Goodbye Stables, Hello Rain
A Renovation Journal
I’m getting back to my weekly updates. The summer seems to have thrown me off a bit in lots of ways but I now have that back-to-school feeling and I’m ready to share it all with you.
Monday
Lately, I’ve been spending Mondays on housework. Otherwise, it just doesn’t get done and it’s super depressing when the house gets so messy that I can’t find anything and no one has any clean laundry. Fighting the dust is a bit futile at this stage as is trying to keep the threadbare carpets clean but a bit of cleaning once a week at least keeps it habitable! All the rooms we currently live in have not been fully renovated. We just made them functional as quickly as possible and that’s how they’ve stayed. House cleaning will be a lot more fun when I have some finished rooms to go at!
Toby is back to school tomorrow so I’ve been ironing and sorting his kit. I currently do the ironing up on the second floor as it’s the only vaguely clean and clear space. I can’t wait to get the laundry room sorted down in the basement.
Tuesday
Lots of running around today with doctors appointments, school meetings and shopping to do. None of it for me! We did manage to gather as a family and move a load of stuff we had stored in the old stables. The floor is being dug out in here soon and it was full of bikes, Christmas decorations, toolboxes etc. Some stuff had been left in there by previous tenants. We found some lovely window shutters although they look too tall for any of our windows so they’re a bit of a mystery. I’ll have to measure them to be sure.
Wednesday
There is way too much driving around again today. We had to pick up a concrete breaker for the builders who were taking out the stables floor. The cobbled floor is made up of what looks like Lego bricks. I’m somewhat sad about taking out the stables. They are very old and all the metalwork is very corroded (you can snap the hay rack bars with your hands) so not safe for horses, but still. As a girl who dreamed of nothing but ponies my heart hurts to see them go. I’m saving whatever I can to reuse elsewhere. I have stable doors, feed mangers and now all the floor bricks. I’m sure they’ll come in useful somewhere!
My favourite finger trowel for pointing broke today so we went to Toolstation to pick up a new one and swung by Brewers for some more primer. I got another load of pointing done this afternoon. Nearly ready for the scaffolding to come down now.
Thursday
In between running teenagers around in my taxi service duties, I got the cast iron vents for the walls repainted and fitted with insect mesh. These big square vents are high up in the walls. One is blocked, another leads through to the sitting room and another is in the attic space. They’re not strictly necessary but I liked the look of them. The writing on them says ‘Hayward Brothers Union St Boro London’. I checked out the company and they were well known in London as makers of manhole covers and pavement lights. They were founded in 1783 and so I suspect these vent covers are original to the Victorian renovation of this house in the 1840s. I thought they were worth keeping anyway. I wonder why they bothered to get them from London though. Did no one make them locally? I must check other houses nearby to see if they have the same.
Friday
Again I spent most of the day driving other people around! We’ve had a bit of a problem with the painting of the wood trim at the top of the house that we did earlier in the year. Not sure why but the paint has failed on the most exposed surfaces. Possibly it was too cold and damp when we put it on? It says in the paint instructions that it doesn’t require a primer but maybe it was a mistake not to use one? Anyway, we are back to sanding and then applying a decent primer. Hopefully this time it will work!
It was a lovely day so we went for a swim this afternoon. It’s great to be able to use the pool but it is still an adventure getting in and out. It’s exciting to think that the patio stone will arrive next week!
Saturday
I spent a long time today with a guy who’s been working on chimneys in period houses for many years. He swept the chimney in the Old Estate Office bedroom and we had a chat about the plan for the others in here. Basically, I think the best thing to do is get them all swept out and clear, then add ventilated caps on the top and hit-and-miss vents at the bottom where the fireplace is no longer there. We also need to figure out exactly where the other two flues run. I’ve got a good idea from talking to him and we found an access hatch in the hallway for the sitting room fireplace so we should be able to figure it out. He also seemed confident that we could have a wood burner fitted into the existing fireplace if we wanted so that’s exciting!
In the afternoon I managed to get the iron vent covers fitted back in and I finished the pointing, actually finished all the pointing on the scaffolding at the back of the house. It’s a miracle! I’ve got a few spalled bricks to swap out, some painting of window sills and a big clean up then it’s done! Not a moment too soon either as the weather is definitely on the turn.
Sunday
Wow, it rained a lot today! At about lunchtime the window on the landing started leaking, and then the dripping began in the hallway. I spent most of the day running around with buckets feeling like the captain of the Titanic! The flat roof that sits above the hallway and downstairs loo has not faired well after having scaffolding atop it this summer. To be honest, I’ve always thought it was amazing that it didn’t leak so I can’t say I’m surprised. The question now though is whether to go the whole way and replace it when we will probably need scaffolding up there again. The window on the landing is due to a blocked and broken downpipe so that at least can be fixed fairly easily! I also climbed up the scaffolding to check on all the new guttering that we installed. The good news is that at least that all works perfectly!
I checked on the chimney from yesterday and I was amazed at how much water was coming down. No wonder that chimney breast is always damp. They really do need the caps on! Now we just need to find someone who can get up there on a ladder because it's too high for me!
I hope you’re enjoying this back-to-school feeling even if you haven’t got school-age children! I love the slight change in colour of the leaves and crisper mornings. I can live without quite so much rain though!
Hoping you have a fabulous week :-)
P.S. It’s absolutely pouring rain this morning (Monday). I drove Toby to school through rapidly flooding roads passing lots of soggy people who seemed to have come out without their raincoats (and a man in a suit with a child’s bright yellow umbrella with ears on it.) It reminded me of one day when I was about 8 years old. We used to walk about a mile to school through our village. I set out as usual with my Mum and younger sister but we were completely soaked by the time we got to the village high street. The road was starting to flood with the drains overflowing and people were outside the shops pushing water off the awnings with brooms to stop them from breaking. My Mum announced firmly that this was completely ridiculous and that we couldn’t go to school in wet clothes and shoes and she promptly marched us back home. I was thrilled at getting a day off school. Later on, the river in the village broke its banks, the shops flooded and the road became impassable. The children who had made it to school were taken home on a tractor and trailer that some farmer supplied. I was very disappointed to have missed all the fun and not to get a ride on the tractor! I was thinking how different things would be today. There’s no way they would have allowed that with health and safety but it was the 80’s and we were tougher back then! (I don’t know why I felt the need to share that story but if you read this far then thank you!)
Wow, what an incredible renovation journey you have on your hands! So much potential - beautiful. I'm also renovating a Victorian house and can empathise with a lot of your content, especially around paint right now: endless stripping, sampling and testing!