Out in the woods today I came across a fairy…
Category Archives: castle
Buried treasure (Apr 14)
A few months ago a couple of guys asked if they could metal-detect on the land here. We’d seen them around in Mr C’s fields and they split the proceeds of anything valuable. Here is our first bit of treasure from 1855…
Sledgehammer happy (Mar 4)
We are re re-jigging our plans. The old wing – which we intend to turn into a holiday let – was next on our list to do up, but we’re now planning to put any spare cash into the main house kitchen instead.
We’ve realised how important it is to feel enthusiastic about each bit of the refurb’ and getting the kitchen done is an exciting prospect as it’s going to make a huge difference to living here.
It’s a big job but as Ed’s no time waster I came home this evening to a surprise….
We think there could be an old bread oven on the left as there’s a different section of bricks there. It’s very deep to the back wall – a good few feet, which means we’ll likely be able to build in an inglenook seat as well as putting in a burner. The stone lintel is sitting on what looks like an iron shelf – we’re not sure why… it could be holding up that whole wall!
So we’re off. We still need to work out what to do with the flagstone floor (see My first mistake – Apr 25) – and this is further complicated by the fact that we’d like underfloor heating if we can; the flags are sitting on earth which will need excavating and they’re also very thick.
We’ve a plumber and an electrician lined up from the work we’ve done before – but now the search is on for that holy grail of renovation; we need to find a good builder.
The drip drip effect (Feb 13)
We knew it was wet here on the wet west coast but even Mr C says he’s never known anything like it and he’s lived here all his life. It must have rained for at least 100 days and every day more rain is forecast.
It’s creating a few issues – firstly the drive. We can’t fill in the potholes as the road planings get washed away as soon as we lay them in. Ed did the drive just before Christmas but a couple of weeks later it was like it had never been done. We’ve been waiting ever since for a dry-spell but it’s never arrived…
Secondly the gardens – it’s almost impossible to do anything outside. We were listening to Gardener’s Question Time on the radio recently (this is what happens when you move to the country) and they were discussing how “soothing” gardening is. Ed laughed – clearly they’ve never had to garden in Scotland. And the impact on our almost moss-free lawn doesn’t bear thinking about after all that hard work last summer….
The third problem is inside. Water is dripping into some of the bedrooms from above the windows. We’ve put this down to holes in the pointing above the lintels outside. We had someone give us a rough assessment of all the pointing from ground level when we first moved in and they estimated around 60% was in tact. It appears we’ve located the other 40. Resolving this is a big job as most of the windows are very high up so the builders will need a lot of scaffolding and scaff’ is expensive…
We weren’t so naive when we bought the house to think that maintenance wouldn’t be a big issue here; the roof, the drive, the walls, the land – it all needs looking after and we expected there’d be some big expenses. The extended rain’s just given us a crash course in what our priorities should be. So our plan is to try and set aside a pot of cash every year to do 1 big maintenance job – and it looks like this coming year it will have to be the pointing.
It actually feels quite satisfying uncovering these problems and putting plans in place to resolve them despite all the effort and expense (apart from the lawn, which I fear may be a losing battle – although Ed is ever optimistic). It feels good to be investing in the house, that we are learning how to live here and that everything is slowly being repaired. And given that our initial aim was to be warm and water-tight, we’re already half way there.
Snowdrop splitting (Jan 20)
My nephew Jake and his mate Tom are here for a few days so Ed’s got them to work in the gardens. They’re snow drop splitting; taking established clumps, splitting them in 2 and replanting to make more. They split around a hundred today to cover the bank under the sycamore tree in the paddock. One of the many banks of snow-drops we hope to create.
You rang…. (Jan 6)
This being Scotland, we have a storm door and an inner door. All very useful given the weather. However the only bell for the house is a buzzer between the two. So since we moved in, we’ve been living with a bit of scruffy paper pinned to the front door that alerts all visitors to this rather unsatisfactory arrangement.
Today at last we dispensed with the buzzer (and the paper) and replaced with a much more seemly antique servants bell inside and a new brass bell pull on the outside wall.
The brass handle of the bell pull is lovely to use – heavy and sleek – and as it smoothly slides back into place a satisfying tinkling follows. We soon discovered though that a ‘tinkling’ isn’t going to stir many souls inside. On that front I’m afraid the electronic buzzer wins hands down. So now we need to find a larger bell or … hire a butler!
Christmas 2013 (Dec 20)
The most important room in the house… (Dec 10)
Since moving in our main priority has been to get the heating sorted. Now that’s done we intend to do up the house room by room. To keep our priorities in order we’re starting with the wine cellar…
This lovely old room sits in the centre of the house on the ground floor behind a lockable door (the key was still in the lock). Stepping inside looks, and no doubt smells like it would have done when this side of the house was first built. It’s been unused and unloved for many years and apart from some annoying pipework seemingly untouched since 1832. The ceiling is around 15 feet high and 6 massive concrete shelves divided by red brick make up 16 different bins – each identified by a hand-painted number. But the pipework’s been a problem – it makes the cellar defunct when the heating’s on. So while the plumbers were here we asked them to re-route what they could and insulate the rest.
It’s Ed’s project and since the pipework’s been sorted he’s been working on it in the evenings with the door closed. Tonight all was revealed and it’s a glory to behold, with a new door frame, light, light switch and key tassel! And as some of our roof slates came off in a big storm last week, he’s recycled them to use for chalking up bin notes…
I might add at this juncture that fixing the roof is also on our list of priorities but sadly this is going to have to wait as 1. we can’t afford it and 2. our roofer fell off his ladder while he was fixing a gutter here a couple of months ago (he’s going to be fine but that’s a whole other blog entry).
Ed’s been testing the temperature of each bin with an old wine thermometer. The ideal is surprisingly between 12 and 16 degrees – and it’s consistency that matters – so each bin can be different. Luckily the pipe issue appears to be resolved. Now all we need to do is work out a way to stack the bottles – that and spend the next 20 years buying wine…
We stood in there with the door closed for quite a while this evening – and smiled a lot. Our first modest but rather beautiful make-over. It’s a luxurious self-indulgence but I think it’s fair to say that a house like this wouldn’t be complete without it.
Heat, glorious heat… (Dec 2)
Work started last Monday on our conversion to renewable energy with the installation of our wood pellet boiler (see Preparing for next winter (Apr 7). Vans have been coming and going all week and we’ve had a constant supply of coffee on the go for 15 different workmen. Several floors have been lifted, yards of gleaming copper pipes connected and huge bits of kit hauled into the workshop. It’s the beginning of making the house work for us and it feels exhilarating and a bit scary.
Outside at the back of the house now stands a massive 8 tonne steel silo (or wood pellet store). It’s 2 meters wide and 4 meters high and will need obscuring with a fence – a job we’ve planned for next summer. Ed’s workshop is unfortunately no more and instead houses a dazzling array of equipment including a maze of new pipework and dials, 3 thermal stores (water tanks essentially) and the boiler itself – a massive 2 and half tonne orange box from Austria. The engineer says we’ll soon be showing off this space-age system (we can operate it through our mobile phones!) to all our friends . I scoffed at this, but now the job’s done, I’m afraid to say I can feel a few guided tours coming on…
Inside the house, the heating and hot water for the old wing is now on its own circuit; stage 1 of our plan to turn it into a holiday let. The hot water for the main part of the house (where we live) will be done in the summer (too many more floors to pull up in the run up to Christmas).
Then the last of the salvaged radiators was plumbed in yesterday and we were ready to turn on the boiler for the first time… It’s a different house: Walking into the front hall is never going to feel the same again. When Gracie gets out of the bath she runs around naked on the landing. Getting up in the morning is a treat…
So we have in fact found a way to live here comfortably (see It’s bloody cold but we do have deer… (Mar 10). We’re starting to realise the potential of this wonderful place.
Dung swap (Oct 17)
Half our apples are currently being turned into cider (see Apples apples everywhere… – Aug 31). The rest were too high for picking so we collect them by the bucket-load once they’ve fallen.
In the meantime Ed’s been coveting a large heap of horse dung in a neighbouring field. Strange things happen when you have a garden…
I tracked down the owner and she’s very happy to do an exchange. Apples go in – free fertiliser comes out. Done.
A Castle in the Sky 