my overall story

as I dream on . . .

2011-09-21T09:58:00.000+01:00

This would be my dream home LINK

Unfortunately it is not possible.

Fortunately however, I am at one, completely, with the idea of moving next year hopefully.

thank you all . . .

2011-09-11T16:29:00.001+01:00

I am encouraged.

Now I know what I am going to do, without hesitation or looking back I'm just going to get on with it.

If ever there was any doubt there's non now. I've spent this weekend attempting not to get distressed with children peering through my windows and trampling over my veg patch with their dogs.

It was all okay and possible even with the huge compromises I had to make but I see now that it always was going to be tenuous; that it was only ever going to be possible and pleasant whilst things stayed the same. But the existing elderly neighbours are all approaching their nineties, they are my friends, but three of the six terraced cottages are now tenanted by people I am not sure I can live side by side with given the communal areas, so, c'est la vie.

People are saying to me 'wait and see how it goes', ' speak to the parents', 'don't act in haste', whatever. Others like my daughters and some friends know the people I am referring to, the children and their parents (some of whom have a reputation locally) and understand my fears regarding intimidation and my limits to cope with confrontation. My home has to be a haven, sanctuary, safe and secure. Just the way it is, there is no alternative. Once one flags up that one doesn't like something unreasonable people can see you as a victim or target and I'm not going to take that risk. By the way, I am a strong woman and was a probation officer for over twenty years so I think my perceptions are accurate which I suppose might be part of the problem.

I laugh at myself, downstairs here this afternoon, blinds down, music on, pretending rampaging ************ aren't out there!

I have started sorting out the loft, storing surplus things in neatly packed and labelled boxes up there, and a few plants and shrubs have already been potted up again ready to take with me. Unlike the previous two moves in 2008 & 2009 I can do this leisurely and thoroughly.

Quite a few jobs have already been completed by a builder, the sorts of things I couldn't do, and the new bathroom will be in and an electrician on site again 26th September. I will put the place on the market as soon it is sensible to do so, February probably if I can wait that long. One option is to rent it out and rent somewhere for myself. Yes, it's that bad and I'm not prone to exaggeration or drama.

Until I am safely ensconced in a new home with hopefully an even better studio and a private garden this time I shan't post here. So, see you all being well later on next year.

2011-09-07T22:04:00.000+01:00

NOT A ROAD LESS TRAVELLED

April 2009, a search commenced, the decision to move to the south west had been made, the search concluded when I and my eldest daughter sat in a cottage that was for sale and silently concluded and colluded that it was 'the one'. Far from ideal, but the location was almost perfect, the price 'do-able' its considerable drawbacks rectifiable, and with her and her younger sister's support and agreement I put in an offer and started the process.

Fast forward through the day by day, month by month trajectory as revealed on this blog until today, a blow, a worst case scenario . . .

I halted the improvements and renovation of this cottage through lack of sufficient funds this time last year; three weeks ago works resumed, big time, a builder in place, a wonderfully thorough and trustworthy builder in tune with my aims and budget.

Today news that brought me up fast. A new set of tenants next door, people who want me to change use of one of the linhays I've been using as a wood store and half of my garden that for fifty or forty years have by consent and agreement been maintained by whomever owned the cottage I now own. Everything is turned on its head. I should have foreseen this.

Only last Friday and Saturday I arranged furniture from where it had temporarily been placed when I initially moved in.

I thought my turbulent and shifty existence had ceased. This is my thirty fourth address in fifty plus years. A thirty fifth looms.

I am unable to conceive of a co-existence with these people about to move in, for I know of them and about them, their lifestyle, values and history. We are not compatible, one of us is combative, aggressive and insatiable. One of us needs a quiet and harmonious lifestyle, calm and intelligent modus operandi.

Enough said. I shall be moving in the Spring, for I am not able to foresee anything other.

hello...

2010-12-15T17:14:00.000Z

Dropping in to remind you that if you're missing me here I can be found during a period of enforced inactivity re: renovation work at http://www.mygenericmedium.blogspot.com/ and craft specific at http://www.linhaystudio.blogspot.com/ plus there's also a website now http://www.linhaystudio.moonfruit.com/ ~ this seems like overkill for which I apologise.

the lump hammer is asleep, the overalls washed and hung up...

2010-11-04T15:27:00.000Z

http://geargurublog.com/2009/04/17/finally-a-tool-belt-for-women/

Well, what can I say?

June 2009 I had a one year, a two year and a three year plan.

By December 2009 the one year plan was complete. Currently the two year plan is about half done, and that is where it's going to remain stuck for a while, until September 2012 in reality, apart from a great deal of the fiddly little jobs and finishing touches.

This is because I have grander aspirations for the cottage than originally planned and don't want to be compromised by lack of funds to see them realised. I'm talking here about a loft conversion, new roof, new staircase, new kitchen. I'm done with doing heavy work. I finished demolishing the pitiful excuse for a bathroom a few weeks ago and no longer feel like I'm showering or doing the other sorts of things, in a broom cupboard, albeit it kind of al fresco!

Unfortunately a physical condition means I've had to pack that sort of thing in, but it's for the best, just means waiting a while for the finished result. Means also that I can devote myself to other things, like reading and working in the stained glass studio I thankfully organised back in the spring and summer.

I look back and see that the loft and fire end walls and other major and important structural jobs, plus guttering have been completed, and I am comfortable, warm, secure and fairly cosy. I have many small outstanding jobs to complete.

So, this blog is going into semi-retirement, temporary hibernation even. I could show you pictures of wired in sockets and plugs but how enthralling might that be? But I will return in the spring to show you how the garden's coming on, what will be it's third spring and summer since I came here. I'm excited already.

So adieu for a while! I blog elsewhere and here if you want to stay connected.

the bathroom, continued...

2010-10-04T14:56:00.002+01:00

Once there was a hole here...

I had a lot of fun in a cathartic sense sorting out the bathroom. 'Things' were held up a little due to a wisdom tooth that mercilessly was extracted on my birthday for goodness sakes!

I know my plastering leaves a great deal to be desired, however, when I patch a hole in a ceiling or wall that particular hole is not going to reappear. I approach it as I would a painting task - stripping, priming, undercoating, base coat and top coating - only thing is I may have to find someone to complete the process. I expect though that like all the other finishing jobs I have asked skilled craftspeople to finish for me no one ever turns up. They only seem to respond if they have also done the 'starting off'. Must be as I suspected, it is the 'starting off' and the demolition side of things that they also enjoy the most and perhaps costs more?

In the previous post there are diagrams of how it was before, and the after plan which has now been realised.

I had a quote over one year ago for a new bathroom, including a new corner bath which I since decided against in favour of a traditional one keeping the existing shower overhead. Nevertheless the quote of three and a half thousand would have been about right even though. By doing the prepping (oh glorious wielding of a lump hammer and the like) I reckon I have saved a couple of thousand, especially when I move the electrical wiring and a few more of the tasks myself.

Formerly there was a defunct airing cupboard right of the sink

The door from the bathroom into the spare bedroom has been moved half a metre

Under the combination boiler I shall make some shelves - the new door from the bathroom onto the landing was the door that was at the bottom of the stairs

As I have removed four small walls in total, there's a lot of timber that can be reused which is currently in my greenhouse awaiting reconstruction as frames for raised beds, in particular strawberry plants. The yield th is year was low. They were mainly new plants of various varieties and the slugs did their damage long before I fathomed out how to defeat them with cat litter. The plants seem hardy so I will have some outdoors fun constucting down the garden, probably over the next few weeks. The garden has been neglected for over a month now. I know this for sure as one of the courgettes turned into a very large marrow whilst my back was turned.

Anyone know what this is?

I'll give you a clue - a wonderful and dear friend of mine came to stay last week and skillfully and wondrously managed to produce this with odd ingredients in my kitchen cupboards. I noted she only ate the tiniest of smidgens of it before departing on an airplane the following day.

after the demolition...

2010-09-03T17:53:00.005+01:00

I have just returned from the Household Waste & Re-cycling Centre in Williton having been told to go there with the fruits of my demolition because the centre at Minehead does not take plaster board. This is because it has gypsum in it, which if disposed of with biodegradable waste such as garden waste and becomes wet it gives off something toxic similar to the emissions from asbestos. It is therefore treated like asbestos and buried in a solid pit. However, this isn't always the case as if it is treated correctly the gypsum can be extracted, in crystal mineral form and re-used. I had you see a lovely chat with a bloke there who I found I have quite a lot in common, as he is doing up a property not far from me. So far he has gutted his and was incredulous that I'm living in mine. Ah, the wisdom of doing one room at a time.

Here's the bathroom floor plan before I set to with my lump hammer

The two walls that formed the airing cupboard have gone, and the back of it comprised two cupboard doors from the spare bedroom, and they have gone now too. The walls along the basin and toilet with a door centre into the bathroom from the landing passage have been demolished, and the door from that passage into the spare bedroom is in the process of being moved down to be flush with the wall adjoining the spare bedroom and the bathroom.

Here's the floor plan now

The door frame I removed has been taken complete downstairs and will be used to fit a door between my sitting room and a hallway down to the kitchen. The new door into the bathroom from the upstairs landing is the door that used to be at the bottom of the staircase, which incidentally I part demolished this time last year. I have decided that I will be having a new staircase, probably in two years time when I acquire my 'windfall' when I also plan to have the loft converted into another large bedroom. I am rather impoverished until then but I'm good with lentils.

This will make the stairs more compact, less steep and also lengthen the upstairs landing which may then have book shelf panelling and stairs into the loft room. I feel very satisfied although the bathroom is currently a mess and I inadvertently acquired some extra ventilation!

I have already purchased a substantial amount of Polyfilla and cement from Travis Perkins (trade supplier) and will return soon for new plasterboard. I had an interesting conversation with the man who served me. I asked if they would cut the plasterboard into the shapes and sizes I will need and he said no, but that it is very easy to do with a Stanley knife. I said that if I made a mistake then I had the gear to stick it back together again. "Are you doing all this yourself?" says he, and when I told him yes (very confidently as I didn't want any messing) he said "Electrics too?" I replied "To a point" and as he was grimacing and looking at the male customer behind me I told him that I can't do plumbing though so would he like to plumb my bath in for me. We all laughed heartily.

I'm thinking of finding a skill swap organisation and offering my skills in stained glass restoration and repairs in exchange for a bath plumber in-er-er.

A neighbour has loaned me a wood plane for the doors I will be fitting. I still marvel at some coincidences or may be instances of synchronicity surrounding my purchase of and work on this cottage. For about thirty to forty years from the 1950s this cottage was owned by a local builder, who when he was elderly and left for residential care gave some of his tools to a neighbour. It is some of those tools that I have been borrowing to demolish some of his handiwork. This man it shows in the deeds didn't acquire a mortgage from a bank in the fifties to purchase this cottage, instead he had a loan from a local solicitor and his sister and sister-in-law. It was these people who I am a descendant of, and I had no idea before I saw the deeds after my purchase completed.

Here are some pics of the bathroom in its in-between state.

what wisdom this was...

2010-08-18T12:31:00.001+01:00

Having a little time on my hands on Monday and Tuesday and a restless mood, of the cagey and twitchy 'monkey mind' variety (don't you just love spider monkeys with their extra long limbs) what did I decide to do?

Demolish two small, non weight bearing walls in the bathroom. Two more slightly larger non weight bearing walls with a small door into the bathroom will follow when I've prepared and hung a door on the landing into the enlarged bathroom, where I think originally there was a door because the frame remains - an open plan arrangement clearly wouldn't suit, even though I live on my own I don't want to have to come up the stairs and see myself midst ablutions.

I intend to have a bath installed p.d.q. with the existing shower retained over it. It is an old shower but more than comparable to modern showers in my experience. It has a look of solidity and substance to it, I may show it to you one day, but for now you'll have to make do with what currently remains of the phony folly airing cupboard. I have to build my strength up to complete the job.

All these walls were put up circa 1970s by a former occupier who was also a builder. Therefore these alterations are all the more difficult because he wasn't a diy enthusiast of the codger and bodger type. No, these walls could easily have been weight bearing. I think he removed an old cast iron bath too. Shame.

Perhaps explains why the people I bought the cottage off didn't tackle these essential alterations (demolition). I mean, why keep an airing cupboard minus the immersion heater when central heating and a boiler were installed elsewhere.

When I first looked round the cottage I asked the vendor why to which she relplied 'Oher, I do like an airing cupboard'. Minus the airing propensity apparently.

I've cracked up, you can tell, and not only the horrid old plaster board either.

getting back into the overalls...

2010-07-28T21:09:00.001+01:00

Yep, it's caught up with me, gross neglect of the cottage and all the things I'd planned to achieve before now. I've enjoyed having visitors and meeting and spending time with new friends, organising and making a decent start on the garden, more time walking round Exmoor, horse riding again, and today I launched an Etsy shop for my stained glass crafting.

My daughters arrive soon for a holiday but then (this is definite, and you can nag me about this if I continue to put it off) I will start on the horrid, really terrible bathroom sans bath.

polite request

2010-07-18T16:04:00.000+01:00

There is a Chinese reader of this blog who keeps leaving comments that I am unable to approve for two reasons.

1. He or she writes in Mandarin which I am unable to understand; when I use a translation service the message appears to be cryptically critical in a rather sardonic style, but I may be wrong because of the translation services interpretation.

2. The commenter does not have a blog identity other than several squares, and there are no entries on the blog - it is not always the same blog that comes up either.

So, this is a polite request, if you would like to make yourself known and your blog id. more explicit, and if you can find a way to send me your comments in a format I can understand and preferably in English (French or Spanish would just about do too) then I would be delighted to read them and hopefully post them.

I offer a courteous albeit cautious thanks for your interest in my blog.

2010-07-13T18:56:00.002+01:00

Remember this?

I got round to fitting and wiring the antique light at last, the one that featured in a blog post January 19

Not much else accomplished lately as I've had visitors, so the cottage has been cleaned and spruced up as best as I was able but little work done.

I have however, made some strides about becoming more self sufficient - I reckon I wont need to buy any vegetables for a few weeks.

This was yesterdays pickings, still plenty more doing nicely. I can feel some more caramelised onion chutney coming on.

Currently I only have four small (about the size of a single bed) veg plots and a few fruit bushes, but I'm feeling positive about it, having only grown veg as part of a community organic project before and some grow bag experiments. I wish my beloved maternal granddad Cyril (who I called jumper for some reason) was alive to see this, he of bounteous allotment successes and giant jars of pickled onion fame.

A neighbour has told me to help myself to her apples, pears and plums as they ripen, and although I have nothing to show you from my fruit bushes, I have plenty of raspberry and strawberries to snack on when I'm down in my garden. Peppers and cucumbers are coming along well and the butternut squash are about to come in to flower. Broccoli and cabbage are coming along too, and I shall do some more sowing and planting out this week. Today has been showery thank goodness as I was in danger of losing my lawn. It is the first time in a while I haven't had to water my garden, but I did give everything a good dose of liquid organic manure today. I have to use the liquid form otherwise Patty would be a gloriously stinky dog.

Please write in with your organic tips for getting rid of, or at least cutting down on black fly - my runner beans are in danger of keeling over; so far I've launched an attack with diluted washing up liquid in a spray bottle. My experiment with cat littler and slugs I am delighted to confirm is very successful!

come on slugs, come on!

2010-06-27T21:18:00.004+01:00

Over on www.mygenericmedium.blogspot.com in a recent post I was mentioning slugs, amongst other things.

Yesterday at a garden centre I found an organic slug deterrent, in a most impressive box, impressive price too, and shall I say - impressive claims or my money back. I gave in, wood ash, salt, beer, ground coffee beans, crushed egg shells and other organic types of deterrent (slug exterminator) having not produced the dramatic results needed to save my developing garden.

As I followed the instructions on the box in a bid to preserve some newly planted aubergine plants and a few other seedlings I thought how the granules resembled fullers earth. I am familiar with fullers earth - it is used as one type of cat litter, usually the cheapest and the one described as 'clumping'. I favour clumping cat litter.

Fullers earth has medicinal and cosmetic uses as well as many others, as by products, filters, and of course the above mentioned use for cat ablutions.

cribbed pic

A large bag of fullers earth cat litter is cheap, may be as low as two pounds sterling for a couple of kilograms. Other thoughts were accumulating as I emptied the box of very expensive slug deterrent; (nowhere on the box did it include the nature of the contents by the way) like how if I used a very large, cheap bag of fullers earth cat litter instead of very expensively marketed and packaged slug deterrent at least if my cats and any others were minded again to use my vegetable plots as large litter trays they may feel inclined to poop in the cat litter around its periphery, and bingo! they could well poop on any fearless slugs whilst they're at it.

I think in the slug department I may be sorted. Views very welcome.

bonfires, shovelling & getting hot

2010-06-23T18:07:00.000+01:00

I wish I could tell you that I've at last wired in the new light switches throughout and all the other myriad jobs that are outstanding, but I haven't done them, I've been in the garden, working very hard after finishing the linhay - pictures of the finished studio are on the other blog I started about my craftwork, but here's one for you here.

My garden is gradually beginning to take some shape, but there is much to still clear. I've made countless trips to the recycling and refuse yard. Previous occupants must have built the high bank running along one edge of my garden from all their discarded and broken items. I found an exercise bike, sheet of corrugated metal, a tyre and a petrol container last week, but think that's the last of it. I've had three bonfires this week for stuff that couln't be taken to the tip because my car's too small, or wouldn't fit in the green wheelie bin or the large paper sacks the council provides (at an exorbitant cost). I'm glad I wont have to have anymore fires but the garden incinerator will probably still be in use for stuff like bindweed that can't be composted.

When the weather's cooled a bit I shall dig a fourth vegetable bed; blackcurrant, blackberry, raspberry, and strawberry bushes are all doing well, and there are two tiny peaches on the peach tree thinking about growing. Particulalrly well are swede, peas, French beans, onion, courgette, butternut squash and spinach. I'm having to learn what does well in this garden, and where.

The slugs have destroyed pepper plants and nearly finished off radish but I think I've saved them. Periwinkle and French marigold have been completely demolished and my sole remaining aubergine plant too. I'm waging war now with woodash, netting, chicken wire and a round the clock armed guard.

hello from the linhay studio...

2010-06-03T14:22:00.001+01:00

Before I let you see my studio now, after a few weeks of really grubby hard work, here's some photographs from this time last year of the cattle stall/stable that I ~~knew~~ hoped would become a workroom/studio one day.

Removing years of ivy growth from the roof was quite an adventure. Unfixing the wooden battens intended by the previous owner to make an upper floor and relaying them in a different way then making a floor over them for storage space has been very satisfying. I like using a power drill!

Cleaning the wooden walls, bricks etc has been good aversion therapy - I never minded dirt, have always, from a young child loved the smell of earth, but the miniscule livestock took some confronting. But I won!

Next time I post here you will not recognise the place - just a little more painting and power drilling, some adjustments and I reckon by this time next week I will be ready to show you round; and you may see some creative work starting up...

I was talking earlier to an elderly neighbour who was born in one of the cottages next to me, and she told me about the cattle stalls, and how they are referred to round here as 'linhays'. That's that then - mine is now called 'The Linhay Studio'. I better get a move on because works in the cottage cannot continue until I design, create, produce and make some money!

If anyone can tell me more about 'linhays' please elaborate.

from an old, part stone walled garden...

2010-05-23T15:16:00.013+01:00

Nothing to show for the last few weeks from the inside of the cottage, but I'm hoping there will be soon as work has been commissioned - I know when I need help!

Instead I have been working flat out in the garden and with terracotta pots, blue ceramic pots, hanging baskets and an odd assortment of things dug up in said garden. Previous occupants used to bury their rubbish... I'm talking non biodegradable rubbish, like implements, tin cans, old mops; consequently one side of the area is about 3 metres wider. Heavy work and not something I can do in hot weather.

This photo is of some of the cleared ground, with the table and chairs I bought for very little from a garage sale, which I shall get round to cleaning and re-painting. When I've rebuilt the collapsed stone wall I intend to cement a base for a summer house and storage shed here, but probably not until next year.

Here's some more photographs, just snippets for now until after a few more weeks growth and I hope there'll be more to show for my efforts.

Firstly, remember there used to be a sheep?

Similar viewpoint now - just right of the wooden fence I put up a gate and an arch. The large shrub behind the sheep is now in blossom, beautiful flora bunda pink blooms - anyone tell me what it is?

There are honeysuckle and clematis that will hopefully cover the arch soon, and just right of the arch I've planted some alpines

Just right to this area was a raised flower bed with about twenty flag stones - they went via 'Freecycle' some time ago and now it's where I've planted raspberry canes, strawberries, blackcurrant and also cultivated blackberry; there's also a peach tree due to produce fruit for the first time, and rhubarb that will not be harvested as this is its first year. In the autumn I'll plant some fruit trees here also, the drainage will be good; I barrowed some of the surplus topsoil up to the flower bed near the courtyard and my backdoor.

Until recently I thought whortleberries was another name for blackberries, but I now know different, and I even know where some secret supplies will be growing! Not in my garden yet though.

Currently I have three vegetable plots and also many edible things in amongst other plants, following Alys Fowler's 'The Edible Garden' idea. That's what I aspire to - just don't expect anything near that wonderful! So far peas, beans, courgette, spinach, swede and onions are doing well. I've failed with peppers in the greenhouse, but I'm trying again.

Outside my kitchen window and back door I've many terracotta pots and also a newly planted herb garden, and also a Yucca which I've noticed seem to do well outside in these parts. To the right of this photograph is a lawned area, formerly cobbled, with a row of outhouses where I've hung some hanging baskets - it's a communal area and everyone else is similarly keen on gardening, and dogs, and cats.

Also down in my own garden, which is a short walk from my cottage I have a wild flower patch permanently planted up from a selection I brought with me from Warwickshire. They are close to some ferns and an old felled tree that I have plans for.

Everytime I go out I see more that needs doing, but compiling this post and taking the pictures to put here has given me a clearer idea of what it will look like in time to come. It's good to step back, take stock and appraise. Two bloggers and new friends have contributed seeds, cuttings, knowledge and inspiration - THANK YOU - and to all that stop a while here and give support.

the orrid horrible bathroom and I'm hoping for a bath by summer...

2010-04-09T20:47:00.004+01:00

It has been some time since I posted here, and whilst I know (and hope) no one waits with baited breath, I want to assure you that I have been busy.

There's a saying 'Clothes are good for going out and visitors are good for the house...' and over the last couple of weeks I am delighted to say I've been having guests. I have been selling off on Ebay a lot of clothes because I wade through mud and shin up ladders more than going out 'out' these days. Proves a point, and I've used some of the money earned that way for a) a garden incinerator b) a ladder towel rail and c) a trellis thing for the garden, which I think I may be able to start working in soon as the sheep is due for dispatch I am told as soon as a horse box can be got.

Starting on a positive note, and the most expensive, here's a fairtrade wall hanging for the living room I couldn't resist. Goes very well with the tapestry curtains and Persian rug.

This shelf, the first I put up in a spate of shelf putting upping, is above the tv. The clock was found for next to nothing and made from a sort of compressed card that fooled me into thinking it was wood. I've painted it the same natural calico as the walls and shelf and found an unusual glass flower holder the perfect width. Uniquely a liZZie creation I think.

Also in the living room, I decided to hang my rosewood shelves under the stairs so there was a gap here. I went to a charity recycled furniture store at our Village Hall looking for a replacement. I didn't find one there but came away with some pretty grand pine shelves for the spare room instead for very little. Then I headed for a local antique and vintage yard and found these being used for display. Perfect, and inexpensive.

You can see one of my favourite boxes in this pic, which I use for table linen in case anyone comes for dinner.

Here's another of my favourite boxes, this one is used for teas, mainly nettle, berry, fennel, camomile and green.

Carrying on with the shelf fixing activities, this one is above the re-discovered fireplace in the main bedroom. I started off with one exactly the right width for the fire surround but because of how it's construcled it would have meant trying to attach the supports to the surround, and having restored it that would have been a mistake, so I've used a wider one and will get round to staining it to match.

The art work is by my daughters.

I had the most awful time attempting to put this Venetian blind up. The cursing and stomping around fortunately could not be overheard or witnessed. For some strange reason neither of the lights in the fish tank have worked since. Very strange...

I had to cut it down, and then there was the drilling into either thin air or solid stone, so out came the power drill, rawplugs and various types of adhesives that promise the earth, with no nails too. Huh! If you look closely the slogan on the mug reads Yummy Mummy. Good with a power drill too.

The finished effect is marred by an extractor fan in the window and the window handle, but it's up. I suspect I was having a day heavily influenced by having seen Norman Wisdom attempting to put up deckchairs, or something similar.

A next job will be to strip and restore, then paint I think, the stairs. This is currently what they look like from underneath, which was a coal house next to what was the back door back in the days when my cottage was a 'two up one down'. It has grown piecemeal and dovetails with those either side. I am planning on building out at the back, one day.

And now to reveal what I have been keeping under wraps for sometime... the orrid orrid bathroom. It doesn't feel too bad showing it now I've decided what's going to be done with it. This is the only source of natural light other than from what seeps in from the spare room. I am planning on there being a Velux with an extractor fan here one day, but I'm not going to rush because I am also planning on a loft conversion and need to plan more carefully.

Inspiration came from a silk robe I bought over twenty years ago regarding a theme and colour scheme. I hung it on a hook on one of the walls that will be coming down just to make it look less 'orrid.

Then I thought some blue and white bits and pieces might go well in here, and an orchid sort of prettied it up too.

As I was unpacking I came across things that didn't really 'go' anymore anywhere else, like these candle sticks that are a contemporary style, but I think they look good in the robe and throne room!

Even my stylised painting of African Violets fits in.

During the shelf fixing phase even the bathless bathroom came in for one, although this may not be a permanent fixture. The walls still in blue are the ones that will be coming down, just as soon as I feel brave enough to start weilding a lump hammer.

The two windows above are fixed glazing with the spare bedroom. My plan is that the bathroom will have its existing door into the spare bedroom with a bolt on it, the partition wall onto the landing will go, and another door will go onto the landing. So, it will have two doors, and to get to the spare room will mean going through the bathroom. It's the only way to get the footage for having a bath in. I will see if I can keep the existing shower as it's quite a good one. I will be making stained glass panels to go into the existing glazed windows. A whole corner is taken up by what was an airing cupboard, long since defunk.

The little wooden heart hanging is by Karen over on moonlight and hares - she makes the most lovely things and her blog is one of my favourites.

From some of the proceeds of selling clothes I no longer need on eBay I bought this (space saving) towel ladder. It came today from a lovely eBay shop the home and gift company

The picture on the wall is a print of a painting by Jessie Lilac whose blog I follow, another gifted person and blogger.

Finally, another bargain, acquired this week from a local junk shop. It is out of focus because I didn't have time to do the necessary when Patty inspected it. It will go in the bathroom, probably where the shelf currently is and when the walls either side have gone. I shall have to paint it I think because the handles were moved to the middle and where they'd been old pennies stuck. I don't usually justify painting wood but I think keeping the bathroom furniture white will work best and also cover up the damage done to it. It was a few quid, a real bargain.

PS to previous post... LARRY HAS GONE!

I was woken very early to be asked to move my car so the horsebox could be aligned with the big gates into the courtyard. Naturally I obliged and headed off to the garden centre pgq.

Larry you may recall was rescued by a neighbour and her daughter as it was thought he was about eight months old.

bargains, nice things, consolidating and thinking...

2010-02-19T15:59:00.000Z

The emulsioning of the living room is complete now, although when the sun's streaming through the windows when they've been cleaned I'm inclined to think another coat on the ceiling wouldn't go amiss.

I've been 'consolidating' - in other words, doing a lot of thinking and reflecting, too much rubbish tv, and other things, like caramelised red onion chutney making, lamp shade selecting and getting my breath for the next phases. That 'orrid, 'orrid bathroom still beckons, but I must brave the skirting boards and rewiring of sockets and switches first. Not jobs that can be done easily when the days are so overcast and gloomy.

The recipe included seseme seeds - well, I'd used all mine up the previous week in a batch of home made humous, so as I had a large bag of pine nuts which someone had kindly given me when they were going cheap in Julian Graves, I used some of them instead. Not such a good idea!

In the last post I mentioned the lovely shop in Dunster I'd ventured into, and as well as the lovely ceiling light and small lampshade with dangly, light catching bits I acquired there I also fell for a triptych. It features The Yarn (wool market), dovecote and castle for whch Dunster is very well known and loved. Although triptychs are generally of three hinged panels, I think this type of picture, where there is one view right, left and centre is also so called, but please tell me if you know otherwise.

centre view

THE WOOL MARKET 'THE YARN' DUNSTER

left view

DUNSTER CASTLE

right view

THE DOVECOTE, DUNSTER

I was still missing one more lampshade, for a standard light, that went with the overall colour scheme, until I went into a charity shop and there it was, for £3.

I've done quite well phasing in lesser dependency on supermarkets and more so on excellent local produce and also what I grow myself. I have a fair crop of onions coming to fruition and more veg waiting to be planted out in a week or so; the area where I want to grow different fruit is also gradually getting cleared. I've also managed better with my hydroponic garden and learned how to prune more efficiently to get larger crops of cherry tomatoes.

I am still looking for a massive fire fender for the living room. As the width I need is 80" I doubt I shall ever find one; the dimensions are so large because it never was for a fire, but for a range; when the cottage was originally built it would have been a one up, one down building. The second bedroom, bathroom, inner hall and kitchen came much later, piecemeal. The growth of this cottage is ongoing as I may be getting a tiny step nearer acquiring some of the barn so that I could extend my kitchen and bathroom. Early days for this and I have so much to be getting on with still, but I dream. I wonder, might a third bedroom be got this way rather than by a loft extension...

I think the answer to the fire fender issue will be to get a simple solution made by one of the local blacksmiths, and I shall wait for the weather to improve before venturing forth with my scribbles and ideas. Meanwhile... whilst hunting for a massive fender I came to be familiar with the fire fender market, including what's available on eBay and the like, prices, types etc. I love researching and learning, part of the fun. I reckoned that whilst I searched for the masive fender I just might come across a small one that would suit the upstairs fireplace. They seemed to be going for three figures usually, the types I was interested in. On the same day I found the charity shop lampshade I also found a fender, the perfect size for my bedroom for £22 in a local antique and collectibles shop. Don't you just love it when things happen this way. I'm enjoying the way this cottage and its decor and style is developing.

I would like to one day make a 'rag rug' to go in front of this fire. I also want to try a patchwork quilt as I have lots of fabric that tell stories, but a rag rug would perhaps achieve the same, and it would have been traditional for this type of craft to be done. If anyone has instructions and recollections about how these would have been made I would love to hear from you.

light & shadow

2010-01-19T11:25:00.003Z

pics taken from the 'Moonlight' website

Much has been accomplished - may be there isn't much to show but believe me, much has been accomplished...

A few months ago a friend took me to two reclamation yards where I spied the perfect Victorian parlour light fitting, authentic bowl and chains, everything. The cost was prohibitive. Even a second one that was not so great was too expensive although I struggled to try and justify buying one. How I managed to walk away I am unsure.

I chugged away from the biggest yard with just a mere air vent which is now by the kitchen sink as a stand for bits and pieces. I think that the yards I went to, near Glastonbury must cater for wealthy landowner types and well off escapees from London and the like and not the likes of me, who aims to live a simple and unpretentious life style. I escaped from a village on the outskirts of Solihull a few years ago bear in mind...

Well now, imagine this - not far from me is Dunster, a wonderful village, bit posh mind, and as I went to the shop that sells produce from the local water mill (the only place I will buy my meusli) I passed a shop, a reclamed lighting shop, authentic Victorian and Edwardian lighting, and lamps and lights from all over Europe. I had to look inside didn't I? I'd never be able to buy anything from such a posh shop thinks I.

Well, I acquired for a third of what the reclamation yard was charging an even better parlour light fitting and had reproduced old fashioned flex in with the bundle, chains and ceiling rose and lots of advice too; and a lamp shade, and also a picture that was on display which I will show you another time as it's rather special.

Here are details of the Moonlight 'Antigue & Original Period Lighting & Lighting Renovation Service' should you be interested. They are very helpful and lovely people to do business with.

Here's where I will be hanging mine -

I have almost finished painting the living room, so it will soon be time to attach skirting board and complete the electrical wiring of new switches and sockets. I opted for a colour described as 'Natural Calico' for the walls (although I have no idea what un-natural calico might be, have you?) It has taken me so long because I've been up to many other things and my eldest daughter and I had a wonderful week together doing totally non-house things, and also I paint using brushes not rollers. I have never used rollers because there's something weird happens to my neck and shoulders if I do that immobilises me, and the finish one gets with brushes is better. I'm a slow person, as in 'slow food' which is all the rage I understand, so I wonder if that officially means I'm coming into fashion?

another favourite corner...

2009-12-21T11:37:00.000Z

There is much still to accomplish, and I suspect that there always will be, however, since moving in last July I've achieved in the first five months pretty much what I'd hoped to realise in the first twelve, so I'm gratified and content. I'm having a little rest although large tubs of emulsion piled in the corner of the living room beckon.

Above is one corner of my bedroom. It has the makings of another favourite corner and contains a few of the things I've acquired variously over the years, such as glass ink wells. I like things to develop organically if you like, by placing foundations for ideas and seeing if they grow pleasingly.

Looking around me I seem to have developed a preference for using white and creams more than before, with a lot of different wood grains and foilage, and also incorporating more of the arts and crafts styles that I've always favoured. Plenty of scope for recycling and reclamation too. Earthy and natural shades are more prominent than in previous homes and this has been enriched by the re-use of quarry tiles and some of the timber I removed during the earlier stages when I was removing and shifting some walls.

Come the spring I have a lot to do in the garden to further my aim of self sufficiency although I have been growing onions and greens, radish and kale outside, and sprouting beans inside, and in the hydroponic unit an endless supply of cherry tomatoes and lettuce. I made endless trips to the waste site with what I removed from the garden, including many iron items that previous occupiers had buried down there. No treasure yet though, but there is a sheep, and there's a little more about him on the other blog my generic medium I know we're visited by badger and fox down there too.

On the combes further up, for I'm on the very sea fringed edge of Exmoor, there's sight of deer and buzzards and many other creatures, furred and winged that make for a very different rural landscape to what I've been used to previously.

After the walls and ceilings downstairs have been painted now the plaster has dried I shall teach myself how to box in radiator pipes and fix skirting. The meter cupboard is still pending. I have yet to decide what to do with the staircase. I had planned on having a new one, and having it installed the other way round to give me a longer landing upstairs which would facilitate a staircase up to the loft which I'm planning on having converted into a beautiful bedroom... I think not for the time being, as the original staircase is beautifully made but needs work; the kind of work that I can do myself.

I'm being very strict and not allowing myself to start on the horrid horrid bathroom until I've completed the work downstairs. This self discipline even with the constant ordeal of having to use a horrid horrid bathroom is essential because I experienced some crazy diy projects involving the complete guttering of a former home by a former husband which to this day still hasn't been rectified!

I want to tell you blog followers that your encouragement and praise means a considerable amount. My daughters and a neighbour who has done some of the work for me and is now a good friend have given me considerable emotional support but without you lot I wouldn't feel so positive about this project. Thank you. And to others who have despaired, sighed, looked on critically, perhaps with horror - you don't know what you're missing! I've never enjoyed myself quite this much. It's horses for courses isn't it? life, but I would say to anyone that taking control, making changes, taking calculated risks and good old fashioned graft are very fulfilling and satisfying, and esteem building. There's something about the human body and psyche needing to nourish itself, work, then rest and savour achievements that is fulfilling and I hope as ecological issues take more and more priority that others will discover this too.

developments...

2009-11-19T14:01:00.003Z

A FAVOURITE CORNER

Much has changed since you were last here, since I was last here actually...

Yesterday I hung these curtains in the living room. I hadn't felt up to balancing on step ladders and brandishing my new power drill before. It doesn't help that I attempt this sort of thing in my slippers with a pair of filthy varifocals - perhaps you are familiar with varifocals? One has to move one's head up and down like one of those nodding dogs on the hat shelf of Allegros to make any sense of the world. Anyway, I like the curtains so much now they're on their fancy antique brass pole with knobs on that I've ordered a matching cushion cover.

HEARTH IS THE HOME

Once, a long time ago I wrote a short story about my maternal grandparents, mostly based on facts from my childhood recollections and some of my mum's whimsical reminicences. My maternal grandfather had been a guardsman on steam trains in north Nottinghamshire. He was profoundly colour blind so it makes you wonder a bit about how that was. Anyway, part of the eulogising was about how he'd stoke up the fire every night after his shift or when he came in late so that it would stay in over night and be warming for my mum when she was getting ready for school.

An open fire or a woodburner has always been very important to me; I prefer wood burning, it's less mucky and it's less damaging to the environment, the sight and smell of it too, although the smell of coal burning does bring back a deep longing for my maternal grandparents, living as they had right next to an open cast coal field and also above disused, exhausted seams.

Living now in a former farmworkers cottage takes me right back really to from whence I came I suppose - my mother having been born in a back-to-back in Shirebrook - thinking back to to the 1920's & 1930's and how people used to live, if she could see me now I think she'd be surprised. I'm just pondering away here - how this sort of cottage has become gentrified and all that.

You may notice that between the hearth and the rug there's some wood flooring. I am not at all happy that I couldn't have reclaimed oak floorboards - I might get them in the future. If I'd waited three months in order for battens to be put down on the new concrete floor and if I had considerably more financial resources then I could have had them. There was some urgency to having a living room, with a floor, and also this engineered oak flooring doesn't seem too bad, but I still don't like it much.

QUARRIES BEFORE GROUTING

These quarry tiles in the inner hall and steps down into the kitchen and study are mostly ones that I removed from the living room with the intention of re-laying them after the damp proofing. Next week I intend to give them another thorough clean with linseed oil (I understand boiled is best) and white spirit. Some of them are ones I matched from a nearby reclamation yard and were made by the same local manufacturer something like two centuries ago. They, like the ones in the hearth will also be polished, not with the old faithful 'Cardinal Red' as that's a little too vibrant for my taste, but something else that's still available that enhances their lovely natural earth tones and hues. The plants are there awaiting repotting, and they've been waiting a very long time sadly.

There is still a lot more to do to finish off the downstairs before I do major thingies upstairs! Re-wiring and replacing plugs, switches and sockets. I have already bought all I need but it's a big job to start on. Then there's the painting of the walls and ceiling - only another two or three weeks before the plaster should be completely dried out. There's also skirting board to be put down and also some beading round the hearth, and the meters are currenty lurking behind a very big and bushy artificial bay tree until I decide how to make a meter cupboard. NB: not if I can make a meter cupboard - I have decided I'm going to, so that's that. I am going to learn how to do proper joined up joinery because after all what else would one do with ones joinery but flaming well join it up somehow. I see there's a product in a tube called 'Hard as Nails'!

hearth, grate, fire, flames, woodburner, heat...

2009-10-28T11:13:00.020Z

I'm sorry I haven't kept you up to date. Such a great deal has occurred and I don't know where to begin, other than on Friday 23rd October my wood burner was installed and later on there was the inaugural lighting of it and a cosy night in with my dog, cats and a friend from Warwickshire who was passing through. It was good to have a human to share this with.

The down side of now having something like a proper living room is that housework has to be resumed!

Next time I'll 'show and tell' about the oak flooring and a little more of the story of some of the tiles, but in the meantime I'm busy thinking about what curtains may go with the paint I've yet to chose let alone apply and the blind I'm about to fix.

I was very fortunate to have one of my daughters with me for a few days and she managed to get my television working - this was quite funny and brought home to me how much I have aged, not merely chronologically, but in my ways, sort of as in advancing of years old lady type ways, and that coupled with the purple fleece hat I've taken to wearing on the beach has brought me up sharp.

How it was is that on Sunday afternoon I thought I would try and get the tv tuned in whilst I killed time until it was time to collect my daughter from Taunton railway station. I couldn't make anything happen although I knew to press menu and follow instructions. I'd already rewired the aerial plug because it was covered in plaster. I despaired and slunk off to the crypt like what was a walk way kitchen to make a cuppa when I heard voices. East end of London voices. Loud, confrontational conversations, in your face 'what you fink you're looking at?' type conversations. Quite upsetting really. Yep, my tv had tuned itself into the 'Eastenders' omnibus.

It didn't stop there although most of the programmes were in Welsh, but I was happy. A young adult offspring soon to descend would not have been happy had there not been a working tv. I have been catching up on programmes on the ipod players on my pc and laptop quite happily these last few months, augmented by the occasional dvd. My other daughter, L the elder, when she visited last month and I, before there was a living room remember, had had lovely nights in sitting up in bed watching films on the laptop, one night enjoying a Chinese take out too! We finally got to watch Slumdog Millionaire and also Beaches and The Rose.

But, L the younger had only been in the cottage five minutes when she'd pressed a few buttons and discovered the terrestrial channels I'd managed could be replaced by millions of digital ones... I have yet to understand how this can be without a free view box, a cable system, satellite dish or some sort of broadband wireless thingy. As far as I knew this area isn't due to become digital even until next year some time. Huh! The young of today eh?

Anyway, now you get a more rounded and honest picture of this woman who would otherwise have you believe she is an ace little cottage restorer and whizz demolition expert, fabulous restoration expert in the making and brilliant demolisher and rebuilder - she is merely a middle aged refugee from the corporate world she no longer understands who eats takeaways in bed and has joined the rest of the semi hopeless who get easily baffled by electronic equipment. I could go on for I feel a bit weary and tired from the last few months.

Definitely time to slump on the sofa in a warm, cosy living room now I've got one before the next phase begins - like the stairs and stairwell and landing, the 'orrible, really, really horrible bathroom, the spare room, and perhaps the most important from the point of view of paying for more works, the workroom/studio. I'll keep you posted when I've had a little rest. The kitchen, which is almost horrible too, is last on the list, which in truth means probably in three years time, or there abouts.

wood flooring being delivered tomorrow...

2009-10-07T13:49:00.026+01:00

NEW FLOOR, NEW WALLS, NEW DOGGIE...

Phew, what a ride! Perhaps you know from experience what it's like to have your ground floor dug up and a damp proof course laid, and a new concrete floor and all the rest, like walls floor to ceiling, and a new ceiling.

For me the negatives of the whole procedure were associated with feelings of being invaded and impotent, and two days of a most taciturn plasterer who insisted on working fourteen hour days with bbc radio 1 on full blast the whole time which almost did for me. I tried being nice to him, by fetching cola and chips.

The two builders who did all the digging and hard graft were more personable and did a grand job, although one of them was very grumpy on the last day due to his being a bouncer at a night club miles away. I don't know any more. Don't want to. They did a grand job and were a lot less expensive than the others who promised to sort it out for me with their "leave it to me love", and "dont worry darling" promises.

I have learned a considerable amount about this type of work. I have learned even more about how old I feel these days, best described as a sense of having passed from maid to matron overnight (sorry if you've heard that before, I just cant get used to it).

A new oak floor will be laid next week, ceiling painted and Quarry tiles for a hearth being done first. The wood burner is due to be installed 12th November. I shall paint the walls myself when I get round to it; I cant decide on colours yet, but the ceiling will be white.

I've found it almost impossible to get a central heating engineer to do the jobs necessary to get the system working again and radiators moved, so this means skirting can't be tackled as soon as the new floor has been laid. I did get a quote through the letterbox late on Sunday evening. There has been a succession of plumbers, electricians, gas engineers and others to view and price up, all saying that they could do the work and that they would provide quotes only never to materialise. I wonder what the weird law is that determines such craftsmen advertise, come round to have a look, give a price then apparently vapourise?

Apologies for moaning, in truth a lot has been achieved, I've worked very hard and am quite pleased with myself, and my neighbour Sheelagh who is a renovation expert with considerable skills has been invaluable.

Ooops, nearly forgot, one of the Tony's has done the guttering! I wasn't here when he did it and I haven't seen him since. I had mentioned to a contact of his that really, since finding out that he'd had quadruple heart surgery not so long ago I preferred it that he didn't do the guttering afterall, and definitely not with another neighbour, an octogenarium one, footing the ladder. Thank goodness I wasn't around when all this was going on eh?

I bet this gaggle of rather difficult to handle chaps were mighty relieved I wasn't around much either...

Here's photographs of the end stages of the concrete and plaster drying out.

what it's like to have your living room tanked...

2009-09-29T11:33:00.024+01:00

For some time I was unable to use the computer for various reasons, not least because the speedier broadband I struggled to achieve disappeared because of wires coming dislodged. I think that's permanently resolved now.

Tanking of the living room started Tuesday 22 September, a day later than scheduled because of administrative details, according to Kev & Mark...

No worries, once they got stuck in working five - six hours a day the remaining plaster and lathes soon ended up in rubble bags. I'd worked hard as you know to get the spaces for tanking cleared, including the inner hallway by the back door leading to the kitchen, but the Quarry tiles I'd mentioned before would not come away sufficiently easily for them to be relaid eventually in the living room as planned.

I'd spent several hours the previous Saturday at a reclamation yard sorting identical tiles to make up numbers; more would have been required because there was more floor as I'd removed the staircase casing. I see now that perhaps wide oak flooring planks will be good and all the Quarries, including the reclaimed ones will be a good option in the hallway and the kitchen when I eventually have that room tanked and refurbished.

I learned from the man who runs my local reclamation yard that Quarry tiles were mass produced in the 18th and 19th century at nearby Bridgwater and Wellington, and that there were about 75 and 35 factories at each respectively doing this because I suppose the clay and water supplies and labour were all in situ; so, whilst the industrialisation of this country was underway and masses or rather rows of terraced cottages were being built for the workforce needing homes in towns and cities as people spilled off the land, roof and floor tiles were produced by the million, in the South West. The Quarry tiles from my cottage were produced by a firm called 'Platts' and they have a distinctive marking on the underside, rather like I suppose a hallmark on other substances and products. Interesting stuff and I may explore it all further.

There are some photos to follow showing some of the process. Today the plasterer is awaited who will be here for a few days. All my living room and dining furniture is in the barn, wood store or in what will one day be my workroom, or if I'm trying to convince anyone that I am an ace stained glass artist and silversmith - 'the studio'!

THIS IS HOW THE WALLS AND FLOOR WERE WHEN THE TANKERS ARRIVED - IT WAS IMPOSSIBLE TO LIFT MOST OF THE TILES INTACT UNFORTUNATELY

THIS IS HOW THE WALLS AND FLOOR LOOKED AFTER FOUR DAYS - THE WALLS TO A LEVEL OF 1.2 METERS HAVE BEEN TREATED AND COATED AND THERE'S A CONCRETE FLOOR NOW WHICH WAS LAID ON TOP OF A MEMBRANE. THE WALLS ARE COATED TO THAT MEASUREMENT AS THAT IS THE LEVEL TO WHICH DAMP WILL RISE BEFORE THE WEIGHT/PRESSURE FORCES IT DOWN AGAIN.

DRUM ROLL PLEASE!

THIS IS PATTY POSING JUST FOR YOU, HER FIRST APPEARANCE. THERE'S MORE ABOUT HER ON MY OTHER BLOG

over the cobbles, across the stones and onto a path, through two

2009-09-13T19:11:00.021+01:00

gates, turn left and there you'll find me some dry days!

VIEW FROM GARDENS SOUTH WEST OVER MY ROOF TOWARDS THE COMBE

This last week Sheila was busy in the loft cementing and bricking fire end walls, and we both spent considerable time bat watching too. We are very aware of bat conservationism and there's plenty of places for them to get in and out. My loft space is still far from enclosed and will remain so for a year or so until I probably have the loft converted into a room. A Velux window, possibly two, will hopefully be fitted during the next month up there and one of them will become the new bathroom window. Would you believe, currently the existing bathroom has neither a window or ventilation. Dismal! No bath either but I promise, I do use the rickety, rusty shower!

I've used the opportunity to start some serious land clearance and proper gardening. The living room I am very pleased to announce from 21st September will become a proper living room, with a proper floor, proper membrane and insulation, damp proofed walls, brand new plaster floor to ceiling and also some serious tarting up of the ceiling! That is unless Kevin & Mark get cold feet... This is scheduled to take about two weeks.

There's been a bit of a saga over the broadband and telephone cables and extensions. Currently I have for a limited period only a brilliantly fast broadband - shame neither phone extensions work isn't it? This will be ongoing, I can tell... I have found out how to use the telecom engineers best friend, a test socket.

Here are some photos I took this afternoon in the garden, where I will be doing, I mean spending time whilst the ground floor of my cottage is rebuilt. The green house is I can tell going to be my refuge and a super bench is on order and due any time from Wales. As the crow flies Wales, Cardiff in fact, isn't very far away over the Bristol Channel. I might go and peer off a cliff from Bridgwater Bay or thereabouts to wave at the lorry drivers!

By the way - have you looked at the roll call list recently? It's growing, however, there is one Tony who requires removing - because he had no right to say he would undertake a job having concealed from me that he'd had quadruple by-pass heart surgery and should not be going up ladders, also, there are two names that will in time be indicated as complete and utter whatsits (tossers!). I am doing fine, it's all part of the process finding out that some people say they will do a piece of work and either don't, can't or do and it's terrible.

Here's the pics...

YOU MAY BE FORGIVEN FOR NOT BEING ABLE TO SEE THE SEA IN THIS PHOTO, BUT I KNOW IT IS THERE, JUST

progress and processes...

2009-09-02T17:49:00.017+01:00

Here are some before and after pics. I can't take credit for the progress much, but I'm thinking I'm getting fairly good at managing processes!

MAIN BEDROOM AT END OF JULY

MAIN BEDROOM END OF AUGUST

The recreation of the living room is coming together in the planning stage, and should be embarked upon by the end of the month. I took my time in the end making decisions due to the variance in opinion, quotes, bolshy, latent or otherwise misogyny of prospective workers and my own natural caution. I am very glad I did and didn't get embroiled in a panic about attempting to get it done before I moved in.

There's plenty of clean and dry storage room in the various empty cattle stalls and stables and barn for the living room furniture. The wood burner is now scheduled to be plumbed in (chimney lined etc) mid November after the new floor and walls will have been in-situ a while and dried out sufficiently for that stage.

I think I shall wait until the Spring to get the replacement, hard wood framed windows and door installed. I might have to sell something (or a few somethings) in order for this because I grossly under-estimated how much this would cost. It's so expensive because I am insistent on their being hardwood framed and because all the apertures are irregular they will have to be custom made. So be it. I have decided not to have one or two other things done to help towards this, the moving of the gas supply and gas meter being a couple of them. Who would have thought this was quoted for at 1k.

I'm pleased because some of what was in my minds eye for months has really only taken a few days or weeks to accomplish, and for this I must credit my neighbour and new friend Sheila. I am happy to be near to another pragmatic, independent 'doing' kind of a woman, because it's not nearly so frightening as it otherwise might be.

THE FIREPLACE AS I FIRST SAW IT, APRIL 2009

RESTORATION BEGAN JULY, AND BY AUGUST IT LOOKED LIKE THIS PRIOR TO BEING RE-POINTED

THIS IS THE FIREPLACE 1st SEPTEMBER - THE RED CANDLE IS 4" HIGH TO GIVE YOU SOME IDEA OF THE DIMENSIONS

still here! look what i've done...

2009-08-19T16:33:00.015+01:00

I'm into a slightly manic, hectic mode as 'the move' happens Monday although I've been here for weeks except weekends mostly. I don't do hissie fits, probably because there's no one to watch. I can certainly tell where a hissie fit would fit in though.

Here's some photos to show you how much the living room has changed again -;

THE FIREPLACE IS BEGINNING TO CHANGE BACK INTO HOW IT WAS ORIGINALLY. SPOT A POSIE DOG ON THE QUARRY TILES

THERE IS STILL A STAIRCASE, HONEST!

I'd planned and hoped, and worked really hard to get the tanking done before all the rest of the furniture and my stuff arrived. I haven't been able to get the tanking done, or the new floor in the living room as the estimates and quotes I've been getting don't exactly clarify the situation or fill me with confidence, so far.

I think the solution may arrive in the form of 'Des' a week on Friday!

One or two people have asked me what tanking is. I can explain but bear with me, I know what I think tanking is but here again there are myriad versions I have discovered - according to Julian, Andrew, a Tony (or three), Charles and my new best friend, neighbour and general builder Sheila. I think she is the one who knows best because she had hers done not so long ago and also what she says is similar to what my other new best friend Tony the sweep says, who because he is a writer and philosopher, Buddhist meditator and really very nice person can also be trusted I think. Shame neither of them, even with my assistance, could do the job isn't it?

Anyway - the tanking I'm on about would require four inches minimum of earth floor shifting then a membrane laying then concrete being poured over. Membrane would go up the walls a few inches; then some of one of three (at least) solutions would be applied to four feet up the walls, namely bitumen, poly rubber something or other, or another rubber something or other favoured by Andrew that's referred to as SBR. That way when the rendering (plastering, with or without lime added depending on whom one listens to) has been done, any damp would trickle down the wall behind the membrane then under it and the concrete.

I've been hedging because some have advised a belt and braces approach but I don't want to use chemicals as well. There wouldn't be any damp had the cottage been built with footings all those years ago, and if someone hadn't added wainscoting, oh, and if the council hadn't let the drains over the road collapse causing a flood ten years ago, from which I suspect we are only now drying out.

Des is coming from a specialist company involved with cob houses and other types of traditional and eco builds and I think at least his survey will be worth giving attention to; also his company give as near as poss fixed quotes which I would prefer.

Last week whilst Sheila (who works two days a week for me) was excavating further in the living room, I laid some laminate flooring (I don't like it!) which I'd lifted off the living room floor between the Quarry tiles and the first layer of carpet and underlay. One of the problems with this was that half (don't ask!) of the kitchen/dining area was already laminated with the stuff but the last panel down did not have a tongue and groove edge. It's also a slightly different hue of 'orrid laminate but I wanted to re-use it as this area will be temporary for a year may be as I've prioritized the bathroom. So, at least it looks fairly good and it will be warmer and easier to keep clean.

Here's those pics - don't laugh, but my kitchen and dining area used to be a walkway between the cobbled, covered courtyard and the allotments belonging to the cottages next door, round the back of the barn and the cider house and possibly a yellow brick road or two...

DOES ANYONE KNOW ABOUT POSIE DOGS? SHE DOES RUN AND POSE YOU KNOW!

I want to tell you that I'm very happy by the way. I'm loving what I'm doing, where I'm doing it and also because of the support and help, encouragement and interest from all sorts of people. Many thanks, really, thank you.

In the right panel I'm starting a roll call of helpers, the people that are doing some of the doing, in order of appearance mostly, but always top of the list will be Sheila who came and knocked on my back door a couple of days after I took ownership; a neighbour just coming to say hello. Within the week because she's a builder, and painter and decorator we'd come to a very satisfactory mutual agreement. Her dogs Midge and Charlie are now Tess's best friends too.

continuing the tale of two fireplaces...

2009-08-09T21:29:00.016+01:00

Last week I was focusing on emulsioning my bedroom so I would have at least one clean room to retreat to, and also filling the large skip with all the rubble from completely stripping the living room ready for 'tanking' and replastering. In between times a carpet cleaner did the bedroom carpet, the only carpet left in the house, and a chimney sweep called, and a remarkably wonderful job both gents did too, and only one of them was called Tony!

I had been hoping for a week when all four Tonys would materialise but sadly I only managed two. Guttering Tony seems to have vapourised, but he did do the front one first, and tanking/tonking Tony his mate has yet to make himself known. Removal man Tony and I became reacquainted on Saturday, and chimney sweep Tony, well, what can I say? I've already said he did a very good job, but there is considerably more to this personage...

The man who came to do the carpet is called Malcolm and he's returning on Tuesday to rotary brush the quarry tiles before I lift them. Don't know what his boss is called, but he's Canadian.

I'd hoped after removing carpets and underlay and then Marley tiles I would find floor boards, but no, it's Quarry tiles laid on an earthen floor, no footings and certainly no damp proof course. The Marley tiles had come away remarkably easily but left a residue of adhesive that soon became encrusted with dust - this saved Tess from being a permanent fixture of the living room.

As Malc had attempted to cross the floor to take his carpet cleaning tackle upstairs he'd said he could remove 90% of the muck so his boss came down to um and ah a bit, and said he'd phone back with a quote. He hasn't yet, and also he's supposed to be sending someone called Eamon round to look into tanking - blokes in these parts don't seem to want to know about tanking. My neighbour, who has been helping me, has got a couple of her builder acquaintances under surveillance but hasn't struck gold yet. She says she thinks they know her vehicle now so she's going to change tactics. All this because on the 24th all my worldly goods arrive from Warwickshire. There's only so much furniture I'm going to be able to get into the stable and greenhouse if the groundfloor still doesn't have a floor!

Back to the Quarry tiles - I had assumed that as they'd been put down approximately 170 years ago they'd be beyond use. Not so, only two are broken which is a joy. I shall be lifting them carefully after Malc has performed magic with his rotary brushes and then painstakingly finishing the process by hand. I will have to acquire a few more as the area underneath the stairs which I have revealed doesn't have any.

Remember I discovered a cast iron fireplace behind a hardboard panel in my bedroom? Here it is now it's almost been restored :-

Tony the chimney sweep confirmed that it's definitely Victorian because Georgian fireplaces would have been square or oblong rather than rounded; and here's the living room fireplace so far - remember it has had a gas fire and surround and other embellishments removed and approximately eighty bricks and mounds of earth. It will have had a small range in it originally. Considerable work is still needed, and I have to make an impression of the arch this week and take it to a local blacksmith to get a curved bar made to support it just in case... It should be sound but as most of the mortar needs removing then pointing up this could weaken the curved structure.

I already have a wood burner that will eventually be positioned inside it. Apparently earth was used to bolster the bricking up, which looks like it was done twice, because soil is such a good insulator. If anyone has experience of this sort of thing I would love to know more.

a selection of tonys...

2009-08-02T10:40:00.014+01:00

Well, every pair of overalls tells a story, they really really do, believe me, and I'm not just talking about my own here.

Firstly, here's a couple of photos of the living room at the beginning of last week. I will reveal what has since transpired next time.

THE FIREPLACE WAS BOARDED UP AND MADE MUCH SMALLER AT SOME TIME AND I CHUCKLED WHEN I DISCOVERED THAT IT HAD BEEN PAPERED OVER WITH WALLPAPER PATTERNED WITH STONE AND IVY

THE METER CUPBOARD HAS NOW GONE. MUCH ELSE HAS ALSO GONE AND EVERYTHING WILL BE GOING INTO A HUGE SKIP STARTING TOMORROW, EXCEPT MY BRAND NEW WHEEL BARROW

During the last few weeks I've been preparing the downstairs for remedial work to tackle the damp. This has meant that even plaster as high as the ceiling has had to be removed in some places. Note removal of the stair panelling which was a particularly nasty job because of the lathes. Behind the imitation green marble gas fire surround is where I discovered an amazing fireplace and I shall show you more about that another time too.

The curtain rail was in fact two lengths of copper pipe with plastic curtain rings. UGH. Enter Geoffrey...

There had been a little lull in proceedings because I'd had to wait for him to turn up to disconnect the gas fire, which had not been properly or legally installed, so a good job I didn't want it. Geoffrey did the job in about 8 minutes. What took about two and a half hours was his life story. I even know what size Doc Martins his security guard step son takes. Never mind, we wont meet again. We don't need to!,

Did I tell you one time about a wonderful neighbour 'H'? He assisted in making safe some dodgy wiring, and mentioned his retired builder friend Tony, so I requested Tony may consider doing some guttering. Tony is in his seventies but very willing to go up ladders. I think that may have been his speciality. With H footing his ladders I will fret about their longevity, but they are so willing.

I've been keen to find a chimney sweep to help with the resurrected fireplaces, and lo and behold a little bit of asking around and one is due Tuesday. I am eager to find out if both fireplaces will be usable so I am looking forward to this. He is a retired chimney sweep apparently, and his name is Tony.

Before I left on Thursday to come back to Warwickshire for yet more packing and organising I wandered down the garden to collect some blackberries. They're much much earlier down there. Out of my greenhouse wandered Tony, the ladders and guttering one. He looked guilty, and said he'd been ferreting for something to stomp with. Don't ask. I'll tell you, he was laying some slabs for H and needed something to stomp them down with.

We chatted a while and I told him all about the builders skip due to arrive Monday and how I was filling it with the insides of my cottage ready for damp proofing, drying out and other stuff, and how I realised I actually needed a floor putting in, a cement one. Ah, he says, I know a bloke who would do that for you. He thinks I need tonking, but I know he means tanking. This would be better than a membrane. This bloke he knows, an un-retired builder, he's sending him round next week. I asked his name, and yes, he is called Tony.

I suspect that many, many years ago there was a soothsayer, Anthony by name, a wise one looking to the future, perhaps even consulting the heavens got wind that one day there would be a mad woman in those parts; a woman who thought she could harness talents and muscle to love a soggy sad mess of a farm workers cottage back to a glory fit for the 21st century; this wise one may have suspected that said sad old moll would be at risk of blowing herself up with natural gas, fusing her fingers and owt else with dodgy electric wiring and many other risky things, and so in time legends and prayers came to be said to the wise one, who became a saint, a popular figure for sons of Somerset over time to be named after. Just so they would easily be to hand to save the mad woman when the call came for all Tonys to muster for the mission for which they were destined.

hidden treasures...

2009-07-25T10:04:00.011+01:00

Since last weeks post I learned that the vintage tractor and its rescuer are T20s - both now safe and ensconced further up the combe where major works have commenced. I don't know how I misheard T3 for T20 but never mind.

Apparently some of these types of tractor were started on petrol and then once the engine was warmed up they were switched to run on Paracene, supposedly a form of paraffin. The maneuvering of the tractors off site drew a little crowd and I enjoyed the attention this afforded me as the newcomer.

My neighbours have been so supportive and shown warmth and interest which I've found heart warming. H, a retired electrician made a point of offering to make safe some wiring and his wife D has found a new best friend in the form of my Tess. They formed a close bond out of my gaze and then enjoyed swanking about their allegiance, mainly to do with muesli dog biscuits I believe.

H sent round a retired builder, T, who is on the job re: gutter fixing, and S is going to be my labourer on a daily rate when the builders skip arrives - slight delay for this as a permit is required. She has put me in contact with B who is going to install my wood burner and get in a chimney sweep once the gas fire has been removed, a job for a so far rather esoteric fitter who can't make up his mind about whether he will also disconnect a basin upstairs...

Just a small sample of goings on from the last week. I returned back to Warwickshire in a slightly frazzled state Thursday evening and have been mainly horizontal since. I shall return Sunday to plough on with demolition and preparation for what has unfortunately turned out to be a fools errand - the quest for a wooden floor in the sitting room underneath layers of carpet, Marley tiles overlaid with laminate wood strips - underneath all of which is... earth. Concrete will be involved!

Next time I return to the rented cottage in Warwickshire it will be hard work too as I have to be out of here by 24th August and there's two daughters and accumulated stuff plus anyone else currently affiliated and attached to either or both of them. They seem to have commenced their new lives sans mother without needing to take much with them, how remarkable is that?

In between polishing my skills with a crowbar or what's also known as a wrecking bar I have begun emulsioning upstairs so that I have clean and fresh space to retire to, and in the large bedroom, behind a panel, where I hoped I might find something of interest and use...

2 x T3 tractors, I believe...

2009-07-18T15:46:00.007+01:00

I thought the vintage tractor, the one I mentioned before, that seemed wedged in one of the stables or cattle stalls, had gone. But no, last Wednesday morning before I got up someone had removed the stable doors to reveal it was still in situ -;

But then I heard a distant rumbling and had to race indoors with Tess, my dog, to get out of the way. I had a little struggle with the back door (it opens from an inner hallway directly into the courtyard) because it opens in two pieces and I can't remember what this type of door is called, anyway, the top half wouldn't shut and the rumbling was increasing, until a little red tractor came in sight edging its way down the covered cobbled courtyard on a mission to rescue its cousin -;

I had my camera to hand fortunately, and if it had got wedged you may never have found out about all this as there's rubble piling up against my front door and I may never have got out! I don't have broadband or any other internet connection in Somerset yet so I'm posting this whilst at the cottage in Warwickshire.

The red tractor was parked up a good while whilst several men attempted to shift the vintage one. There was considerable cursing going on, with lots of indistinguishable sounds in there because of the broad Somerset accents (very enjoyable).

A little treat for me! Right outside my kitchen window...

I was assured that they will return, with a fail safe plan next time. I was informed that the tractors are a model 'T3' and that someone has purchased the vintage one to renovate it. That's good; apparently its the man who owns some of the land I stare at from the bottom of my garden where there's red deer grazing on a hill, so may be I will see the little grey tractor trudging up that hill one day too.

the good and the 'ing amazing...

2009-07-11T16:35:00.005+01:00

I suppose you would prefer the good news first then?

There's these great big wooden doors you see that open off the road into a cobbled, covered courtyard that forms the stone walls on one side of my cottage. The wonderful, magnificently talented and highly pedantic and fussy surveyor whose virtues I have extolled previousy warned me that the base of these doors were in need of urgent repair as they looked damaged and neglected.

So me being moi and all that and any old excuse to lay off the hard graft for a few hours to venture forth into yet another d-i-y store thought I would appraise the situation. Well, 'he' had told me that it was an urgent repair that was required...

Turns out that a darling wee badger got trapped in said courtyard one night and spent a few scary hours trying to scrape its way out. I shall make a point of getting a badger door installed when I can.

Now for the other thing, and I have to say that if it beggars belief that's okay with me as I am finding it difficult too - how's that for a suspense mounter?

I got some paper work the other week about the cottage called 'Charges Register' in with the searches that are done before purchase. I hadn't paid much attention to them as I know the conveyancing solicitor I used was a good 'un. I wanted to see if I could discover when the cottage was built now that I realise it's late Georgian rather than Victorian.

Apparently in 1946 some of the rights of way were sorted out and changes made to put in the deeds and all that, and a transaction took place between the owners of land round abouts and other cottages round abouts. Again in 1952 a room was bought and another sold and some mortgaging occurred. What's bowled me over is that three of the signatories are ancestors on my father's side. I knew that going way back there was a landed gentry family, double barrelled land owning lot from N Devon, and the name is quite unusual so I wont put it in here, but my surname at birth is the same.

They had had grazing rights all over Exmoor but I hadn't known that the family going back to the 17 and 18 hundreds had extended their land and building ownership into west Somerset. They had until recently owned a manor house on an increasingly minimised estate up the road from my new home and it would seem that the row of cottages I'm in with the stables etc had been part of that estate.

I need to add very emphatically here that this family are not closely connected whatsoever, merely that there are common ancestors going back centuries that my father had discovered from geneological research. Nevertheless, it's a bit big!

So here's me, poor, labouring and sweating and cursing over renovating and restoring what was once upon a time, until round about the time I was born in fact, a workers tithed home presumably on part of an estate onwed by my own ancestors. Phew, shall have to dig that tiara out...

A few weeks ago I joined http://www.ancestry.com/ to try and trace ancestors on my mothers side and had discovered that my maternal grandfather's mother, Dorcas had been born just up the road from where I was renting a cottage in Warwickshire.

My mind is reeling with thoughts of serendipitous and synchronistic happenings and could do with a good dose of down to earthness, if there's any one out there?

fire end walls...

2009-07-04T13:37:00.023+01:00

Fire end walls - if you know about these please get in contact. Soon!

These walls (are supposed to) separate your house from your neighbours' in the roof space. I refer to UK 'Building Regulations' and if you're interested there's a website that's very informative as a starting point www.communities.gov.uk/planningandbuilding/buildingregulations/ Fire end walls - they are what they say. I don't have any. I'm supposed to have three, one being to separate my cottage from the roof of the barn.

I know they are to ensure that fire cannot spread, or spread fast. I also have another need regarding fire end walls.

This is because I'm removing the ceiling of the tiny bathroom (which does not have a bath yet) in order to replace a perspex sheet in the roof with a Velux window, for light especially as the bathroom has no windows; and specifically for ventilation. Without I would be prey for anyone crawling around in the loft wishing to spy on a flabby, over weight, post-menopausal and extremely fractious and bad tempered old moll doing her ablutions. When I meet these people I shall explain that I have saved them considerable effort for zero return and hope they'll treat me to a drink for my trouble. 'Sod off walls' then.

Quotes for building the three fire end walls have been in the region of £900. The owner of the barn and house on the right will not enter into discussions (absent landlord) and the owner of the property on the left has yet to come out of prolonged hiding. Either that or they're dead, but not to worry those are merely further reasons for not wasting time which is better spent getting those walls constructed, so...

My estimate for the job is as follows, and because this is where I start to get down 'n dirty it's only for the materials, from Wickes probably. Included are one or two tools that I haven't already got but will need for other jobs too.

Three large buckets of ready made, fast setting cement - £37.41
1 large tub mortar - £4.99
75 Bricks - £36.75
Bricklaying trowel - £8.99
Brick bolster - £11.49
2 large (bucket size) tubs ready mixed plaster (with lime derivative) - £31.98
5 plaster base board - £16.50
Timber - £58.40
Masonry nails - £9.18
Spirit level - £8.49
Plasterers float - £7.99
Plasterers trowel - £8.99

So, my quick estimate for the obvious essentials is about £215. Far less if you remove the tools I'm having to buy in order to get the job done, so the builders' quotes are quite amazing when you think about it, and they would get the materials like mortar and all that cheaper than I will have to pay.

I'm okay about doing this work as I'm interested in making safe from fire and intrusion and it's not as if my rudimentary brick laying will be visible.

I will probably start this work round mid August and will update on here bit at a time. My first job is going to be to gut the downstairs so it can start drying out. I hope it wont mean my nail varnish gets chipped too much. Don't take me too seriously by the way, as I'm finding some people do, so I'm sorry about that.

To console myself and to pretty up the proceedings for when I peel off the overalls and stop blaspheming I treated myself to this book -;

resources for resourcefulness

2009-06-25T16:50:00.011+01:00

The excitement and enjoyment is at last beginning to muster. I think this is because I'm quite organised now about what I need to do to become organised. Make sense of that if you can. It feels good to me anyway.

In the mail a day or two ago a series of booklets from The Victorian Society which are excellent value and invaluable for this kind of renovation/restoration. I have yet to have confirmation of the date this cottage was built and now know it's late Georgian rather than Victorian so in a way I'm talking nonsense, but as Victorian architectural salvage is far easier to come across may be I can forgive myself. I'm used to scrambling around architectural salvage yards for my stained glass repairs, but big whoopees, I'm going to be doing some scramblings for myself at last.

Last week I bought a brand new book. I rarely buy brand new, and even less rarely patronise a Waterstones. Not sure what came over me but wow is it a good read.

To make up for this unprecedented spending and unprecedented hauling of such a heavy tome home I called in to the Oxfam bookstore in Leamington Spa and found this to add to the hauling -;

Another whopping great whoopee please! I love this book even more than the others because it was compiled before all the smarty pants home improvement programmes on tv were even dreamt up and before the presenters themselves were even probably a planned for conception, or unplanned...

It is the sheer enthusiasm for the tasks that I like rather than the sharp in-take of breath 'Are you sure you know what you're thinking of doing?' kind of approach. Mind you, if they could see me trying to colour co-ordinate my ear-rings with my new overalls even they may have a tut tut or two escaping before they decided to be polite.

there's been a little lull in the proceedings

2009-06-20T17:22:00.008+01:00

Just a little lull, and no, not before the storm I hope! Everything is absolutely on course. Two sticking points - the barn has attracted the attention of a building inspector. I am what's known as an 'interested party'. I am very interested. Then I am a very interested party. One day I aspire to a very party. Probably be in about 2013 I should think.

The second sticking point concerns a vintage tractor that is stuck in one of the stable stalls. Not my tractor/not my problem. Turns out it's not even one of my stable stalls either but I would like it moved all the same.

ONE DAY THIS WILL BE MY STUDIO... it will, it really really will

passing the over-reactive panicky phase...

2009-06-13T10:23:00.004+01:00

I think I may have touched on something the other day when I 'felt' a yogic/shiatsu type response was called for.

After reading a great deal this last couple of days and reflecting more after my last conversation with the chartered surveyor I am now back peddling fast from the more hysterical and 'Oh My God' position.

It's the first place, like many, I go and I need to grow up a bit and trust my way of thinking a little.

My parents last home, an early 1960's build became over the years hermetically sealed - that's what it felt like. Chemically injected and probed, insulated and layered with unnatural substances, a little like how fabric for all purposes became man made; I'm thinking of nylon, polyester etc... The house felt locked in a capsule of stale air and a warmth that had a culture all its own, and a bit smelly. My mother in particular used to have breathing difficulties and I suspect it may have been because of all the chemicals pumped into the place that she and my father in particular thought would create an atmosphere where her arthritis and other problems would be eased rather than exacerbated.

I already knew my new home was going to have hard wood replacement windows in the style of what would originally have been there. It is now going to have ventilation vents put back in and lime based render and after 12 months I will reappraise, and if any damp is still present I shall pay for a building pathologist's report.

Similarly I already knew too that the chimneys were going to be swept, renovated, lined and upstairs, grates re-installed and downstairs my renovated cast iron wood burner installed.

I had already begun to research eco solutions, like some of the Dutch inventions - I mean they of all countries will have had to come up with solutions to damp. I favour the ceramic vent system but I don't want to commit to something so visible and quite costly unless I have to. Whatever, I have decided now, it is not going to involve chemicals. That feels so good.

The surveyor had always said that chemical damp proofing wasn't 'the' solution, only part of it. The estate agent for the vendors had said that '...to look after me' he would arrange for a damp proofing company to provide a quote, that '...they would look after me'. I bet.

As usual it takes me a two or three day time delay to figure out what's happening. I'm not particularly trusting, it is true, but I'm not a wise person either; I plod through experiences and when I emerge slightly more knowing I'm usually right I'm pleased to say. Not smug note.

Ask me again in twelve months time if my walls are dry, if my bank balance is still just about on the healthy side and if me lime rendering had rendered results!

If you call in expect bare walls downstairs for at least six months whilst it all dries out naturally, open windows and perhaps a humidifier and even an air purifier as concessions to modernity if necessary, but there will always be a welcome, a brew and some homemade nibbles too!

chisels and cats' bottoms...

2009-06-11T09:25:00.018+01:00

I'm learning a great deal quickly, mainly about rising damp I know, but it's good to still be able to concentrate sufficiently to learn new things.

Just as well then.

Woke up this morning wondering why it is that all the men (haven't come across any females yet) I am having to talk with about this project have first names from the New Testament. I think I do know the answer to that, but that is what I'm currently pondering. In the circumstances may be I need to search out a Moses?

The wonderful, marvelous mischievous and hysterically funny surveyor (he's more hysterical than I) has been invaluable.

We have concocted a little plan. It involves -:

1. Trickle ventilation (new windows)

2. Chemical injection

3. Lime based rendering, inside and out

4. Tanking (have still to get my head round this)

It is no use having chemically injected damp proofing alone as that will deal with may be 60% of the rising damp - I now understand the way it works, why, how and the limitations. Have a look here for some useful information.

Lime in rendering and plaster allows the walls to breathe also - vinyl emulsions and the like don't. Similarly upvc windows dont allow trickle ventilation necessarily. Buildings need to breathe. That's the mantra. A Yogic/Shiatsu type approach is called for.

Just as well about that too.

If you know about this sort of thing I would be very interested to hear from you if you fancy contributing to my learning curve.

I want to add a little something here - thank you to the people who care about me, really, I do appreciate it. I want to say I am really sorry for not allowing you to care for me in the way you know best.

It's like this - old house in need of work, very low price (because of the state it's in and also low house prices just now) = opportunity to make improvements and renovations = really lovely home for myself, profit potential too = hard work but entirely 'do-able'. If I could afford the sort of house I want, where I want it that did not require hard work, all my money etc. then I would buy one of those instead.

I do have a sewing basket which I use, and a sewing machine but I dont do knitting, cross stitch, embroidery and other more feminine things, however, I also have several tool boxes with hammers and screw drivers and stuff, and believe it or not I am greatly relishing the opportunity to use my new cold chisel!

I love having long girly hair and wearing make up - I just want to set the record straight in case any of the delicious blokes I'm now coming across are reading this!

My first ex husband managed to acquire the then former matrimonial home on the grounds that he had gutted it, when I was in hospital, fifteen years ago, to do a diy rebuild which is nearing completion now, perhaps, and had set fire to the sitting room so I removed myself and our children to safety to a house I bought for us. Sadly the equity from that house was appropriated later by a greedy/niave/crooked business type person I was stupid enough to subsequently marry (briefly - I blame HRT).

I am determined to make a lovely little early Victorian terraced cottage in need of tlc, and some serious work with a chisel, lump hammer and ministrations of aforementioned gorgeous hunky types a little haven by the sea for myself, children and grandchildren, and friends.

I have no desire to offend anyone, but please if you're reading this dear friends, please do not fear for me, it is my only chance to get what I want and I need to keep my cups brimming with positive, constructive and optimistic thoughts. I have spent quite a lot of my savings on acquiring good advice and direction so my eyes are wide open; I think this is the reality not delusion.

My personal stand point is that I am more terrified by living in a concrete retirement complex or modern property on an estate than what I'm taking on. That is purely my personal requirement and I completely accept and respect people who do want something different for their mature years.

Has anyone been to Barbara Hepworth's house, garden and studio in St Ives? I've visited several times, and recall sitting in the garden craving somewhere with that sort of ambiance. There's no way I can afford somewhere of that calibre, but I have found the ambiance, albeit in a state.

I'm leaving some of you behind now as I can't do funny faces, mouths like a cats arse and wringing of hands, sorry!

it's gone very quiet...

2009-06-08T10:54:00.007+01:00

WANT LIST

1. crow bar
2. carpet shears
3. industrial strength camomile teabags
4. a tv production team not of the make-over variety
5. youthfulness
6. someone to put a nice, kindly, gentle reality spell on the vendors
7. masonry drill that is light enough for me to pick up
8. ditto that I can hold steadily whilst using
9. fanciable bloke to use the above and who also enjoys camomile tea*
10. marble transplant

JEAN MARC BARR (see 9 above)*

AS IN THE FILM 'THE BIG BLUE' FILMED ON THE AEGEAN ISLAND AMORGOS,

WHERE INTERESTINGLY ENOUGH I HOLIDAYED LAST YEAR.

I DON'T SUPPOSE HE HAS ANY MORE OF AN IDEA HOW TO USE A MASONRY DRILL THAN I ...

starting at the beginning...

2009-06-07T15:27:00.010+01:00

SUNDAY 26 APRIL 2009, a daughter and I decided to view a property on the coast in West Somerset. There were frankly plenty of fairly irresponsible aspects to this jaunt, but - the dog, our most wonderful German Shepherd type creature had never been in the sea or felt the salty ozone air pounding her standy uppy ears and it would do us all good.

I was familiar with the area, that stretch from roughly Lynmouth and Lynton over towards the Somerset Levels. I love the whole idea of the Quantocks, the Blackdown Hills, Exmoor.

Only one property to view even though I was fairly certain I did want to move to the area. It was the only one I liked the look of, that was in the right area, and that I could just about afford.

I will explain - post divorce, early retired sort of, no prospects of inheriting a bean off anyone I was taking flight as both my adult children decided to live elsewhere. This is in posts on the other blog during the last few weeks so you may wish to call in there to catch up before I tell you more.

Earlier today, before I thought up the idea of this blog about the renovation, this is what I'd posted -;

First, the surveyor's report has been dispatched to the conveyancer and a completion date has been agreed. Both surveyor and conveyancer suggested I attempt another price reduction due to the amount of work that's going to have to be done.

The conversation went a little like this -;

"That man was here last week you know".

"Yes, I have had the report now".

"You've had a report done then". (note absence of question mark)

"Yes". (very long silence) "It's not very good I'm afraid". I can detect static electricity the other end, probably not off her clothes although I suppose she may have been rubbing her arms together above her head and standing her hair on end. "I haven't seen a copy of the House Buyers Report yet by the way".

"I have done it".

"That's good". (I shall have to have a word about that with the estate agent.) "About the surveyor's report, it's a lot worse than I had expected. A great deal of structural work will need to be done".

"I will leave you the living room fire, it's brand new you know, and the brand new kitchen, from Wickes you know, well it's fitted in isn't it? But I'm taking the light fitting in the bedroom. I like it. I'm leaving all the curtain rails".

"I am going to have to have the downstairs gutted and damp proofed. Underneath the cladding and dado rail the walls are dripping, so the rising damp has to be treated before anything else can be done".

"I'll leave you my nets too. Well, they are very old".

NB: Yes, the living room fire and surround are new but according to the surveyor's report the state of the unlined chimney is unlikely to be a safe outlet for fumes and to his eye it doesn't appear as if the installation was done professionally, or at least by a qualified adult who came with an id badge, a tool box and safety procedures in a handy notebook in his back pocket. Just as well I was planning on having it ripped out, chimney swept and lined and my beloved and lovingly restored cast iron wood burner put in isn't it? I was going to suggest the vendors could take it with them but I'm going to flog it now in an attempt not to have to see the bottom of the coffer tin.

NB number 2: The brand new fitted kitchen has been very poorly installed against a wringing wet wall on top of mouldy and horrid lino of indiscriminate vintage although some of the debris looks like it may be as recent as the latter part of the last century. This too was going to be considered as a gift to the vendors to take with them as they love it so much, but I'm now wondering if a fitted kitchen can be offered on ebay...

NB number 3: Said curtain rails will be amongst the first things in one of the first skips naturally, but I may leave the nets up as a respectful homage to previous owners for a day or two, and they may come in useful for draping over my raspberry canes which I have recently dug up and planted in tubs in preparation of moving. They are only old after all.

Secondly - I have decided out of navy, white and brown overalls/boiler suits to go for white; this is so that the story of this renovation will be forever imprinted and highly visible - just imagine, egg yolk from builders butties, black and green, brown and indiscriminate other hue of mould growth and detritus, cement and mortar, blood even...

Thirdly and finally - the dog has begun a rerun of last years leaky anal secretions condition. The usual introduction of bran flakes into her diet has yet to help stem the flow, but you may be pleased to learn that a little tip obtained from a pet chat community on the web has assisted greatly with another little Tessie issue - chopped raw courgette in the diet does deter said animal from eating her own poo!

But, here's the post about a little chat a chartered surveyor and I had at the start of June -;

Things the surveyor has said to me -;

1. Every single chimney pot's different

2. Yes, but there's a pigeon nesting in one of them

3. Sure, but there's five televisions in there

4. I don't know

5. I couldn't see

6. Well, there's flying freeholds and there's floating freeholds, which would you like?

7. Not even with two joined together

8. Are you sitting down at the moment

9. Would you like to

10. Red sandstone is very porous

11. In the old days

12. The cobbles are on the ground

13. I can't imagine how he's going to get that out

14. Didn't you know there's a tractor in one of them?

15. It's not his you know. It's not yours either

16. Have you ever done anything like this before?

17. Ah hah! There's a gap. A surveyors dream.

18. The new ones are screwed to the old ones

19. What it needs is a property developer to buy yours, the ones either side, the barn and the stable stalls and... no forget that, they all need knocking down

20. Well that might work, if there was one in the first place

21. I have never seen that before

22. I have never seen one of those either

23. I don't think he should have done that

24. She's very protective of him isn't she

25. I can't imagine how he did it

26. You'd never get a mortgage for a property like this. No one would.

27. There's vegetation growing in one of them, on the inside I mean

Things I said to the surveyor -;

1. So, you wouldn't touch it with a barge pole then

2. Why?

3. Do you think if I knocked out the ceiling and put a Velux in the roof and...

4. Do you think the staircase going the other way would be a good idea?

5. Do you think if I put it on the other wall...

6. Did she make you a cup of tea?

7. I didn't know there was one of those

8. I didn't know that was possible

9. That's life threatening!

10. I want something to leave my grandchildren

11. I've got to live somewhere

12. Go on, say it

13. Not even one?

14. Well, you're the surveyor

15. They didn't say

16. Of course I asked them

17. I was thinking of doing that myself

18. Actually

19. So you wouldn't advise me to continue with the purchase then?

20. Perhaps he used to be a wrestler or body builder

21. No, I'm vegetarian

22. Oh

Not one, not one person who has seen this house has encouraged me or shared my enthusiasm, except for my eldest daughter. I don't trust her judgement right now though because she's soon to embark with her partner to live in a place where she tells me one of the indigenous male residents puts used cotton buds back in the box... but she prefers not to live with me anymore.

So, I shall buy the house. Believe it or not the alternatives are even worse to me. It's a damn sight more exciting in a floating my boat/turning my propellors kind of a way than anything else - all this talk of flying and floating freeholds has got to me already.I've been looking to see where I might buy a pair of overalls with shoulder straps (jumpsuits are in fashion again apparently) and there's a rather nice way of wrapping ones head and hair with a long floaty silk scarf I saw Gok Wan do a while ago. I think for the next couple of years at least I may be frequenting male type places and asking all sorts of questions of strapping masculinity to a greater extent than usual - I do frequent architectural salvage yards in my ever quest for stained glass you may know - but this is going to be on a daily basis.

I'm preparing you see for phase one of the first job - damp proofing - by stripping off all the cladding and faux wood panelling the present incumbants have spent a fortune on to cover up the rising damp. It would have cost them far less to have had the damp proofing done in the first place. The surveyor and I did agree about that.