The scaffolders were back, nice and early, to add it to the back of the house. Still raining today but not biblical like yesterday. Only a minor panic as we have a mains electricity cable attached to the house at the back and this needed to be covered with a protector before the scaffolders could… Continue reading That Friday feeling
Author: Zanna
Rain, scaffolding & steel
I was awoken not by the beautiful sound of the starlings nesting next to my window, but by the unmistakable chinking of scaffolding poles. I never thought I would be happy to be awoken by this sound, but we had been waiting nearly 2 weeks for this! Of course it was raining, proper heavy downpours… Continue reading Rain, scaffolding & steel
There’s a hole in the ceiling
Today the ceiling comes out and the new oak and steel goes in. This half of the study has the worst ceiling in the house. As you can see it has been rudimentarily fixed some decades ago with pine timbers literally nailed into the old joists. The original joists were in such a bad state… Continue reading There’s a hole in the ceiling
Tackling the f***ed joists
So this has been a very long time coming. We have known for 3 years now that the joists in the ceiling downstairs, sitting room and study, were f***ed. Technical term. Seems to describe them very well. We removed the modern plasterboard ceilings, soon after we moved in, to expose the timbers and see the… Continue reading Tackling the f***ed joists
Got wood!
Monday morning and it didn’t start off too well. The (very expensive) oak we had delivered on Friday to be used for the new joists in the sitting room and study ceilings turned out to be the wrong size. Not by a little, but way off. Also the company we had bought these from were… Continue reading Got wood!
Rejuvenating old elm floor boards
Our soda blaster, Dave (who cleaned up the inglenook fireplace a couple of years ago), had some old elm floorboards in his garage which he has donated to our cause! They have been there since he removed them from his house some years ago and are just like our floorboards, except they are not stained… Continue reading Rejuvenating old elm floor boards
Discovering another stone fireplace!
In Zanna’s bedroom, the chimney breast from the study underneath continues up to the loft. We knew there would have been a fireplace here originally, but we were pretty convinced it had all been removed, with the air vent being all that remained. So we started to investigate with fairly low expectations. As expected, we… Continue reading Discovering another stone fireplace!
Skips and deliveries
As our gate posts are too close together to get a modern vehicle through (designed for Austin 7’s), all deliveries need to go over our beloved hedge. This is challenging when there is a skip full of heavy clay. The truck was so heavy it sunk into the pavement and broke our builders scaffold planks.… Continue reading Skips and deliveries
Levelling the flagstone floor
We had previously uncovered these flagstones in the sitting room, Catriona removed the concrete floor that covered it (one winter when the water supply froze!) We were both hugely excited by finding the flag stones and hugely disappointed that they were in such a mess. They are cracked, wobbly, loose and so uneven that you… Continue reading Levelling the flagstone floor
Treasure under the window seat!
First thing Tuesday morning and the builders are starting to level the flag stone floor in the sitting room just under the window seat. All work stops as we start to find old coins and buttons and endless bits of old pottery. We call our Architect, who immediately comes over with his metal detector again.… Continue reading Treasure under the window seat!