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Renovation Blog
3 April - Up, up and away we go
I get cracking on the first window with great enthusiasm. This one turns out to be completely sound, and after rubbing it down it's
ready to be primed, undercoated and then top coated. As there was no such thing as "brilliant white" when the house was built,
and all whites tended to be creamier I have selected an off-white for the top coat. |
6 April - It is finished!
Sorry, not meaning to cause confusion but I have always done a bit of singing on the side, so as a break from the renovations I
nip away from site to sing "Es is vollbracht" (trans. "It is finished") in
Bach's St. John Passion, then it's back to the windows. Unfortunately the house is far from finished - hardly started in fact.
I'll have a greater feeling of progress once the roof has been done.
10 April - Pointing
The pointers arrive and get cracking along with the roofers. It's all go, there's mess everywhere, and the kettle can barely keep up with the demand.
Just to clarify for those in the dark, pointing is the finishing mortar applied between the bricks. It can be finished in a variety of ways.
Click for more information.
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14 April - Days in the sun
Everyone is getting on well and we've even had some more scaffolding arrive. The roofers are stripping the old slates and soon we'll
be able to see the state of the rafters underneath. I'm crossing my fingers that they will be okay, but expect we may need to replace
a few of them. |
16 April - Well it couldn't last
Oh dear. On my next few windows I discover the cills are completely rotten and water has obviously been running down into the brickwork
below for some time. More work for the pointers... |
18 April - Who'd be a Lithuanian?
Looking out from the top of the scaffolding I have a good view of the farmland behind, and see this tractor driving along very slowly.
Amazingly, crammed in the back are six poor chaps planting out by hand. Looks like a multiple-movable-compost-toilet, but I assure you
they are planting. They are out there for eight hours solid. Makes my renovation work seem a little less hard...
22 April - No win(dow) situation
It's tedious work sanding down the windows and frames. Most of the putty is falling out or set totally solid, but almost all of it has to
come out to be replaced. They say that if you can heat up the old putty it comes out more easily. All very well if you don't care
about the glass but if you want to keep the original glass you can't risk heating it in case it cracks. Therefore it's a slow process
to chip out the putty with the side of an old chisel.
25 April - Asparagus syndrome
I take a day off from the windows to dig out and plant 50 crowns of asparagus. These are one-year-old crowns but won't be productive
for another two years, so it's a long term investment. However, once they are in you can leave them and should get 15+ years' harvests
of beautiful fresh asparagus. I can hardly wait! Amazingly within two days the first spear appears - alas we are strictly forbidden
from eating any this year to allow it to establish itself, but the speed of growth is phenomenal.
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