Halls Decked

An altogether successful weekend, methinks.

The plumbing didn't entirely happen, but that was deliberate, as it were---not to make it sound as though I wander around accidentally attaching pipes. I went up in the roof-space from the main bedroom (i.e., into the eye-level cupboard, then through the ceiling, as you do...anyone who's visited will know what I mean, at least), and discovered a lack of anything. The roof-space confirms my suspicion about how the house is put together, as the loft is divided into three, corresponding to the two normal cottages, and the extra 'half-cottage' that contains the kitchen and both bathrooms. This much wasn't surprising. Anyway, the loft above the master bedroom is largely empty: the one access hatch, above the stairs, and beams and wiring. All looks fine, and the waterproof membrane under the roofing stones looks in reasonable condition (sigh of relief duly emitted).

Now, it shouldn't really have surprised me, as given that the separation of lofts was logical, then the tanks should---also logically---be in the loft above the bathrooms, but there were no tanks in the loft above the bedroom.

So, I climbed up the shelves in the airing cupboard (well, with the help of a step-ladder), and clambered into the corresponding loft. Where, behold, there were two tanks. So far, all to plan. One (biggish) tank to feed the hot-water cylinder, one smaller tank to top-up the heating system. I thought it must be an open feed CH system, given that the leak in the dining room (in mid-October) seemed not to affect the water levels. Obviously, also much easier to refill than a sealed/pressured system.

Anyway, having established that the tanks are there, and relatively easy to lock off, I decided to leave draining the system and re-fitting the radiator valve to blame for the October leak. Come next summer, I'd like to overhaul the system:

• New (double) radiators where there are only old ones, preferably moving them (at the same time) further from the walls;
• Possibly a pair of towel radiators in the two bathrooms;
• Thermostatic valves on all the radiators;
• A new room thermostat (the existing one, to maintain the house at about 15ºC (which, given our homeothermal credentials, is all we heat the house to) needs to be set to 22ºC. This seems a little silly.
• Running a pipe cleaner through the system for a bit, and then replacing the water with corrosion-inhibited water.

Given the last item, I don't really want to drain and refill the system just now. Anyway, that lot will be quite a pricey operation (I'd reckon £2-3000), so it'll wait 'til spring/summer.

I was, while in the loft, delighted to discover that there was minimal insulation.

Sounds bizarre?

Well, only a little. The house is big and old. There's nothing I can do, really, about the walls (which are stone and rubble filled, so no chance of cavity insulation), short of attaching plasterboard mounted insulation on the inside, which is ugly, and will make the rooms smaller. That'd be a 'no', then. The windows are a mix of single, double, and single+secondary glazing: the double are mostly satisfactory, but the single's awful (both halls are freezing; the top hall's not helped by a complete lack of radiator), and the secondary's not great. It also doesn't ventilate very well. So new double-glazing is on the cards.

But the discovery that the loft insulation is sub-spec is great, because that's much cheaper to install, and should make a noticeable difference: the upstairs is reliably cooler than downstairs, and this---and the windows, which are worse upstairs---is probably why. Hence, a trip to B&Q (or somesuch) to buy around a hundred square metres of something suitable will be in order...(£300?). Oh, and the pipes and tanks will benefit from new lagging.

Then, the more exciting stuff: we put the Christmas tree up, and a load of holly, and bits-and-pieces; there are even gingerbread tree decorations. Also tried out a recipe for poached pears (our guests next weekend may benefit from the success of this experiment!), with ginger, star anise, vanilla, and cloves. Very good. And we even got round to hanging some pictures, which has been waiting a while. The lower hall is still full of boxes, but hopefully we can get them a bit more sorted over the next week or so.