Hello all
I have been a "lurker" since last summer and have learnt lots from reading this forum, thanks! We (husband, two elderly mogs, two giddy black labradors and I) moved to our very pretty detached cottage in Spring last year, it is in a beautiful little conservation village and our cottage is next to the hall. The hall is early c19 but stands on the site of an earlier house. The forebears of the current occupants of the hall owned the entire village until the 1950's when financial problems resulted in the sale of much of the village. Ours was finally sold in the '80's to the lady we bought from. I know from the oldest chap in the village who was born here that our cottage was the Head Groom's cottage and was so since the early 19th century. The Head Gardener's cottage is opposite us. We have a lovely garden that is partially walled as we share the wall with the Hall, the wall is very pretty but thankfully it is not ours to maintain! Behind us are the stables to the hall, some are still used for that purpose and two are now converted to homes. We have a "twin" cottage that sits the other side of the drive to the stables.There are quite a few listed buildings in the village, mainly the grander residences and two cruck frame cottages, ours isn't but apparently it was noted as special interest in the 70's and in the conservation guide said it may be in the future? How true this is I don't know. I wish it had been listed as it may have prevented some of the bad work being done in the 80's. The elderly lady we bought from was lovely and I'm sure she did what she felt was best for the house and had the prevailing advice of the time, and unlike us did not have the benefit of information like this site etc, but it is sad how quickly bits of history can be removed without the protection of listing. I have kept in contact with her, she is a delightful lady in her late 80's and has given us treasures she found in the loft like very old newspapers and 100 year old magazines, lots of people wanted the house but she seemed to take a shine to us and our enthusiasm, she held on for us to buy it despite our nightmare buyers. She is coming for afternoon tea soon to see the changes we have made which will be nice.
The bottom half dates apparently to at least the 1640's and the top section went on in the 1800's, with a back part that is now a kitchen and bathroom that was later c19. There are no foundations. We have two larger bedrooms and a third small room off the second bedroom. There is a central chimney stack with fireplaces in the sitting room and dining room. It is brick built and is cream painted as are most of the cottage in our village. It is in our deeds to keep the cottage cream. Apparently the colour washing is typical of this area. We have an old pigsty and small barn, wash house, the flooring in the barn looks extremely old, the outbuildings add to the charm, they are very pretty. There is a plan of our village from 1644 and our plot is quite clearly on it.
It was love at first sight for us with the cottage, the setting of it is dreamy and it has a lovely peace to it and timelessness, i felt giddy with love for it and the village! We relocated here for work from the north west our previous house was a late Victorian semi. The little downsides are that unfortunately it has suffered from the dreaded 80's modernisation, pammets lifted up, dpc and concrete floor put in, the floor was also lowered as the ceilings were so low, old beams thick with paint, original fireplaces blocked up, perfect dogleg stairs with an entry door in the fireplace wall removed and replaced with stairs coming in to dining room, but we still loved it modern warts and all and it still has heaps of period charm. We have exposed the lovely lounge inglenook and thanks to this forum I felt confident to ask for it to be repointed in lime, we found a stash of very old bricks in the garden and laid the hearth with them and it looks wonderful with a woodburner. The gas fire and modern brickwork was removed in the dining room and woodburner installed there. Latch door at base of stairs again but I still mourn the loss of the original. Structurally is is fairly sound, the ceilings and beams slope, wonky windows etc but to be expected and I love it anyway.
I have started to become quite obsessed with lime as mentioned due to reading period living, this forum and books from the library and we have used it for internal and external repointing of chimney, the walls in the house are a mixture of old lime plaster and modern, and when re plastering is required it will be with lime. Thankfully despite the concrete floor and dpc etc we don't have a damp problem apart from a tiny bit on the sitting room wall, but nothing to lose sleep over. We have laid underfloor heating and aged limestone flags on top. We have since found quite a few of the old pammets buried in the garden and used as hidden pathways, they are quite damaged though from the elements, very sad.
But my long winded post brings me to my advice request. The cottage has been painted over the years in weathershield and has black bitumen around the first foot. Can it be removed and replaced with lime wash? I feel it may help the house breath and aid the little bit of damp in the lounge. It has always been painted, we have a photo of the house from the 1900's and a postcard from the 1930's, and we have a photocopy of a picture of our house from a book about estate cottages of England, and as mentioned it is in our deeds to have the traditional Lincolnshire colour wash. From looking on the Internet advice suggests weathershield can only be sandblasted off which damages bricks. But I also don't want to keep slapping weathershield on either. The top half of the house has newer bricks in accordance with its 1800's age. But the lower half has very old brick work with little handmade slim bricks, some laid end on seemingly quite uneven, I would hate to damage them. Can anything be done? Is the black paint detrimental to old house too?
I am keen to try to do the right thing by our home and hope to live here for many years but appreciate I have much to learn too. I have always loved old houses and am so proud to own my quite historic but modest little cottage. I have aspirations to one day own a Suffolk Tudor timber frame house as I come from Suffolk and have loved them since I was a child, I shall wait for a lottery win and be content with what I have for now!
Best wishes
Emma
Ps sorry for the essay! I have somewhat gone on....
I have been a "lurker" since last summer and have learnt lots from reading this forum, thanks! We (husband, two elderly mogs, two giddy black labradors and I) moved to our very pretty detached cottage in Spring last year, it is in a beautiful little conservation village and our cottage is next to the hall. The hall is early c19 but stands on the site of an earlier house. The forebears of the current occupants of the hall owned the entire village until the 1950's when financial problems resulted in the sale of much of the village. Ours was finally sold in the '80's to the lady we bought from. I know from the oldest chap in the village who was born here that our cottage was the Head Groom's cottage and was so since the early 19th century. The Head Gardener's cottage is opposite us. We have a lovely garden that is partially walled as we share the wall with the Hall, the wall is very pretty but thankfully it is not ours to maintain! Behind us are the stables to the hall, some are still used for that purpose and two are now converted to homes. We have a "twin" cottage that sits the other side of the drive to the stables.There are quite a few listed buildings in the village, mainly the grander residences and two cruck frame cottages, ours isn't but apparently it was noted as special interest in the 70's and in the conservation guide said it may be in the future? How true this is I don't know. I wish it had been listed as it may have prevented some of the bad work being done in the 80's. The elderly lady we bought from was lovely and I'm sure she did what she felt was best for the house and had the prevailing advice of the time, and unlike us did not have the benefit of information like this site etc, but it is sad how quickly bits of history can be removed without the protection of listing. I have kept in contact with her, she is a delightful lady in her late 80's and has given us treasures she found in the loft like very old newspapers and 100 year old magazines, lots of people wanted the house but she seemed to take a shine to us and our enthusiasm, she held on for us to buy it despite our nightmare buyers. She is coming for afternoon tea soon to see the changes we have made which will be nice.
The bottom half dates apparently to at least the 1640's and the top section went on in the 1800's, with a back part that is now a kitchen and bathroom that was later c19. There are no foundations. We have two larger bedrooms and a third small room off the second bedroom. There is a central chimney stack with fireplaces in the sitting room and dining room. It is brick built and is cream painted as are most of the cottage in our village. It is in our deeds to keep the cottage cream. Apparently the colour washing is typical of this area. We have an old pigsty and small barn, wash house, the flooring in the barn looks extremely old, the outbuildings add to the charm, they are very pretty. There is a plan of our village from 1644 and our plot is quite clearly on it.
It was love at first sight for us with the cottage, the setting of it is dreamy and it has a lovely peace to it and timelessness, i felt giddy with love for it and the village! We relocated here for work from the north west our previous house was a late Victorian semi. The little downsides are that unfortunately it has suffered from the dreaded 80's modernisation, pammets lifted up, dpc and concrete floor put in, the floor was also lowered as the ceilings were so low, old beams thick with paint, original fireplaces blocked up, perfect dogleg stairs with an entry door in the fireplace wall removed and replaced with stairs coming in to dining room, but we still loved it modern warts and all and it still has heaps of period charm. We have exposed the lovely lounge inglenook and thanks to this forum I felt confident to ask for it to be repointed in lime, we found a stash of very old bricks in the garden and laid the hearth with them and it looks wonderful with a woodburner. The gas fire and modern brickwork was removed in the dining room and woodburner installed there. Latch door at base of stairs again but I still mourn the loss of the original. Structurally is is fairly sound, the ceilings and beams slope, wonky windows etc but to be expected and I love it anyway.
I have started to become quite obsessed with lime as mentioned due to reading period living, this forum and books from the library and we have used it for internal and external repointing of chimney, the walls in the house are a mixture of old lime plaster and modern, and when re plastering is required it will be with lime. Thankfully despite the concrete floor and dpc etc we don't have a damp problem apart from a tiny bit on the sitting room wall, but nothing to lose sleep over. We have laid underfloor heating and aged limestone flags on top. We have since found quite a few of the old pammets buried in the garden and used as hidden pathways, they are quite damaged though from the elements, very sad.
But my long winded post brings me to my advice request. The cottage has been painted over the years in weathershield and has black bitumen around the first foot. Can it be removed and replaced with lime wash? I feel it may help the house breath and aid the little bit of damp in the lounge. It has always been painted, we have a photo of the house from the 1900's and a postcard from the 1930's, and we have a photocopy of a picture of our house from a book about estate cottages of England, and as mentioned it is in our deeds to have the traditional Lincolnshire colour wash. From looking on the Internet advice suggests weathershield can only be sandblasted off which damages bricks. But I also don't want to keep slapping weathershield on either. The top half of the house has newer bricks in accordance with its 1800's age. But the lower half has very old brick work with little handmade slim bricks, some laid end on seemingly quite uneven, I would hate to damage them. Can anything be done? Is the black paint detrimental to old house too?
I am keen to try to do the right thing by our home and hope to live here for many years but appreciate I have much to learn too. I have always loved old houses and am so proud to own my quite historic but modest little cottage. I have aspirations to one day own a Suffolk Tudor timber frame house as I come from Suffolk and have loved them since I was a child, I shall wait for a lottery win and be content with what I have for now!
Best wishes
Emma
Ps sorry for the essay! I have somewhat gone on....
