“Best Let The Dust Settle A Bit..”
It seems that I’ve spent the best part of a year apologising for my intermittent absence from the blogging scene. And blow me, here we are again. It’s been another three weeks on the merry-go-round and for some reason the ‘stop’ button refuses to work no matter how many times you try to push it. But is there light at the end of the tunnel? Perhaps. Maybe. If we squint a bit, and if we whisper it very very quietly, could be there is.
Please excuse the poor quality of the photo. The light was very bad. But I had just one shot at it and couldn’t let the moment pass without recording for posterity these gorgeous slices of ash tree trunk before they disappeared off the premises again for their final transformation into window sills and seats.
The sitting room window seat.
No sooner had the wood been properly secured into place it was enveloped in plastic and frog tape, protected in readiness for the final stage of plastering.
‘Top coat’.. which, contrary to what you might be thinking, isn’t the end of the process at all..
.. because this is, the ‘Skim Coat’. Smooth enough to paint.
Skim Coat on the ceiling. As yet just the Top Coat on the walls.
But of course it wouldn’t be chez duck without a little bit of drama now would it.
It started with the re-pointing of the dining room fireplace. A fairly harmless, if not to say boring, task you might possibly surmise. Well, no. Because the methodical chipping out of old mortar eventually led, in a progressively upward direction, to the register plate. This is the sheet of metal which separates the fireplace and hearth from the open chimney stack. Apparently a few small pieces of mortar fell down from around the rim. Followed by some worryingly large chunks. Then the holler down the garden that I always dread. If the builders require an unscheduled audience it is almost always bad news. With some trepidation I presented myself in the dining room, wellies on, bulb planting fork in hand. The register plate is seemingly held up by nothing more than a few long nails and the entire assembly has now started to come loose.
A call out to the builders’ Top Man to make a technical judgement and, while we wait for his arrival, gardening activity resumes. Deep within the flower borders it’s easy to get absorbed by the stillness of the countryside, broken only by the gentle gurgling of the river in the distance and the buzzing of bees industriously collecting pollen from the last of the season’s blooms. Until… CRAAAASH! Oh, not AGAIN. Do you remember that scene at the end of Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade where they all leg it out of the Treasury at Petra followed by an enormous cloud of dust? Maybe the cast list here would present something of a let down against a vision of Harrison Ford and Sean Connery emerging at pace from our sitting room door. Notwithstanding, the general effect was the same.
As they rushed out, we made to rush in. The Boss, now speckled with as many shades of grey as a Farrow and Ball colour chart, held up a cautionary hand. “I’d leave ‘er a while. Best let the dust settle a bit.” It turned out they’d decided to pull the register plate clean out of the chimney. The debris of goodness knows how many years fell swiftly down behind it.
And yet, as is so often the way, the cloud delivered its silver lining. In exposing the inside of the chimney the builders discovered that part of the stonework had started to bulge inwards. The following day they were back, with a newly purchased lintel and an assortment of bricks. It’s safe now. Which possibly it might not have been before.
“Hellooooooo, anyone up there?” The spider didn’t answer back.
Register plate securely replaced and repainted. That stove paint is mighty powerful stuff. It filled the house with fumes for hours.
And the re-pointing complete. So much better than the solid black of the fireplace before it was sand blasted.
Our task now is to source York stone or similar with which to build a hearth. It’s proving easier said than done, but the search continues.
In the sitting room the original cobbled hearth has been repaired and restored. The builders carefully raised the front few stones to bring up the level to that of the main brick floor.
Might be needing this soon..
And finally.
A refuge from the dust if ever one was needed..
The greenhouse is up!
 A couple of bits of snagging to do. And note the careful use of foliage to screen out the building site in which it still sits.
The way things are going with the weather it may even get a moat.
Beautiful greenhouse. Love the stove on the cobbles – it’s perfect! All looking great – or grate even! Our first frost overnight and layers of mist this morning – which was quite mystical in the early sunlight. Just had our new boiler installed – replacing the huge industrial one (source of much amusement to the plumber and the place where he deposited it) and it’s taking some getting used to – for the first time the house is warm all around – apart from the kitchen which has always been cold – extension will address that. I’m hoping we’ll have far less issues than your renovations!
Please don’t apologise – life happens and we’ve been harvesting like crazy and visitors coming and going, so I’m grateful for a time out! LOL!
Those ash shelves to be are so pretty too!
A warm house is to be celebrated. There is nothing worse than being cold in my humble opinion, but perhaps that’s because I feel it more than most. Our kitchen is in a poor quality extension and it too is cold. Nothing much we can do about it really, except regret that we didn’t put in underfloor heating when we had the chance!
I gather the current kitchen used to be some sort of barn attached to the house, the old kitchen is now the utility, also cold. We are thinking of underfloor heating plus a woodburner. The bathrooms will also be changed to wet rooms, but we are having a “difference of opinion” about underfloor heating in them – I like having a radiator for a nice warm towel – don’t really want to throw it on the floor! Brings back memories of my daughter living at home! LOL!
We did both, although the ladder towel rail (attached to the heating) was already here so no extra cost. Plumbed underfloor heating is best but we went for electric and it’s still lovely, a real luxury to have warmth under your feet. I would really recommend it.
Sounds possible to have the best of both worlds then – and a happy hubby, and not doom and gloom and soggy towels! Cheers Jessica xx
🙂
Always love reading about your progress, Jessica (or lack of it sometimes). It will be most odd when your renovation is ‘complete’ – will you feel bereft in at least a small way?
I doubt I shall have the luxury of feeling bereft. There is always something. One more major project after this one. And then the kitchen, which we did first all those years ago, needs a lick of paint.. this place is a Forth Bridge if ever there was one.
You must have some exceptionally good craftsmen around there in the West! I bet they secretly enjoy their ability to cope with unexpected challenges. As we, the readers enjoy your reporting. That leaves you two in the middle of course… Let’s hope you enjoy the end product and at least parts of the way there!
It pays to find people who are used to dealing with old buildings. First because they are skilled with all the techniques required to repair it. And second because they have plenty of experience in dealing with the unexpected! Nothing seems to phase them. They just go away and come back with a solution. We just sigh and write out another cheque.
It is turning out beautiful. For us a joy to watch.
Thank you Wendy. It will be one of those projects I will appreciate more when it comes to an end!
You have turned recording a sequence of disasters into an art form
It’s a form of therapy. And free!
As always, Derrick succinctly states the case.
Love your greenhouse and the photos of the unfinished, but beautiful wood. Can’t wait to see the window seat and sills once they are stained and revealed in place.
The wood looks so good I have decided not to stain it. Not a popular decision with the builders because there’s nothing protecting it from the water in the plaster. Hence all the plastic wrapping!
It is getting there… slowly, surely, on towards wonderfulness
Slowly, very slowly. But that’s the best way. Plaster drying can’t be hurried. The trouble is, now it’s getting colder, drying takes even longer.
Despite everything, it’s all starting to look a bit sexy, isn’t it?
It’s getting there. The last bit is always the worst. So near and yet so far.
It does seem as if the chimney project was a good thing in the end. It is looking so gorgeous to me, especially since I have not had to live through the chaos. The idea of the ash boards is brilliant; what a lovely addition to the house and its story. But the greenhouse is swoon worthy. I am totally, absolutely jealous. But I am also looking forward to seeing how you use it and what great plants we will get to read about in the future.
I have done the great winter migration today. It was a bit of a squeeze but everything is under glass that needs to be I think. I am hoping to have some real exotics in the future. Already wishing I could have afforded a bigger greenhouse..
It’s coming together. Yessss!
Oh gosh I hope so. Hard to believe that when the builders started back in April they reckoned on three weeks..
Serious greenhouse envy, is that green aluminium or wood. Wood looks good but it’s a full time job maintaining it. The house looks very smart, every good home needs two woodburners, after all otherwise you all have to sit round the same one, and that is not always wise.
Green aluminium. I love wood, not just for its looks but also the lovely smell when you walk in. And it would (sorry!) have fitted in well here. But in the end we went for the low maintenance option.
Yes ours is red cedar and smells gorgeous, but there are already a few suspect areas. We inherited it so it’s about 8 years old. When we move if there is not one I am going aluminium and as large as I can get away with. I find that with a greenhouse I can start gardening in February and I am still playing in it now. What with cuttings and other things it gives me something to do when it’s bleak.
A greenhouse certainly does extend the season. Even in the middle of winter I am out there tending cuttings and the like. I keep it frost free. I would definitely agree with going as large as you can, I’m already busting the seams of my new one. It was a balance. There is relatively little open space chez duck, most of the land is covered by trees. Too big a greenhouse would have dominated what space there is. Now that it’s built I think I could have got away with one size bigger.. oh well, too late now.
Your greenhouse is gorgeous! I’m so envious (even if arguably a greenhouse is of limited use in sunny Southern California). As usual, your renovation puts my own more in perspective, although we did have a scary unexpected complication of our own last week when, while painting the exterior of the house, a member of the construction crew detected the faint smell of gas and did some digging (literally). It turned out that we had a badly corroded gas line serving our clothes dryer and the master bedroom fireplace. The gas was turned off and the plumber was called – arriving a week later. At his first look, I heard him say that the situation was an “(expletive deleted) nightmare.” My husband and the construction worker had carefully dug a trench – a long trench – to uncover the problematic line, exercising care to minimize damage to my garden. The plumbing crew greatly expanded the trench and showed no mercy for the garden. The line’s been replaced, though! And they didn’t even have to dig up the driveway as feared.
It’s one of the most frustrating parts of renovating: when you uncover something that isn’t related but really needs to be fixed. But at least you found it before it became a real problem and maybe it was easier to fix because the current work had exposed it. Better now than digging up all the new work later on. But I do sympathise with the garden. I sometimes wish they’d just dig it all up and get it over with in one go. This creeping destruction is hard to cope with. But it grows back. In a few months you’ll forget it ever happened. Honest!
You seem to handle any setbacks with great nonchalance. I can almost see the shrug of the shoulders from here! Love that wood. And the cobbled hearth. And the greenhouse. Oh, you are going to have the most wonderful home once this is finished. It will be finished won’t it? No more plans to renovate?
The shrug of the shoulders comes much later. Usually after a few glasses of something.
A house this old is never really finished. There’s always something. But a few years of just exercising a paintbrush here and there would be enough of a relief!
Oh wow, that greenhouse is wonderful, I have greenhouse envy! I also love your ash sills and seats, look forward to seeing them insitu. Glad to hear that your set back was actually in your favour, it would not have been good to have discovered that later on when the work was completed.
It certainly wouldn’t. It’s frustrating finding new things that need doing but if you have builders on site there’s no better time to get it sorted. It will save money in the long run too.
I’ve been checking in and hoping your silence was another trip to Australia, or is New Zealand next on the list …. but no, of course it was dramas! Doesn’t the greenhouse look spiffing! You could retire out there with a book and a glass – no, make that bottle – of wine while you wait for the dust to clear!
New Zealand is definitely on the list. It won’t be this year though sadly, the greenhouse has swallowed the travel budget and some. But one day. In the meantime I shall enjoy another bottle of antipodean best and dream!
You are a trouper, I think I’d be barking mad by now. Good to see the progress though and that lovely greenhouse. Here’s to itall being sorted by Christmas.xxx
That’s the date we’re aiming for. But we shall see. Deja vu for both the bedroom and the bathroom. Both missed the deadline but in the end it was better to get it right than rush it for a date.
It’s been a while since I checked in with you and I can see that progress has been made. I do so admire your fortitude through all of what must at times be a very trying experience. But at least now you have the comfort of a greenhouse. Beautiful!
The only way to get through is to focus on the end result and just hope it will all be worth it. Everything’s easier in summer though. Now it’s getting cold I just want a warm house again!
oooo I love your greenhouse Jessica. The chimney explosion turned out well in the end. It’s all taking shape and starting to look good.
Hopefully the builders will be more or less done this week. Then all the cleaning and decorating starts!
I see progress, and such a beautiful greenhouse. You must both have the patience of saints.
It’s getting a lot colder isn’t it. The greenhouse arrived just in time. It is bursting at the seams already!
It’s all looking fab, Jessica. Especially your new greenhouse 🙂 Old house renovations are testing in the extreme. Hang in there x
I am more than ready for it all to be over now. Putting up radiators is going to make such a difference!
All’s well that ends well? Hopefully the end is near, and is very well.
Oh gosh, I do hope so. Seems unbelievable that we started way back in April and yet it is still touch and go for Christmas!
Never a dull moment. All we need are cupboard door om the bathroom. Three months have passed since the new shower and cubicle was fitted. We must have sat and waited on about 20 occasions with the promise of definitely today for mo sign of any fitters.
That is so frustrating Sue. Lime plastering is by its nature a very stop/start business with the need to let each coat dry properly before the next. Because of this the builders tend to have several jobs on the go at once and we’ve often had to wait our turn. It does make it a very long drawn out process.
Oh goodness, what a joy to see some absolute loveliness. Your ash shelves are a thing of beauty, as is the greenhouse. You definitely deserve both, heavens girl – you’ve waited (and suffered) long enough for them.
The story is not yet over for the ash, but I’ll save that for a future post. Why is nothing EVER simple?!
The greenhouse is absolutely a knock out. So pretty! The renovations really look great. I’m sure the stress has been tough but it will be lovely in the end:)
Like you I value a clutter free home and the impact the work has had on that has been one of the most frustrating things. Every other room in the house has something in it that shouldn’t be there, taking up much needed space. And cleaning becomes a pointless exercise. The dust gets everywhere!
When I was an an engineer we had good housekeeping inspections on the mine. He definition of good housekeeping was a place for everything and everything in its place. It still works today but what it means in practice is everything in its place once a month, the study, once every 3 months the garage (no car obviously but ladders, tools, garden furniture, wooden garden benches drying for their winter oiling etc, every 6 months in the greenhouse….clutter free in principle.
Clutter free in the greenhouse is a relative concept in winter. If it’s tender and there’s a space on the floor the size of the pot then it fits. I am already tripping over pots. Perhaps I need fewer plants.