Mantlepiece extension needed at Somerset Merchant's House

[Gareth Hughes]

Congratulations are in order - again - for regular (ish) poster Jon Maine

http://www.woodawards.com/the-merchants-house/, beating off Apethorpe Hall and Shaw House, Newbury

 

[JoceAndChris]

That's very exciting - well done Jon!

 

[skier-hughes]

That will be good news for Jon, who I know has had a really bad, but improving, private summer.

 

[biffvernon]

Jon's blog: http://merchants-house.blogspot.com/

 

[jocelyn plummer]

Congratulations Jon. I think that you have created a perfect balance of preservation,conservation and cutting edge renovations, resulting in a property that can proudly move forward for another century.

 

[Jon Maine]

Funny you should say that about the mantle shelf Gareth it was the topic of discussion last evening too!!Thank you all.

It was rather exciting to beat the strong competition and be shortlisted above some other quality interesting projects too.
( although then 5 of us were shortlisted for the gold award sadly I did not get that one but however see http://www.woodawards.com/kings-place-concert-hall/ what a wonderful project on a different theme but very much a worthy overall winner, and that oak tree :shock: )

I hope to be back a posting little more soon but had a few things on my plate.

Another big one tomorrow, up against this lot http://www.rics.org/site/scripts/news_article.aspx?newsID=659 it would appear that The Merchant's House was certainly not quite the smallest project in scale but was certainly in budget. I do believe most were multi million pound projects run by larger organisations with HLF money and other sizable grants, with the exception of Clavell tower which was just under a million. Just knowing I have been shortlisted with these projects :shock: has been an honour.

 

[Jon Maine]

Clavell tower won the Building Conservation and St Paul's won the project of the year. The Merchants House did not even receive a highly commended But on the bright side we were shortlisted amongst major prestigious projects which were all to an exceptional standard.

I had half hoped for a highly commended in both the Wood Awards and the RICS but I guess a full award in one either balances or outweighs two half awards.

Got back tonight to find I have been invited by the Court of the Carpenters Company for lunch early next month with the sponsors,judges,other winners so will look forward to that.

 

[Matt Green]

Without the timber conservation specialists employed at both Apethorpe Hall and Shaw House much more of the original wood may have been lost. Shame they don't get any mention. :|

M.

 

[Penners]

Great news, yet again, Jon. Many congratulations.

Mind you, I think you only got the award because the tree-house I made for my grandsons wasn't entered. :wink: :wink:

 

[biffvernon]

Yes, it was quite a fancy bit of joinery. Lucky grandson.

 

[MdB]

Ahh, the great dormouse nut hunt might want to know about that....
http://www.greatnuthunt.org.uk/

They are looking for nibbled hazelnuts.

 

[JoceAndChris]

That's the cutest thing ever!!!

I really hope I've not been feeding dormice to the chooks, been taking them a steady stream of dead rodent presents from Cat. They love them, they disappear within about 10 minutes.

Jon, don't worry about not beating St Paul's, your house is much nicer than St Paul's.

 

[Flyfisher]

I can't help with the dormouse nut hunt but I did discover a half-walnut shell, together with chewed shell and nut fragments, balanced on top of our field gate earlier today. A pesky grey squirrel lunch, I guess! The spaces under our attic room floorboards are full of walnut shells (OK, slight exaggeration, but certainly lots of them).

 

[Moo]

Our 3m x 4m town garden (aka back yard) has been growing a veritable forest of walnut trees in the tubs. I can only imagine that it's the work of a squirrel.

And - a warning: If you ever get a similar infestation, pull them up quickly. We procrastinated, and by the time I went to pull them out and take them to a new home (the golf course) they had the most amazingly tencious tap roots.