Hall and Landing finished ! (apart from decorating)

A very wet (and rather chilly) Saturday, but a lovely Sunday.

I spent Saturday fitting architrave and skirting in Alys' bedroom, looks great but also allows the next step of finishing the liming in that room. Also I de-nailed the ceiling joists of the old plasterboard nails, getting it ready to start fitting the ceiling bisquit board next time...That took all Saturday afternoon.
Meanwhile Jan painted the hall cladding....looks great, really lightens the hallway.

A chilly evening, but the house looked wet, but lovely...

Sunday, I limed the landing ceiling, hard work, but not as difficult as liming in between the joists( in Owens bedroom and the hallway). The finish is "rough and ready", but i like it. I feel encouraged that I can do this in Alys' bedroom ceiling and in the Inglenook room(sometime soon). Jan continued to paint the skirting and architraves...looks amazing.. looks.finished !! Also limewashed the hall walls (first coat), softer and lighter already.

Lastly, I had a go at the end-wall in Alys' bedroom. We are not going to Lime render this, but Limewash it (as in Owen's room, and Tom's attic room). Its going to be more of a challenge as it looks as though smoke from the fireplace has stained the wall. So I scrubbed the stonework and raked out the pointing. then used the remaing lime from the Landing ceiling to dub-in what i could (did about half of the wall).

Hopefully this will look a little different in the future :)

Easter weekend..very productive!

Easter weekend here..
A beautiful and sunny weekend (how unusual is that), although the rain eventual came....
Made great progress, Jan in the Orchard, clearing all the paths and loads of the brambles.
I achieved what i wanted to (more or less) in the hall and landing...it looks amazing.


Planned jobs to do:

1. Finish cladding and architrave/skirting on the landing.
2. Clad the ceiling in the hallway with bisquit-board
3. 2nd lime-render coat in hallway
4. 2nd lime-render on landing
5. First (major) cut of the orchard, and usual bramble clearing

Sounds simple eh!

FRIDAY

Arrived lunchtime and carried on with #1. #2 and Jan with #5
In the evening, a bonfire of the Spring cut-back of Budlea, and assorted bramble.
A warm evening + BBQ

SATURDAY
Full day of hard work in the orchard, managed to complete #3, jan cracked on with #5, tough work.
This time of year, the first clear of the orchard is the most important....hard work, but Jan cracked on all day.
Managed to complete most of the hallway liming
Small BBQ of the cut bramble and assorted wood waste, then a dinner over the stove

SUNDAY
Jan did immense work in the orchard (#5)
I finished liming most of the landing(#4)

Jan also painted the shed/bathroom....this is our bathroom/shower !!

Exhausted...headed home lunch time.

wall cladding....

A rather lovely weekend....went down Saturday morning, stayed overnight.

The old wood looks great on the hall and landing walls.
Managed to finish the Hall, including skirting and architrave.
All but finished the landing, but didnt have enough wood to complete the architrave &skirting.

cant wait to get back down and finish them off.

turned a corner....

Saturday 5th April
We have been looking for a long time for suitable wood for the cladding of walls in the hallway, landing, inside the Inglenook room and the Library (and the cupboards in Alys' room and the Inglenook). Having tried new T&G on the cupboard, it didn't look right, just too new.

So we called into Llanelli Salvage (Radnedge Architectural salvage where we bought Owen's fireplace), who have a warehouse full of old wood. Lots of lovely old doors, oak beams, floorboards etc. Right at the back we found what we were looking for. Old cladding, I think that it would have been used for the back of wardrobes, although the lengths(8ft +) would indicate some pretty large wardrobes. Sizes varied (5-7 inches wide), and crucially the right thickness, at about 1/4 inch. Rather rough, with holes and cracks but thats what we wanted. Also there was plenty of it, so we bought 12sq yards to start off with.
Looks pretty good on the Inglenook cupboard and one wall of the Hallway, so I think this will suffice for all the other walls. It wasnt suitable for panelling pieces (they need to be thicker), so will call in again next week and get more, and look for more suitable panelling pieces.

This will now allow me to finish off the hallway, landing Alys' room and the Inglenook room, and I can start liming up to it.
Which is why I feel this is a great turning point !!

It needs to be sanded down and painted(not too much, dont want to loose it character), but I think it will provide a lovely old  and authentic finish.
(I will take pictures next week, when ive fitted the architrave and skirting)

Jan put another coat of paint on Alys' door, and on the Inglenook windowsill, and on the Inglenook cupboard shelves.
..also put together the cupboard door(that I had previosly taken apart) made it smaller, so I can now use it to clad with the new wood and fit next week.

A wet and windy day, so didnt spend any time outside!