Georgian Panelling Preparation and Painting – First new Paint OK  not so much to the actual painting,  it’s the preparation and restoration of the Georgian? panelling that has been far more interesting. I’ve been working on  preparing this section of panelling as a relatively quiet job in the evenings for months.  It would have been easier […]

This is purely a visual repair to a cast iron air brick to the outside toilet.  A combination of a leaky roof and zero maintenance had left the top part to rust away.  This was one of little jobs that was holding up another one, this time fitting guttering to wash house.  I could have […]

FULL STEP BY STEP window repair methods here Timber windows can easily last more than a human life time. As long as the details are right and they are well maintained they should be any real bother at all.  Unfortunately the maintenance bit is often neglected or done with unsympathetic materials.  So we often come […]

A bit of woodworking, a bit of fibre glassing and a bit of plumbing. The only fiddly bit was to connect a modified door handle to the cable of the dual flush mechanism.  Hey Presto! a wooden toilet cistern. With hindsight maybe I should have gone for a old fashioned, reliable syphon flush. But only time […]

I’m up at the cottage most weekends and working on the day job through the week. In the search for more time that leaves me with weekday nights.  I spent a while on the copper radiator but with that out of the way there’s a few other things I could be getting on with. The […]

The re-wiring and new electrics has been an ongoing project.  As walls have been exposed and rebuilt, floors removed and repaired, I’ve been putting in the new wiring.  This is a job I’ve been working on under the advice of both father in laws (17th edition electricians). Complying with the latest regulations in older properties can […]

Another one ticked off the list, the wash-house roof is now complete (almost). Just the lead flashing and last few tiles to fix in place after the boiler flue has gone in.  Using Pantiles is a bit different to the slate roofs I’ve done in past. Laying out the laths, accounting for the roof dimensions […]

Inspired by the sight of new rendering and with a long weekend to fill it was time to make a start on the washhouse roof. We now call it a washhouse as that’s where the washing machine and boiler will be going along with the outside toilet and hand basin.  The roof I’d had patched […]

It was a real relief to see the rendering of the cottage finished and the scaffolding finally down. Quite a milestone in the project and an end to having other people working on the job.  I’m not a born manager and even less comfortable paying others to do what I could do myself. It has […]

We’ve only got one space in the downstairs room of the cottage that is ideal for a radiator. It’s tall and thin, because it’s tall it will be pretty much “in your face” and become a feature in the room. We searched high and low for a suitable radiator, some of the very expensive designer […]