sunny spring weekend - busy in the orchard

The last few weekends have been glorious. We had clear blue skies all day this Saturday, although it still gets very chilly in the evenings. The orchard is starting to come alive, with the first flowers on the pear trees, and some of the apple blossom  just coming out.
We've been working on the front garden of the house, flattening out a shrub/weed filled area ,and then this weekend we moved the huge sandstane slabs that have previously formed a small patio. They are now a path straight out from the house through the gap in the hedge into the orchard. The slabs are extremely heavy (too heavy to lift), so we employed the ancient egyptian method of rolling them along over old bits of drainage pipes. They are layed flush into the newly flattened ground, so that they can be mowed over, when the grass grows......hard work, but looks great.

Sorry...forgot to take photos, so will take some next time.


Roy came down with us for his first visit for a few years, so lovely to see him wandering around the orchard...couldnt stop him!! He also took out a few of the early sprouting Raspberry bushes...so he can bring them on.

Meanwhile, I have been continuing to work on the new rear window.. with the frame in place, i've started adding the panelling (in the same style as panelled wall in the same room).

Also started putting the first coat of (rough) lime on the wall...lots of dubbing in around the window...should be finished in another week or 2. When its whitewashed it will make the room much lighter.

It will be nice when its finished !!!

The first cut in the orchard this weekend... Utilising two lawm-mowers, and clearing some early bramble as we went...Jan and I managed to cut about 2thirds of the orchard...basically all of the lower area..
The upper part of the orchard has been taken over by bramble, so that will be a major project ...at some point !!! .
We were exhasted afterwards...but worth it...its a lovely time of year.

Rear Window fitted

A very windy weekend...but thankfully the spring has brought less chilly weather. Its still cold at night, but at least the days are bearable.

Last weekend I fitted the new Slate window-sill, and so this weekend was finally able to set-in the new window....looks great, all we could have wished for. The huge hole that remained around it needed filling, which took a while, and I had to revert to expandy-foam around some areas....apologies to all renovation purists...but it works a treat !!

As you can see the reveal is a mess(unlike the beatiful reveals on the front windows), which makes us think it wasnt originally a window hole. So much so that we've decided not to try and repair it, but to hide it behind some panelling.....which I will be startng next week.

Meanwhile Jan completed the second course of fine-lime in the lower hallway ..looks lovely. First limewash next week hopefully :)

 This time of year our attention is drawn outside to the orchard and Garden. not quite time for the first (of many) grass cutting marathons, but warm(despite the howling gale) enough to start work on the fornt garden. Jan cut down the ever growing front hedge, while I leveled out the front area, digging out the resident weeds, trees, wild roses, and resident brambles. It makes the front of the house far more open, and a place to start a proper garden planting area.

Oh ...not before we have another bonfire of the debris collected....always love a bonfire :)

new rear window....almost!

I know that i have been very lax and not posted for a while!.
We haven't been down to the cottage for a few weekends (family committments), and prior to that it was so cold we didnt get very much done except light the fires and try to drive out the damp as much as we could...We have decided that this is the last winter we will put up with being so cold...new heating will be budgeted before next winter!!

So now that the weather has started to get better, I went down this weekend to start the instalation of the new rear window. Made by our wonderful carpenter Neil, to our own design...it is just perfect.
The current window is a crappy old metal window and very small, not letting much light in. It also overlooks the drive, so is a good source of security and light. We decided to make the hole larger and install a bigger window. We also wanted it to match the front sash windows(in style if not exact design) so asked Neil to make a 6+3 sash window.

Perfect !!!......Now just have to make it fit !!!

So yesterday I did this..

As you can see...Morgan(the choccy lab)...accompanied me this weekend...he loves exploring the smells of rabbits, mice and deer in the orchard, and laying by the fire in the evening...he was rather confused by the huge hole in the wall though !

I will be ordering the slate sill from Merion (Coed Cadog in Llangadog)....and at the same time get the oak for the basement (6foot post to support the beam repair, and new oak joists).

Then we can crack on and start making real progress during the spring  :)

progress on the basement

Great progress in the basement this weekend...

• I pulled up all the cobbles (saved them for relaying later). They were expertly laid, I probably wont be able to do such a good job, but hopefully it will be much easier (and more forgiving of my technique) to lay them into Lime (NHL5)
• Dug out the dirt/earth they were laid into. This turned out not to be as much as I was expecting, a couple of inches and we were down to the shale bedrock.
• Managed to chisel the lime render of two walls. It was mostly pretty solid, and came off with difficulty, which is impressive after 250 years !!. Unlike most of the other walls where it came off much more easily. Our usual approach is to leave it if its ok (dont fix what isnt broken!), but I needed to see the walls behind, and some of it was gone, so it had to come off....We will be re-liming, so I don't feel too guilty.
• Once that was done, Jan and I  (me on shovel, Jan on bucket duty) emtied all the debris, it was hard work, and took a while, but not as bad as I was expecting.
• Once the basement was clear, and we were down to Shale bedrock everywhere, I cleaned out the drainage channel one last time, ready for the perforated pipe. I have gone over this bit so many times in my head, and spent many hours staring at the flowing water, waiting for this moment.
• Jan and I (two person job) wrapped the pipe in membrane (to keep out the silt), lay in the pipe and covered it in Gravel. Section by section, and in no time it was done....Water flowing freely out of the house, in our first french drain :)

Meanwhile I had time to inspect the main beam more closely. The one end (holding up the post and beam above) was sound (see pic below)...THANK GOODNESS!!!. I was still nervous about this though, so I inserted a piece of oak, and two Acro-props as insurance !!
However the other end is shot, we will have to decide wether to take the beam down, and repair that end(scarf joint and post), or just pop a post underneath that end.
At least we now know what were dealing with, and its all fixable !!

first Christmas at BCB and the start of the basement campaign

So this weekend was our first ever proper family meal at BCB.
My two sisters and husbands came down to stay for a meal Saturady night at the cottage, around our new table. We had our first Christmas tree, and decorations!!...Such are the benefits of a year of major progress.
...oh and we had a wonderful night (we won't mention why my sister stuffed oranges down her jumper at 1am!!)

Sunday (after we had cleared up the mess) ...Lloyd arrived, to help with the start of the battle of the  Basement....

First we pulled up the old floorboards...
Here are the only remaining original lath&plaster in the house, we would love to have saved it, but too difficult (we saved some of the larger pieces for posterity)

Took out all the joists (they'r pretty much all shot), we will have replace them all I think.
A nice shot of the fireplace in mid air !!

We spent the rest of the time clearing out, then digging out the channel to let the water run out freely.

The astute among you will notice the crappy old garden wheelbarrow... within 30mins of starting the job, we got a flat tyre in the big American style (awesome) wheelbarrow we would normally have used...you have no idea  how much harder it made the job.

As the light faded (and it got a lot colder) Lloyd focused on getting the door closed up, and I took the lime render off a few walls....then retired to the inglenook room, and spent the night by the fire, drinking Brain SA, and singing Pulp and Beautiful South songs..:)

Monday morning, we (after recovering from similar hangovers)...took up half of the cobbles, took, out more of the trench, and took off more of the lime render...and tidied up before leaving.

If your interested in such things (as I am)...take a look at the number of layers of lime render/wash that have been applied to the walls of this wonderfull old house...  up close, I counted at least 20

Next week I (no Lloyd dammit)... will lay in the perforated pipe into the trench, cover with gravel. Take out the rest of the cobbles and clean up ready to start re-liming, and replacing the oak.

finally... i took a picture of the cobbles before I complete taking them up next week...a lovely pattern, that I need to replicate when I relay them into NHL5 .

Lower hallway

with the new back door in place, time to work on the lower hallway...
As it was...

The entrance to the cellar is onthe right (cant see it in this picture)

and now...

Jan has decorated the area with her decorations

Blinkin' cold

Sunny and cold this Saturday, but wet overnight, and poured down on Sunday morning, then the skies cleared and a lovely blue sky for the afternoon...The weather is a wonder here, you really notice the changes in the light, which are sometimes dramatic. When I arrived ( a lovely clear Saturday morning), there was a strange mist just hanging to the Northerly slopes of the valleys. We are used to the morning mist that lays in the Towy river valley below, but this was something I havent seen before...always something new to appreciate.

Never got above 11c in the house...even with the fire going...I need a bigger Fire !!

Did a number of small jobs ...

• Fitted the weather bar to the base of the new back door
• Another coat of limewash on the Library chimney wall (another 2 or 3 should do it)...se photo below.
• Cleared the area around the outside entrance to the Cellar.. I will need to get a wheelbarrow to this entrance when the major cellar project begins, after Christmas.
• Jan put the first coat of paint on the new dining table (Paint effects are a mystery to me !)
• Jan also put the first coat of paint (grey again!!) on the back door.
• Delivered the new chairs we found in the local second hand junk shop..

Library Chimney wall....2 coats of limewash..still drying.

Photos of the cellar...before I start the major project
The hole in the library floor (this will be a trapdoor when finished).

trenches for the perforated pipe...to drain the water

The joists are shot in that corner, so an Acro Prop is required for now.