We discovered lots of surprises when we bought Flora Dora Cottage in 2013, apart from decor both time and taste forgot... From rising damp to rotten supporting beams, literally the whole house had to be gutted, although not as gutted as us when we got the builders' invoices!  The only parts of the house we could save were the front wall and some of the roof.  It would actually have been cheaper to knock it down and start again, and that was the option the contractor preferred, but that would have been far too easy. Instead, we took the opportunity to completely restore and redesign the cottage from the ground up, removing walls, corridors and absolutely everything pokey, dark or painted brown!  One of the few things we managed to save were the bricks in the beautiful new fireplace which came from the corridor from the front door to the kitchen.