We are down a Dan this week, but up a George, who is here again helping Tom. They are cracking on with raking out all the pointing on the external walls, another very messy job, but they are outside rather than within the cool, thick walls of the house. I would not want to be… Continue reading The heatwave continues
Category: Study
Before & after
These before photos were taken on one of our viewings before we bought the house, 4 years ago in August 2016. The transformations are astonishing! Dining room, looking through to the kitchen with the larder on the left. Landing looking from Zanna’s bedroom to the stairs. The now infamous broken tie beam was boxed in.… Continue reading Before & after
Oops…
So aliens dropped a scaffolding plank from the sky which embedded itself in the pavement creating a massive hole. Not really. But this is how the day ended… Our Anglepoise wall lights arrived and we couldn’t wait to see how they would look in the study. Channels cut and steel bars added in the 4th… Continue reading Oops…
The last corner?
The last corner! Or is it…? It’s the last corner in the older part of the house, but there is a corner in the dining room (the side of the house we are tackling in phase two) which Martin, our structural engineer, wants Tom to fix in this phase, annoyingly for Tom… Like all the… Continue reading The last corner?
Any old iron?
A day mainly working in the study, replacing old iron with new steel. Dan celebrating with a cup of tea, as he has just removed the last buttress (yay!) at the back of the study. George is able to dig out the rest of the study floor now the buttresses have gone, so it is… Continue reading Any old iron?
Weekend breather
We are still exhausted after the previous weekend (and the fact that neither of us have had a day off in weeks now) but we still have so much to do, think about and make decisions on. Colour matching the dusty blue paint colour that we found on the landing lime plastered wall. We will… Continue reading Weekend breather
Hot buttress removal!
Phew! Super hot day, the hottest so far this year at 34 degrees apparently! But the big news at Pear Tree Cottage is that FINALLY *drum roll* the buttresses are coming out!!! Today we will gain many square feet in the house and hopefully the walls won’t crumble in the process… The buttresses couldn’t be… Continue reading Hot buttress removal!
Before and after
Photos from 3 weeks ago versus the house now, after everything has been exposed and soda blasted. Sitting room Sitting room Sitting room and stairs Dining room Dining room Dining room Study Zanna’s bedroom Landing Cat’s bedroom Old bathroom Old front door
Still cleaning
The big clean, day 2 and we have more help. Good job as we are all utterly exhausted and Zanna has cricked her neck so is out of action. Ken and Cameron arrive with snow shovels, ready to do the tough job of shifting the dust and soda out of the ground floor and into… Continue reading Still cleaning
Spaceman!
We have been looking forward to this day for a very long time, since we had the inglenook fireplace soda blasted by David 2 years ago. Soda blasting is an approved process for cleaning up old timbers and stonework in listed properties. Sand blasting is generally no longer used. So we were delighted when we… Continue reading Spaceman!