You’ll be aware, if you’ve watched the video tour, that the cottage has a potentially fantastic bathroom. We have a fabulous, if a bit grotty, cast iron free standing bath, an original sink and a toilet that has been replaced probably in the ’50’s. To top it all we later found the fabulous beam which […]

I realise that I am unable to write up all that happens in the cottage chronologically. I don’t have the time to write an article for every day we are there so I will aspire to blog every visit. For now I will do an overview of what’s been happening there. We went to Whitby […]

The doors and windows in the cottage are not original, but are old and characterful and will do until Stuff Doer gets round to making new ones (not the horrible plastic ones on the top floor, they’re on the “as soon as is reasonably feasible” list). This though means the windows and doors we have […]

Since buying the cottage and discovering some of it’s hidden secrets, we have been doing lots of surfing of the web. Stuff Doer has found the Yorkshire Vernacular Buildings Study Group (have a look at their website). They are a voluntary organisation with, obviously, an interest in Yorkshire buildings of the vernacular style. We contacted […]

 The great thing about not taking the kids is that we get to sleep on a bed! The blinds are still as thin as a cigarette paper so I’m still getting the sunrise, but am at least getting some sleep.  Now we have been getting a very slight whiff near the gas meter (it’s situated […]

(We only normally get away without the Kids on special ocassions like our anniversary. So we used the “kids free time” this year getting rid of some asbestos) We arrive, unload and decide we’ll get straight to work. This is using the royal we, as on our last visit we discovered blue asbestos inside the […]

This is the day we really need to go home. The Stuff Doer needs to do some work (the type he gets paid for). There’s so much more we want to investigate but, hey lets pace ourselves. We’ve cleaned up the worst of the muck and done a couple of dump runs shall we have […]

We’re really interested to know  the history of the cottage we are renovating.  We need this information to inform the decisions we have to make.    We’re prepared to put the effort in to getting this done right. This will involve loads of research and investigations.  CAN YOU HELP?     Any thoughts, comments, advice, […]

Sunday dawns. I know, I saw it. I have decided I’m too old for sleeping on a flat airbed. But waking up here is a joy, it’s like we’ve always been here, it’s home already. So after coffee on the patio taking in the stunning views, I drag myself away to the kitchen to prepare […]

 When we put in the offer for the cottage, we didn’t tell the kids. The youngest two had viewed it with us and had fallen for its charms. We didn’t want to jinx anything. Our own disappointment, had things gone wrong, would have been too much to bear (never mind crestfallen kids). Then child number […]