Moving Our Kitchen to the 5th Floor - Renovating Tynemouth Watchtower: Level 5

Moving down one level... but the history only gets deeper. 🏰👇 Welcome to Episode 3. For this deep dive, we are exploring Level 5. While it currently serves as a bedroom, this floor is destined to become the ultimate hub of our family home—and it comes with some incredible historical stories and major design challenges. PAST ⚔️ We are still piecing together how Level 5 was used during the World Wars, but we think it was a hub for telephonists transmitting vital orders. In fact, we recently uncovered the story of Georgina "Dodo" Drysdale, one of only 600 women awarded a WWI memorial plaque, who was stationed right here. By the 1990s, this floor had transformed into a living room, complete with a controversial set of PVC windows that faced a strict planning enforcement notice before being replaced with the timber windows we have today! 📡🤫 PRESENT 🏚️ Right now, this room belongs to my middle son, who claimed the best view in the house after having the box room in our old place. Because the floor plate is tight, we’ve had to get creative, utilizing the tower's incredible ceiling height to stack his bed directly over his desk. But our absolute favourite feature right now is just outside the glass: a chimney pot where a pair of seagulls, who we've named Fish & Chip, nest every year. They've just welcomed three brand new hatchlings, and watching them raise their young so close to us makes them feel like part of the family! 🛏️📐🐦 FUTURE 🌅 This is where the biggest transformation of the whole build is happening: we are moving the kitchen up to Level 5! Because the kitchen is the heart of the home, we want to cook and eat while looking out over the sea. We'll be fitting an L-shaped layout along the solid heritage walls, but the real showstopper is an "eye-shaped" floating breakfast bar right in the window so the five of us can sit together, face each other, and take in those panoramic views. 🍳🌊 0:00 Intro: Welcome to Level 5 0:08 The Past: WWI Heroes & 90s Planning Controversies 1:58 The Present: Stacking Bedrooms & Our Nesting Neighbors, Fish & Chip! 3:04 The Future: Moving the Kitchen & The Eye-Shaped Breakfast Bar Subscribe to see what happens when we drop down to Level 4 next week! 📡 Watch the 24/7 Live 4K Webcams here:    / @ourtowerhome   #OurTowerHome #WatchtowerRestoration #Tynemouth #KitchenDesign #SmallSpaceLiving #Architecture #RenovationLife