishing line. We’ve had some fantastic feedback from visitors, and several people coming for a look around on spec.
Available to let from 1 June 2015. For more info, drop us an email at info@boltholeproperties.com
Bedroom 1 at Seaside Lodge has an en-suite shower room.
The open plan sitting room has large doors opening onto a deck over the fishing lake.
The open plan living area has two sitting areas, one by the lake and log burner, the other in a quiet study space (ignore the tree clippings, they’re toast!)
Soon-to-be-organised library and study area by the original 1958 south facing window
Finally, the french doors go in. At the moment the deck overlooking the lake is a makeshift construction with 3 pallets, but even so, the view is knockout.
The old window over the lake, from the sales brochure
How it looked, once the walls came down.
Open ’til late.
A late night getting the doors fitted.
Next morning at Anderby Creek. 50% more lake and sky.
A lot to do at Seaside Lodge this morning – painting, pruning, sanding and waxing (furniture, cheeky!), but the sky is blue and it’s very hard to believe it’s mid-February.
So, we’re going to have another coffee and stare out at the lake some more.
Like Franz Kafka said:Â “Idleness is the beginning of all vice, the crown of all virtues”.
Splash of milk in my coffee please.
Seaside Lodge, lazy Sunday morning.
Seaside Lodge, lazy Sunday morning II
“We can’t sit around staring at the lake and drinking coffee all day”.
So we walked to the beach instead.
By the way, all these pics were taken on the morning of 15th February 2015 – it got cooler later, but the beach was as warm as the end of April.
We did get quite a lot done on the lodge later, I sanded and waxed an Ercol chair and Jon painted a floor, but it was one heck of a way to start the day.
Seaside Lodge, lazy Sunday morning III
Seaside Lodge, lazy Sunday morning IV
I’ve come across some lovely old images of Anderby Creek. I thought you may find it interesting if I group them together and post a batch from time to time. So, here’s no.1 – Anderby Creek’s lovely beach. Although the landscape has changed little over the last 8 decades, the amount of people on it has. I’ll start with a picture I took one sunny Sunday last September. Me and the fisherman were the only people on the beach. It’s easy to see why it has been voted one of Britain’s best undiscovered beaches. Bliss.
Voted one of Britain’s best undiscovered beaches
The beach at Anderby Creek pre-1953
Hard to date this picture of Anderby Creek beach – any guesses?
Anderby Creek beach, late 50s-early 60s (looking at the clothing and donkeys!)
Anderby Creek beach…I’m guessing sometime in the 1950s
The beach at Anderby Creek, late 40s/early 50s. At first I thought later, but those high waist trousers tell their own story. Unless it’s Simon Cowell’s dad.
I think this is one of the earliest Anderby Creek beach pics here – probably 1930s.
Donkeys! Tank tops! Hair grips like her off Follyfoot! This Anderby Creek beach pic is late 1960s-early 1970s, I reckon.
Seaside Lodge was built in 1959. I wonder if the first owners used their knitting machine to craft cossies like these little beauties?
1959 knitting pattern
Fun times! Mood boards and colour palettes for Seaside Lodge
All the fabrics and colours are sorted. Creams, neutrals and some dusty blues. Colours chosen from the Lincolnshire skies, water and fields, with a dash of retro 1950s to boot. Undercoat is going on the new plaster, and early reports are ‘wow, this works’.
On the lake side of the lodge, the log burner sits unwrapped, just waiting for its flue, a limestone hearth and a couple of installers.
When I grow up I’m going to be like the guy in the picture.
Close Encounters. Of the lodge kind.
One of the last pictures of the lodge without the new doors, which will open onto a deck and lawn overlooking the lake.
Wake up to this view.
Huttoft Car Terrace
2 miles down the road to Sutton is another beach, Huffoft Car Terrace, it’s a great spot for eating fish and chips and watching the sky.
It’s a decorating fact of life that:
1. All the best paint colours are the most expensive paint colours.
2. All the best/most expensive paint colours have the silliest names.
This week, we have been throwing Duck Egg at the walls, and covering the plaster with Elephant’s Breath. We’re trying to use the colours in the surrounding landscape in interior of Seaside Lodge, whilst keeping a colour palette that’s true to its 1950s heritage.
That means no shocking pink, no glitter and no feature walls. I hope that doesn’t disappoint.
It’s great to be at the stage where the dust and dirt are nearly a distant memory.
Choosing paint colours that reflect the view outside the window
Colours of the surrounding lake, dunes, sea and fields.
Most of the renovating dust and rubble is behind us – hurrah!
We’re moving into the next stage. Both bathrooms are going in, and the floor and wall tiles chosen. I’ve found a bathroom floor tile that looks just like the sand on the beach, which has made my week. Scrub that, month.
The temporary kitchen is now where the permanent one will be in the next month, albeit a little less appealing to the eye.
For a freezing mid-January, the lodge is lovely and toasty too!
The drive to Seaside Lodge always seems to take us through several different climates, and the sky gets bigger and bigger the further east we drive.
I’ve fallen in love with Lincolnshire sunsets.
Leaving home at 7:30 on a freezing cold January morning
As the day dawned, and we drove east, the sky got bluer
Coming off the Lincolnshire Wolds, the Anderby sunshine was there to greet us.
Leaving Anderby Creek and driving into a glorious Lincolnshire sunset has become one of life’s simple pleasures.
The Lake, at dusk in mid-January.
Fading afternoon light in the south facing what-will-be study area
Teatime bangers
November.
Things are really coming on. Although technically, that phrase is banned, along with “It’s coming together nicely”.
Clean walls, natural light.
All the rooms bar the big bathroom are now plaster boarded. The space looks much cleaner and more delineated. The picture above was taken from the front door. Behind Jon will be a small library/study area.
Looking North over the lake.
This picture is looking north. The window at the end will be replaced with sliding glass doors, onto a deck, overlooking the lake. In the space between will be a simple kitchen and then a living area with log burner. I shall probably devote a whole future blog post to the log burner. It’s gorgeous.
The view through the soon-to-be glass doors
On the picture above the lake is empty of geese, ducks or other water fowl. They are often on the lake throughout the day, congregating noisily, or just gliding along and then flying off again in unison. Watching them and figuring out their schedules is becoming a favourite pastime.
A very public convenience
The blog wouldn’t be complete without a picture of the central bog. So, here it is.
Late afternoon over the lake
Time to head back back West. Two pictures of the lake before we drive into the sunset.
Bird on a wire
The keys to Seaside Lodge – all 64 of them.
We collected the keys to Seaside Lodge on Saturday morning. Back of the truck loaded to the gunnels with airbeds, chairs, tool kit and the desert island essentials – Marmite, foot file and my second best fit flops.
We unloaded the gubbins, then surveyed our new kingdom. It was the first time we’d been inside since we viewed it back in May.
Comically large spider in residence – tick. Smell approximating a fusion of boiled cabbage, wet newspapers and something I haven’t smelt since I helped mum deliver Meals on Wheels circa 1972 – tick.
Comedy spider at the lodge
So, here are the pics. Jon had started ripping things about before I got the chance to take pics of the lodge untouched. But let’s just say after 2 days we hadn’t found a screw or a piece of wood thicker than a greetings card. Thus far, it appears the lodge has been constructed of nails, balsawood and sticky back plastic. Lots of sticky back plastic.
This original heater makes your lips stick to your teeth.
The VIP suite with zip ‘n’ link luxury airbeds and complementary chisel.
I’m going to miss that door when it’s gone. “Tonight, Matthew…”
…Bit late for that isn’t it?
Sunday was my birthday. So I sashayed around measuring things, then we went to the beach, drank champagne and dozed in the late summer sun. Daydreaming about log burners, tartan rugs and sitting on the deck by the lake. Well, I was.
Huttoft Car terrace and a kite surfer.
Getting going at Huttoft Car terrace
Birthday poo on the beach
Footnote. People keep walking into our garden to view the lake. I found a man there at 6am. One word: fence.
Hoorah! We completed on the purchase of the lodge today. Now to be aptly called ‘Seaside Lodge’.
We are now the proud owners of a 1959 large garden shed by a lake on the East Coast, a scant 2 minute amble from the beach. Un-modernised since Noah was a lad.
We’ll be blogging regularly, as we renovate the Vic Hallam lodge (also called an Anderby Chalet) and (hopefully) turn it into a restorative, creative bolthole for those of us who just need to get from it all from time to time. (If getting away from it all includes Malbec and a log burner).
Please follow us on our journey. Fun times and knackered manicures ahead!
Welcome to Anderby Creek
It’s going to look a little different in the next few months. The back of the lodge before renovation.
Seaside Lodge compass
The garden needs a bit of TLC
The view from the back of the lodge #Nofilter
Looking back from the beach – The Hamptons? No, Lincolnshire!
Looking over the dunes at the beach at Anderby Creek
The fields over the lake
Seaside Lodge 