Plagues and Press Events

A Renovation Journal

Hello, hello! Well, we’ve rushed on into March and a sudden burst of spring weather. It’s been absolutely lovely. It won’t last, of course, but we must enjoy it while we can!

February was, for us, plagued by coughs and viruses. I haven’t done nearly as much as I wanted to, but sometimes you just have to give in and let your body recover. Annoyingly, it seems to be taking much longer to get over things than it used to. I can’t decide if that’s my age or if the bugs are getting stronger. Probably both! The change in the weather this last week has been most welcome. I can feel my energy returning, and I’m looking forward to all my jobs again.

The Bedroom

We’re making some slow progress in here! The painting is ongoing meanwhile, James is refitting all the cupboard doors. It’s been a bit of a nightmare as we try to match up hinges and decide what needs to be new and what can be reused. It’s also quite hard to get them all to actually function. Looking back at old photos, they were nearly all open or ajar when we moved in, so I don’t think they closed properly when we started! James has had to patch some, add magnets, and chisel away at others. There’s been quite a bit of swearing involved! But we are nearly there, and while they don’t look perfect, they look old and well used, which is kind of the point in restoring them! I’m really hoping to get the painting finished this week, but we’ll see!

The Greenhouse

The newer of the two greenhouses is now all fixed and ready to go. After cutting and replacing a lot of the glass, I gave it all a good cleaning and moved in some benches and pots. It’s been fabulous to get going with some seed-sowing this week. So far, I have tomatoes, chillies, aubergines, sweetpeas, antirrhinum, cobaea and foxgloves. Lots more to come. At some point, I will put down a floor in here, but at the moment, I can’t quite decide if I want a border on both sides or just one. I thought I would use it for the coming year and see how I get on.

Yew Hedge

The gardener and I got a bit carried away with the trimming of this yew hedge! In the end, we decided to take it back by half and reclaim the path. Yew can take quite a severe trim, so it should be fine. Next year, I’ll take it down a bit lower as well to get a bit more light into the bed on the north side. There’s still a lot more hedge trimming to do, and I’m running out of time before the birds start nesting, so some may have to wait until later on in the year.

The Garden Press Event

On the 18th of February, I went to the Garden Press Event in London. James had meetings in London anyway, so we went down the night before and had dinner together. It’s always a huge change of scene for me when visiting the city. It’s hard to believe that I lived here for a while at uni! The press event was a chance for the press, and that includes us social media ‘influencers’ (I am one now apparently!) to meet with brands and see what new products are coming out and what their plans are for the coming year. My takeaway was that cut flowers are a big thing this year, there are lots of developments around peat-free compost and generally, the gardening community is super lovely. I got some wonderful free samples and got to play with the new battery-powered products from STIHL. The electric pruning shears are a thing of beauty!

The Gym

Back at home, I spent some time repointing in the gym. We’ve taken all the plaster off the walls and decided to leave them as exposed brick. The electrics are surface-mounted in steel trunking, which gives the place a strong industrial feel. I’m hoping it inspires us to feel strong when we’re exercising! The brickwork is a bit rough, and to make it really neat, I should’ve repointed the whole thing, but it would’ve taken ages, and I’m not sure it needs to be that perfect for a gym. So I just did the holes and sorted the really bad bits. Then I gave the brick a bit of a scrub and painted on a breathable sealer, which is supposed to stop the dust. James is now finishing off the trim around the windows, repairing the door and fitting the skirting. It’s coming along nicely!

Bay Window Roof

At the back of the Old Estate Office, there is a bay window in the living room. We took the roof off the bay last year and replaced all the rotten joists. It was covered with roofing felt, but then the big scaffolding went up, and we couldn’t get to it to finish it off. Before Christmas, we finally got the scaffolding altered, and this little roof was tiled. However, I wasn’t happy with how they’d done the leadwork, and it still needed some guttering. Well, we finally did it! James got the fascia boards and the guttering on, and I did the step flashing. The scaffolding is down, and we can move on with our lives! I’m actually looking forward to getting back out there and finishing off the bottom level. A big tidy up and this area will be ready for landscaping.

Wisteria and Summer House

Speaking of landscaping, it’s that time of year when the wisteria needs pruning. The bit on the house was quite easy because I’d pruned it so hard in the summer. A quick tidy up and that was done. We decided to move on and tackle the vines that were swallowing the summer house. This was a mix of wisteria, clematis and chocolate vine. The weight of it all on that roof must have been immense. How we got it off without taking all the roof tiles with it, I’ll never know, but we did it! Later on in the year, we’ll repair the roof and turn this into a lovely eating-out space. The weather has been so good that we’ve already started sitting out here. That doesn’t usually happen until April!

Anyway, that’s all from me. Thank you for all your lovely comments on my video post. I’ll be doing some more of those shortly. Have a great week, and enjoy the sunshine!