A Work in Progress, or During......

Ah, last weekend! Finally able to get photo's off my memory card.

I will take an 'after' photo or two, but not until the sun comes out again.

Well I can't very well go to all this trouble and then not show it to you in it's best light now, can I?

The Fall Out

Ok, confessions first.

My blogging is sparse at the moment, I know. And I really don't like to visit here in such a patchy disjointed way, but we are having some serious technical issues. Our old faithful laptop decided to lose all its memory, and become seemingly unable to store anything about a month or so ago. This meant that I not only have no way of accessing all my stored photos and info, but  I also have no way of putting photos on to the computer to add to the blog. This has posed a big problem as I strongly object to posting without pictures. And I have a whole memory cards worth of stuff to share with you, just as soon as I can get our old old pc back up and running again.

Ok, explanations over.

Spending a whole weekend painting the house and neglecting the children has taken it's toll on our usually fairly energetic and physical boys. It has seriously tipped them over the edge!

I have been on damage control all week. They basically did nothing but watch tv and fight for nearly 3 consecutive days and now they have forgotten how to calm down. This ties in interestingly with a post about children's exposure to the media on Bending Birches. I can't believe what 3 days over over exposure has done.

Fin and Fred are similar in that they are both very physical, testosterone laden boys who love lots of loud noises and roaring about the place, and they have both been volatile and aggressive since the weekend. Jack is sensitive and easily overloaded and has basically fallen to pieces, particularly with the increased noise and fury levels at home.

I could feel myself running out of strength for the fight earlier. I could feel all the resolve slipping away and that inevitable, end of the rope, wild eyed and shouty Mummy moment edging ever nearer. So instead I decided to have a Time Out. Not for them, for me.

I wrote a note that said 'Dear Boys, There is so much noise and rumpus in the house that there isn't enough sound left for me to keep on talking, so I have decided to be quiet and not say a word for the next half an hour, and there is so much charging around and running about that there isn't enough movement left for me so I have decided to sit still for the next half an hour. You can come and sit still and quietly with me if you like, but please don't use up any more of the sound or movement around me, or it might take even longer for me to start talking and moving again. Lots of love, Mummy'.

Then I went and sat very still and quiet on the floor, and just observed my breathing.

It took a while, nearly the originally allotted half an hour. At first they just shouted at me, then Jack read the note (useful thing, a six year old that can read like a 9 year old!!), then they tried to hassle me and keep on with the shouting, but eventually they all came and sat quietly. Fred on me, Jack reading on the sofa, and Fin taking the opportunity to go and play his guitar in his room.

It really felt like the calm after the storm. If we are going to get through this renovation, I am going to have to come up with a better plan than tv and biscuits.

Scaffolding Update

I am shattered. Really truly done in.
The scaffolding went up on the front of the house on Friday, and came down about an hour ago. We have replaced all the guttering, fascias and soffits, and have cleaned off over two decades of filth and moss and lichen.
The painting is nearly all done. I just have the lower part of the house to finish off tomorrow, before the rain comes in.
I wish I could put some photo's up, but we are having some major technical issues with the lap top, and our pc is being fixed.
I must just say though that I am amazed at the house that has emerged form under all that. It looks amazing, far better than I could have ever hoped. I can't wait to show you.
And now, finally, to bed.....

Stripping in the Boudoir.

I'm not going to lie to you, It's not going well!

This is our room, although in name only as we are now sleeping on the sofa bed in the sitting room.

The wall paper is off, so is a large quantity of the plaster and much of the cob that was covering the stone walls. The next step was going to be poly-filling the cracks and holes. 

I don't think I have enough poly-filler to deal with this!

Progress



A dismal start,

A grumpy boy,

A dirty mess,

Some welcome friends,

A late afternoon sunbeam,

And progress.



Bringing Down the House ( well bits of the wall anyway)

The house...ah the house.

Well we have damp. Rising, penetrating and just plain old condensing. We have paint for the outside which will help with the penetrating if only the weather would warm up a smidge so I could get it on. And now I have paint for the worst affected rooms inside. I just have to get the skanky, mouldy wall paper off first.

We started in the bathroom where the paper was so damp it could be mostly pulled off by hand. I borrowed a wall paper steamer from a friend and collected it from her Ma's where it had been stored in the shed. Unfortunately what I got in the bag was the water tank and an electric planer! So I had to give up on the steaming for the day.

As the wall paper came off, so did a few other things, and it became rapidly obvious that this wasn't going to be a quick paint job.

So back to town for the steamer parts and a quick stop off to collect massive amounts of poly-filler

I wonder how many more times I am going to be naive enough to think a job will be straight forward before I learn that nothing in this old unloved house is going to be a quick fix.

Thank goodness for that! I think I may have to bring my rough plastering lessons forward a little though.



Embracing the Tower

Something strange has been happening in my life over the last few weeks and months, and it is only now, as it gathers momentum and strength, that it has become truly obvious.

Everything is crumbling a little. All the technology I am so used to, and rely on so heavily, is breaking around me, and it seems the more we fix it, the faster it collapses. For the last few weeks, and not for the first time of late, I have been without a car. It broke, we fixed it, it broke more, we borrowed a car, that broke, we gave it back, we fixed ours, now it has really truly broken, and all we can do is fix it up for sale as it is. Many many other things have also broken, or started only partially working.
 For all of December we had no washing machine, dishwasher, intermittent transport, and huge damp problems in this characterful old building. We now have a washing machine again, and I can't tell you how grateful I am for that little modern luxury!

This all sounds stressful and horrible doesn't it? I won't pretend that it hasn't caused some problems, and Mr is finding the constant need for repairs is putting a real strain on him and eating up all his free time, but I am ok.

It feels like the tarot card 'the tower'. Like the breaking down of old thoughts and ways, and the pulling apart of all that was. It feels like the dynamite going off under the sky scraper. I am anxious as to how this will all turn out and I hope we can make it through this disassembling without going under. I should be far far more stressed, but I think I understand that it is necessary, and that once the sky scraper is gone, and we clear away the rubble, there will be an empty space in which to build whatever we want.

Just a Few Pots, Honest

When we were in the process of moving to our house I swore faithfully that I understood that the back yard was for cutting and sawing and storing, and definitely not for pots and planters.

But I lied, well not so much lied as found the situation to be different once we got there, and therefore had to change my standing on the situation.

The problem is that I am used to having a garden and having somewhere to go outside. We have almost no outside space here and having the little that we did have look like Steptoe's yard was starting to really take its toll on me. So I got my pots back from the woods and filled them very economically with cuttings and gifts and the odd  purchase from the school fete.

And now the back yard is a nice place to play, or hang the washing out, or just visit as an alternative to being inside for a moment or two.

Almost all the stuff that was out there is still out there, it's just organised a bit better and stacked in around the corner, mostly out of sight.

Just don't look around the corner!

A Little Bit of Pipework

We have made a little progress this past weekend. The floor boards in our bedroom and in the hallway came up so Simon could lay pipework in readiness for changing the passage of water through the house.

The mess was minimal, and the job was relatively small, but it still took up most of the weekend, and did put the size of the whole project into perspective somewhat!

When I say the mess was minimal, it was only minimal upstairs. We had to replace some of the floorboards with the reclaimed floorboards we had stored in the dining/store/workroom. Unfortunately they were behind absolutely everything else and now the dining room looks like it had been struck by a small localised tornado! 

Once it was done though, it felt really good to have started on this next leg of our journey to our finished home.

A Casement In Point ( or 'look at my windows')

We have done lots of little and important things to the house since moving in. The fact that we have working electrics and hot running water is testament to our achievements. But the house still looked like a squat!

Before

After

Yep, still looks like a squat, but it's now a squat with nice new windows that aren't in danger of falling out if someone leans on them or, God forbid, tries to open one!

I have really enjoyed watching people walk by and seeing the expressions on their faces when they notice the windows. I think this big leap forward has given me new enthusiasm, and faith in what this place can and will be.

Next, painting!

Liberation!

Our house is a mess!
The house itself is a mess, having been unloved and un-cared for for over 20 years. there are bits of ceiling that have fallen down to reveal the lath and plaster (and ancient animal hair, what joy for an allergy sufferer!). There are areas of amazing old flag stones, but equally vast expanses of concrete floors. The stair case is quite literally falling apart and it's only really a matter of time before we lose a child through it. Part of the upstairs hall, luckily a non-essential part, was damage by an ancient water leak and is not safe to stand on. The dining room, which will eventually become our kitchen, looks like the inside of a barn and you can see daylight around the windows,
but,

I don't care how much water and playdough and bits of apple and squashed raisins ends up on the skanky brittle old lino in the kitchen.

It doesn't really matter how stained the reclaimed piece of carpet we are temporarly using in the family room gets.

Muddy wellies don't do too much damage to concrete floors, and mud sweeps up off them very well once dry.

And, the pile of building materials and scaffolding in the back yard has prompted a lovely lady over the road to let me use her beautiful walled garden to hang out my washing in.

All said and done, quite liberating really!