Old House

We have always referred to the old house as The Cottage, but as the external works are now complete this name seems a little demeaning and so we will now refer to it as the Old House. The building has been completely transformed from a cottage with a very large and disproportional roof to a good sized house. Our French team of builders have worked hard and overhauled the roof, building three dormers (A friend built the first one - thanks again Jonathan) and re-pointing the roof. Their approach to Health & Safety was interesting. Not a hard hat in sight or life lines when scampering around on the roof. All the existing windows were in very poor order and these have now been replaced with double glazed oak windows. After removing the old windows we also removed large amounts of concrete which had been used to fill in where the original oak timber uprights round the windows had long since rotted away. New oak uprights were fitted to all 6 of the downstairs windows transforming the look of the house. All the lintels are in excellent condition and we even found a date over the door or 1839.

My neighbour thought that house was somewhat older than this due to the steep pitch of the roof. He feels that 1839 was perhaps when these timbers were fitted. I guess we will never know. All the lintels had been covered up with chipboard which is not know for its external weather proof properties, but this has actually acted to protect the oak from the weather and all the surviving oak looks very good.

Inside there is still plenty to do. This summer I spent 2 memorable days with a sandblaster cleaning centuries of soot from the oak beams and the fireplace. The building needs treating for woodworm and it is impossible to treat timber that is covered in soot as the treatment will not soak in. The cleaning work was therefore necessary so that the timbers can be treated, but had had the effect of transforming the appearance of the ground floor. All the interior walls have had the old plaster removed and all the internal stonework has been re-pointed in lime mortar to let the building breath.

This Christmas a few of us will be working on the interior now that it is sealed from the weather. Good friend Chris Carter is going to finish the wiring (and he thought he was coming for a rest!), and I will be plumbing the entire house. This will involve, fitting two shower rooms and installing a central heating system. Insulation already on site will be fitted and hopefully all the first floor will have the plasterboard fitted and plastered. Just a few days work then! I really hope that we can at least camp there this coming summer so that the main house can be freed up to be rented for as much time as possible.

Shot of house from front with new roof windows. Our tractor (a 1965 Massey Fergusson 37) has a load of tiles on the back! Note the concrete lean-to on the left of the building has been removed.

From the rear, the tiling nearly finished. Appearance totally transformed