We’ve done a fair bit outside this year. Last year we got the fences in and the hedges, but things have changed a lot since then.
Mum produced us a simple design based on some rough measurements we took of the front (no proper survey this time), and we got to work as soon as we could.
Once again we find ourselves writing about something that happened months ago. In fact, this started last year.
We contracted someone to replace the roof, and they begun to remove it, but stopped as the fence along the top of the back wall was in the way.
Continue reading The Outhouse/Workshop RoofAnother post on a big catch up. Alongside our new roof on the Workshop in Feb, we also had someone come in to get some things sorted inside.
We wanted the hallway to be replastered, the big hulking cupboard that used to hold the water tanks reduced in size (it blocked the already minimal light on the landing and was very overbearing), the electricals there tidied up and a proper loft hatch installed (the existing one was tiny to fit between the old joists).
Continue reading The Hallway/LandingSome of these ends were extremely loose. We had stripped the kitchen wall back in January or February, but we didn’t get to painting it until mid October!
Continue reading Tying Up Loose EndsSo, this is fairly self explanatory. We decided to knock the ugly thing down at last. I think this was back in October, maybe even September. We are really bad at this blogging thing.
Continue reading Demolishing the Lean-ToBack in September we decided we should get the front garden underway so that we could get the hedges we had planned in before the spring. This would give them as much time to grow as possible. As the entire space was covered in gravel, the first step was to get all of this out the way.
Continue reading The Front GardenWe’ve finally decided what we’re doing at the back of the house, and we could focus on redesigning the kitchen. The extension part is going to need some fairly extensive work to get it up to snuff.
The wall cavities need properly insulating and sealing from below, and the floor needs to be sealed around the edge to stop the wind whistling in from under it. We want to replace and likely change the shape of the windows, and put in a new back door.
OK, well, here goes.
Continue reading The Kitchen RedesignWe had some visitors in June and July! Lockdown was finally at the point where someone could come say hi, but for that to work we needed a room for them to stay in. Unfortunately for us, things were looking a little dire…
So we got to work. And finished it all, in a week.
Continue reading Guest Room Cries, Time Flies, Family tiesWe were puzzled to find when delving into our walls that the plaster and the brick were both jet black and sort of crumbly. I may have mentioned this in an early post (which was months ago, you can’t expect me to remember that) but on researching this I found it seems to be more or less unique to South Wales.
There was a big coal industry here, and it would appear the cheapest material for them to bulk out plaster (and whatever our interior walls are made out of, seems to be a sort of precursor to a breezeblock) was crushed up coal.
This stuff gets everywhere, is a nightmare to clean up and prompted us to quickly buy sealed respirators. Don’t fancy getting black lung from our walls.
We’ve since found the best thing to do once it gets exposed is to paint it with PVA glue. We bought a huge 5l tub of the stuff, and it also gets mixed into our mortar mixes that we now use to repair the walls.
We’ve had to build up the tops of walls to meet the ceiling so that we can then plaster or fill it flush with the rest of the wall, or to fill really deep gaps where filler just takes too long.
Alongside the work going on inside the house, we decided to spend the Easter Bank Holiday (like a lot of other people) at the garden centre well and Wilko as pots and soil are super expensive at the garden centre….
We bought several plants and seed packs.
We got to work planting the potatoes, onions, fuchsias, spearmint and oregano that weekend. We also replanted Lyn’s crab apple tree in a much bigger pot.
Continue reading The Occasional Gardener
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