Where have we been?

Well, it's been a while since we last posted due to lots of reasons, primarily we've just been really busy.

I'll give an update on the house and maybe Smee can tell you about Ellie?

The house is coming on in leaps and bounds although currently it is in its worst state ever, at its lowest ebb. All the ceilings are down, all the plaster is off the downstairs walls, wires are hanging everywhere, floorboards are up, most of the windows are smashed , the front door has been broken into so many times it may as well not be there, bricks are missing on most walls, there is a thick layer of brick dust over most surfaces and it always seems to be colder inside than out!

All that said we are really happy in that all the hidden demons are now exposed and we have a really good idea of what it will take to reinstate the place. A couple of demons aired themselves in the form of wooden lintels above most of the windows. Some are rotten and need replacing but we knew about two so a few more will be ok. We had a bitter sweet discovery that quite a few of the walls are made of sandstone, the same as Shrewsbury Castle, but we will have to re-render inside and out to preserve the construction and to protect as much as possible against damp penetration.

The damp proofers have removed the downstairs plaster and injected all round. Its weird to see all the small holes and little puddles but this shows they did their job. It comes with a 30 year guarantee and some of the rear of the house has an old membrane anyway. The guys will be back after 1st fix to replaster the walls and then we'll really see a big difference.

The doors and windows are on order, we managed to change the 'hand' of the main entrance door at the last minute today and we've gone for an archway between the porch and the kitchen.

The roof is nearly finished. There were minimal breakages and just one pallet of reclaimed tiles was required. The barge boards at the gable end will need replacing but only when we can get the scaffolding up once the electricity cables have been isolated.

Here is a close up of the 4 inch gauge of the roof battens. 66 up each side to give a 22 foot pitch. A real pain in the arse according to the roofer!


Here we can see one half of the kitchen, the utility room and downstairs toilet. Believe it or not?!


Here is the other half of the kitchen and the porch. The keen eyed amongst you will notice the studwork wood laid out on the floor. These are the positions of the walls we are adding back in.

Next up is the master bedroom complete with twenty layers of wallpaper.

This is the living room, with a view into the kitchen. That doorway will actually be blocked soon, and re-opened into the dining room which is to the right, through the 1.5 foot thick stone wall. If you look closely you will see the seismic crack that runs through the house, top to bottom. I think it was this crack that prompted the buttress and tie bar to be added at the far end of the house. The crack, according to the structural surveyor, is very old and hasn't moved for years. The filler is horse hair so I am inclined to believe him.


Finally you can see the landing area from the bathroom / bedroom 3. There is more studwork to go in here but you can see a good deal of what the house is made of, namely lathe and plaster ceilings.