I cannot now recall what lovely thing I was hoping to show you in this blog. I suspect it might have been a skirt I have been making in the evenings, but I have hit a slight problem with this so will not be sharing any photos until I can work out how to correct the rookie error of finding that it won’t actually fit around my waist…..
So back to work. On Monday I removed a window from the turn of the stairs which will become part of the fire-rated stairwell.
We also helped David celebrate his brother Roy’s 60th birthday when they stopped for lunch in the cafe.
On Tuesday I primed the barge boards, and put on the first coat of a light grey shade of Sandtex, whilst Mike bricked up the window void and a few other holes. There is a surprising amount of render to paint, and as a result it was really rather a quiet night with us both sitting and recovering… or was that a gentle rocking motion I saw…
On Wednesday I undercoated the barge boards, and then painted behind the barge boards with black paint whilst Mike put the second and final coat of Sandtex onto the building. We managed all of this during the morning and then found to our horror (and in contradiction of the weather forecast app that we consult regularly) that it poured with rain all afternoon. We were just profoundly grateful that some of the painting was hidden from the elements, and the whole of this wall is in the lee of the rest of the house, so we think we got away with it. Mike also repaired the step by the external door into the floor 2 room and found where the think the little animals had been getting into the house during the previous owners time here. We have carefully plugged all the holes we have found which rodents may have been using as front doors, and have bought a guaranteed (!) chemical solution to remove their characteristic odour from parts of the building.
Today, I have applied the second coat of black paint behind the barge boards and then applied filler to the barge boards. After lunch, when this had dried, I put a second coat of undercoat onto the barge boards, as Mike was worried that the surface was not good enough for the paint to stick and he – rightly- does not want to find in a couple of years that the gloss paint is all pealing. Belt and braces it may be, but we are hoping that our lower garments will not be falling down.
After lunch, I weeded the bed we put in earlier this year, and then planted a mini bed where we had cleared rhodo stumps out in June. Meanwhile, Mike finished the first coat of render over the window-gap repair, plugged more gaps, put the step in the door threshold back together, and then primed the new window and refurbished door on floor 2. So a quiet day here then.
In the quiet moments, I have been having a little fun. With wrecking bar in one hand and a hammer in the other, I have been removing the plasterboard wall that covered up the external wall of the Manor when the extension was added. This will now form part of the stairwell where we plan to make a feature of the slate.
Jane is having her weekend early this week, so Mike and I will be in the cafe tomorrow (except whilst I am in my welsh class, which restarts tomorrow) and Saturday so building works will be taking a back seat for a day or too. We would reassure you though that Jane has left us plenty of cakes to sell…
