Restoration to date
Well the “Oooh Aaah” quickly turned into “Oooo, how much?” and “Aaargh what have we done!”
The first priority was a complete re-wire – well we did only have 3 sockets in the kitchen, and round pin sockets dotted about the house – there was some pretty dangerous DIY work too…!
Anyway 6 months – yes 6 MONTHS later (no cavity walls!), after much dust, repairing floorboards and re-plastering we switched over to our new wiring, and turned our attention to the rotten beams and windows, and the local council listed planning applications…….
You don’t want to read a rant, so here are just a few of the wee jobs undertaken so far.........
- Removed most of the uncomfortable moisture retaining concrete overcoat from the front of the house, repaired the poor oak beams that hadn’t been able to dry out, revealed and re-pointed some of the lovely old sandstone base, and the house is now able to breath a little!
- 8 new oak window frames are now in place, with lead work repaired and re-puttied and the beautiful old metal openers repaired.
- Commissioned the construction of a hand carved and planed full panelled oak four poster bed (well the antique ones are just too wee for us big well fed 21st century folk!)
- Repaired and re-pointed the exterior of the old sandstone kitchen chimney
- Opened up and revealed more beautiful sandstone inside the internal chimney space (chapel remains me-thinks) and YES (oops got over excited there!) installed a big beautiful black and chrome AGA
- Opened up the full dining room inglenook, revealing the bread oven
- Opened up the Court room inglenook - once held a spit turned by a dog (local gossip)
- Repaired and replaced numerous oak doorframes
- Planted more apple trees and created new vegetable plots
- Planted 1000 broadleaved trees in the old quarry field
But most importantly, we have created 3 beautiful en-suite bedrooms with big roll top baths and lots of curios and antiquey bits that I find on my (too) occasional excursions to the shops!