A better weekend than the last one..

What a contrast between two weekends ! A gorgeous sunny and warm couple of days, we went down Friday evening, and stayed until Sunday lunch time...and got loads done.

Jan spent most of the time cutting grass in the orchard, 4 weeks since it was last cut and this time of year if you miss many more weeks than that and the grass gets away, so a great job to keep it down and looking great.
The lanes are full of wild flowers at the moment, and the garden is looking lovely too.. Jan picked some for the hall...(thanks Southmead Hospital for the Jug)

I started by spending Friday evening finishing the walk-in larder, hung the door, added the cladding, and fitted the door furniture from http://www.fromtheanvil.co.uk/. very pleased with the result...

just need to add the skirting, (when the adjacent wall has had its first coat of lime)

PS...also tried to make an oak wedge for an axe handle, but incurred a hand injury (more later)

Saturday was spent liming. I managed to complete the two remaining walls in Alys' bedroom, hard work , but it looks great. Needs a few layers of limewash to finish it off.

I've found that while waiting for the cement mixer to make a good lime mix (it takes 10x longer than a simple cement mix), I like to find other jobs to do. So managed to get the ladders out and clear/fix the guttering on the back of the house...no longer will we need to leave the back door in fear of the inevitable drip down the back of the neck !. Also managed to give the chimney wall in Alys' bedroom another coat of limewash...I think this is going to be a challenge as it still doesn't seem to want to dry white..mmmm will persevere.

Before and After (this is me taking the cement of the walls when we first bought it), and this weekend adding the last layer of Lime  !!

Managed to wear away the skin on my right hand rubbing out the trowel marks on the final wall...lime hurts !!!..and now there is my blood embedded in these walls !!!

We were both absolutely exhausted Saturday evening, so a quick BBQ in the orchard, and an early night.

Sunday, I fitted the door furniture to Alys' bedroom door. Also lime-filled the sides of the finished pantry.
Then started fitting Alys' newly purchased fireplace. I cut a slate hearth (and recessed the associated floorboards), bedded it in with Lime. Had to add some wood at the back of the fireplace to fill the gap (remember me saying that it was inches too small for the gap). When in place, I limed to the sides and hey presto......

All in all a beautiful and very productive weekend.

Wet 'n Wild

This weekend was a typical Welsh spring day.......wet, very wet, it rained pretty much all day, windy too, so we were glad to be working indoors...although I had to be outside for mixing the lime render :(

Made progress in Alys' bedroom, adding the top coat of lime-render to the window wall, it took all day because of the window reveal, but it looks lovely...cant wait to lime wash it.
Also finished dubbing in the chimney wall, which looks really nice now...again ready for several layers of limewash.

Not such good news, I measured the fireplace hole, for the newly purchased surround...and guess what ...its too small. A 26inch hole, with a 24inch fireplace....oops.
I will have to fashion a wooden backplate to fit to the wall, and attach the firelpace to it. Not a problem !

We arranged for the carpenter who made our front door, to come along and measure up for a new back door. Neil from Ystrad Carpentry, near Llandovery. He made such a brilliant job of the front door, so we asked him to make a replacement for the old, rotten and very draughty old back door, and also a new sash window for the rear window in the Inglenook room ( I will post pictures of these at a later date).
Very excited about these 2 additions, as they will make a huge difference.

Alys' fireplace...

We didn't get down the house this weekend, but managed to source a new fireplace for Alys' bedroom....

I wanted something softer and more feminine for her bedroom, and loved this white fireplace. Plain and simple as is the Georgian style, very authentic ! 
I should be able to fit it next weekend, so long as it gets delivered this week.

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!