Today it rained and rained and rained so Tom and George arrived and left soon after, although George did brush down the mortar that wasn’t too wet before he went. George will be back tomorrow morning to do the same. Another cracking photo of Cat (sorry). She has tackled the kitchen and I wish I… Continue reading Winding down for Xmas
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Smash it up, smash it up
This is what I found when unlocking the house this morning… We had leant the stone for the steps against the neighbours wall (that Tom rebuilt last week) so that Cat could jet wash them at the weekend, but the wall was still intact yesterday. It was a stormy night with gusty winds, so I… Continue reading Smash it up, smash it up
Fitting the old shutters
Way back in the summer when Glynn started repairing this sitting room window, he discovered that what we thought were wooden panels on the side of the window recess were in fact old shutters that had been nailed open, so we decided we would renovate them and get them working again. With the movement of… Continue reading Fitting the old shutters
New plumber
Last night the York stone for our steps was delivered in the dark by Mark from Warwick Reclamation, so this morning I was able to see it. They need a good scrub but they are perfect. This is where the steps will go up from the old front door to the garden. The York stone… Continue reading New plumber
Build a wall
Tom is building the retaining wall for the front garden, another exciting point as the garden will look less like a building site and more like a garden again. A huge piece of the Hornton blue that Tom cut yesterday. You can see how hard it is from the marks made by the angle grinder.… Continue reading Build a wall
The return of the dust monster II
We thought we had seen the last of the dust monster but no! The sun’s out, the doors are open (ah!!) and everything is getting covered in dust… Tom is working through the pile of stone and cutting the really big pieces using the angle grinder and the axe. This is a massive piece of… Continue reading The return of the dust monster II
One step beyond
Saturday morning, Cat is back for the weekend and we are at Warwick Reclamation looking for stone steps. We need two front door steps and two steps to go from the front path up to the garden, to be built into the new retaining wall. Mark, who was super helpful, spent a long time with… Continue reading One step beyond
Ooo shelves!
We kept all of our old broken and worn tiles from the roof to use as hardcore for the drains. Here they are being used for drainage in the bottom of the soak away in the back garden. It’s another horrid damp day outside for Tom and George, but inside the windows remain almost completely… Continue reading Ooo shelves!
Graffiti regrets
I am sure Cat will find this funny when she returns on Friday. This is so true. Even Jasper got a BIG mention. It’s that time of year when fence posts grow gloves. Dan is cutting the elm floor board to fit the edge of the tread that he is repairing. He is extending it… Continue reading Graffiti regrets
Man vs root
The very good news is that all the portable heaters have made a huge difference to the condensation on the windows. This morning is the first morning for a couple of weeks that there hasn’t been pools of water on every window sill, in fact most sills were dry! Thank god for that as the… Continue reading Man vs root