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 […]

Quick update on the story so far regarding the bathroom floor.  The floor was unsupported at one side and had sagged. The wall that could have been supporting it had bowed away. Past cover ups of the continually sagging and sinking floor had been to add another layer of boards over the top. All this got […]

It is fascinating to ponder the history of the cottage, how and when it was built and altered. Here is another set of clues on the gable end at the side of the chimney stack. The angled brickwork coming to the forefront of the picture is the stack (all repointed/rebuilt details here). The first Section […]

We had just got the new roof all water tight but left the scaffolding up to do the rendering around the back. BIG MISTAKE.  The first I noticed was whilst working in the Attic one evening, the gable wall should have been getting drier instead it was soaking.  So the next morning I went up […]

The roof is now finished!!! But while the scaffolding is up we’ve biten the bullet and asked the builders to re render the back of the cottage. The builders have now removed the cracked cement render reavealing the hodgepodge of stone and brick, all soaking wet as the old cement render wouldn’t let the wall […]

 We were expecting the roof to be long finished by now but events have conspired against us ( Local Authotity Scaffolding Licence and the weather). We are at last making steady progress. We’ve employed local builders who were recommended by a neighbour. They’re both experienced in traditional building techniques and were refreshingly enthusiastic about using lime etc. […]