This was not the birthday surprise I was hoping for today. Tom had wasted no time in investigating the corner of the gable end wall above the staircase, and there is now quite a lot of light in the upstairs rooms that wasn’t there before. The results of his investigation are not at all good…… Continue reading Happy f***ing birthday!
Month: July 2020
Dust + rain = mud, oh the glamour
It’s been such a grim week with the rain, that the dust in and around the house is turning to mud. And the dust is truly EPIC. You just have to look at the house and you are covered, everything in the house is caked in it. Our structural engineer, Martin, arrived this morning to… Continue reading Dust + rain = mud, oh the glamour
What on earth is this?
More exciting discoveries today! This, whatever it may be, was discovered in Zanna’s bedroom. Obviously they are shelves, the top one is just like the other cubby holes we have found elsewhere in the house, but the one underneath is puzzling us… It appears to be stone, but could be concrete (although unlikely). It looks… Continue reading What on earth is this?
A better day
A much better day all round, thankfully. Dan and Tom got all the steel rods grouted in by lunchtime, the process was much quicker today after the frustrating start yesterday. The grout behaved as it should today and didn’t cause them so many problems. It’s not a job they enjoy though, and we do have… Continue reading A better day
A dark day
Today Dan found a mummified rat in the attic and left in on top of this board in the skip. At head height. It had the desired effect. Although, we had our good friend Malgosia over (an animal fanatic) who took Roland rat home for a burial we think, but he may end up in… Continue reading A dark day
Before & after shots
Estate agent photos from 2016 before we moved in versus where we are now. I’m not sure we are doing this right… Front of house Sitting room Sitting room Stairs from sitting room Dining room Dining room Study Landing Zanna’s bedroom Cat’s bedroom Bathroom Rear of house Back garden Old front door
Weekend carnage
Strictly speaking we haven’t planned to do any work to this side of the house (the dining room), but as we are having the house soda blasted top to bottom in the next 2 weeks, we have decided to have this room soda blasted too. Soda blasting, rather than sand blasting, is now the preferred… Continue reading Weekend carnage
Snapshots of history
Every time we do any work on the house we inevitably find pieces of newspaper, very handily as we can then date the part that we are removing. We can date all work that was done to the house to 1897, 1929, 1939, 1941, 1950, 1952, 1974 and 1981. This gives us a fascinating insight… Continue reading Snapshots of history
Tie beam, could this be the root cause?
The beautiful timber that spans the entire building is called the tie beam, so called as it ties the front and back walls together, at least it should. Ours is no longer doing this and could indeed be the root cause of our problems. When we purchased the house, we knew that it had roof… Continue reading Tie beam, could this be the root cause?
Timber!!!
Today was timber themed. It began with Dan uncovering another stunning beam at the foot of the A-Frame. This is the landing wall where the attic staircase will be. This beam will support the new steel beam which will sit on top of a pad stone. This steel will span the middle of the building… Continue reading Timber!!!