Cat’s window world of pain continues with paint and putty compatibility issues… We are using water based Farrow & Ball metal primer, but the putty is linseed oil based. In a test on this window the paint is bubbling and not drying because the putty underneath it is not dry (this can take over 2 weeks to dry). Unfortunately we are on a very tight deadline now to get these painted as while they are unpainted they are rusting. They can rust in a few hours if the conditions are damp. This makes Cat swear (to be fair most things make Cat swear at the moment).
In another world of pain, this time with floorboards, we are again running out of time as Dan is busy fitting the final floor on the landing and is rapidly running out of our original floorboards… Thankfully our elm floorboards arrived from Wells Reclamation Yard, but they are not a good match!!! They are much lighter, suggesting they are not as old (not surprisingly as ours are ancient, possibly 300+ years) and the grain is far wider, suggesting they could be European elm (they grow faster than English elm due to warmer conditions). We will still use them somewhere in the house as they are gorgeous, but they will look very out of place in this floor.
In true resourcefulness style, Cat had already found some local old elm floorboards online, literally down the road near Banbury and by mid morning she had collected them in the Land Rover and was already cleaning them so they were ready for Dan to fit!
They were from a developer who had removed them from a cottage and was needing to get rid of them. He was going to burn them if they had not gone by the end of the day! What a stroke of luck for us and the floorboards! They live to see another day (hopefully many thousands of days).
Two of the boards are extremely wide (elm floorboards are traditionally the really wide ones) and have a beautiful patina.
One of our favourite old boards, shaped like a spliff and with the most gorgeous knots and colours.
Tom has finished the repairs on the gable end wall and it looks utterly fabulous. He has left his mark in the mortar, his initials TS for Tom Swinson. The temptation by me to draw something rude is high here… I wonder if anyone has ever stuck their face in wet mortar, Stranger Things style. It would be hilariously terrifying uncovering this in 100 years.
Our skip is bursting at the seams…
We like this view. The study is pretty much finished and clean, unlike the rest of the house, so at the end of a trying day it is nice to look at…
A sign Cat has been here.