We have continued to destroy things this week.
I had an afternoon cutting down dead plants and feel much better for it. Of course, we will need to have a pretty big bonfire soon to get rid of all this stuff, so I thought we might wait until the evening temperature drops a little before trying that.
Constructively, we have finished repainting the cafe wall that was rebuilt; we have finished painting all windows in the front rooms on floor 2; we have painted the new wall on the right hand side of the new staircase, and moved our stock of games there, ready for guests to borrow on rainy days.
Mike has started to block up the old reception desk,
and a window from the old house (that mysteriously is now located off the cupboard under the stairs),
both of which need to be sealed with fireproof board etc. etc. as they will form part of the new fire-rated staircase.
Destructively, we have taken down to stud walls on floor 1;
un-plumbed (or should that be de-plumbed?) a bath and sink;
demolished the stud wall from bathroom to corridor, and partly demolished the stud wall between two en suites on floor 1.
On the ‘not strictly work’ front, we have made our first batch of nectarine jam. We have never made – or even tasted -this before, but we are very impressed by the fruitiness of the final product. We can now add this to our small batch of strawberry and vanilla jam when providing jam for our scones. We attended our first Ceilidh on Friday night, which we thoroughly enjoyed, despite there probably now being quite a collection of unflattering pictures on various smart phones!
And finally, we have dismantled the scaffolding tower, and re-erected it so that we can access the third floor window.
I scaled this tower to remove putty and thus liberate the old glazing, but will admit I got a bit windy being so far above the balcony (and even further above the ground) so (a) resolutely did not look down and (b) wore a safety harness as a precaution against my inadvertently putting a foot wrong.
Only a few days of climbing needed, to strip, then prime, undercoat etc. Am so looking forward to it!