More Stripping and Plastering

Firstly, a quick update on my health - the expected all clear on the biopsy came, so there's no excuse now and it's back to work with a vengeance.

When we did the extension last November, we had replaced the lintel above this kitchen door as we found that the old one had rotted at one end, thanks to the poor flashing on the old extension roof.  This photo shows the door (before it was turned round) after the demolition of the old extension, and the rotten lintel is clearly visible.   This rot was a shame as the lintel was made of three bits (to give 16 inches wall thickness) of four inch pitch pine which still smelt wonderful.  This unexpected work meant that some of the plaster already done inside was removed, and then the rest of the plaster around the door became loosened when the door frame was done.  So, it was back to stripping plaster on Thursday, followed by some more lime plastering for the scratch coat on Friday.  

We have a lot of old doors in the house, most of which were covered in a sort of brown varnish which clogs sandpaper very easily.  At first I didn't like them as I thought they were probably the 1920s version of those horrible cheap panelled white things you get in all new houses and refurbishments these days.  That's probably a bit unfair as, despite the varnish, I've come to appreciate them - an example of why you should never make changes in a rush on an old house unless absolutely essential.  They have four panels with the upper pair being larger than the lower ones; most have a simple right angle recess, but in the lounge and the hall side of the kitchen door they have a bit of ogee architrave (which of course makes stripping more difficult!).  These doors are also different sizes - I discovered this last November when I thought about changing the hinge side of the kitchen to extension door, and measured them all to see if I could swap them around.  "Never assume - check" was the flight safety mantra when I was in the RAF, and it's true for old houses as well.

Since the door frame was being completely replaced, it seemed sensible to turn the door round, rather than cut new hinge recesses etc.  However, the horrible rough white-ish finish now on the kitchen side meant that I knew I would have to do some serious stripping and restoration before too long, as it just looked so bad every time you went in the kitchen.  Mind you, the side on the extension was brown paint and didn't look much better.

Anyway, just after Easter I decided that now was the time and I've done the complete thing over the last two weeks (i.e. slowly).  The old paint was ghastly and probably toxic, so when I used the heat gun and a scraper, I made sure there was plenty of ventilation.  It was possibly half a millimetre thick in places and came off as a nasty goo on the scraper which itself had to be scraped off before the next go.  After that the rest was a doddle and yesterday I applied the final coat (see photo left) which is always the best bit - it's so satisfying, as opposed to the scraping, sanding, filling, priming and undercoat which are all just boring

The result is that it all looks much better and Jane loves it, even though I have yet to finish the remaining coats of plaster. 

Back to Work

Well, I could now give full details of what is involved in the rather personal procedure I went through last week, but I'll keep it polite.  They removed a small part of me and so I now have to wait 7-10 days for the result of the biopsy; however the doctor is quite sure that in his experience I'm OK.  The procedure actually wasn't too bad - it's quite odd seeing your own insides on a TV screen and the staff were all wonderful.  I have nothing but praise for the way I have been treated at the local NHS Trust hospitals.  The worst bit of the whole affair was the preparation for it when you twice have to swallow a solution of magnesium citrate.  If you know what that is, then you know what I mean!  Google it if you've never heard of it. Enough said.

So, back to work after my enforced rest.  The gateway to the back of our house is through a mock wrought iron gate, which is just visible in the photo (right) on the left of the doorway.  I don't like being visible to people in the street whilst I relax with a beer or cup of tea in the sunny spot at the back of the garden . So, at last, I have erected one of my back gates; this one was the one that I obtained as a swap for some wavy glass which I didn't need.  I had recently spent some time re-painting it, so it was all ready. To fit it I had to remove, refurbish and refit the existing gate post which was attached to the wall beside the front door.  The old 4 by 3 post was a bit rotten but I decided to re-use it as I didn't think it was as bad as it looked (it wasn't) and I thought that it might just be oak (it was).  I trimmed the rotten ends slightly and gave the whole thing a treatment of some proprietary chemical which is said to be good for preventing further rot.  I know this isn't very PC in the period property world but I do not want to have a bit of damp rotting wood attached to the house.

I drilled a hole in one of the quoin stones on the corner beside the door, set well back from the edge, then attached the post with a single huge coach screw.  I was then able to drill the holes in the wood for the other screws in situ, lined up with other suitable stones, so that I could drill through to mark three more holes in the chosen stones.  Then, by swinging the post on the one loosened screw, I could drill the holes in the stones, which was a bit noisy (sorry!).  Then I put the post back, attached coach screws and discovered the bad news: the old post was pretty straight and I had made the hinge line vertical as you look at it, but the thing that caught me out was that the wall wasn't vertical.  Jobs are never as easy as one would like, are they?  So, it was again loosened so that I could swing it away from the holes and fit some packers, then retighten.  I did shear one of the 140 mm coach screws but fortunately by the same method I was able to get to it and remove it with my pipe wrench, and re-tighten everything.  To my surprise the gate went on fairly well with the new T-hinges, et voila! It's even horizontal, and is so low that the local cats won't be able to get under it - if they want to use my garden as a hunting ground then they'll have to jump up and over the new wall - when it's done!  I don't have a photo of the new gate yet as it hasn't stopped raining since I did it.

I now need to do that "new" wall which is going to incorporate two lovely stones with pintles, so that I can then hang the other gate (formerly the back door, now being refurbished).  I reckon that I don't need any permission as there used to be a wall there - I found the old foundations in January - and I don't need permission to do a repair.  In any case, no-one could see that part of the gardens anyway when the enchanted forest was still there, as you can almost see from the photo (left).  This shows how it looked in January last year after (only) the roof had been done; the wall and gates will fill the gap to the left of the corner.

However, I think it might be some time before I manage that lot, as I am turning my attention back to finishing and tidying the new extension, so that it's fully useable.  We have ordered some bits of furniture and I need to buy a couple of wall units for "my own stuff".  I know they won't be big enough for everything but I desperately need somewhere to put my things out of sight without going outside to the over-crowded shed.  If you don't have an attached garage, where do you keep your tools and materials to hand?

Diversions from the Project

I've been a bit diverted from the house recently, and find that when I am able to work I don't seem to have any real enthusiasm or perseverance.  Various small jobs have been done, or have been started but are still incomplete, and I've even been doing some serious tidying such as taking the old asbestos shed roof to the tip (all nicely bagged and sealed as instructed), together with a lot of glass from the metal framed windows.

The reason for my distraction has been an unexpected health issue, which arose from one of those good ideas which people have to improve the health of the population at large.  I wasn't aware of this, but when you reach 60 (as I did in February) you are then invited to participate in some screening test so that you can get an earlier (and therefore more successfully treatable) diagnosis of a particular form of cancer.  As a customarily healthy person (albeit retired), I was a bit surprised to find that I was in the 2% of subjects who have an "abnormal" result. "Abnormal" indeed.  Who are they calling abnormal?  I've spent a good deal of my life trying to appear normal - quite clearly I have failed in that - but physically I reckon I have always been boringly normal.

It transpires that only 10% of the abnormal failures actually have cancer, but such analysis requires further investigation as an out-patient.  The good thing about this is that you are fast-tracked so there's no delay.  I had the failure result on a Wednesday, was seen for assessment the following Tuesday, and was booked for the (slightly unpleasant) "further investigation" on the Thursday of the week following.  The result is either available at once (if no samples are taken) or within a week if there is a biopsy required, so that will make just over three weeks from start to finish, including Easter.  I certainly cannot complain about the NHS!

The trouble really with this haste is that it is all-consuming, and I find that I just cannot concentrate on the things I would like to be getting on with.  Mind you, the changeable weather doesn't help; I have been refurbishing a couple of ledged and braced doors which will be the new back gates and, having just started to paint the second last week, I had to bring them inside as it started to rain.  I've also tackled a few small jobs like finishing the grouting in the extension and putting up some shelves but, as I said, concentration on such things is really very difficult when you are faced with even just a 10% possibility of having something life-threatening.

At the assessment last week, the only questions where I gave an "abnormal" response were "have you lost weight recently?" and "do you get tired easily?"  The answer to both these was "yes, because I've been restoring a house!"  I think I mentioned before how last year I was able to get into a pair of RAF trousers last worn in 1992, and I've also told (here) the story of learning to stop competing with the fit 30 year olds taking slates and lead up to the roof.  As far as I am concerned, I am much fitter than I was when I started this project.

I'll mention the results of this Thursday's investigation when I get them; if I have anything of note, I expect I'll start another blog as it could then become a major preoccupation.  NB I won't be publishing any photos of the procedure...

Using my Christmas Present at last

I mentioned my Christmas present some time ago in this entry which was still in its box at that time.  A Holzspalter - a wood splitter, made in Germany. This present was included on my Christmas list as I hope to be able to supply my own wood for the woodburner and the open fire in the lounge.

It is quite heavy and has been getting in the way in the extension as it was so difficult to move in the box with one end much heavier than the other. Anyway, recently I was bored so I tried it for the first time.  Despite the weight, it is easily portable once out of the box as it has a couple of wheels which only touch the ground when you lift up the lighter end.  There's a small amount of assembly work (for which you need tools like spanners, but they provide a small Allen key). There was a slight issue with the assembly of it as the usually hyper-efficient Germans had made two mistakes - one was an incorrect machine screw (I found a spare in my grot box) and the other was that a pair of domed nuts could not be fitted as specified because the stud was too long to fit inside the dome; however, I was able to swap with a pair of stiff nuts used for the wheels as these were the same thread and the stub axle was a bit shorter.

The mains electric motor runs a hydraulic pump which sends a ram along a short track and forces the wood against a fixed splitter at the far end.  The whole thing has a very sturdy bed for the ram to slide on. Operation was quite straightforward, once you realise that the design for safety requires the simultaneous use of both hands, one on a button and the other on a lever, keeping your fingers out of harm's way.  The trick is to make sure that the splitter is against the right part of the wood - ideally it should be lined up radially where there might already be a small split.  Trying to split an inch off centre was a bit problematic until I got the idea. 

I was a bit suprised that the movement of the operating ram gently removed both manufacturer's sticky labels from where they were attached on either side of the bed.  These are the sort of thing that I, if a manufacturer, would want to ensure stayed on my products.

The results of a couple of hours work

We did a fair quantity of wood, but probably only about 40% of what I have from the old trees in the front garden.  Mind you, I know how much wood my two fires can burn, so lots is needed.  The cypress was the most difficult due to its diameter and we had to give in on some large bits, especially if there was a branch joint.  The ash was the most exciting, seeing a ten inch section of seven inch diameter wood suddenly split and both parts propelled forward by four or five feet.  I also had some buddleia, holly, elder and laurel - we couldn't work out which it was which smelled gently of lemon.  Some of my wood was cut before the front garden work last November, and was going quite hard - clearly the best time to split is when the wood is still fresh, so I ought to get on and do the rest soon.  My neighbour is going to do his driveway soon and so I have already put in a request for his wood (holly and dead yew, mostly). I'm still kicking myself for not asking for any of his old wavy glass when he had his front windows done by a certain large company - they just smashed everything and fitted brand new.  I'm not sure Conservation would be happy!

Jane's verdict: "How good to find a tool that even a woman can use". Just stand at the right end!

Spring has arrived!

One of the tasks here was to sort out the overgrown front garden.  This was essentially completed last November, when the rest of the old trees were chopped down and the roots grubbed up (see this entry), and then the new trees and hedge were planted (see this entry).  You can then, perhaps understand my joy at the arrival of spring and the sight of all four trees and all of the hedge showing a bumper crop of buds.  The cherry was the first to burst forth into flower (photo right), and the rest are following. NB The funny green on the lawn in the foreground is lawn reinforcement netting.

Last spring I observed that the different types of tree in the churchyard opposite blossomed in sequence, rather than all at the same time.  Thus, I chose to have four trees of similar types and hope that my front garden will have a similar tree in blossom to match one or more in the churchyard; it looks as though the plan is working.  For the record the trees along the front are a Sorbus Aria Lutescens (Whitebeam), a Prunus x yedoensis (Yoshino cherry) and an Amelanchier Arborea, with a hedge of Carpinus Betulus (Hornbeam) beside the front wall and a Malus Rudolph (crab apple) nearer to the house.  In fact, the planting was done on 28th November 2011, so they have only been in the ground for four months; this success is probably due to the skill of the people involved and the quality of their trees; they weren't cheap but I really do believe that if you try to save money on this sort of thing, you might just completely waste your cash by getting a result which doesn't meet your desires, so I consider the money was well spent. [Edit: As a much later correction to this, I noticed in the summer that my Sorbus was not in fact the same species as the tree in the churchyard.  My tree supplier suggests that the one in the churchyard is a Morus (Mulberry) so in fact my “expert” was not so clever after all. Grrrr….]

One other aspect of the front garden is that I was worried about what the locals would say.  I need not have worried, as I have had a considerable amount of unsolicited praise, not just from people who know me but from many random passers-by.  (I only have to work in the front for twenty minutes and I can guarantee that someone I don't know will stop and talk to me.)  Most locals are well aware of both how bad the condition of the house was and the consequent amount of  work done to get it to this standard.  One suspects that a lot of people have been observing (and wondering!) as slowly the front of the house was cleared and improved, together with the many visits by delivery lorries (30+?) and the grab lorry (9 or 10) in the last 17 months.  I think the comments I get now are partly due to their relief that I could have done far worse.  This public reaction is also quite a relief for me, as I didn't really want to annoy the long term locals by completely laying waste the garden!