Glorious, despite the mud

What a glorious day! It was cold but dry and the sun shone all day, perfect as we needed the sun to dry the lime pointing out, it is taking much longer to go off than it should as everything is so wet…

Tom and George knocking back the pointing they added yesterday around the windows and along the bottom of the walls.

Dan fine tuning the window seat in Zanna’s bedroom.

The window seat in the study ready to be oiled.

George knocking back the pointing around the brackets holding the guttering.

The pointing underneath the study window redone and knocked back. The pointing at the foot of the walls is not dry enough though as it is sucking up all the moisture from the clay that the house is sitting on. This will be left another day before being knocked back.

The lime mortar around the windows looking very smart and more importantly has sealed the gaps and holes around the window frames so the house is so much warmer inside.

I was delighted when I remembered it was 1st December so I could start my chocolate advent calendar.

A little disappointed with the size of the chocolates if I’m honest. Also really need to do my nails.

George repairing and pointing the wall under the dining room window. There was an old clay drain pipe coming out of the wall here, a large pipe which left a large hole. This was probably to drain the floor when this side of the house was used to house animals.

Dan finishing up the study window seat. All the window seats will now be taken next door where it is dry and warm to be oiled before they get fitted. They won’t be fitted for a while anyhow as the walls still have a lot of drying out to do. The oak would get quite damp and could warp if they were installed now.

To avoid taking a set of ladders (needed to get up to the attic) up the stairs, where they could easily damage the soft lime plastered walls, George passes them to Dan through the landing window!

The late afternoon sun lighting up the gable end wall and the window. This shines into the attic bedroom and will be lovely to sit up there and read under the dormer window.

Now we have dug out the trenches at the front and laid the land drains, the (really expensive) cast iron effect plastic down pipes can be fitted by Pete, our roofer.

The down pipe fitted next to the study window. This feeds into a T-joint in the land drain.

You can see where the bottom of the walls finish and the clay starts (we have no foundations or damp proof course). The footings of the house are not very deep, in fact they start just below where we are bringing the ground level down to, about 4 inches lower than the door step.

Another giant claw arrives with our delivery of hardcore and pea gravel for filling in the trench around the land drain.

We have several bulk bags delivered, all of which will then need manually moving with a wheel barrow into the trench. Definitely a job for George!

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