-
Moving stones
This week I’ve been mostly moving stones around. I was pretty pleased with how the first wall came together. I’ve only done drystone walling once before, right back when I was a trainee, so I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to make anything particularly solid. We didn’t want huge walls, just something to define the garden boundaries, so luckily I didn’t have to go too high.
Drystone walls are usually capped with larger stones on top to stablise them, but instead we want to grow alpine plants on top, the roots of which should also hold the walls together, so I added a good bit of soil too.
With my first wall completed I moved on to the wall beside the path. Here part of the old wall was still standing at the base, so I removed the loose rock and built up from what remained. It was very pleasing to see a solitary bee, possibly a red mason bee, checking out the wall as a potential nesting spot even as it was being built.
And finally I cleared the soil off the old garden path. This would once have been the path to the front door, when there’d been two houses, but it has long since been covered over. Chris couldn’t see the point of a path to nowhere, but I like the history and think it’s nice to be able to wonder down through the plants.
We need to go shopping for suitable plants for the wall but first I raided our potted plants, many of which have self-seeded plants growing around them. From these ‘weeds’ I got some strawberries, violets, mullein, geranium and oxeye daisies to start the planting. I even got enough young oxeye daisies to scatter them throughout the meadow area.
There’s a few more walls to go but the garden is starting to look a little less chaotic.
In the side garden Chris found a spot for our cherry and plum trees, their terracotta pots having broken apart in the frost.
Chris has been itching to start building a shed in the garden, however he noticed some badger holes where he wanted to build it. Badger dens can be abandoned or rarely used, but we obviously didn’t want to cover them up if they were active, so he set out a trail camera. The good news is we definitely have badgers, which is exciting. They don’t seem to be using the dens much, so they’re probably temporary dens they use now and then. To avoid any damage to them however we’re moving the location of the shed and hopefully we can co-exist peacefully.
For more conventional, and boring, DIY Chris added another coat to the stairs ceiling and another section of plasterboard to the back before filling the gaps and holes. Unfortunately, once the last piece of board is added we won’t be able to balance the scaffolding planks across the top of the stairs, making it harder to reach the high ceiling and walls.
His final job was to add a splashback to the bathroom sink, a job that’s needed doing for a while.
With the sun shining and the birds singing, I mostly want to spend my time in the garden, but there’s lots of to do inside still, so perhaps next week I get back to sanding filler… Perhaps.
-
Puzzled
Filling, sanding and painting skirting is very boring, so I thought I’d take a break from this mind-numbing task to do something completely non-urgent, but more satisfying and fun.
We have a number of piles of rocks in the garden, which need to be rebuilt into drystone walls. Drystone walls are better for wildlife than building walls with concrete mortar, both because concrete has a big carbon footprint, and because leaving out the mortar creates lots of nooks and crannies for things to live.
However, because there’s no mortar to hold the stones together it’s important to build the wall using a certain technique so it remains stable. It’s like building a giant jigsaw puzzle, trying to find the right stone to fit the space. Although the section I’ve built so far may seem small, it’s taken me a few evenings already. With lighter evenings I’m hoping to keep going a little at a time until it’s done.
Inside the house I finally got round to cleaning the stone on the kitchen wall, tidying the edges and coating the area with three layers of stone protector.
Meanwhile, Chris plastered the remaining wall on the stairs, and added a watery coat of paint. On the ceiling he added the architrave and a fresh coat of paint. Next the architrave will need filling and the whole thing repainting.
On the landing I installed the remaining architrave.
And in the kitchen I added more skirting, though some of it can’t be attached till we know what we’re doing with the fireplace.
Along the base of the stone wall in the kitchen we’d initially planned to install skirting, so I hadn’t plastered all the way to the floor. However we realised the wall was so bumpy,skirting might not be practical, so instead I filled in the gap with plaster.
As usual I overfilled my bucket, so instead of wasting it I plastered a small section of the downstairs toilet wall.
Out in the garden some of the tulips I planted are starting to flower. With the amount of bare ground the garden still doesn’t look very exciting, but at least things are starting to grow. I also finally put our bird box outside, ready for nesting season. I felt bad hammering it on to a tree, so it’s just wedged in the crook of two branches. The 50mph winds yesterday didn’t dislodge it so hopeful that’s that job done, and maybe some birds will make themselves at home.
-
Making space
With spring around the corner, I headed to my first volunteer day at the community garden, while Chris tried to tick off a big list of jobs.
Firstly he put some finishing touches on the ventilation system, cutting down and connecting up the pipe in the spare bedroom, and cutting down the black tubes protruding from the ceiling in the bathroom and bedroom to attach the inlet and outlet caps. Sadly it wasn’t possible to put the pipe in the spare bedroom as close to the wall as we hoped, so rather than just boxing it in we may build a small cupboard around it to better use the space.
Next he cleaned and sealed the slate in front of the fireplace, and painted the surround with black metal paint. Long-term we will put in a log burner, but for now this tidys it up.
While most of the worktop is in place, there’s one final awkward corner to do. Chris spent time cutting the back to fit, so now just the front needs shaping.
His final job was to clear the rest of the bramble from the back fence.
I spent several evenings filling, sanding, caulking, and finally painting, the the skirting and architrave in the spare bedroom.
Our big job on the Sunday was to finally finish off widening the drive. Although we already moved most of the soil banked up beside the drive, Chris was keen to try and flatten it as much as possible now one of our neighbours had lent us a mini digger. Chris used the digger to fill a wheelbarrow and I huffed back and forth to the pile of soil in our back garden.
With the drive widened, we had planned to drive the digger up the steps, using scaffold boards, to flatten the piles of soil in the back garden, but it was too heavy for the boards. Our neighbour says he has a ramp we can have a go with next time.
My one complaint with the wider drive is that the cars take up more of the view looking out from the window. I’m wondering if some strategic planting could help hide them a little.
In between moving barrow-loads of soil, I had a go at clearing a small section of the front garden to sow some of the packets of wildflower seeds I got for Christmas. The patch of ground was largely taken over by saplings, ivy and bluebells. While we want to keep bluebells in the garden, most of them are hybrid Spain ish bluebells, rather than our native species, long-term I’m hoping to dig out any non-native plants and just leave the native ones, but for now I’m hoping digging over the bed a little will give the native wildflowers a chance to grow, and then the bluebells will pop up in between.
Chris’s final job of the weekend was to take down a small dead ash tree. There’s a few more trees he’d like to remove, but he felt this was the most urgent. While he was busy Idris decided he might have a go at digger driving. He’s a natural.
-
Ready
It was a couple of late nights finishing things off before our visitor.
One of the jobs I had it in my head I wanted to finish off was finishing the skirting and architrave in the landing. Completely non-essential but I just wanted to get it done. After more filling and sanding I was able to get a first coat on. It’s nice to see the landing looking more like a liveable space.
Next we focused on the bedroom, sanding and painting the new plaster, and getting most of the skirting and architrave on. Sadly there wasn’t time to fit, sand and paint the woodwork. Finally we tried to empty most of the DIY leftovers from the room, pieces of plasterboard, a spare door and other miscellaneous objects. This has filled up the office, but in time these bits will be used or sold. Some boxes had to remain, as for now there’s nowhere else to put them.
Excitingly the window company, who are making our wooden windows, came to check the measurements for the six windows, the double glass doors, and to measure the stairs for a replacement set. The windows should arrive the end of April, hopefully meaning we can take advantage of the bank holiday weekend to get them in.
While we won’t order the stairs till we’ve finished plastering, we needed a temporary banister to help my nan up and down the stairs. Chris salvaged an old rafter to sand down and install, which also gives us an idea what the stairs will look like with a banister. Sadly the expert said the new stairs won’t be much wider than the old ones, which seems a waste, but building control doesn’t have much room for bespoke designs.
We found a ‘new’ sofa for the lounge, with someone local throwing one out for free. It’s a nice sofa, but needs a clean. However the fabric is a silk mix and professional cleaners won’t touch it, saying it needs dry cleaning, yet the label says don’t dry clean. We’re at a loss as to how to clean it, and even the manufacturers said they didn’t know when we contacted them. We might just need to trial a few things.
Chris also got a mirror at auction. It’s very nice, but in need of some repairs. He wanted it to bring more light into our dark lounge.
Finally, I shifted the last of the soil alongside the drive. With this gone we’ve had a kind offer of a mini-digger from one of our neighbours, so we can flatten out the drive and the garden where the spoil’s been spread.
With our visitor having come and gone without breaking her neck on our building site of a house, we’ve now got two weeks till the next visitors arrive. I’m hoping that gives us time to get the last few bedroom pieces finished, though the nice weather is starting to draw me more out into the garden.
-
Edgy
With this being the last weekend before my nan comes to stay with us, we were pushing on trying to get things ready for her visit.
The main priority was to get the spare room finished. One fiddly job was putting up the wooden boards to cover the gaps in the ceiling. Once up they needed fill, sanding, and a final coat of paint.
The fourth wall was now ready to be plastered, so Chris got to work putting on a couple of coats. This will hopefully be dry enough to sand and paint before our visitor arrives.
On the landing we spent some time getting the arcitrave and skirting, before filling the gaps. Like the plaster, this now needs time to dry before sanding and painting.
While I worked on the landing, Chris started on the skirting in the bedroom, however the skirting can’t be attached to the new plaster just yet.
To add a little privacy to the spare room Chris cut down and hung one of our spare doors.
On the landing, and downstairs in the kitchen, we plugged some awkward gaps with expanding foam before cutting it back and using filler to smooth over the surface.
There’s still a few jobs left to do before my nan can have a comfortable stay, but with a few evenings left to get on with things we should make our deadline.
-
Hedge laying
With a weekend away planned, I tried to get a few small jobs done in the evenings.
I filled, sanded and painted the third wall in the spare bedroom.
On the landing I filled, sanded, and painted the gappy ceiling boards.
I painted the landing with our newly chosen pale yellow. It fits in nicely with the white stonewall, but brightens quite a dark landing space.
Our stable door for our kitchen entrance arrived, so I primed all the various bits and pieces.
And finally I put on the last few bits of board and insulation on the fourth wall in the bedroom. Having added board tape and painting it with PVA, it’s now ready to plaster.
While Chris headed to watch the rugby with his friends, I headed to my parents with a few crafting bits I wanted to get done. The first was a curtain that we’d brought second-hand. While listed as a pair of curtains, when it arrived it was one huge curtain instead. Rather than return it I ask my mum to help guide me through cutting it down to size and creating a pair. Once home I was able to put up our new curtain pole and hang them in place.
My other job was to repair the £20 tiffany-style lampshade I’d bought. Mum, already an experienced stain glasser, showed me how to fix the gap. First, we removed the broken glass, and the lead around the opening. Next we had to cut some new pieces of glass to size and shape.
Once ready, each piece of glass was coated around its edge in a copper foil. The pieces were then soldered into place. It’s not a flawless repair, but enough that the lampshade can retain its purpose, and hopefully soon be hung up in our kitchen/diner.
On our return from our rest, a big job greeted us. We’d wanted to lay the hedge this year, and ideally this needed to be done before the plants went into leaf. With some leaf buds already starting to open we decided it was now or never.
It took two days to lay the hedge, the first of which was freezing cold, snow falling down around us. Hedge laying involves cutting through the majority of the base of the tree and laying it down across its neighbours, using steaks at intervals to keep everything in place. This encourages the hedge to grow nice and thick, extending the life of the hedge trees and making a better home for birds and other wildlife.
The second day was lovely and sunny, much easier to work in. We had a bit of a challenge laying across where the ground had sunk from the sinkhole, but overall the laying went well.
Around a third of the hedge is made up of lilac, which isn’t a plant I’ve ever heard anyone laying, so it might not do as well as the rest. All we can do is wait and see.
The only section remaining to lay is along the side of the parking space, however the plants are so thin and weedy here we’ll coppice them instead (cut them down to the ground, encouraging new growth), and plant new saplings around them. It will then be five or more years before that section can be laid.
It was a tough job, and both of us are aching at the end of it, but well worth the hassle. The hedge won’t need to be relaid for a good decade or more, and in the meantime it should become stronger and healthier.
I’m excited for more jobs in the garden, already the tulip leaves are coming up in groups, and even the winter aconites are starting to appear. It’ll be nice to have a little more colour surrounding us when the summer comes.
-
A Big Pile of… Soil
With a couple of other obligations this weekend, we didn’t get an awful lot done, but little jobs are better than no jobs.
One little job I decided to do was plug up the last of the gaps in the landing ceiling. The gaps were letting in cold air from the attic, so first I had to push in some insulation and then tape up the plastic lining. A few coats of paint and the new boards will fit right in.
After plastering the landing, we realised we’d used the wrong type of plaster on one small section, that still had a layer of plaster on it. This had left a poor finish, so Chris used filler to smooth out the worst parts. I then sanded the filler and the plaster, before applying a watery coat of paint. I had planned to paint the landing white, the same as the stairs, but seeing the space now I feel it needs colour to pull together the various corners. I’ve got to decide what colour
Our big job of the weekend was continuing to move the huge pile of soil beside the drive. Frustratingly, the photos makes it look like we achieved nothing, when in fact we moved two-thirds of the pile. I realised too late taking the photos from the other direction would have shown our progress much better.
We found a line of big slate stones buried upright in a line, which probably once marked the edge of a wall. Chris spent a lot of time and energy digging them out. At some point we can repurpose them as garden steps.
In the spare bedroom things have descended into chaos once more as I moved everything around to paint two of the walls. The two remaining walls still need plastering, one complete plastering, the other just a bit of smoothing out, but it’s nice to see what the room will soon look like.
Outside spring is on its way, with daffodils having joined the snowdrops on the side of the road. I’m looking forward to working on the garden, but there’s still a lot to do inside before we can really dig into the garden.
-
Nesting
After I had dutifully written and posted my blog last weekend, Chris decided he hadn’t managed to get enough done afterall. Heading back upstairs after dinner he spent the evening creating sawdust as he cut and fitted the desk.
As we were only going to have one day free over the next weekend, and we needed to get the second bedroom ready for guests, I spent a fair few evenings working on getting the room in better shape.
I spent the first evening rearranging the remaining items in the room to free up space to put up the new bed.
The next stage was finishing off installing the coving. There were some horrible angles in this room, and despite it being the last room I had to do, the experience clearly didn’t pay off as I think I did the worst job out of the four.
Coving up, I filled the gaps with filler, sanded it back, and added caulke where needed. Finally, the ceiling got another coat of paint and the coving it’s first coat.
With the bed in place we managed the source a spare mattress from Chris’s family.
On a roll with the painting, I set to work painting the white wall in the kitchen. A less dramatic transformation than putting colour on the wall, but still nice to have more of a finished look.
With the spare room slowly coming together, we decided to concentrate on an area we’ve largely ignored up till now. The landing is an annoyingly complex space to plaster, with lots of little nooks and crannies to tackle.
While Chris worked on the ventilation system in the attic, I got on with prepping the walls for plastering. I always forget how long the prep work takes, though it doesn’t seem like it should eat up so much time. I cut off the excess insulation foam, taped the joins, and then coated the walls with PVA.
There was a small strip at the top of the wall on the stairs that still needed plasterboard adding. I wasn’t tall enough to fill the gaps, so Chris had to get up on the ladder to reach.
Our plan had always been to remove one of the wooden posts beside the stairs in order to widen them. Although we aren’t at the stage of replacing the stairs yet, we decided it was easier to remove the post now so as not to damage the plaster later on.
With the walls prepped we started plastering, with Chris getting the first coat on and me following to smooth it out. Even though it was a small space, all the different walls meant we only got the landing done, with the stairs having to wait for another day.
With a little remaining energy I planted some newly arrive winter aconite bulbs in the garden. These large yellow flowers will hopefully add a bit of spring colour next year. I think I’ve now filled the cleared bit of garden with as much as it can take. I just need to find time to clear another patch so I have somewhere new to plant up!
-
Moving on up
Chris has gotten the hang of online auctions and managed to buy a Victorian drop arm sofa for the kitchen. Though we’d already bought a small white sofa, Chris was worried this was still too big for the room, so found something more compact. It will need recovering and restuffing but at a cost of £60 we can afford the reupholstery costs. Idris has already claimed his spot. We didn’t know what a drop arm sofa was, but it means that a mechanism allows the arms to be lowered or raised depending on preference.
I spent a fair few evenings redistributing some of the items in the spare room, which does mean there are now boxes scattered around the house waiting to be unpacked, but it freed up some room to work in the crowded space.
Once the room was a little less busy, I sanded down the plaster and smoothed the rounded window corners, before refilling any holes. Once smoothed and filled I gave the two plaster walls a watery coat of paint. The third wall is one of the only in the house that never had the original plaster removed and the fourth wall is still missing some plasterboard and needs plastering.
Next I filled the gaps between the boards on the ceiling with chaulk, a job that took a great deal of gymnastics as I manuevered around the various obstacles in the room. The flat portion of the ceiling remains to be done but as these boards were never taken down the gaps are less significant and don’t need as much filling.
With the chaulking done for now I started on the coving, not an easy job with all the various angles. I kept going as long as I could before my brain was fried.
In the meantime Chris was busy in the attic creating a platform by installing wooden beams between the two steel purlins. With boards placed on top we were able to clear more out of the spare room, with Christmas decorations, camping equipment and other lesser used items getting safely stored away.
On the Sunday I had to go attend a maternity leaving do, and therefore left Chris in charge of himself, meaning I don’t have any photos of work in progress.
His first job was to install another doorway ready for the spare bedroom door.
In the study, he cut out a template for the desk, to avoid wasting the oak worktop. The table is particularly complex because the two walls slope outwards towards the corner, making marking it out in place tricky.
But his biggest achievement was installing the hob and connecting up the electrics for the oven. Meaning that when I got back he was busy cooking a lasagne for the first time in months.
Despite good progress this weekend it’s going to be a fair few evenings working this week to get things ready for another visit next weekend. Having offered to put up Chris’s friend, his wife and their two kids, we’ve got a lot of tidying to do, as well as a fair bit left to get the guest bedroom ready. Not that it’ll be finished, but at the very least we need to get a bed into it…
-
First coat
With a weekend away planned, we tried to get a few jobs done in the evenings in order to keep things moving forward.
My first job was to finish the lime plaster on the stone wall. With the plastering finished the next job will be to fill the cracks and paint.
Having done the previous three coats of paint on the ceiling I passed the fourth coat on to Chris to do, who admitted that it was the worst kind of painting job.
When we’d put in the windows at the back of the house we hadn’t gotten round to filling around them with mortar. Though it does need doing it hadn’t caused a big problem until the recent storms. While most of the windows just let in the wind, one of the kitchen windows started to let significant amounts of water in, leaking through the plasterboard. While it only occurred when the wind and rain was in storm conditions, it could very quickly cause significant problems. So the first dry evening I got out and plugged the gaps. Hopefully that’s the end of it, though there’s still four more unproblematic windows to do.
Having chosen the colour for the kitchen walls I started with the first coat, before Chris fixes the worktop in place and makes things more fiddly. Having painted two walls I think I’ll keep the third wall white in order to keep the room feeling light and open.
Before we disappeared for our weekend away Chris got the last coat of oil on the worktop, to allow it to dry by the time we got back. This will mean he can get in the hob and oven this week, and the sink after that. Having gone from the least finished room, the kitchen suddenly looks like it’s very close to being finished. Of course that doesn’t mean it’s time to pull back, lots more work to do.
-
Subscribe
Subscribed
Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
Ruined 