October in Shropshire

An Autumn round-up

Well, it’s been a minute since I’ve written to all you lovely subscribers. Time has flown and all of a sudden it’s getting colder and we have to worry about things like central heating and leaky windows. Not that we had all that much of a summer. A few hot weeks in June and one warm week in September do not make a summer in my opinion! Honestly, I can’t remember it being so wet but maybe that’s because it’s our first summer here and we’ve been outside a lot more often. Regardless, time marches on and it is now Autumn whether I like it or not!

Autumn Colours

So today I thought I’d just catch you up with all the ongoing projects and what we’ve got coming up in the next few weeks. It’s going to be a busy couple of months and I have a feeling Christmas will be here before I know it!

The pool project is now on hold for the winter. We’ve had all the plant machinery moved and refitted and had an air source heat pump installed. All the machinery now sits in a shed at the end of the pool and the surround has all been levelled and covered with Type 1. The inside of the pool has been painted with a resin paint which should last a good few years. We had a few lovely evening swims in the warm water but now it’s getting colder it costs way too much to keep it heated and we will soon be having the winter cover put on and closing it up until spring. Hopefully, by then we will have a patio installed and be ready for some sunshine next year.

There was a flower bed along that wall that I thought about leaving but I like seeing the wall now.

The gym project is coming along very slowly as it’s fairly low priority and other things always seem to come first. Also, Toby is meant to be doing most of the work himself and there are lots of other things he’d rather do instead! Next in there though is to replace the ceiling which will happen when we get the scaffolding platform in there in a couple of weeks.

Gym with first fix electrics and half a floor.

The bottom barn is in the planning stage with the architect which is lots of fun. It’s quite complicated as it’s all on different levels but we have lots of great ideas for turning this space into a three-bedroom cottage. There are lots of brickwork features and old beams that I want to keep exposed. It’s lots of fun planning and starting to visualise this space. Also, it'll be quite different from the house and the estate office which are both traditional Victorian. The barn will remain very much a barn and I don’t want to lose that feel. It’ll be a lot more rustic than the house. But, it’s all quite a way off. First, we have to get to a point where we are happy with the plans and then submit them for planning permission. It will all take some time.

The barn. It’s super hard to imagine this suitable for guest accommodation.

The Old Estate Office is coming along nicely. The bathroom is now tiled and we are currently decorating before the bathroom itself goes in. There’s been quite a lot of messing about with panelling and window framing but we are getting there. I’m really hoping this room will be finished in the next two weeks. Then hopefully we can get the bedroom done before Christmas and ready for Grandpa to stay. If we can get the floor in the hall and kitchen done too that will be a huge bonus and then the sitting room should be fairly quick after that. With any luck, it will be ready to welcome guests properly in the spring.

The Old Estate Office

In the meantime though, we have scaffolding going up over the back of the house. This is mainly so that we can reach the chimney to install a wood-burning stove in the snug. However, if we’re going to have scaffolding we may as well fix all the pointing, and the gutters and repaint the fascia boards while we’re up there. This will be ‘good weather’ work over the next couple of months.

The fireplace is soon to be replaced with a wood burner. The brick which doesn’t match anything else in the house is coming out.

We also have to get a load of wood moved and fix up a building ready for our new boiler installation in a few weeks. We’ve really struggled to get the old boiler to connect to any new pipework and now that the pump has gone it seems time to replace the whole thing. We have a new oil boiler going in which will take over the heating and hot water until we can add in solar. We’ve decided to site it all in a small attached outbuilding. It was most recently used as a changing room for the pool I think. It has an old wood burner in there and some falling-apart bench seats. It needs re-roofing so we need to get all this done before the new boiler goes in. I’m a bit nervous about it to be honest. I’m worried that we might change our minds about the design and layout we want for this part of the house and buildings. But once the boiler goes in we can’t move it again so it’s a pretty permanent decision. It feels as if things are being done in the wrong order but then I don’t really want to go a whole winter with dodgy heating. We’ll just have to work around it. Or not change the layout at all which I’m coming around to more and more!

Old pool changing room with some sort of stove.

Inside the house, not too much has changed. I’ve sorted out an airing cupboard and we have some new Velux-type windows going in shortly. They are to replace leaky ones that are already there. Once that’s done I can refit the loo on the landing and tidy up this space. The kids’ bathroom still needs a bit of tidying up too. It was painted with oil-based paint which seems to have completely sealed it. The new paint won’t cover it up and the condensation is still bad despite the new extractor fan. I think we need to remove that paint somehow when it comes to properly refurbing this room.

Painting over oil-based paints. Three coats and it’s still super patchy.

The garden is improving now that it’s Autumn and the weed growth has slowed a bit. I’ve got a gardener now for a few hours a week which is making a huge difference as she is hugely knowledgeable and is teaching me what to do as we work our way around. I’ve finished the teddy bear hedges for this year. I’m thinking I’ll give them a total revamp next season and get a bit more creative with the shapes. The tree surgeon is coming back shortly just to grind out a stump and tidy up the blue cedar. And I’m working my way around clearing the vegetable garden. We have cleared one greenhouse and made space for some winter salads. The older greenhouse needs more work but we’ll wait until winter to cut back the grapevine and then it’ll be easier to see what needs to be fixed in there. The paddock will shortly be topped and all the hedges cut which I’m excited about. We’ll then be able to get to the gates that are buried in the hedges and sort out what needs to be done with fencing. I think we’ve nearly convinced James to get a few sheep and a couple of pigs!

My attempt at teddy bear hedges. More clouds with a hint of bear I think.

The modern greenhouse looks enormous now it’s all cleared.

So when I think about all that it seems that we’ve done quite a lot and are making significant progress. Most days it feels like nothing has really changed at all so to list it all makes me feel quite a lot better! I always knew we were going to be renovating for a very long time but I think you need to feel like forward progress is being made at least a little.

I’ve been trying to decide what direction to take this newsletter in. I’ll keep you up to speed with more of the house history as I find it but let me know if there is anything else you’d particularly like to hear about. Would you like some renovation how-tos, maybe some videos, more from the garden? Let me know if you have any ideas!