March Madness

A Renovation Journal

Oh my goodness, why is it that January lasts forever then February feels like about a week long and now we’re flying through March! It’s good because the warmer weather is coming but bad because I feel like I’m not getting enough done.

Another few weeks have gone by since I last wrote this. It’s been a funny old time. Some days have been super busy and others have just meandered by without me really taking part if you know what I mean. I’m currently not getting any work done at all but I’ll explain more about that next week.

First of all we did well with the lead work over the windows. I discovered a bit of wood rot on the top of these window lintels. Not too much and these are huge bits of wood so it seemed like overkill to replace them. I cleaned out all the rotten bits and painted them with wood hardener which should stop it from getting worse. I then fitted some lead flashing over the top which should stop any water from reaching the woodwork. It’s now all sealed in and I’m quite pleased with how it looks. These are on the second floor and super high up so I’m thinking from ground level they should look perfect!

I also managed to get into the old greenhouse and prune the grapevine. I think this vine is really old and has possibly been here since the greenhouse was built which would be late 1800s. Sadly, the pruning did uncover the state of the greenhouse frame. There is a lot of wood rot here and it’s going to be a bigger job than I thought to restore it. Once it gets a bit warmer we’ll take another look and make a ‘save the greenhouse’ plan.

The Old Greenhouse

On the Thursday we took a trip to Travis Perkins for some supplies but the road was closed and we ended up coming back via the pub for lunch. Needless to say, not much else was done that day.

I have also been up on the scaffolding fixing some roof tiles. I managed to knock off a corner of the verge by accident so that all needed cementing back in. Super annoying when you make work for yourself! I managed to replace a few broken tiles although there is still one that needs cutting down to fit the awkward gap on the edge of the roof.

Not the neatest job in the world but it’ll look fine from the ground!

Tuesday last week was a glorious day and I spent it in the garden. There is so much to do out here and as everything springs to life I find myself wanting to hurry up with other jobs so I can ‘reward’ myself with some time in the garden. I’ve been tackling the fruit cage which has an assortment of currants and raspberries. The currants and gooseberries are all pruned now and I just need to finish the raspberries. Then if I can just keep the weeds at bay we should have a good harvest. My next big job is to repair the newer aluminium framed greenhouse which just needs some new glass in places. I’ve got the glass cutter and all the glass I just need some time and some okay weather to be able to get out there.

The end of last week involved a stressful trip to Liverpool to sort out a debacle with the passport office. It’s all taken care of now and Emma and I had a nice lunch and wandered around the shops. I was fascinated by these bags around the base of all the trees. Apparently they’re water bags and keep the trees slowly watered while they’re young. Pretty cool :-)

The next great excitement has been the installation of some new windows. The first three sash windows have been done. We’ve kept the original frames and they’ve just had some refurbishment where needed. Then the actual sash boxes that slide up and down are new hardwood with double glazed units fitted. Because the double glazing is heavier they also have to have new weights and pulley systems. The brass latches are an added bonus. I’m super pleased with them not least of all with how easy they are to open and close but also because from the outside you can hardly tell the difference between the new and old. They fit in perfectly which is exactly what we wanted. All the benefits of modern windows but without changing the look of the house. We’ve still got loads more windows to do and they’re super expensive so it will be a while before we can get to them all but it feels great to have made a dent in the long list.

New above, old below

I’ve also managed to get some pointing done this week. Only this one little apex section but with everything up on the very top levels now done we can have some of the scaffolding taken down. It’s all good progress.

When the weather was too wet to be up on the scaffolding we’ve been pressing on with the old estate office bedroom. James has been finishing the wall panelling and I’ve stripped all the paint from these old cupboards. I’ve still got to sort out all the doors but a bit of cleaning and sanding and we should be ready for painting in here. I really need to finalise the colour scheme!

Wood work in the bedroom

I hope you’ve all had a great few weeks. Spring must surely be on the way now, there really can’t be much more rain in the sky, can there? That scaffolding is much more appealing when the sun is out!

This Week I’ve Been Enjoying:

• The Color Purple for Book Club

• The Hunger Games - A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (movie)

• The Mytton and Mermaid pub

• Magnolia blossom

• Creme Eggs

This newsletter is my way of recording our renovation adventure. Thank you for joining me here. As a free subscriber, you get access to all my journal entries and weekly updates. If you’d like to upgrade to a paid subscription I share even more and really invite you into our home. I post video tours, how-to guides, plans, costs and pretty much anything you want to know. Your support is hugely appreciated and allows me to keep writing for you. ( Just to be clear because my Mum thought the money went to an American company, 10% goes to Substack the publishing platform. The rest comes to me and pays for things like cement and the odd paintbrush :-)