The window to this room is small and lets in only limited light so the room is quite dark. These windows are old leadlight panes which is a feature that we currently feel we'd like to keep, so enlarging this window isn't an option that we're entertaining. It's not such a bad thing to have a darker, cosy lounge though. As you'll see later, we don't use this room much during the day except to get comfy and read a book or watch tv, or collapse in the heat of summer, at which time a good side lamp or low light is just fine.

The old fireplace isn't currently functional. We presume that it was closed off as the upstairs level was added. I don't expect that we'll be doing anything on it for a while, but perhaps one day down the line we could consider reinstating it by putting in an external flue or running one through upstairs, or just putting in one of those 'fake wood' gas fires. I'm a bit of a purist though and I'm not sure that I could bring myself to do that. All to be thought about in the future I think. For the moment there's a gas heater which works just fine (although an upgrade to one with a timer would be nice for those chilly winter mornings!).