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HTT004R001 |
| Home: |
1 story Townhouse |
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Historic neighborhood |
| When: |
Open Date 09/24
duration 335 days |
| For Exchange: |
Home Exchange  |
Car Exchange  |
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Min stay: 28 days |
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Propose a Home Exchange
Contact Now
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Victorian Period Living - 2 hours from London and 40 minutes from the Georgian City of Bath.
Large 3 storey semi-detached Victorian house built in 1899 in Penarth a period seaside town with a large pier, beach, marina and cliff top walks on the edge of the City of Cardiff (Capital of Wales) - two hours from the centre of London by rail, 40-50 minutes by car or rail from the World Heritage Georgian City of Bath and the medieval Cathedrals / cities of Wells, Gloucester, Hereford, Bristol and Salisbury –: with its nearby pre-historic world heritage monument Stonehenge. We are two hours by road from the University City of Oxford and a little more from Shakespeare’:s Stratford-upon-Avon, with closer access to the Regency City of Cheltenham the picturesque Cotswold Hills were their perfect English Villages, the Brecon Beacons (Mountains), the Pembrokeshire Coast, Exmoor, Dartmoor and The Wye Valley / Forest of Dean National Parks, the Gower Peninsula, Welsh Marches, Cornwall and English Riviera in Devon and Dorset. Closer to home, Wales is famous for its castles –:::::: the largest - Caerphilly is about ten miles away, Castell Coch closer and Chepstow castle a little further. The archaelogical remains of a Roman Ampitheatre can be seen at Caerleon about fifteen miles away and the rural Vale of Glamorgan villages and Glamorgan heritage coast are right on your door step commencing only five miles from Penarth.
On the ground floor our house has a period hallway and large mahogany feature staircase, 3 very large period reception rooms (the smallest currently used as a playroom), a utility room and downstairs toilet, and large kitchen-diner (containing period units in the kitchen salvaged from a Victorian sweetshop). On the next floor there is a study with French windows opening to a terrace balcony, 3 large double bedrooms –: one of which is decorated as a children’:s bedroom, a nursery bedroom and a feature bathroom with toilet, separate shower, large period washbasin and large period caste-iron bath. On the top floor there are two double bedrooms and one box-room. Most rooms are very large and have original high ceilings and retains most period features throughout including a Victorian marble set-piece fireplace in the front room and period feature fireplaces in the other two downstairs rooms and two of the bedrooms, period woodwork, sash windows and picture rails and stain glass in the hallway. Missing period features are gradually being restored as / when we locate contemporary original replacements.
While we have tried to retain / restore the period character, the house has been brought up to modern standards having been re-roofed and fully rewired. The house is well decorated and furnished sympathetically throughout and has large chandeliers in the big rooms and in the hallway. It also contains most modern conveniences of modern living including Internet access and cable TV, microwave, hob/ oven/ grill, dishwasher, washing machine, tumble drier, fridge and freezer, VCR, two TVs and Hi-Fi. It is fully (gas) central heated and we often light a roaring log fire in the evening in the big front room fireplace in winter. However, the house has a sunny aspect on a corner plot and all rooms receive ample direct sunshine. Partly as a result the house itself is very warm in the winter in spite of its size and has no problems with damp or condensation whatsoever. Its size and the thickness of the walls means that it stays cool in the summer. The house is in a quiet spot with neither of the two roads outside having much traffic.
Outside the house we have two restful mature gardens surrounded by stone walls –: one of which we regularly use for a barbeque in summer, a large sunny enclosed patio which is an integral feature of life for us, a garage and also a car standing area. There are three outhouses for storage –: one of which is quite large.
One of the earlier Anthony Hopkins films (called “:August”: we believe and dating from about fifteen years ago) was filmed in our house when it was owned by the Arts Council of Wales on account of its large rooms and period features.
A Honda Accord car could be included in the exchange if desired. If you are a small party or family, there is plenty of room in the house for you to invite friends over for a holiday to stay with you.
Our house is in a special conservation area within Penarth consisting of only Victorian and Edwardian houses, tree-lined roads and we are adjacent to a large Victorian square. We are a ten minute walk from Penarth centre with its small shops, minor department store and small original Victorian Arcade (and its railway station) and from the beach, pier and also the cliff top walks. There are very good local nurseries, primary and secondary schools in both the public and private sector within five to ten minutes walk.
Cardiff –: the capital city of Wales - is just four miles away and is a very fine largely Victorian and Edwardian City also containing many older areas and with a large castle dating from Roman times. Cardiff is located by the sea in the south-eastern corner of Wales just adjacent to the south-west of England. Cardiff has one of the nicest climates in Great Britain and Ireland –: similar to London but without the big-city pollution.
Cardiff is renowned for its parks ranging from the large Bute Park - which reaches from the medieval Llandaff Cathedral in the suburbs right to the Castle in the City Centre - to Roath Park with large boating lakes.
Cardiff has one of Europe's finest civic centres containing many set-piece formal Portland Stone buildings - including Cardiff City Hall, the National Museum of Wales and the Law Courts and the beautiful Cardiff University buildings - laid out around 100 years ago in a planned manner along a series of tree-lined boulevards set around Cathays Park.
Cardiff is rated one of the four best shopping cities in the UK being the main shopping base for the 2.3 million people of South and mid-Wales and has several modern City Centre Malls and has the UK’:s biggest collection of large original Edwardian Shopping Arcades –: five in all - each around 100 years old and containing countless individualistic small shops.
Cardiff also has an exciting waterfront at Cardiff Bay with a brand new Wales Millenium Opera House / Arts Complex –: home for the Welsh National Opera - and restaurants of every ethnic taste where the New National Assembly for Wales is also located. Cardiff also boasts the biggest sports stadium in the UK the new Millenium Stadium built to host the final of the 2000 Rugby World Cup (and home to the Wales National Rugby and Soccer Team) which also hosts the main UK soccer finals such as the FA Cup (won last year by Manchester United!) each year along with many other events.
For golfers, the Celtic Manor Golf Complex –: the location for the 2009 Ryder Cup between the US and Europe –: is about fifteen miles away, Royal Porthcawl (site of a recent US-Europe Walker Cup) is 20 –:25 miles away.
Cardiff is also easily accessible from further afield and is a good base for touring the UK - being a major hub on both the UK rail and motorway systems. Ireland is also reached easily by sea ferry to Cork and Rosslare from the south Wales ports of Swansea and Fishguard.
Cardiff is also well connected for weekend or longer breaks in European Cities with Cardiff International Airport being very convenient - only twenty minutes away by road, and Bristol International Airport being about forty five minutes away. Both have direct scheduled flights to several European destinations and are also particularly well connected via several times daily scheduled flights to Amsterdam Schipol (Europe’:s second largest airport after Heathrow) to connect to all other Worldwide or European destinations such as Rome, Venice, Florence, Milan, Athens, Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, Lisbon, Bordeaux, Geneva, Vienna, Prague, Budapest, Berlin, Copenhagen, Warsaw, Crakow.
There are also daily low cost airline direct flights from Cardiff and Bristol airports to Dublin, Cork and Belfast in Ireland, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Manchester in Great Britain, Paris, Nice on the French Riviera, and Toulouse (skiing in the Pyrenees), Malaga and Alicante in Southern Spain, Majorca, Ibiza and Minorca in the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean and flights several times every week to each of the Canary Islands (off the African Coast in the Atlantic) of Lanzarote, Tenerife and Gran Canaria for Winter Sun. There are a wider range of direct charter flights in the summer from both Cardiff and Bristol to the Greek Islands, southern Italy, Sardinia and the like.
London’:s main Heathrow Airport can be reached in about two hours by rail (slightly longer by car) with the worlds largest selection of direct routes. Birmingham International Airport is slightly closer by car also with a wide range of routes.
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5 Rooms |
7 Guests |
No home area |
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Dining Room |
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Family Room |
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Kitchen |
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Living Room |
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Office |
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Deck / Balcony |
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One car garage |
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Laundry |
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Porch |
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| Rating Information: |
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NO
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Member Rating |
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| Language(s): |
| Speaks: |
None specified |
| Writes: |
None specified |
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Propose a Home Exchange
Contact Now
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 Family of 2 Adults, 2 Boys, 1 Girl [7-12 years old] |
I am a medical doctor - actually the medical director and public health director responsible for commissioning comprehensive healthcare services for the entire population of the city of Cardiff. My wife is a primary school teacher though she is not working outside the home currently as she is a full-time mum to our three children aged 7, 5 and 2 years.
We have lived in Wales for 15 years and found it very friendly and Cardiff a lovely city and excellent location for travel across Europe. We have a comprehensive range of guidebooks, hotel and restaurant guides for Wales, England, Ireland, Scotland and most of Europe - within a very wide library of books and British and American popular music CDs. We are very keen on wine and fine food –:::: so know most of the best restaurants in Wales and Southern England and many in London –:::: and have a good collection of fine period crockery and cut glasses. We are very friendly with our neighbours who would be happy to provide company, help or advice. Penarth has a very strong community feel and we recently had seventy neighbours around for a party to celebrate my wife's fortieth birthday.
We are looking for long term house exchanges (probably several) preferably to Santa Monica, Venice, Malibu or else West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, West Los Angeles, Rancho Park, Brentwood, or perhaps the western part of San Fernando Valley for myself, my wife and three children aged 2, 5 and 7 years between October 2004 and the end of August 2005 to cover the period while I am on a health research fellowship with the RAND Corporation in Santa Monica. |
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