What you doig on your period property this Easter weekend

[livias]

Playing at Time Team!
According to the Enclosures map there used to be a jetty at the end of the garden so I went digging to see if I could find it. I didn't but did find the foundations of the brick and flint wall which was probably built after the jetty went out of use and has since fallen down. Next task is to rebuild the wall

 

[paulb33]

Those are pretty hefty columns to support a balcony that's only 4 feet deep I'd say - even given it's width.

The structural engineer was happy with the columns. He reckons they'd support a modern 5 story building.... :?

www.redhouserestoration.wordpress.com

 

[Feltwell]

Glad you got the reassurance you were after!

The balcony now drains towards the house. Sorting it will need the level building up to drain forwards.

If it now drains towards the house, is there no way of intercepting that to channel it away? Could a channel be cut in the back edge using something like a diamond disc wall chaser and a drain made from the bottom of the channel by inserting say 3 small pipes through the balcony? Just a thought!

 

[Zebra]

Right then. What have we all been up to this time around?
I did a bit of plastering on Friday, bought some slate and made a front door step on Saturday, nothing much on Sunday. Today had a lazy start, didn't get up til 11.00, when I was awoken by some mysterious singing in the churchyard adjacent. Then took the bottom two courses of brick out of part of the back of the woodshed - the last bit of bad damp in the house, the mortar was basically just mud - put a dpc in and started repointing it back in.

 

[mims&pip]

Gosh Zebra, you have put us to shame - we have merely been gardening :roll: Having said that, the garden here had been left to decay for a couple of years whilst a buyer was found, so returning it to its original glory is a project in itself! We spent Friday and part of Saturday pruning, clearing and planting with three dump runs in the 110 yesterday. It is an ongoing project that will take some years to complete, but for now our lower *woodland* area is vastly improved with some judicious planting amongst the trees (and bluebells, which I am eagerly awaiting bursting into flower) and we have redesigned one area as an *architectural bed* complete with Trachycarpus, Phormium and Buxus.....just need some Cupressus Semperivens to give height and Kniphofia for colour

Our amazing (and very large) wisteria inherited when we purchased the house is now a mass of buds....pics to follow when in full bloom :wink:

Today we took a well-earned rest from physical graft and headed off to Malvern fleamarket, where we spent a few sun-drenched hours scouring the hundreds of stalls for treasures, coming home with several bargains

Hope everyone has had an enjoyable Easter break.....

Mims x

 

[TheForge]

We've been hand making replacement bricks to repair and rebuild a fireplace, to match the 1740 originals. We've been lucky enough to have the expertise and company of Tony Mugridge (http://www.ajmugridge.co.uk )for part of the week, which has been amazing, but he's gone now and we're on our own to finish the making and hacking of the bricks before firing in the summer. We've made about 750 so far! It's very labour intensive and it certainly makes you appreciate why mass produced bricks overtook hand production but it's been an amazing experience creating an 18th century style country brickworks in the yard of the forge! There had been a genuine brickyard in the field behind so this was the first time in over 200 years that bricks had been made on site. We had friends come to help over the week and their children lent a hand just as they would have been employed in the original yard.





EDIT - There were more pictures but I'm getting an error telling me that the board attachment limit has been reached.

 

[plasticpigeon]

TheForge, that is some serious effort to restore a fireplace, and how wonderful that people like Mr Mugridge still exist.

I've been rebuilding my bay window roof over the last 3 days, learning about roofing techniques and realising that i can just bang things togethr roughly as the internal frame will never be seen; not what I'm used to. tomorrow I will have to cut around 140 slates to size, drill holes in the right place and cut about 30 into diamond patterns for the fish tail look I want. I'm not sure why I always go to such an effort, i know it is illogical, but I seem incapable of going for the easy option.

 

[Zebra]

Pip and Mims, I have most definately not put you to shame. You have not seen my garden! I'm sure it could very much do with some Trachycarpus, not to mention the Cupressus Semperivens, whatever those are!

The Forge, "We've been hand making replacement bricks to repair and rebuild a fireplace,".........!!!!!!! Excuse me?!! Hand making bricks?! I am amazed.

PlasticPigeon I do absolutely salute your efforts in every way. I'm sure every part of your house will be so much a testament to your refusal to compromise, I'm sure it will bring you so much satisfaction for so long.

 

[jocelyn plummer]

Although chez Plummer is not strictly a period property--we are clearing out the garden which has been allowed to overgrow during the past few years. We moved in on 14th January when it was freezing cold so have only just been able to get outside and hack our way through. There is a climbing rose with 4inch thick stems which we have had cut right down, a tayberry which has set suckers running through an entire bed, a wisteria which just broke away in our hands and the 6inch trunk just pulled up with rotten roots at the end of it. Jasmine everywhere--the red one not the lovely scented one, a dead camellia and two part dead lilacs, so we will be out there for a while yet. In the meantime I await a joiner to quote for a kitchen dresser which I have designed, a quote for a new floor covering in the kitchen, and the dreaded artex problem---leaning towards a plaster skim. They seem to be quite used to doing that round here!! Then its the bathroom, then maybe I can get some dado and cornicing sorted out then my favourite bit, colour scheming, curtains etc.!! Oo yes, got one pine panelled door fitted that's got to be sanded down primed and painted. 4 more to go!!!!!

 

[88v8]

Unbelievably, the garage build is still grinding on. It became a DIY job last summer when we parted company with the builders.

Been putting up green-oak feather edge cladding. This is in danger of turning into a bit of a disaster as I now realise it's much too late (or early) because the weather is too hot, the sun has too much warmth.
Note to self: next time you build in green oak, must be done only in winter, repeat winter.

Well, it's doe now so I'm spraying it twice daily to try and prevent cupping, alas I fear in vain.

Mr Rolls Royce is poorly, so time has also been spent persuading 45 year old bolts to undo. Today I need to find/buy some A/F surface-drive sockets.

Nothing to compare with making one's own bricks. I don't think anyone will ever top that.
Where we lived previously was opposite a former brick yard. A neighbour who had lived there since the 1920s recalled the kilns in operation.
We found a few malms in the garden.

Ivor

 

[TheForge]

There are more photos of the brick making at for those interested:

http://www.tombalch.smugmug.com/Brick-Making/n-M57gJC

 

[Penners]

Tea break will be when Colonel Penners says so.

Oi! I haven't called tea break yet! Get on with your work!

Colonel Penners' Easter activity has been replacing the sealant around the downstairs shower tray AGAIN! :evil: :evil: :evil:

On the PPUK scale of exertion, this may not sound like much (and in fact, isn't)! But when you have to remove the old (unsuccessful) silicone with a Stanley knife followed by two applications of silicone eater, then clean down with meths, then apply the new stuff and wait 36 hours for it to cure... and all for the third b****y time, it takes on rather more demanding proportions. Specially when you have a bad back (which I courageously never mention).

Other than this, I have been rigorously testing our period property's armchairs.

 

[TheRoost]

The good weather distracted us from what we should of been doing (repairing and sanding bedroom walls) instead we worked on the threadbare garden, putting in some shrubs and bamboo. In the process we dug up many bricks, some bits of pottery, a clay smoking pipe and some brass curtain rings, would be nice if they are as old as the house

 

[worms]

...then clean down with meths...

We all suspected you drank it, but do you wash in it too? :wink:

 

[Penners]

...then clean down with meths...

We all suspected you drank it, but do you wash in it too? :wink:

That's a spirited reply, worms.

 

[worms]

...then clean down with meths...

We all suspected you drank it, but do you wash in it too? :wink:

That's a spirited reply, worms.

OH, dear! :roll:

well, CH3 OH...dear

 

[88v8]

Tea break will be when Colonel Penners says so.

Colonel Penners' Easter activity has been replacing the sealant around the downstairs shower tray AGAIN!
On the PPUK scale of exertion, this may not sound like much (and in fact, isn't)! But when you have to remove the old (unsuccessful) silicone with a Stanley knife followed by two applications of silicone eater, then clean down with meths, then apply the new stuff and wait 36 hours for it to cure... and all for the third b****y time, it takes on rather more demanding proportions..

Didn't see this... is it on a solid floor, or wood? and is/was it leaking onto the floor?

Ivor

 

[Penners]

It's on a tile-on-to-concrete floor, Ivor. So no real danger of deterioration. It's just flippin' annoying!

 

[88v8]

Odd that it keeps failing. Was the shower tray propped on a piece(s) of wood, do you know?

What gets me about showers, is the mould, and the apparent impossibility of cleaning the silicone and to a lesser extent the grout.

Ivor

 

[Penners]

Odd that it keeps failing. Was the shower tray propped on a piece(s) of wood, do you know?

What gets me about showers, is the mould, and the apparent impossibility of cleaning the silicone and to a lesser extent the grout.

Ivor

Having renewed the silicone several times, Ivor, I'm now convinced that the problem lies in some aspect of the enclosure design. I think water is somehow wheedling itself through some joint in the aluminium framing.