Stop. Bloody. Raining.

Sat morning and it has been raining for over 24 hours solid and yes, we have another bloody leak. It has rained so heavily for so long that it is coming through the tin roof (as it did during the storm back in August), dripping onto the new roofing felt, saturating through it and down the rafter onto the attic floor, through this and onto the floor of the corridor outside the new bathroom. Thankfully, again, the Ram Board stopped the water from soaking the wooden floorboards! The Ram Board is worth every penny!

Our water feature outside the front door, now with added lime mortar, is getting quite hazardous to jump over.

Glynn, quite bravely in this weather, has returned to repair the dining room window and finish off some details on the others before he goes off on a well deserved holiday.

The sill is so rotten there are holes that go right through to the inside. Some of the window putty actually looks like grey cement, not putty, and is so hard that the glass breaks in the process of removing it.

George was here at 8am (on a Saturday!) to knock back the lime pointing that was done yesterday and also to start to move the roofing tiles up to the top of the scaffolding.

I cannot stress enough how damn heavy these tiles are, and the ladders are muddy and slippy and it is pissing down with rain, yet George is still smiling!

George heroically fixing the leak in the roof for us!

The rain is getting heavier but it doesn’t bother Glynn. He is getting ready to cut the rotten sill out.

This mortice and tenon joint has almost completely rotted away.

Glynn has set up in the sitting room today, it’s dry but very dark. The whole house is dark today because it HASN’T STOPPED BLOODY RAINING.

We have help this weekend from our older sister, Lucy and our oldest friend, Laura. They are both helping Cat hoover and clean before adding a second coat of oil to all the wooden floorboards upstairs.

Laura brought her own knee pads with her.

Laura also brought the most divine tray of chocolate brownies!

The new sections of mullions cut and ready to be fitted to the old mullions.

The rain gets heavier so Glynn props up the plastic window covering to protect the window from the rain.

Tom is also here briefly to work on the pointing with George.

The new oak sill is being fitted.

The old frame is so wonky and wobbly, unlike the pencil straight new oak which requires some fine tuning so they join seamlessly.

George has finished the pointing and moved to the back garden to carry the roof tiles from here up to the scaffolding.

George is soaked through but still smiling!

Laura, Lucy and Cat have already oiled Zanna’s bedroom floor and have moved onto the landing. Having help makes such a huge difference! Thank you Lucy and Laura!

It is lunchtime yet we have had to bring lights in from next door to be able to see!

Every last bit of dust has to be thoroughly hoovered up before it gets oiled.

The stairs after their second coat of oil.

Cat having a much needed tidy up.

The repaired window! Glynn has also fitted the metal window and the catches for this so it now shuts tightly. Just needs the rest stripped, sanded and painted…

We now have 2 water features in the study. These are the two slots in the cement floor for the radiator pipes and they are filled with water… The water is seeping through the wall at the front!

Laura and Lucy hoovering the study, top to bottom.

The old sill from the dining room window.

And the rain got heavier.

The pointing, knocked back and looking fabulous. This wall has been transformed! The lower part of the wall will be repaired and pointed at a later date. The ground level outside needs to be lowered so it is lower than the floors inside. Currently the ground level outside the study at the front is about 4 foot higher than inside! This is why it is damp in the study and probably exactly why water is seeping through the walls when it rains.

Our front door step/water feature developing well.

Yuk.

Zanna has been scraping putty from windows in the warm and dry next door.

We painted up some boards with our Farrow & Ball test pots and, as with all F&B colours, they look very different when painted on larger areas. We shall wave them around the house tomorrow and see what they look like in situ.