Weekly roundup

Good afternoon folks.

This week has been exciting for me. Why? It's because we are finally doing something to begin to put the house back together..... since we bought the place we seem to have done nothing other than break down and strip back so I cannot tell you how exciting it is to be able to do this.

 Starting in the two front bedrooms the first thing to do was to cover the exposed lintels over the old fireplaces with some kind of "plasticised" cement which allows the plaster to adhere properly.

 Then, a layer of plaster goes on while it is still wet. So now we are saying goodbye once more to the old fireplace areas.

Once the scratch coat of plaster is in place we turned our attention to the old original plaster that was sound enough to remain (Thank goodness as I have to confess to be heartily sick of removing old plaster and as I still have more to remove anything that stays is a treat!)
Enter stage left, blue grit..... this was fun to apply as it is basically a texture paste that needs to go on thinly but without rubbing the grit off. And if it's too thickly applied then it creates problems when skimming plaster later.

 It took me a good few hours but I got there in the end.

 Next week we can start the process of tanking, insulating and rebuilding the wall in this room and getting it ready to plaster and skim. Exciting times.

We've started the second bedroom too so we can look forward to a busy couple of weeks ahead but by the end we should have two spaces that are more finished. I do use the term finished loosely of course as the windows will need to be replaced later and a few other bits too but still, it is progress.

Then, as it was such a glorious day on Friday, we finished early and I headed off to the hills with a flask and a sandwich and had myself a brilliant wander......

A lovely treat to end the week.
Hope you are all enjoying your weekend too.

Getting stuck back in.

Good evening friends
Well, after the delightful little interlude of the previous post, today saw me getting back to dust and grime.
This morning I had a good long site meeting to develop a plan of action for the next few weeks which culminated as it usually does with ordering a bunch of materials and my bank balance taking a battering....

This evening I thought I'd just share a bit of a roundup of the progress made.
First up, the doorway from the kitchen to the utility has been moved. This turned out to be a more complicated process than hoped though we weren't prepared to not move it as it makes a big (positive) difference to the kitchen space

 So, what was so complicating about it you ask. Well the thickness of the wall and the fact that it is load bearing was an issue. We had to use four lintels to support the opening. Then the fact that we had to support the whole wall from down on the cellar stairs as the floor is not structurally strong enough to carry the weight. So the whole job had to be done slowly and carefully and time of course means money!
It also didn't help that when  knocking out the wall for the opening the builder discovered that there was a chimney flue there too which created some complications too.  Thankfully it is all sorted now.

We also had the opportunity to create an alcove in the new wall to "hide" the  electric meter and board which I am happy about.

Now that the kitchen sink unit and plaster has been removed you can clearly see where the original doorway was which was turned into one of the windows. Yet another snapshot of the past.

Doing all this has naturally created yet another pile of rubble.......

Moving upstairs the massive bathroom window has been reduced down to a  more practical size to allow us to add a shower

The new wiring is going in now too, at least now we are going from one plug per room to between six to eight as well as usb plugs so we should have enough lol!

Still a very long road ahead but it's important to get it right because we definitely don't intend to do it again .....
Tomorrow I am back to chipping some more plaster off the walls and then preparing some walls ready for the next stage. Wish me luck.
Take care.

Back in Eden.....

Good afternoon friends.

After being away for a while I arrived back here to the delightful Eden Valley on Thursday afternoon.

My cousin was kind enough to bring me up and stayed for a couple of days. We took advantage of the weather and spent yesterday and this morning exploring a bit before I was once again left car less here......

So I thought I would give you a little break from dust and grime and share a few pics from our rambles. Rest assured, normal chaos will resume from Monday.

Our ramble centered around the Eden Benchmarks, a series of 10 sculptures sited close to the river Eden and over the last couple of days we found five of them 

Our first stop, The Primrose Stone (by Joss Smith) 

This one is sited next to the river close to the Roman Weir.  It is a very pretty spot to spend a little while.

Back on the road we headed off to Eden Bridge in search of the next one.

This is Cypher Piece (by Frances Pelly)

I'll pop the others on over the next few weeks in between building pics but to end this post this was sunset looking over to Brough Castle. A lovely end to a day.

Now to sit back a relax with a cuppa, hope you have a relaxing evening too.

Another bit of smashing and building.

Goodly morning friends

While I have been down south work has slowly been continuing on the house and my cousin sent me some progress pics so that I wouldn't feel left out......

 So, this is/was the door from the kitchen through to the utility and back door. Unfortunately, once we discovered the hidden alcove in the kitchen and decided to keep it as a feature I found myself having to re think my original kitchen design and it soon became apparent that this door was in the "wrong" place for us....

Out it came. Not that easy a task considering that the walls are around half a meter thick. We needed three lintels just to cover it.

 We had to rebuild this wall before we could make the new opening.

So far, this is it. I am looking forward to seeing it when I go up for a site visit soon as I think it should all be finished. We just moved it along which gives the space to utilise the wall and take units up to the corner.

I was also sent a few pics of the weather there.... this is just up the lane , one of my favourite little wanders. Isn't it pretty.

 Then, in the courtyard, a lovely little covering of the white stuff too.....

Down south it's just a waiting game really, keeping the house ready for viewings etc so I can't make a mess LOL I'm trying not to get impatient......
Catch you all later. Hope you have a lovely day.