Dear reader, well, it’s been a minute since I wrote to you so I’m back with an update. April was super busy, very fun if a slightly unusual month. I try most weeks to take a couple of days off and spend the rest working on the house as much as I can. April was more like a week off, then a week of working as hard as we possibly could, then another week off, and so on. It was hard to keep a rhythm going if you know what I mean!
When last I left you we had fitted the waste pipe in the Old Estate Office kitchen and the floor was prepped. We had just three days to fit the new wooden flooring before the kitchen units were delivered. First, we laid a breathable membrane and dropped it between the joists to hold up the insulation. Then we filled all the gaps with sheep’s wool. Then we fitted the engineered boards over the top. It wasn’t easy but I actually really enjoyed it! We worked well together and figured out a system. Getting the boards into place and holding them tight with ratchet straps while we screwed them down was super helpful. We now have a floor!
The kitchen units arrived and James set to work assembling the corner unit. Meanwhile, I had a whole week off to celebrate my 50th birthday. It was wonderful! I visited gardens, met with friends for lunch, Emma and I did an escape room, we went for a spa day, ate at fancy restaurants and James cooked for me at home. It was blissful and I had such a good time.
With my birthday well and truly celebrated it was time to get back to work. While James pushed on with the kitchen fitting I’ve been concentrating on getting everything done on the scaffolding so we can take it down. I’ve been raking out mortar and it’s taken so long. It’s a horrible, dusty job and although the mask and goggles prevent me from actually ingesting it I feel like I’ve been covered in lime dust for weeks now.
I’ve managed the odd bit of gardening but mostly it’s just been raking out mortar and then putting new lime back in again. It’s boring and seems a bit futile sometimes but now I’m starting to finish some bits I’m super proud of how it looks. And there are no holes for birds, bees, mice or rainwater to get in! I’ve still got loads left to do but I’ve made significant progress which is encouraging.
So that’s it really. It doesn’t feel like much for almost 2 months but they are big jobs that are just taking loads of time. I think I feel better when I write these updates weekly as I can actually see how busy my days are. I’ll try to get back to doing that from now on.
What I haven’t had time to do is write any paid posts. I’ll be turning that option off for now so if you have a paid subscription you will get a refund. Thank you so much for supporting me and I’ll let you know when I have a new plan for subscriptions in the future.
I hope you all have a great week and I’ll be back soon x
Having chipped tonnes of lime mortar off our wall, I can empathise, but that brickwork is looking superb, and should the weather and beasties where they should be!