A Real Work of Art - in our house!

"A real work of art" is how my other half described it -or more accurately, them. We have just replaced two opaque bits of glass in a bedroom door with two specially commissioned contemporary style items of leaded stained glass. I think we'd had the idea a while ago but, like so many ideas, it has taken a long time for it to come to fruition. That is often how I do things, I guess - at least it usually means that the final thing is perfect but equally often, it dies a death.

The panels in question are in the standard old four-panel pine door to a north facing bedroom. I guess that the old wooden panels were replaced a long time ago in a bid to shed some light on the stairs which otherwise have no natural light. The glass used was about 4mm thick and one side has vertical grooves to distort the image from the outside. The trouble was that it was impossible to get old paint and varnish off the edges and especially from out of those grooves, so they always looked dirty. Interestingly, the plain side of those glass panels is actually wavy, so I have no idea how old they are.

Strictly the new windows are coloured and leaded glass (and not painted glass), but everyone calls this "stained glass". Here are some photos of what we now have and the old glass.

It's quite difficult to get a decent photo from the stairwell, but the left picture shows the colours cast on the door surround, and they also appear on the yellow clay paint of the stairwall.

The old panes, removed without breakage!

This shows the wavy nature of the old glass.

Thanks to Themis Mikellides at Bath Aqua Glass who made the windows for us.

The Last Sash Window - Pictures

Well, at last I've done the fiddly bits on the last sash window,and so the job is effectively finished and I can now post a few photos. Firstly, here's what it looked like before we bought the place (first seen in August 2010).

Then, here's what it was like after removal of the ivy (and we moved in - July 2011):

Here's what it was like after a quick coat of paint on the (concrete) cill and the fake stucco (probably later in 2011, or else in 2012):

Finally, here's the finished product (2018):


 
As you can guess, I am pretty pleased with the result, especially as the old wavy glass can really be appreciated when it catches the reflections and, of course, the fact that both windows work as intended!!

I am now certainly qualified to give advice on refurbishment of Victirian sash windows, having started with absolutely zero knowledge.

Edited 25 Aug 2018: I just found that I made a miscalculation. I added a nice brass latch and a solid brass handle to each of the windows, and then found that one of them wouldn't stay in place as it did before. Clearly my weighing to make my lead weight was too accurate as it didn't take account of the brass handle, which has now been removed. Drat!

The Last Sash Window

Well, it's really time to celebrate, as I have just finished a complete renovation of the last sash window on my house! There were seven sashes on the house and in the restoration of the house we added two more - one in the rebuilt extension and one in the kitchen replacing a Crittal door (where there used to be a large sash); of the existing seven, one was a complete renewal job (the large venetian sash at the front bay) as it was too far gone. I did the first of the other six in 2015, followed by two more in both 2016 and 2017, leaving just the one. I deliberately started with the largest and then the next four were all pretty well the same size, leaving the smallest to last. I'm glad I did this, as I used two larger damaged pieces of glass in the last window, and got them cut to size; one I had managed to crack on removal (grrrr.....), and the other was newer, thicker and not wavy, so having the wavy glass available it was a no-brainer to replace it. BTW, if you want to see the effect of wavy glass, hold it in sunshine and look at the image on the ground - this is why it is valuable.

The window concerned was the front window with two lights, both just one over one, separated by a cement mullion on the outside; this window is for the bathroom/loo upstairs. The top pane on each side is a rectangle with a half round at the top, and I checked with my glass supplier that he was able to cut such a shape (just in case I broke one) but in fact both those came out OK. The top pane on each side was a fixed window, lacking pulleys and cord, and in fact some of it was unpainted - obviously it had been installed unpainted, so had probably never been removed in 150 years.

All my sash windows have needed a complete renovation. All of the latches were solid and unusable, all the pullies except one* were worn out, with huge gaps between the spindle and the housing, most windows were painted in solidly, the bottom half of the putty was usually falling out, and only about six cords were intact out of 24. So the complete renovation involves removing all glass and brass, strip to bare wood, repair as required, paint, fit same glass with fresh putty and refit with new cord, new pulleys and new latches.

I had one issue as three of the weights were locally cast lead (2.1 lb) and one was a standard 6.5 lb iron one, just like the rest on the house. The issue I had was that I could not get the iron one out easily. Eventually it came when I worked out a way of levering it out longitudinally, forcing the gap apart a bit. When it came to re-instating the window, I made a new one out of lead sheet, wrapped around a long plated screw. This was made at the same weight as the others, because I was using the correct thickness of glass; the 6.5 lb was serious overkill by some repairer in the past - that one weight was more than the required weight of two, and of course being on the one side it meant that the window would always have been sticking by being unevenly weighted.

By now I have got a good idea of how to do this job but even so I reckon that each complete window takes about 30 man-hours and an elapsed time of almost two weeks. Although this last window was smaller and one over one (all the others were two over two, with two frames), it is a double window with four frames so took me just as long as the larger ones.

So, this last window is basically done but I just need to re-instate the pointing and sort out the cills; I think I'll leave that for a couple of weeks time. I'll offer free advice on Victorian sashes but I hope I don't have to ever do another. Now, I have work to do on the church opposite in August, so I expect little more will happen on the house this year - the tiles in the hall floor are just about the last major job on the list.


* and that was only found serviceable after I had wrecked the face plate in getting it out!

Another End of Year Review

One good thing about a blog like this is that it helps me keep track of what I have achieved with this house and, possibly more importantly, what I have NOT achieved! Hence this end of year review is largely for my own benefit.

Frankly, I don't feel I've done much here in 2017. I did accomplish the previously reported refurbishment of the two remaining large sash windows - both hard work but very satisfying to see (and feel the benefit of reduced draughts). I also managed to repair the corner of a back wall where many stones were loose - I was worried that if my neighbour's side was as bad then the wall might collapse but, fortunately, his side was better anyway. The rest of the list from earlier this year is still outstanding.

There has also been a lot of clearing out in the second bedroom where I have made a wardrobe. This clearing task was made much easier after August as our daughter's wonderful wedding dress was used for its intended purpose and now lives at her house. Otherwise my shed is now full of stuff from my Dad's house that I would like to use, restore or sell - that last task seems to be a lot more work than one might think. I have not done much in the garden except to keep it tidy; I was really annoyed when the people at the back started to cut the ivy on my back wall - I asked them to leave as much as they could as it breaks up the appearance of the wall and adds some privacy, as well as giving food and shelter for birds.When they finished, it looked the same on my side, but on their side they had given the bit on top of the wall a short back and sides - the vertical wall was totally clear and so all the ivy on top had been cut off from its roots! Sigh.

It might be considered that I must have been lying around doing nothing this year, but this is definitely not the case. Leisure wise, I have bought a one-tenth share in a small aeroplane which is older than I am, and refreshed my private pilot's licence, so there is a bit of flying to look forward to in 2018.

At the church, we have done a £250k job on the exterior, thanks to a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund. In the course of this work we suffered some vandalism when some little sod got up the partially completed scaffolding before the alarm was fitted and literally kicked a couple of stained glass windows to pieces - this repair should be complete at last in early January. You can hardly imagine how much work is caused by an incident like that, and most of it fell on my shoulders.

That reminds me of something that I need to pass on about the erection of scaffolding. It appears to be customary trade practice not to fit a scaffolding alarm until the erection of the scaffolding is finished. Now, I can understand why that should be the case for scaffolding around a house, as the alarm will get in the way of the next day's erection work. However, when you are putting up 13 lifts of scaffolding around a church tower, the job will take several days so I cannot understand why the alarm cannot be fitted once you have done the first three or four lifts, as all subsequent work will be above the alarm. If I was the insurers I would be insisting on a change to the current practice, but fortunately they are paying (apart from our excess)...

At one stage recently, one of the two temporary plastic sheets fell out of the window and made everyone very cold for one weekend. To fix this, I hired a 7.2 metre double width scaffold tower which was erected and dismantled by me and two men of similar age. To my surprise, I found that the double width tower was no more difficult to erect

and, in fact, the platforms were easier to manage, so I will use one of these in future. The window job itself took only 25 minutes and our end result is much more secure than that of the professionals who fitted the stuff.

This year we have had a cruise from Jordan to Malaga through the Suez Canal, seeing Petra in Jordan and calling at Crete, Malta, Palma and Gibraltar; we also spent a week in Sicily in September, so we have done OK for holidays. (NB From our cruise we flew back from Malaga and had the most dreadful airport experience of our lives - don't go there! If it's a bad as that on a Sunday in early April, what was it like in August?)

We have become used to being in each other's company for most of the day, almost every day, now that we are both properly retired, and I expect to end my six years as Churchwarden in May 2018, so I will then have even more time on my hands.

Sash Window Surprise and Mystery

Yesterday I started to tackle the complete renovation of the last large 2 over 2 sash window
in the house - this one is in the hall (photo right), and there are still two small sashes in the bathroom to be done but they are one over one, so they hardly count. (NB The front door is at right angles to the window, behind the wall to the right.)

Now, the weather this August has not been too good, and this week is no exception. Having identified this as the last two week period this year when the job could be done, I started yesterday but didn't get very far in that weather. In fact it was pretty depressing as, having been pretty successful in removing the old glass on the four similar windows which I have renovated in the last two years, yesterday I broke three panes on only the one sash. Now, since the window is 2 over 2, by definition one sash has only two panes - I broke both those and, in seeing if a spare piece of glass from a previous window would fit, I broke that too! However, today was better. I got both wavy panes out of the top sash unbroken, and also stripped both sashes to bare wood, including getting all the putty out.

The surprise was the discovery that the top sash has never been a moving window. It has no pulleys and weights, nor even an attachment point for any cords.

The mystery is that although it was quite difficult to get the top sash out, this was entirely

due to the fact that it had been generously painted in on several occasions - there was no other visible attachment holding it in place. No screws, no nails, no wedge, nothing. How did they do that?

Left is a picture showing the pulley for the lower sash and an unpainted piece of wood with no hole where it should be for the pulley for the upper sash!

Fortunately, when trying to free the upper sash with a Stanley knife, I was well aware that there might be no cords holding it, so I did the job very carefully. I was most relieved when I had it in my hands complete and undamaged, and even more pleased when I had both panes out safely an hour later.


Edit following completion of the task: Mystery solved! The top sash was originally held up by a pair of very fine nails - basically long panel pins - which were nailed upwards at an angle of 45 degrees at the bottom of each vertical part of the sash frame. These of course were ferrous and so had rusted away a long time ago; it took me a long while before I found the traces of the tiny rusty holes as I knew they had to be there somewhere!

I am very pleased to have had the whole window repainted, reassembled and working on the eighth day of this project; it took about 30 manhours and looks pretty good. I didn't bother to even take any photos of the stages as it was just the same as the earlier ones, apart from the fixed window. Now all I have left are two small one over one sashes which form the bathroom window - that's a project for next year.

Plan for the Year

It might seem a bit late to be making a plan for the year in mid-May, but nearly everything I need to do is either outside or requires me to make frequent trips outside, and so the weather has been beating me. Right now I am feeling defeated as the forecast was for some cloud, clearing to the east, followed by scattered cloud with possibility of rain; we have actually had overcast cloud with drizzle for the entire day, punctuated by two half hour fool's breaks (you know, when you think you can do something and start, only for the rain to start again).

Anyway, there are jobs to be done and the first is to make a list:

a. Sash windows - two large ones are left to be refurbished, and there is a smaller pair in the bathroom. Hopefully I will get at least the two large ones done this year - one is in the kitchen and the other is in the hall (but there is also some remedial work to do on one of last year's where some putty has slipped).

b. Plastering - I need to do the inset bit at the top of the hall window which is hanging, albeit still complete, plus the three inset bits around the main bedroom window. These bits were all not done in 2010/11 as they looked OK then, but they are showing signs of wear around the edges!

c. Garden walls - I have been doing some repairs to two of the garden walls, and this could continue for ages as they are in pretty poor condition. In many cases I have to remove several stones and carefully remortar them (with NHL3.5) so that they are set solid before I do the next bit above. There is also the front (side) garden wall which I found last year was bowing horribly towards my neighbour's garden - and it is about 10' high, so that's quite a worry. However, that rebuild won't happen this year...

d. The back garden needs lots of tidying where the residue of 2011's work is still apparent, and there's still some ground elder to dig up carefully.

e. Redecoration - I think that 'Er Indoors wants some redecoration in at least one of the back bedrooms and, possibly, the lounge.

I have done some things this year - the wardrobe in a back bedroom was completed back in February, which has allowed a rearrangement of the stuff in our main wardrobe. As another consequence, we have been able to dispose of some items of furniture.

I have also been helping my next elder brother and both my sisters to tidy our parents' house. Mum died in 2015 and Dad is now in a carehome with vascular dementia; at 95, clearly he will not be going home again. I think the house will need to be sold by early next year to pay for the carehome which is really quite expensive. As part of clearing that house in London I have occasionally brought things back home for disposal or sale - such items always take priority over mere house jobs and selling things on eBay is actually quite time-consuming, I think.

The major change this year is that my other half has retired from full-time work. This has been quite an adjustment for both of us, as I had been so used to her disappearing early in the day and arriving back much later in time for an evening meal (made by me); this routine allowed me to work out the day for myself as I wanted, but suddenly there is someone else wanting to use the car, or the bathroom, or whatever room I wanted to work in etc. You get the picture!

I've been retired for nearly seven years now, and haven't really stopped until the last year or so - at last, this is what retirement is really like?

More New Year Resolutions

I have found making resolutions beneficial in the last few years - at least by writing my intentions at the start of the year, I then cannot deny what I wrote! Also, it helps my failing memory about what I intended to do, and then what I actually achieved (and when).

The most momentous event of the year was that t'other half finally retired and so no longer travels to London each weekday; we are still trying to work out how to exist together for seven days per week, when for the last six years I have been accustomed to being on my own (and doing the shopping and cooking) for five of those days. We have already learned the benefits of not waking at 6.15am, and are still catching up on years of lost sleep!

Last year I did achieve most of my intentions:

a. The hall landing and stairs were painted in the Earthborn claypaint
b. I stripped, repaired and repainted one half of the back gates
c. I managed to renovate two more sash windows (the back bedrooms)
d. I installed a wardrobe in the second bedroom, using the doors and frame given to me by the neighbour who was throwing them out  - I'm very pleased with the result
e. I built a second wood-store and also did a couple of similar jobs in the church

However, I still have the following to do this year:

1.There is still some plastering to do: the window recess in the front bedroom is some of the last original plaster left, and it doesn't sound good. 

2. In painting the hall I found that the plaster in the top of the hall window recess was dropping down and so needs to be re-done as well, with lime plaster.  It would make sense to do both 1 and 2 at the same time but that will make a mess in two places at the same time, and the job will want three or four coats with drying time between.

3. The wardobe in the front bedroom needs plastering (modern stuff - it's panelled with plasterboard).

4. I still want to put fire black on some fireplaces - I've never done that before and feel that it could be messy!

5. There are still two more of the same size sash windows (hall and kitchen) to do, plus the pair of small ones in the bathroom.

6. One very new job is that the high stone wall (between our neighbour's back garden and our front) needs to be rebuilt - it is about 8 feet high on my side, and about 10 feet on my neighbour's, due to the difference in ground levels. It has a lot of ivy damage and also leans alarmingly. I think I will get it done by a professional...

We have our daughter's wedding to look forward to in August, and have also booked a cruise from Aqaba to Spain just before Easter. Somehow I don't think the year is going to hang around!

The Year is half over

It seems hardly possible that we are now in the second half of the year. How time flies! How the world has changed so much in a short time! How much have I done to the house? What more will I achieve in the remainder of the year?

We've now been here for five years, and that hardly seems credible either. I first saw this house at the start of August 2010, and it immediately spoke to me. Moreover, I knew that it would speak to my other half as well - she has the vision (so often lacking in those TV property programmes!) to look past the defects and the undergrowth, and to see what a place could be. We never had any real doubt that this was the place for us, and I can still recall the evening of the day we moved in - we shared a wonderful sense of peace and satisfaction that this was OUR HOME, in every sense of the phrase (despite the boxes, mess and work still outstanding).

Back to my questions above. Firstly, I have been mentioning about the internal doors since 2012 (when I did the door from the kitchen to the new extension); in 2013 I started on the three doors in the hall (filter on "decorating" or "doors" to find these posts) These are the original doors with four recessed rectangles, the upper pair being slightly larger; the doors were covered with some revolting brown stuff which gummed up sandpaper in two strokes and was eventually removed with a three handed operation involving a hot air gun, a scraper and a Stanley knife; the knife had to be used after every stroke to remove the molten globule from the scraper, otherwise the next stroke would leave as much as it removed. I managed this by holding both the heat gun and the Stanley knife in my left hand, at the expense of a slight strain to the thumb!

Compounding the difficulty of the brown gunk, both sides of the lounge door and one side of the kitchen door have a moulding around each of the four rectangles, which made removal of the gunk even more onerous. There was also the architrave around both sides of the kitchen door - I confess that in 2015 I gave in and replaced the architrave around the lounge door (which had been split on one side in earlier works although I forget exactly how).

Anyway, I stuck at the removal task and had done the two main doors by last autumn. Remaining was the door to the cupboard under the stairs, which I did in February this year. The nice touch on this one was to add a bit of architrave above it, which has improved the look considerably. They are finished in eggshell eau-de-nil which looks really good with the gentle yellow of the claypaint walls.

Secondly, I determined that there were some jobs for which I just had to bite the bullet, namely the sash windows. I did one (the largest and most complicated!) last year, and soon I'll post a detailed report on the ones I have done this year. Once again, my choice of window was thwarted - t'other half wanted me to start with the other bedrooms, and I wanted to do the bathroom small pair at the front. Anyway, the pretty large sash in both bedrooms is now complete and they really do look better. I estimated last year that the first one took me 60 hours; both these are not quite as large and have one glazing bar less, and took me about 40 hours each.

I have also built a second wood store outside, and have tackled a few of those little jobs that one puts off, like the bit of stone on the front corner which was missing (as someone had indented a bit of wood from the gate frame into the wall! WHY?). There remains for this year the two small sash windows in the bathroom, some lime plastering around two recessed windows and a new wardrobe in the second bedroom; that will leave just two sashes for next year. Perhaps then I will have to find new ways of enjoying my retirement!

Another Year

Another year starts and so it's time to review what I've done on the house and what I intend to do this year!

I did do a couple of things not listed in the last progress update last June or the end of year update immediately below this entry:

a. The hall landing and stairs were painted in the Earthborn claypaint and look lovely - I do recommend this stuff, but to get the best result you need to roll it rather than brush it.
b. I stripped, repaired and repainted one half of the back gates - as they are from different sources they wear differently, and the one half that I had renovated in 2011 was looking quite poorly.  I think this was because it wasn't actually as dry as I thought then.

Now, in the coming year, there are a few big-ish jobs left:

1.  The big question is how many sash windows I will renovate.  My plan is to do at least the narrow pair in the bathroom, followed by the one in the hall.  That will leave one in the kitchen and two in the back bedrooms.

2. There is also some plastering to do: the window recess in the front bedroom is some of the last original plaster left, and it doesn't sound good.  Having done the window last year, it makes sense to tackle this tricky bit of work.

3.  In painting the hall I found that the plaster in the top of the hall window recess was dropping down and so needs to be re-done as well, with lime plaster.  It would make sense to do both 2 and 3 at the same time but that will make a mess in two places at the same time, and the job will want three or four coats with drying time between.

4.  The wardobe in the front bedroom needs plastering (modern stuff - it's panelled with plasterboard).

5.  I want to install a wardrobe in the second bedroom, but that means that I have to sort out a full four drawer filing cabinet and other stuff...

6.  I'd like to put fire black on some fireplaces - I've never done that before and feel that it could be messy!

7.  Then there's more decorating and other internal jobs, plus more tidying in the garden - but these all count as maintenance.

Other than those, we have a cruise holiday booked in March and we're going to a square dance convention for three days in July.  Moreover the church is not doing any major work this year as our current grant application is for 2017, so it might be a more relaxed year!

http://www.heyfordhoofers.org.uk/ 

Renovating Sash Windows

Well, four years after moving in, I cannot procrastinate any longer: I have started to renovate the sash windows at last.

The house has seven old sash windows (as well as the new double sash in the kitchen and the replacement Venetian window in the lounge, both fitted in 2011), most of which have old wavy glass.  Four are standard two over two, two are a pair of one over one in the bathroom (but they are totally separate windows) and the final one is our bedroom window at the front of the house (photo right): it is basically a normal two over two but each glass has an extra narrow pane on its outside, so there are two normal size panes and two narrow ones in each sash - eight bits of glass in all. Being a cautious sort, I wanted to start with a standard one at the back of the house but t'other half wanted me first to address the tatty complicated one at the front.  The thick paint was flaking and was missing two sash cords, the glass was barely attached and the cill was rotting, not to mention the catch which was rusted solid and loosely attached.

So, first thing on Monday last week, after much research and some advance purchases, and with a fairly favourable weather forecast, the lower sash was removed.  Basically, the process with each sash was to remove the glass (carefully!), completely remove all paint

and old putty, do any necessary repairs, prime, refit the glass and finally finish the painting.  Concurrently, the window frame itself needed a complete strip, replacement of four worn brass pullies (pulleys?), four new sash cords and new parting beads, not to mention some major woodwork repairs.  Looking at the photo (left), it reminded me of having a missing tooth for two weeks - too late to go back now!

The lower sash had loose tenons at the bottom corners, not to mention three loose glazing bars, and so needed re-gluing.  The photo right shows its condition after removing the glass and doing a fair bit of stripping.  One of the narrow panes had been cracked when we bought the house, and I had kept an old piece of wavy glass for just that job - it just needed cutting down.  The rest of the job was some hours of stripping, scraping and sanding, plus a small amount of extra gluing.

The upper sash came out on Tuesday morning.  This one had never fitted properly, and the reason for this was immediately apparent as the weights rested on the bottom while the

window was an inch from the top.  It also had a nasty steel bracket holding the centre glazing bar to the bottom cross member - sadly it wasn't in the right position and there was a 7mm gap to the lower bar.  That one I had already decided to do with some stuff called "Repair Care Dry Flex 4"; this is designed specially for things like doing structural repairs to window frames and isn't cheap - but it does the job admirably (the yellow green bits in the photo left)!

I managed to remove all seven unbroken pieces of glass from both sashes without further breakage - the eighth piece was already cracked when we bought the house and I had kept some old glass from the old lounge window as a replacement.  I also decided to use "Repair Care Dry Seal" instead of linseed putty; this is permanently elastic and seems a better bet after my poor efforts at using proper putty a few years ago!

I thought I had a good idea of how long all this work would take but, once again, I underestimated and it was not until Wednesday of this week (nine days after starting) that I 

was able to fit the freshly painted and glazed sashes back in place (right, before glazing).  I reckon it was over 40 manhours of work as well.  Everything went to plan except that it all took longer; even the weather was kind and no rain got onto my south facing work site until I was refitting the sashes.  I did break one of the narrow pieces whilst cleaning it but, fortunately, I had kept TWO pices from the old lounge window!  The only other issue, at the last minute, was a nasty splinter in the index finger of my right hand, due to careless sanding.

There was also the small matter of the window cill, which was oak but suffering from rot. 

I took off all the poor wood and covered the whole thing in Dry Flex, leaving a gap underneath for some sealant.  At the left bottom corner the sash frame had rotted and so this also received the Dry Flex treatment.  I slaved in a new bottom piece for the front frame, plus some bits for the cross member, both visible in the photo left.  The parting bead is also visible but this is simply a press fit (well, block and mallet).

So, I need to finish off various bits of detail like sealing around the frame and doing the black top coat, but the (almost) finished result has already attracted positive comment from friends, who say that it looks better than the similar window next door (restored three years ago by V******a).  I'll post a completed picture soon.

The Shed I've Always Wanted Part 1

I've been building a shed! Not just an ordinary shed, but a shed that looks good, will be useful and should outlast me. 

I already have one shed which I bought in 2011; it arrived on the back of a small truck and I was able to assemble it myself.  It only measures 7' x 5', which is a bit small for anything other than storage.  In fact, it is so small and crowded that I can hardly get inside it.  Frankly, it's a bit cheap and cheerful, and the roof is already sagging, so when I have finished Shed #2, everything will be moved from #1 so that I can repair that one.  My intention is that it will remain a storage shed, whilst #2 will be the place where I can do things in a decent amount of space; it will also store a few things like our camping kit which is currently kept in a large metal cupboard in the garden. The cupboard needs to go, as it is kept partly dry by an ugly old green tarpaulin.

The new shed is, I admit, a bit over-engineered (I am a chartered engineer after all!). It is basically designed as though someone was going to live in it (which I am NOT going to do).  I designed my shed in my head; the only drawings were a couple of sketches when I was ordering materials, just to make sure that I didn't forget something.  I also used Excel to get the dimensions of the sloping roof etc - even I cannot do hyperbolic functions mentally! The structure is tanalized C16 4 x 2, with an insulated floor supported on 9 brick piers, plus a slate roof (because it looks right).

The house shed measures only 10' x 6', but I feel that this is as large as the available space allows.  The only space large enough is on the raised ground beside the house, just inside the back gate, so it looks larger than it actually is.  I felt that 8' x 6' was a bit small but didn't want a huge shed, so 10' x 6' was a good compromise.  This gives 60 sq ft and I worked out that two sheets of 8' x 4' plywood were 64 sq ft, so a careful bit of cutting gave me four pieces for the floor and a 2' x 2' bit left over.  The long side is the side visible from our kitchen so I wanted the ridge of the roof to go across the short length, so that a gable end is seen. The visible long side has a window (see later) and the door.

Firstly I had to make the nine brick piers to support three beams.  The holes were dug and 4" of concrete inserted, then recycled bricks were set and built up - levelling was fun but a 5ft spirit level helped.

Then I had to make sure that my joists were going to support the edges of the bits of floor plywood, so the floor has ten joists (including two edges, plus the other two edges at right angles) which are separated by a slightly irregular gap of about 10 inches.  I used one inch structural grade plywood for the floor which is probably over-designed but I did not want to risk a sagging or bouncing floor. The floor also has 75mm Kingspan (= Celotex) insulation between the joists as I didn't want it to get cold (although I haven't yet decided whether to insulate the walls; they can wait).  Then there is a bit of thin OSB ("oriented strand board") on the other side to seal it in - I made the frame first and put the OSB on top (so it was now rigid) and then turned it over, did the insulation and then fitted the plywood floor.  As well as getting the edges supported by joists, I also fitted some half inch plank where the cuts in the floor were at right angles to the joists, so that those edges are nice and rigid as well.  Oh yes, I should mention that everything was screwed not nailed - I did try to hire a nail gun but no-one seemed to have one available.  Some photos:

Having done the floor, I used it as the platform to assemble the frames for the walls: two identical rectangles for the short ends, and one larger rectangle for the long back wall.  The two ends were erected and held in place by temporary supports, then I put up the back frame and screwed it all together, with a temporary joist at head height across the front to hold the sides in place.  The roof was next - I cut both ends of ten 5x2 rafters plus a bird's mouth, and a board to fit as the ridge, with five rafters each side.  The question was  - how to erect this on my own? My solution was to screw rafters #2 and #4 to one side of the board, and rafter #3 to the other side, then lift it all up, placing the bird's mouth cuts on the top of the two end frames, and then screwing them down (having previously marked the positions). I could then screw on the other halves of rafters #2, #3 and #4, and fit a horizontal member to each pair of rafters to complete each truss.  Finally, I could fit the 5th truss at the back, then remove the temporary joist at the front to fit the front truss.

The front wall had not been built as the height of the door was higher than the temporary joist that I had fitted, due to my desire to keep the overall height down.  This could now be done and I incorporated a space for the window.  The I finished off the top of the back wall, where I put in another window.  More photos:

The two windows were recycled from an old bathroom window (from the old extension - see here) which had large lower window and an opening narrow top window; I fitted a temporary plank across the top window, cut the frame at the bottom of the top window and made a new frame for the bottom of it, thus giving me two useable windows - the larger for the front and the other for the back. Sometime I will replace the glass, but it's not a high priority!

To be continued...

Window Arch Repair

The windows of the house have bricks to provide good edges around the window, as the walls are made of random rubble.  Above the window is an arched soldier course, i.e. of bricks on their end, and these are called rubbers.  This is, I believe, because the bricks are actually slightly tapered in order to give the arch its shape, and this taper was achieved by rubbing the bricks against each other. 

Above the hall window is the soil pipe we fitted in 2011, and when we did that I observed that the surrounding stonework was not in great nick (see first photo).  I did a bit of pointing in this area last year (or was it 2011?), doing some deep fill and letting it go off before doing the surface bit in an appropriate colour.  So, when I mixed some more coloured mortar the other day (see the previous entry), I was keen to get this area tidied up.  However, it took all of 30 seconds up the ladder to realise that things were worse than I thought: where I had done the deep pointing above the rubbers, there was (already) a 2mm gap between the pointing and the rubbers.  This could only be caused by the rubbers dropping down.

Movement like this is NOT good news, so I called Pete who did the brickwork on the extension in late 2011.  He came round for a look, assured me that he could sort this in less than a day, and duly turned up this week.  He came armed with his Acrow prop and the "Strong Boy", a flat plate which attaches to the top of the Acrow (see second photo)- and yes, it is strong.  He fitted it in under the large stone just below the soil pipe, and also fitted some shaped wood to support the brick arch.  He then proceeded to remove nearly all the mortar below the Strong Boy, and ended up with some stones and all the rubbers loose (aaargh!!).

The next step was to push the arched wood up to restore the shape of the arch and then insert bits of slate between the rubbers (I think in four gaps only) to make the arch secure.  Slate is brilliant for this as, after all, it was produced under thousands of tons of pressure, so in compression it is fantastically strong.  Then it was replace the brickwork and mortar, tidy up the pointing and the job was done (see third photo).

I am very pleased with the result, as it has removed one of my major headaches.  Since I was paying him for the day, he filled in time by doing the drilling job for the kitchen vent (see previous entry), so I got TWO tricky jobs out of the way for the price of one.  Well worth £150, I reckon.

The Saga of the Water Meter

In almost every decision on restoring this house, I deliberately tended to adopt the long term solution.  After all, we expect to be living here for a fair while, so the more expensive long term solutions were always worth considering as we would derive the benefit.  One such was the sheepswool loft insulation (see this page); this was quite expensive but it allows the ceilings to breathe, and is so much nicer to work with than the glass stuff which irritates.  Another has been the acrylic secondary glazing (see this page), which has made the house so much more comfortable, and in any case will have paid for itself in two years or less.  Other investments are purely financial, based on the expectation that we will still own the house in ten or more years' time; one such item was the water meter.  We had one in our rented house in 2010, and the experience was that, with just two of us living there, the meter had saved us about £150 per year.  So it was a no-brainer to have one fitted here and, quite naturally, I wanted it done early in the restoration.

I had identified that the mains supply for the house had a stop cock under a plastic cover in the pavement; there were two stop cocks inside the house; the main one was in the hall and fed a flexible (washing machine quality?) pipe which went to the bathroom above and had supplied the cold tank (which had already been removed to the garden!).  The other supply went to the old extension, and I had had the plumber fit a new internal tap so that we could properly attach a hose for the plastering and floor laying.  When that was working I had the plumber feed the other supply through to the kitchen so that it was ready there, but out of the way of planned work.

So, early in 2011 I made an application to Thames Water for a meter.  They sent out a workman (actually a contractor) who looked at everything and asked me if I wanted an internal or external meter.  I said "external if possible", not wanting to have a meter getting in the way of the kitchen floor and plaster work about to be tackled.  Little did I know.  A crew was sent without delay, and they very speedily fitted a meter under the pavement.  OK so far!

There was an amusing small glitch later in the year - when doing the extension we found that the water supply in the old extension actually carried on under the brick wall separating our back gardens and fed our neighbour's outside tap.  This would not normally be a concern, but in fact it had been used as the sole supply for the construction of a £3 million building at the back; this was an arrangement which preceded the sale of next door, and when they purchased it, the builders had an obligation to pay his water bill for a period.  As it happens, the construction had been completed about two months before I asked for the meter, which was fortuitous.  My neighbour admitted that he had been puzzled that his water bill was completely normal!

Having moved in (July 2011), I had a very low bill the next month, followed in February 2012 by a quite reasonable one of £91 for a six month period.  You can imagine my consternation when in August 2012 I received my second six month bill for £274.  Now, the house next door (not our other half but a separate cottage) had been rented out from February 2012, having been empty for over a year; it was not difficult to do a quick bit of detective work and spot that there was no other water main cover in the pavement for 15 metres, and so clearly they had fitted the meter to a shared supply. D'oh!

I can write this now in the cool light of reflection of the last five months.  That time was regularly punctuated with me telephoning Thames Water and getting not much satisfaction.  It took a considerable amount of persistence to resolve this issue, and their first level help desk staff became predictable in their complete lack of ability to achieve anything.   Their typical response was to say that someone would call in 6 working days but nothing happened.  One really stupid thing that someone did was to rescind all their bills back to when the meter was fitted (although the meter readings WERE valid and acceptable to me for almost a year), and then send out a bill for the standard rate for April 2011 to April 2013, so that I owed them £789, payable at once!

If you have the same sort of issue, my top tip is that at the first excuse you say the magic words "I want to escalate this issue".  Once I had been passed on to the "Escalation Department" I had much better service and progress was made, ultimately successfully.  Sadly for me that did not happen until I had wasted nine weeks and many phone calls in trying.  A second top tip is to keep a good record of your phone calls; it really gets the attention of the Manager in the "Escalation Department" when you can name the idiot who failed to do what he promised four months ago, and when you give a string of names and dates they quickly realize that you do indeed have a point.  The other thing to remember is that it is (usually) not the fault of the person to whom you are speaking, but one of their colleagues, so a plaintive sob story with a hint of desperation gets a far better response than shouting at the poor unfortunate one who was unlucky enough to get your call.

The result for me was that in order to have a meter it had to be internal.  Of course, this would have been much easier if it had been done before installing our new kitchen (June 2011), so there was a bit of an issue as to where to put it.  The only sensible place was under the sink, and Thames Water said that their installer needed six inches "all the way around" to fit the meter.  Now, it is natural to fit pipes within two inches of the wall and floor, isn't it?  This is what my plumber had done, and they wanted me to sort out the pipes before they would send someone to fit the meter.  I rather griped at that generous use of space which would have used the entire space underneath my sink for just the meter, and asked if my plumber could fit the meter as well.  This did not seem to be allowable, but they sent a man to look at the possibilities; he actually brought a meter with him, which somehow I persuaded him to leave and I then paid my plumber £96 to fit it right at the back of  the sink cupboard.  Good job!  All up and running.

I have today received their latest bill and I'm £165 in credit.  They wouldn't pay my £96 but the nice young woman has used a low figure for estimating the consumption if I'd had a meter which gave valid readings.  This has (deliberately or inadvertently?) given that sum back to me, so I'll let that drop, as I am really fed up with phoning their hepdesk!

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.

Secondary Glazing

I mentioned before how the Conservation Officer (erroneously in most people's view) sweepingly declared that "you can't have double glazing in a listed building".  That was in relation to a brand new sash window (far right below) which replaced a metal Crittal door and two windows on the side of the house (near right below), which seemed an inexplicable decision; I made sure that the design of the window will allow for double glazing if I so choose in the future, and the CO never realized!  I should point out that I agree that, in a building like this, one should not remove old sash windows and fit uPVC ones as they always look wrong - the thickness of the glazing bars is a real give away apart from the lack of wavy glass - but I did think that DG in a new window would be allowed. Anyway, with that history, I was never going to bother to mention the subject again to the CO, and so the house has remained draughty with a corresponding high gas bill last winter. As a result, I turned my thoughts to secondary glazing, and recently this came to the top of my list of "Things to do before winter". 

Secondary glazing is acceptable on period properties without conservation consent as it a reversible change (other than a few screw holes), and also it is not like double glazing, in that the space between the two panes is not sealed so it does not provide the same barrier to heat loss.  Basically it does reduce heat loss to an extent, but it also reduces draughts and noise.  The sash windows in this house are ideal for secondary glazing as the frame of the sash provides a good flat surface for the inner sheet.  You can get complicated systems which, for instance, add sliding glass in a frame, but I chose a simpler system which comprises a sheet of acrylic with a soft plastic edging strip, held against the sash window by little nylon clips and screws. I'm sure there are other suppliers, but I bought all my stuff from Tubeway Easyfix (http://www.tubeway.co.uk/).  They were kind enough to send me, free of charge, a plastic mitre block for cutting the plastic edging, which got omitted from my order.  Since this item retails at £7.05 + VAT, I'm glad I didn't pay for it; you would think they would always throw such a little bit of plastic in for nothing.

There are relatively few issues with this system, although the price of the acrylic sheet surprised me; I used 2mm thick sheet, although you can use 3mm or 4mm (even more expensive!).  One issue seems to be the size of the sheets; most of my windows are 90cm wide, and so need acrylic sheet which is about 95cm wide; of course, one of the standard widths is 92cm so I had to go to the next size up, with consequent additional waste and cost.  One potential difficulty is cutting the acrylic; I was told that could probably score the acrylic and break it like glass, but even with 2mm thick, this just did not work reliably.  Hence it had to be cut and I quickly proved that you cannot use a hand saw as this causes cracks along with a very rough edge. However my jigsaw with a fine blade proved to be the business so long as you don't move it too quickly, but even then you need to support the edge at the point of cutting or you get a jagged edge with cracks.  Straight edges help with positioning the clips, so I always made sure I had an edge cut by the supplier along the bottom when I fitted the first clips.

I've now done five windows, including the large one in the main bedroom.  This one was so large that I was unable to buy a sheet of acrylic big enough, so I have made a wooden horizontal support which runs across in line with the join in the sashes, so that it isn't seen from outside.

This support was made from four bits of stripwood, and there is a groove top and bottom to hold the edges of the acrylic; the strength is primarily from an expensive piece of hardwood (30mm x 10mm) which forms the visible side in the room. Photos of the system are quite difficult to do, as all they show are the windows and you can hardly see the edge of the acrylic, which is the whole point really.  However, here's a detail picture so you can see the edging and the clips:

The draughts have largely gone and the difference in room temperature is quite noticeable; it really does make a difference and there is now less need to keep all internal doors closed.  I've still got to do one in the hall, one in the extension and a pair in the bathroom (left); the bathroom ones fell to the end of the list due to the refurbishment work needed on the window frame and the fact that I will have to re-fit the venetian blind on another bit of stripwood to hold it away from the acrylic. The main renovation of all these windows will get done next summer (if we have one) and the main aim will be to keep the old glass wherever possible.

Having eliminated a lot of draughts, I will have to make sure that the house is still well ventilated - there has been no dampness or condensation anywhere in the last year since it dried out, apart from what we caused with cooking and showers.

The Plasterers' Return (See *** below)

Yes, the plastering has recommenced, not to mention the Return of My Favourite Electrician (see this link). Actually, Kurt came and did the whole extension in just a day, so I'm not complaining this time - I just haven't forgotten his lack of empathy with old buildings.


I've had a fair bit of work to do before the plastering, such as the installation of three windows.  The first was the sash window which we bought earlier in the year for a bargain £80 - and it's a 95% match to the existing two-over-twos.  This was a bit difficult to fit, due to the previously mentioned cavity closers (see this page), which got caught on the fixing brackets as the window was pushed in as it was all very tight.  The trick was to use a scraper to depress the closer whilst pushing the window, so I did this with the help of my son.  I have also fitted a window board.

The second window is my restored casement window.  The frame and casements were fitted very easily but then I had to fit the glass.  My masterplan here was to use a pair of old sash window panes (from the replaced front window), and cut them down to replace two broken smaller sash panes (see this link for the story on how one got broken), and then I could use the broken bits to cut down to 9x12 casement windows.  Although I thought I might do this myself, I found that a local company would do it very cheaply and with a far greater chance of success, so I invested £9 in this enterprise (much cheaper than buying a good glass cutter!).  Amazingly, the plan has worked, and we now have two draughtproof sash panes (fitted in the hall and back bedroom) and a complete pair of casements - so the extension is fully weatherproof for the first time since we bought the house.

I've also done a stud wall, above a door in the extension.  This was quite straightforward, apart from the fact that the blockwork around the door isn't straight, as both the carpenter and the plasterer have pointed out.  Ho hum.

I realise that I never posted any photos of the exterior of the finished extension, so for starters here is one of the extension itself.  80% of the bricks used were reclaimed from the old building, despite the patchy appearance.  Jane and I reclaimed these ourselves; ones with lime mortar were easy but where cement had been used they were a real pain.  The white ones were on the inside and I expect that they will clean up in time, as the white is old emulsion paint.  My restored casement window is on the left, obviously, although when this was taken there were still 5 panes empty of glass.

I did the gutter a week later and added the offset and downpipe on Wednesday evening (as we were expecting rain that night!).

And here's one (left) of the side of the house, showing the extension with the bargain new sash window which balances the old one at the far end.

Finally, here's the one (right) from the back, behind the stone wall. I have still to add the bargeboard but apart from that the exterior is finished.  Happy days!

Inside, once the plastering is done the plumber will come back, followed swiftly by me and Chris laying the limestone floor flags.  Second fix electrics and plumbing will finish things off, apart from decorating...

Today (Sunday) we held an Open House for friends and neighbours to see the inside, with some early mulled wine and mince pies.  We did this  the same weekend last year, when no-one took their coats and gloves off as it was still so damp and cold inside.  This year, people could not only see all the work that has been done but could also really feel the difference.  I lit the lounge fire and the woodburner just for the effect, but they weren't really needed as it is a very warm house.  One amusing thing was the couple from along the road who live in an even older house; they came in and both stood right in front of the woodburner as their house is always so cold and draughty!  It's this sort of event that makes you realise how much work has been done in twelve months.  No wonder I'm tired.


**** "The Plasterers' Return" (as there's two of them) or "The Plasterer's Return" (as there's actually only one plasterer and a labourer) or even "The Plasterers Return"???  Is "return" a noun or a verb in this usage?  I don't know the answer, but I've put this question in to forestall the comments of my even more pedantic daughter, who might be able to give me an answer.

The Rebuild Continues

Colin completed the foundations (left) several weeks ago, and at last Pete the brickie has started.  He has been in for most of the last two weeks, and we now have the internal block walls (photo below left) and external brick walls (photo added belatedly, right) erected up to head height.  I am pleased that all the materials I bought were the right ones, apart from a couple of things: a window was the wrong size - far too small (I don't know what I was thinking!) - and the door ordered, with the help of staff who assured me "Of course, we wouldn't sell you a door and frame of different sizes", and then did exactly that!  The door frame was easily fixed the same day and a larger window has been ordered, although I will still have to pay for the smaller one.  However, I was very pleased today to discover a use for the smaller window in the block wall above the toilet door, to give more light in what could be a very dark little cell! There was one error in construction when Pete filled in the wall where the sash window is meant to be fitted; fortunately this was spotted very quickly and easily rectified. There is one other issue with the materials - despite careful use of an Excel spreadsheet, I seem to have bought at least 60 too many blocks.  Offers on a postcard...

We are essentially rebuilding the old extension exactly as it used to be, but in modern materials with a lime mortar finish to match the rest of the house.  This does mean that we have to rebuild the chimney (which extends to the second floor fascia) even though we won't use it as such.  Although I did intend to keep the old one, it was much easier to knock it all down and start from scratch.  One side benefit of this is that the chimney breast can be a lot smaller than the old one, thus allowing better use of the space in the room.

The only real issue this week was the scaffolders, who declined to come as planned on Thursday due to the weather, which was correctly forecast as very light rain for much of the day.  I never thought that scaffolders could be so "wussy" (to use the word said by their receptionist).  So they promised to be here first thing on Friday.  Their idea of "first thing" is not the same as mine, as they turned up at 9.20am, went for a drink and the first pole was unloaded at 9.50am!  The job itself took far longer than they had said, so Pete only got going on site at 12.45, and so we lost more than a full day.  I hope they are better when they come to add the second lift next week, but I'm not holding my breath.

I have been refurbishing a double Georgian style casement window, as illustrated previously (see "The Lull before the Storm").  The frame was totally rotted (and the new one has been delivered already), but the two attractive casements are in not bad condition (see detail right), considering they are probably over 100 years old.  One needed a few epoxy repairs at the base joints, but the other (which was fixed, not hinged) needed the bottom section of frame replacing, as well as the bottom of both verticals.  I have now completed all this and primed them as well, ready for fixing hinges - I really do find this sort of repair joinery very satisfying, especially the stage at which you paint primer over the lovely wooden detail.  I am looking forward to finishing this task soon, but of course I can't fit the window now as the scaffolding is in the way.

Most of the glass was old, wavy and thin; just one sheet was new and thick (and also very badly cut).  However some of the eleven old panes are cracked, and I have a plan:  I have two very large panes left from the old 2 over 2 sash window which was replaced (two were already broken), and I'd like to cut these down to replace two not so large broken sash panes elsewhere in the house.  I then want to cut those smaller panes to provide three or four small panes (about 12 x 9") for the casement window.  However, I am thinking of getting a professional to cut the glass for me as it's a one shot task - right first time or not at all.

Finally, I have had to find a new chippie for the roof joinery as Barry, who did the main roof last year, has cut his hand badly and will be out of action for several weeks.  He has recommended Colin who lives nearby - I reckon recommendations from tradesmen are pretty reliable: a good tradesman is not going to recommend a useless mate, is he?

The Lull before the Storm

It might appear that not a lot has happened in the last two weeks as the new floor and foundations for the extension are still untouched (photo right).  However, we have fitted new carpet on the stairs and landing which really makes a huge difference to the feel of the house.  I have been making plans and the brickie is coming this Monday, and then the work will begin again in earnest.  The materials are here (see below) and I have the joiner, roofer, plumber, electrician and plasterer all lined up (in that order) for the following weeks; the hope is to have the new "look-alike" extension done by the end of November.

I forgot to mention an oddity that we found while doing the excavations.  The extension had its own rising main, fed from the same main in the street as our "proper" rising main in the kitchen, but what we found was that the cast iron pipe carried on under the garden wall and supplied next-door's external tap!  This might seem insignificant, but while the community centre was being built at the back, this was the tap which supplied their water.  Fortunately, I only had a water meter fitted in June this year, which was after the construction had been completed...

Since the foundations for the extension have been done I have been busy reclaiming bricks to re-use for the external wall; we now have 1800 in three piles in the garden (right), which should be about enough; the remaining ones are difficult as they are in cemented blocks of three or four; on these you can spend ten minutes with bolster and mallet, and still only end up with one or two good ones.

The materials for the brick/block work was all ordered and delivered last week.  It was unloaded from the road and dumped in my front garden using one of those lorry-cranes with a good reach.  Then I had the task of moving it all round the back so as not to attract the attention of people who like to appropriate things.  There were lintels, wall plates, blocks, insulation batts and lots more.  I had been quite surprised that we require 450 blocks as well as the reclaimed bricks.  I was even more surprised to find that "lightweight" blocks weigh over 7kg each, so yes, muggins here had to hand every single one (that's over 3 tonnes) into the wheelbarrow, trundle it round the back 50 times (!) and then stack them all again on pallets so they don't get muddy; this all took four hours...  (photo above left).  I could only take 9 blocks each journey as I thought the tenth might be the straw that broke the wheelbarrow for good - it really is on its last legs after being abused by too many overloads.  The really annoying thing was that it was only as the last pallet was being unloaded that I remembered a good idea I had had a long time ago - if I asked nicely, perhaps the lorry could go round the back to the community centre car park and unload over the wall? D'oh!

One task that has been keeping me busy is the refurbishment of a pair of casement windows from the original extension (photo right). I wanted to re-use these as they both have mostly antique glass, as well as being very nice old bits of joinery.  The right hand window has never been hinged but was simply nailed in place, with a rebated edge for the other window to close on as there is no central pillar (mullion?).  The window frame was past retention, being totally rotted by the long-term ingress of water in the old roof, probably from the leaking chimney flashing.  (NB I was unaware that the same water ingress had also rotted the purlin which I thought was the only good bit of wood in the entire roof structure! Isn't ignorance bliss?)  The right hand window needed a new bottom piece of frame, and then I found that both the vertical bottom ends were also rotten, so there was more work than I expected.  The old glass was carefully removed (mostly successfully) and all the replacement wood was found from an old sash which had been taken out of the front window in June.  Now it just needs priming and re-glazing, and the new frame is being made by a local joiner.

Now, as I said, tomorrow it all starts again!

We're Moving In!

It really seems odd after eight months of work, with numerous contractors and much personal effort, to realise that we can actually move in next week.  It's a sort of end-of-term feeling - relief and deep satisfaction mixed with a kind of hollowness.  Note that I'm NOT saying that the house is finished, merely that things are done sufficiently to allow us to move in (so long as the boiler is commissioned on Monday!).  This pair of photos shows how the public view of the house has changed in the last eight months:

I still have plenty to do as there are many remaining tasks, such as refurbishing the sash windows, finishing the decorating and rebuilding the old "service wing", plus most of the garden/driveway tasks.  For ages I have been giving priority to tasks that get us out of our rented house and into our own place (with no mortgage!).

The last major task was the installation of the newly-made window cill for the new kitchen window.  Chris cast the new cill in cement and did a remarkable job of making a colour which matches the Cotswold stone and pointing.  Although it should have been done before the installation of the window, circumstances dictated otherwise (i.e. Chris broke the first cill, then he broke his foot...)!  It was VERY heavy but it was lifted up by four strong people and slid into place without too much difficulty, leaving me with the task of making good the stonework and pointing around it.  It was a great feeling to realise that this was the last major task and that the house was now effectively finished and secure.  Jane became quite emotional when she saw it - surprising that a cement object could actually be a thing of beauty!
 
The window above used to look like this (below): 

I think that the new wall filling in the bottom of the old door is the thing of which I am most proud of having done with my own hands on this project.

I'm still in progress with my wardrobe which is a major bit of woodwork, and there is still decorating to be done.  However, this week I was helped by Wayne (not Wayne the kitchen fitter, but the brother of Neil the electrician) who has done a sterling job at some of the tasks which I found really tedious like sanding and painting skirting board.

I was visited this week by my son, daughter-in-law and grandson, who last visited only three weeks ago.  Their amazed reaction on seeing what had been accomplished since their last visit has given me a yardstick to show just how busy that time has been.  The list is quite long: front garden cleared, dropped kerb and driveway laid, 30 tons of hardcore cleared, kitchen units, kitchen appliances and two new windows fitted, kitchen floor grouted, bathroom tiled and fitted out, electrics finished, fireplace installed and painted, and lots of decoration done.  Finally, I fitted a net curtain in the new lounge window which made it look as though the house was occupied.

One fundamental thing that is missing at the moment is a toilet seat.  This was an oversight on our part as the soft close type we wanted was about to be introduced when we ordered our bathroom fittings and we forgot to go back in May and order it when it became available.  There's always something that catches you out!

Edit - I'm adding here a few extra photos of the house: