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. […]

While the scaffolding has been up the Stuff Doer has taken advantage and started replacing the cement pointing (ribbon pointing) on the front stonework. The pointing, although not in good shape and wasn’t on our priority list but cement mortar does the stone no good. Also working at height on a ladder on a very […]

In for a penny… As you’ll have seen, the scaffolding is up. The chimneys are straight and the back half of the roof is on. Now scaffolding has been a little bit of a problem (it’s also quite expensive) so whilst it’s up we’d best make the most of it. We wanted the cement render […]

The full flue liner article starts here and the video is on this page Please leave comments or questions below. Note: I’m currently looking in to, what problems might be caused by not sealing the top of the liner to the plate. So keep checking back, leave a comment below (wordpress should be able to email you when […]

Our walls in the Whitby cottage are around 2 foot  thick, constructed of sandstone bound with mud (clay, earth and chopped vegetation). On the outside they have been ribon pointed with cement mortar which will, eventually, be chased out and replaced with more appropriate lime mortar. Internally from what we can see, they were pointed with lime […]