Reflections on the Last Two Years

Now that I have a bit more time for activities other than building work, I've been thinking about what has been acheived in the last two years and two months.  Specifically, I've been thinking about two aspects of the work, namely the things I've done which have really pleased me, and the things that I would rather had been done differently.

Under the latter heading come a few things which still bug me:

• The attitude of the Conservation Officer - this relationship seemed to have gone wrong near the start, but I still don't really know why, other than because (just possibly) the CO really IS an unhelpful person.
• The fact that Highways at the County Council told me that I could not widen the existing gateway to make a single driveway entrance for both houses as it was too close to a junction, but then (after I had made an entrance in the old wall) they allowed my new neighbour to make a new entrance even closer to the junction!
• A newly laid slate has slipped from the roof to the gutter, but the roofer has yet to come and fix it.
• The new kitchen sash window is four over four, not two over two as the rest of the windows.
• There is still no vent to the kitchen...
• Thames Water fitted an external meter in the pavement and this has been found to be a joint supply. Now we have to get an internal meter fitted, but that would have been so much easier if done before the new kitchen was fitted, as I intended.
• My new loft hatch is not quite square, because the joists were not parallel!
• The new extension is not exactly as intended - the roof is higher, the chimney lower and the plasterer gave me incorrect answers to two clear questions, with the result that the internal work I did is not perfect; one window cill has thicker render than he said, so it's almost level with the top of the lower window frame, and a plastered stud wall is thinner than the rendered blocks that it rests on.

Looking at the good side, there are lots of things which make me smile:

• The stone wall where I filled in the bottom of the old doorway
• The wall which I lime-plastered myself (the stone wall which is the join between the old house and new-build extension)
• The new 6' stone wall beside the front door, and the attached gates
• The new sash window which cost just £95 from a reclamation yard
• The front room floor where I replaced bits of joists and re-laid most of the boards plus some reclaimed ones
• The stud wardrobe frontage which I built for the master bedroom
• The wood-burning stove in the kitchen, in the alcove which I "found" by removing the old tiled fireplace
• The recently fitted secondary glazing (we are cosy, and it is quieter now)
• The limecrete/black limestone floor in the kitchen (laid by Chris, Shane and me)
• The black limestone floor in the new extension which I laid entirely by myself (on concrete...)
• The extension roof on which I laid over half the slates in just over a day on my own, much to Chris's surprise
• The casement window in the new extension which I salvaged from the old extension and did a major repair job
• The 1800+ Imperial bricks from the old extension which Jane and I salvaged and were re-used in the new extension (I only had to buy about 200 more)
• All the other little bits and pieces from the old building which I laboriously removed, kept and re-used
• Buying my own mixer, instead of hiring one
• Deciding that I would manage the entire process myself, instead of paying a builder to project manage it

Actually, the whole place makes me smile - it just feels so safe, solid and secure, just as a home should feel.

Slight Progress Again

I've been enjoying the last few weeks, in a lazy fashion.  Planning for the "service wing" re-build is still a major pre-occupation; sorting out the contractors is now almost second nature, and quite easy when you use the same ones!  (I must have done something right the first time as they are all happy to do another job for me.)

However, there is still a planning issue with the County Council's archaeologist who is interested in our footings.  I think we can get round all that, but it means that we will, after all, have to pay for a professional archaeologist - another thousand or more down the drain.  I should point out that Jane is actually quite excited by the thought of an archaeological dig on our own property.  I think I would be as well, were it not for the expense and the delay (as winter is rapidly approaching).
 
Recent work has been slight; the fireplace people came back to install our woodburning stove (left), with which we are very pleased (although of course we haven't actually lit it yet!).  The whole thing is a huge improvement over the fire and floor which used to be there (below right, obviously, although it didn't actually slope).  They have also just fitted a cowl on the chimney above the decorative arch fire which they fitted in the lounge; this had to wait until the bird's nest was empty.  They did NOT have much fun clearing it - there had been a considerable effort by the big black things (I was never exactly sure whether they were crows or what) in completely blocking up a chimney which was swept only last November.

In preparation for emptying the "service wing" for demolition repair, I have purchased and erected a small (7' x 5') garden shed with a pent roof (i.e. a single slope, not an apex).  The next task will be to fill this!  NB I have it on good authority that, although we have no "Permitted Development Rights" in this conservation area, this is still legal as it is less than 10 cubic metres in volume, so we don't need any permission.

Apart from finishing off around our new double sash window, I have also been tiling in the kitchen, using 10cm square tiles.  If you've never used these, they are quite tedious to put up, being so small; I much prefer the 25cm x 33 cm ones we've used in the bathroom as you cover the space so much quicker.  Another disadvantage of the small ones is that it is very easy to get out of square, especially on uneven lime plaster.  (I must hasten to point out that I am not criticizing the plasterer's work, but rather just pointing out a fact of life in old buildings.)

Getting to know the neighbours

After just six weeks ownership, it was fair to say that the house was starting to look like a work in progress, rather than just being damp, cold and unloved.  There had been much interest shown by everyone who passed by, and the house clearly had an air of mystery in the locality; consequently, Jane had a wonderful idea that we should invite the people we knew, and the whole of the street (of who I had met several whilst working on the front wall), into the house so that they could see for themselves what it was like.  I suppose at the back of our minds was the hope that eventually we would have a house of which we would be proud, and would feel even prouder of it if people had seen for themselves just how bad it was when we started!  Thus it was that we had about forty invitations printed and distributed, offering mulled wine and discerning conversation about old houses over a period of three hours last Sunday morning.

We had over thirty visitors altogether - we both lost count as there was always someone to talk to; at least people now know why we have not moved in.  I have to admit that it was very cold indoors; due to the scaffolding we had to use the front door but it has a rotten frame (to be done in January) and sticks on the floor, so it had to be left ajar all the time.  Fires were lit in both the groundfloor rooms - I had cut a lot of the rotten wood into decent blocks and it was all consumed.

I suspect that once I was a bit sharp on someone from up the road when we were talking about the dampness issues; he asked if we were going to fit a chemical DPC (!) and I said "absolutely not!" which came out just a bit strongly.  Mind you, he does live in a house which is older than ours so I wonder if that is what he's done?

Overall, we were confirmed in our view that people here are very friendly and we think that we are going to enjoy living in such a community.

Progress Update

We have been held up by the weather recently, as one might have expected; I think the roofers have lost seven days in the last two weeks.  This has been especially frustrating as we were so close to completing the roof.  However, it warmed up sufficiently by Thursday to enable the last coat of the chimney rendering to be done and the box gutter has slates and ridge tiles (see photo right); now all that is left to do are just a few slates, some "muck work" for the back ridge and hip tiles and then the installation of the guttering.  Then we can have the scaffolding down!

Today (Saturday) was an unusual day as there was no-one at the house but us.

Together we removed all the plaster from the two back bedroom ceilings as there were many holes due to the leaks (see photo left).  I have to repair the laths this week so Phil can do the plastering in a week's time.  Lath is quite expensive (~£20/sq metre) so I saw no reason to pull it all down and then pay to replace it.  We tried removal from beneath, trying to keep it tidy, but then I decided that it was better to go up above the ceiling and to scrape the plaster off the top of the laths and push through to fell the plaster below.  This is very messy, but also very satisfying when you push and a whole square foot falls down below. 

The end result is in the photo on the right.  No plaster, lots of laths and lots of holes!  On Monday my first job will be to tidy up the mess...

One benefit from this approach was that it is more obvious when you find a rotten lath - we have a good number that appear to be fine but are rotten inside and have no strength at all (not forgetting the many which suffer from wet rot).  We were very glad that we did not see anyone we knew, as we walked back up the road to our car doing our impressions of the dinner party in "Carry On Up The Khyber" (but with rather scruffier clothes under the dust).  Perhaps we should have waited until it was dark!

My first wheelbarrow

It feels like one of those rites of passage - the purchase of your first wheelbarrow.  Not one of those namby-pamby garden wheelbarrows but a large solid "contractor's wheelbarrow", built to endure the rigours of a building site.

The scaffolders' version!

This is my wheelbarrow

This was required to facilitate the rendering on both the chimneys, which need some considerable attention.  I had the task of removing the old render, some of which fell off and some just refused.  The issue is that you can damage the brickwork if you hit too hard, as the lime mortar is softer than the cement render.  You can also hit your own hand, graze your knuckles under the chisel, and generally just get VERY tired by hitting a chisel with a 4lb mallet about 10,000 times in one day whilst perched on the top lift of the scaffolding.

Phil the Plasterer asked me to get the materials for the rendering.  Now, this sort of thing always happens with me, even though I asked for clarification, so I shouldn't have been surprised this morning when the lorry bringing the requested seven bags of "fine washed rendering sand" actually arrived bearing seven one-ton bags!  I did not have either a need or a place to keep one such bag, so I had to make a trip myself to the aggregate yard to allow the work to proceed.  This was an experience which Jane and I shared with some trepidation; it is the sort of place that you don't want to go to unless you have been there before.  However, they were very nice about the morning's error (whoever's fault it was), and sold me 250kg of sand for £6 (NB they weigh the vehicle in and out - seems odd in a car).  Phil assured me that their rendering sand is the best there is, but then added that the 250kg of sand was an under-purchase!  Well, I could hardly have got any more sand in the bags, and how was I to know how much sand I had put into the bags myself, shovelled from a pile of 500 tons?  (Top tip: when carrying open bags of sand in your car, do make sure that they are securely stowed and do not move when you brake.)

The rear chimney has had the top six courses rebuilt with "engineering bricks", and has also been fitted with four new chimney pots (excuse scaffolding poles):

It all looks so new, but I'm sure it will weather.  I discovered a new word during this job: the mortar around the actual chimney pots is called "flaunching".  I would have liked to use reclaimed pots but frankly it is very unlikely that one will find anything suitable which is serviceable, having seen the damage on the ones we removed.  Mind you, I was a bit surprised that they were so bad that the brickies threw three of them off the roof onto the hardcore pile!  Not even good enough for garden ornaments, it seems.

So, today the front chimney had its scratch coat done by Phil, while I spent a while reclaiming about 35 of the bricks from the same pile for eventual use in our extension, which saved about £15 and made me feel good.  The top coat will be done tomorrow, the roof is now almost half slated, and hopefully we shall see some major progress this week with the rest of the lead work being completed.

A highlight this week was when I carried a roll of lead up the 10 metre ladder, discovering at the top that it weighed 37kg, and wishing I hadn't felt the need to compete with Chris the roofer.  A day later he asked for help in carrying 400 slates up, 20 at a time.  After four goes with only 15 each time, I gave up and watched him.  That was when I discovered that he is less than half my age!

Second Week Progress

Well, we've owned this house for two whole weeks now and the pace is relentless.  In that time I have had on site at least sixteen different people of almost every trade possible, apart from the plumber who is coming next week.  I'm still shattered but tomorrow I'm off for a charity meeting, so that's it until Monday.

This week I have had the electrical system disconnected entirely and replaced with a new circuit breaker box which supplies four sockets and the two storage heaters.  This was because I had no faith whatsoever in the existing system, and there seemed no point in checking it out when I knew that we would want a completely new system.  My caution was entirely justified today when, in removing the bedroom cupboards, I found that the square pin sockets were supplied by lead sheathed cable!  LEAD SHEATHING!!?  I had no idea that such a thing existed - at least I will profit by recycling the lead.

I have also had two chimneys checked so that I am now able to safely light a fire in both main downstairs rooms.  It really is amazing how much a room cheers up when you light a fire.  The effect was further improved when Jane then demolished the dirty, damp and dark cupboards beside the chimney breasts - suddenly we could see the room as we knew it ought to look.  One of these cupboards in particular was riddled with woodworm and I took much pleasure in burning all that wood outside.  The shelves were lined with local newspaper from May 1954, which included advertisements for the local cinemas which were showing Doris Day in "Calamity Jane" and the Marx Brothers in "Duck Soup".  Sadly this paper was too damaged to save as it was riddled with woodworm holes and so fell apart as we touched it.

The roof has progressed and Barry the Chippy will finish his work tomorrow hopefully, which will enable some slate to be refitted.  I think that completion of the roof is now intertwined with work required on the chimneys stacks, which is obviously a complication that the roofer is used to, so I'll leave him to it.

I was most impressed with the structure of the roof.  Essentially the load is carried by two large A-frames which Barry assures me are probably original:

These frames are staggered: the far end of the right hand A-frame is resting on an internal major structural wall and beyond that are two bedrooms, and the left hand A-frame goes to the far wall.  Here's another view of the right hand one:

We had wondered about using the loft as another bedroom but this A-frame is right in the way; the mechanics of replacing it would be hugely difficult and expensive (even if allowed) and if we didn't do that, I wouldn't want two rooms which were only six feet wide (the rather thin joists are at about 300mm spacing).

Finally, I also had a go at some pointing this week.  Given the exceptionally mild conditions forecast (as lime mortar does not like frost when setting), it seemed a good opportunity to fill in a few of the deep holes in the rubble on the side of the house.  This was done to bring it up to a 20mm depth, and the final pointing will be done when I have bought the matching colour for our lovely yellow/cream mortar.  I have found that pointing is time-consuming (as one would expect) but it also appeals to some deep desire of mine to put things in order and I find it very satisfying.  I am afraid that I have rendered a small part of the insect world homeless just before winter, but it's another small step forward.  There's a lot more to do!