It's July but its England

This months roundup

Well, here we are and it’s almost the end of July. How did that happen? We’ve had a lot going on and it’s been super busy at the weekends which has caused me to stall a bit on writing these posts. So for today, a catch-up. How have you all been? Hasn’t the weather been awful? It’s been a case of trying to get outdoor jobs done whenever we can between showers.

So, we have three main ongoing projects at the moment. There’s the estate office that we’ve talked about. You can see the plans for that here: https://amandabalmain.substack.com/p/momentum

We’ve done all the stripping out we need to do and had the building inspector round to check what we’re up to. He’ll need to sign off the new insulation, bathroom and kitchen. We were going to try and fit a wood burner into this Victorian fireplace but it’s super expensive because accessing the chimney is so awkward and it means ripping out most of the existing fire to get it to fit. So, I’ve decided to keep it as it is and it will just be decorative for now.

I’m still trying to get the safe opened. I’ve got someone who can do it but he keeps putting me off until ‘next week’. We’ve got some clearing up to do of the floor joists before we can fit the new ceiling and meanwhile, I’ve started on the refurb of all the fitted cupboards in the bedroom. The electric first fix is done so just the plumbing to sort now and then we can get onto the fun stuff of choosing bathrooms, kitchens and paint colours. I can’t wait!

The second project is the pool/gym area. This is the current state of the pool!

The problem was the pool pump and old boiler were housed in a poorly made lean-to on the side of a lovely old building. The gutter for the building is inside the lean-to and leaking badly. That has caused the floor to completely rot through. We’ve stripped the gym building back to allow it to dry but we need to get rid of the awkward lean-to and fix all the drainage. To do that we have to move the pool pump. So, we’re installing an air source heat pump and moving all the pool equipment up to a new shed on the same level as the pool. This means exposing all the pipes and draining the pool so while we’re at it we may as well get the pool painted, the surround fixed and replace the patio. It’s one of those projects that has taken on a life of its own and is way bigger than I had envisaged. Oh, well!

The third thing we’re working on is fixing the damp wall on the north side of the house. It’s an old house so there are bound to be damp spots but this wall was the worst last winter and it has caused damage to the floor joists above the cellar below. I’ve been learning a lot about damp and what you mustn’t do is just treat the symptoms. There is always a cause and you have to be a bit of a detective to work it out. In this case, there are a few factors. The high ground level outside this wall was keeping all the lower courses of bricks nice and wet. Not helped by the fact that the downpipe from the gutter had no drain below it. It was just running into the earth. The poor guttering has also led to mortar damage and there are several areas of this wall that need re-pointing. So we’ve dug down the ground level and installed a French drain which will keep the water away from the wall. We’re adding a gulley below the down pipe and then we can fix all the guttering. Quite a job but an important one which will hopefully fix the issues and save the fancy drawing room.

The blue pipe is marking the water main that we couldn’t previously find. We seem to have three coming off the main in the road. Well, four if you count the estate office. It feels good to have found all the shutoff valves though. At least we can turn them off if we need to now!

So, that’s it for this week. I think next week I’ll get back to some house history and the story of this house in post-war Britain. Until then, have a good week everyone.