Odds and ends

We've made a bit of progress here and there, but have been remiss about taking pictures!

Here's a few random ones to show we're still alive.

Here's the family in the snow in the garden - it's still snowing in this pic - we had about 8 inches in all.

Here are the kids on the Dakota fire pit that I've made in the garden (if you don't know what one is, you can find out here.

The above has some house progress in it - warming gloves by the log burner! You can see the granite hearth that's now in. This is the sitting room (see previous post)

This is the view up the garden in the spring. You can see that the trees haven't got all their leaves yet.

And this brings us up to date - this is one of the concrete pads from this year's outside projects. I'll build a lean to over the barbecues - saves messing about with covers for them, and dragging them in and out of the stables at the end of the garden. And we can barbecue anytime!

The Hokey Cokey

We had a bit of bad news recently. Recalling that the fireplace started like this:

Was demolished, and put back together like this (note sturdy wooden lintel):

Was plasterboarded, plastered and decorated to look like this:

Then we had the man around to quote for putting the planned log burning stove in. 

"Can't do that", he said to my wife. 

"What?" said she.

"I can see a wooden lintel in there - they change the regs last year. And you can't have that plasterboard there either."

"Eh? That plasterboards the fireproof stuff - look, it's pink"

"Doesn't matter - can't be there. And if you want that wooden lintel, the stove would need to be tiny - there's minimum distance it can be from the top of the stove"

"Balls".

Hence the Hokey Cokey. Not in celebration - but with lintels.

Having put yer wooden lintel in, take your wooden lintel out: 

Concrete one in, out, in out (it wasn't the same size at the wooden one, and wasn't going in without some more surgery on the hole) ... anyway, you get the picture.

Of course, this necessitated another visit from our friendly plasterers (and we got the floor in too):

And this is how the fireplace is today:

It's a clearview stove - very controllable, and very warm. It's sitting on a couple of pieces of black-ish granite (one at the back, in the chimney opening, and one going across the front). And that's where we are now!

Front of house

We got new gates. So front of house has gone from:

Through:

To:

Sitting Room (again)

The sitting room has been subject to something of a blitz. I often get asked 'why don't you just do one room at a time - surely the rooms don't take that long?' Well. We started from here (this post inevitably repeats earlier ones):

The fireplace:

The double aspect room. The curtains are doing a fine job of shielding the paintwork on the shutters which is so yellow that it's getting on for brown...

Smash the place up:

Fireplace and glorious 70's lighting effects out:

Supporting beam for fireplace in:

 Room cleared and ready for plasterboards, holes cut for first fix electrics:

Plasterboards up over fireplace, also hearth cast in concrete:

More first fix electrics and data points for CAT5E:

Random 'floor up' pic:

This bit I didn't do - lack the skills - but plasterers in, and plaster on walls:

You can really see the browness of the wood work in the above pics. We've also now taken out the old electrics and filled the holes in the skirting boards where the plug sockets used to be.

Starting to paint, but find damp patches on the wall. This is what you get with old houses - surprises. Often unwelcome.

That damp patch corresponds to the chimney on the other side of the house, so exploratory work starts. The little circle of filler in the pic one above this one is where I drilled through the wall. Duh.

Another brown woodwork pic above.

First coats on:

 Picture rail up, sockets on walls. These three pics are where we are now:

Random garden pics

Took some pics today as was in the garden:

Grass has got so long, I've needed to use the lawn tractor to cut it. Scalpage the result!

Out of view, but on the left of the first shot are the chickens. There are 10 now. All happily clucking and chickening about.

Greenhouse yet another project!

Out front

With a digger on site (see previous post),it seemed a good idea to try to make a bit of progress on the front garden. Well, the path at any rate.

You might remember this:

That load of hardcore leading to the front door is the path! Well. Kind of. The idea is that there'll be a path, and then a circle at the end. So you'll go up the path, and then instead of a right angle bend left to the front door, there's a circle. Anyway. It'll eventually be York sandstone. For now, it just needed the circle digging out and level with the start of the path. Digger in, and this was the result:

Much of the hardcore is from the fireplace in the sitting room!

That earth bank isn't against the new wall, it stops just at the foot of it, which emphasises how much higher the road is than the front garden. It needs raking out properly, but as the digger's on hire, I did that and not raking. Garden is going to need lots and lots of work!