Bathroom

We've spent today getting the downstairs bathroom to the verge of finished. The last dozen tiles are cut and fixed; Liz has grouted; I've cut and fitted the wooden trim (on top of the tiles, and around the edge of the cabinet tops); we've hung the mirrored cabinet; and I made a filler panel to fill the gap next to the cabinets, and a window board (machined out of spare floor t&g).

It's all looking rather good.

New downstairs bathroom (© Ian 2017)

Tiles

This afternoon we've done most of the tiling needed in the downstairs bathroom, having also put in the skirting boards. There are about another dozen tiles needed, but they're all cut ones, and we didn't really have the energy to embark on a round of measuring, cutting, and fixing at the end of it all, so it'll wait. They are, however, looking good, and I reckon the room is only one more day's work from being finished.

Bathroom tiling mostly complete (both &copy Ian 2017)

Paths and Pressing

We had a rather leisurely morning yesterday, after a long day on Saturday. I spent the morning playing with some IT (getting the FreeSat box working on the LAN, and getting it to see the network storage, which means I can store recorded television on the rather larger NAS drives, which is nice). That done, we did some work clearing the weedy and composted chippings from the patio outside the dining room and the path leading through the herb garden from there. We're removing the chippings entirely, and replacing them with aggregate. The chippings are nice...but decompose, sooner or later, get full of weeds and grass, and need replacing. The aggregate, though about three times the price in the first place, shouldn't need nearly so much work or further expense. Thus, the paths are being upgraded. However, that does entail removing the mess from 150m² of path, and barrowing in about 17 tonnes of gravel.

It'll look good when it's done.

Today, we started by hooking up a mini dishwasher we have been kindly loaned by Ann and David. We're using it for cleaning and sterilizing jars and bottles in the preservatory, so it's connected to a cold water feed in there. At the moment the waste discharge is a little agricultural (into a bucket), but I'll make something a little slicker before too long (he says). It was immediately used to clean a dozen swing-top bottles, while we pressed  this year's apple harvest. The electric scratter, which debuted last year, once again proved its worth. Not an enormous crop, but there you go.

Construction

It's mostly been a weekend of construction, in one way or another. On Saturday we continued work on the beehive insulation: painting the EPS with masonry paint (to protect it from slugs and UV degradation; it is, of course, waterproof intrinsically), and preparing the parts to attach them to each hive.

On Sunday, while Liz did some work on the downstairs bathroom (the paint we used appears to have created a rather unpleasant smell, so we're washing the walls down, and repainting) and other bits in the house, I built a storage rack on the hillside. It's for storing spare beehive components, especially the boxes in which they produce honey, because they aren't needed for six months of the year, and there will, in time, be the best part of a hundred of them. I've built the storage as an extension of the original platform we made, by driving three new support posts about 1.4m downhill from the lower edge of that. I've then thrown up wooden beams from the old posts to the new, and along each set of three, before adding extra joists and beams to create a set of square sites, each 460mm across. That's the footprint of all the beehive boxes for the design we use, so anything (almost) can be stacked on any one of the fifteen spaces, up to about a metre high.

Construction of storage rack (all © Ian 2017)

All of that done, yesterday we were able to wrap the bees in their insulated jackets (well, the hives, not the individual bees), which means that, between that and their fondant feed, the bees are pretty much settled for the winter. I shall keep visiting them every week or two, to make sure they don't go hungry.

Today, though, has been a mammoth list of work. We've got the plasterboard and spare cabinet boards out of the preservatory, ready to go upstairs (for the last bits of work, long overdue, in the guest suites). To further clear the room, the mahogany shelves are going to Jenny and Philip (staged from the dining room), and the spare bathroom cabinets are also in there while we decide their fate. All the spare insulation board is now cut into manageable sizes, and is in the loft (from which I even remembered to extract the tile cutter, ready for use in the bathroom!). The smaller windows (the new ones) have almost been tidied up with reveals and caulk—they just need false fronts to the windowboards, which will happen when I set up the router for a session. I popped out to collect the car from the garage on a bike, and get a haircut, while Liz cleaned the preservatory. Then we made a set of drawer fronts for the beehive's monitoring trays, and I installed these and took some spare hive boxes up to the newstorage rack. Lastly, we've set up the dining table we received from my parents in the middle of the newly cleaned room, which is now in a fit state to press apples and extract honey.

Cabinets

Plenty of progress on the downstairs bathroom this weekend! The new floor has gone down (the left over oak from the kitchen; I knew I had hung on to the last two packs for seven years for a reason), and looks really good. It should also be warm, as it's over a foil-based underfloor insulation layer. We then spent a day sorting out plumbing, and installed the units (basin unit, cupboard, and toilet concealed cistern), which all went relatively smoothly, and with only a short patch of frustration caused by a missing O-ring in a cistern fitting I hadn't noticed. That replaced, everything appears to be leak-free.

Plaster and Windows

The downstairs bathroom renovation is going really well. On Saturday afternoon, while Liz plastered the back wall of the preservatory, I took the remaining tiles off the floor and walls. That meant that Liz could replaster (Sunday and Monday), and we could put SFUF floor insulation down, ready to lay the floor next weekend. In between, we checked the beehives, and on Monday went on a trip to St Helen's to collect the new double glazed uPVC windows for the workshop. Which are now fitted!

Last few floor tiles to go (© Ian 2017)

Old single glazed windows. Turns out they weren't secured in the aperture other than by mortar...which had mostly deteriorated (© Ian 2017)

New windows...some expanding foam tidying may ensue (© Ian 2017)

Replastered, window reveals fitted, and floor insulation down (© Ian 2017)

Bathroom

Saturday was mostly spent peering inside beehives, and counting bees (answer: lots, broadly). They're definitely slowing down, now, for the end of the season. To help prepare the hives for that, I've prototyped a beehive cosy, which, once tested and refined, I'll be making a set of, to help keep them warm, and also protect the hives from woodpeckers (who correctly a wooden structure containing insects that are highly nutritious, and sometimes attempt to break and enter).

We managed, also, to finish painting the window frames, which is a job we came to a bit late, this year (as in, in August), but went really quickly. We've even managed to get a couple of coats on the new windows in the gable end of the preservatory, and everything's looking much smarter. However, we're struggling to get the bike shelter roof/lid painted—the primer isn't priming very effectively. Further effort will be applied.

In the garden, the lawn's been mown, which sets of the late-summer garden much better, and we pruned the apple walk's trees. There are several, now, that have reached the apex, which is great, and the structure is really obvious now. There are even a few dozen apples to pick.

Today, we got on to a job that's long been awaited, and started work re-fitting our downstairs toilet. First out were the green/brown suite (vintage 1978), which have been much disliked by us for each of the eight years we've been here. Astonishing, therefore, that it's taken us so long to get to doing this room. (In truth, it's been too useful as a room with a sink for mixing plaster and washing paint brushes: now that those jobs are mostly done seems time for the re-fit.)

The 1978 suite (© Ian 2017)

The suite came out remarkably easily, actually—I was expecting a bit of a battle—with only slight difficulty with the basin's pipes.

It is gone! (© Ian 2017)

I could then set about removing the tiles. They've been easy enough, too, with SDS chisel. There's some making-good needed around the window, and some of the plasterwork is inevitably damaged.

Radiator off wall, tiles gone (© Ian 2017)

Next is the floor (you can see I've started), which I ran out of time for before we had to load up and get the debris to the tip. The floor won't be quite as easy, but there you go: I hope once I get started, I can get the chisel under them. Once they're up, I can figure out what to do: might need a levelling screed if we re-tile the floor, but if we decide to put wood down, it'll just need a ply base. Decisions, decisions.

RHS Harlow Carr

Nothing exciting this weekend, but good progress on a few things. We spent most of Saturday painting windows (a bit late in the year, but hey-ho), and have probably done a bit less than half. We had a day out on Sunday and went to Harlow Carr, which is looking lovely (as you might expect).

RHS Harlow Carr (© Ian 2017)

Most of Monday was spent with the bees, who are winding down for the autumn. And today was spent making a bit of progress on our bathroom renovation plan (ie, progress on making a plan), and measuring the garden paths. Having previously used forestry/hedging chippings for these, we're planning to upgrade to aggregate. It's more expensive in the first place, but shouldn't need replacing every few years, which is both a lot of effort, and ongoing expense. The trouble is getting a suitably large load here, given the access difficulties—and in deciding on a satisfactory type of gravel...

Paint

So much paint.

It's been a busy few days, since David and Ann left, getting work done on the preservatory and workshop, mainly so that the dining room can be tidied (it's currently a warehouse of beehive parts, and some more domestic stuff that lives out there) before we have a house full of guests next weekend.

We've primed, painted, and top-coated the three walls of the preservatory that we've plastered, as well as painting the skirting boards. The floor, which was still bare plywood around the perimeter, is now also painted (in the same green we started with a couple of years ago). The two windows in the gable end of the room, which were still single-glazed, have been replaced by the ever-effective John, with double-glazed windows that match (kind of; they're landscape aspect ratio, unlike the rest, which are all portrait) the rest of the front of the house. They look really good.

In the workshop, as well as tidying and sorting, we've painted the breeze block walls, which were stained and sooty, and are now a lovely white. The ceiling, which especially near the boiler was horrible, was primed with some remarkably effective shellac based primer, and is now beautifully clean white. It looks so much nicer in there, especially after also painting the floor (concrete paving slab) with a green garage floor paint. It looks really nice, and will be a lot easier to keep clean, compared to eternally-dusty concrete.

We even got rid of a load of plasterboard scraps, which have remained unused since the big insulate and remodel, and are likely to remain so.

Lastly, everything came back in from the dining room, and the preservatory is starting to look really ordered, with a big stock of beekeeping parts and equipment arrayed along the front benches.

Plaster Progress

It's been a weekend of two main activities: working on the preservatory and workshop, and checking on the bees (which took most of Saturday, and a bit of Monday). The bees are doing well:

Bee hive entrances (© Ian 2017)

Work on the house is also going quite smoothly. We started by sorting out the workshop a fair bit— tidying, and moving things in order to build a stud wall dividing the workshop from the section that houses the boiler and where firewood gets stored inside before it's burned. We got most of the way there on Sunday afternoon, before finishing it on Monday afternoon, which let us get started with plastering. Both workshop and preservatory are done, barring the back wall of the preservatory, which we've had to store everything against. That wall will have to be last. Last thing was attaching skirting board—which always makes a really big difference to how 'finished' a room looks, I find. (Attaching it was a lot more fun with my nail gun. For the record.)

Dividing wall between workshop and boiler room (© Ian 2017)

Preservatory Plaster

Half of this weekend has been continuing work on the garage conversion, and half outside, mostly tending to the bees. The bees are doing fine, but the queen issues we've had are still working out (it takes a while to get new queens pupated, mated, and laying well), so it's quite intensive at the moment. Fortunately, the preservatory is going well. We've got all of the electrics sorted, now (sockets and lights), including new two-way switches for the lights in the preservatory and the workshop. Meanwhile, Liz has finished doing the base coat plaster (the one that bonds direct to the cement blocks), and is about half-way with the top coat. It's looking more and more like a real room!

Beehive Parts

Yesterday was a long but lovely day, spent driving over to Lincolnshire to collect a large order of beehive parts, ready to expand our stock next year. It was an end-of-season sale, so we made the most of it (see also: Tatton Park).

A finely calibrated van-full (© Ian 2016)

There are enough parts there to expand to a dozen colonies, and we got some very good prices on some equipment while we were there, too. The metal cylinder is a centrifugal honey extractor (duly named the Honey Monster), for example, which was about a third of the normal price. We also stocked up on thirds-quality wooden flatpacked parts, which were about an eighth of the normal (firsts-) price...and less again than the assembled prices. Fortunately, I do love making things, including from flatpacks, which is just as well, as I calculate there are in excess of five thousand components in that van...

Today was quieter: making sure Honey Monster works as expected (not with honey, yet), and starting to strim the hillside. That's far from complete (technical issues), but the verges and copse are all done, and the hillside's started.

Beer, Bees, Lawn, and Painting

This weekend rounds off a week off for us, and there've been a few bits to get done. Firstly the beehives needed preparing for winter, which meant taking off the (modest) honey crop, wrapping them up with bubble-wrap for warmth, and preparing some space in the top of the hive for winter feed.

We also needed to paint the new front door, and touch up the paint on the apple walk, which is looking really good.

Apple Arch (© Ian 2016)

Having got about two-thirds of the way through the current barrel, it's necessary to start a new batch of beer, which is now glugging cheerfully to itself in the corner of the sitting room. Less excitingly, we mowed and edged the lawn...not many more times for that job left this year.

Door

We've spent today in Scarborough, visiting Liz's grandparents (with her parents, who have come up to see us for a couple of days). It's been a nice day, with lunch at a place outside Scarborough, and a smooth journey both ways.

While we were out, our new front door has been fitted (started yesterday, but these things can't be rushed).

The front porch early in the year (© Ian 2016)

With the raised floor (© Ian 2016)

And now with the new door (© Ian 2016)

The whole house now hangs together better! (© Ian 2016)

Workshop

It's been a weekend bracketed by visitors: Katie and son were here Friday night, and back again tonight, breaking up a journey to the north east. Liz's parents were here for the day today, coming up for fosterling contact.

It's been good to see them all, and we've had a nice time today, especially. Yesterday was more practical, making huge progress on the workshop. We've tried to get the room sorted many times before, but have never quite got it to a point of tidiness with workspace left— there's always simply been too much stuff.

This time, though, I think we've got it under control. For one thing, this is the first attempt since the massive amount of DIY work that started in 2014 when we insulated the walls. We only have relatively small jobs to finish in the house, which means that my stocks of material and supplies have dramatically reduced. I only have a couple of cans of expanding foam, now, down from a couple of dozen. And a mere three cases of screws.

So I'm not exactly underequipped, but there's considerably less than when we had eighty-odd plasterboard sheets, rolls of insulation, dozens of timbers, cans and cans of sealants and foams, and a score of bags of plaster.

We also finally installed a wall full of shelves above the worktop that backs onto the preservatory, which is the things that's really made a difference, as it's enormously increased the storage space. There's still a number of things to sort, including a couple of the cupboards, which I think might get seriously culled. Ideally, I'd like to get the shelved workshop clear to have tools on, and the other worktop permanently clear, so that you can actually work on it. I'd really like to get a table saw, and a spindle moulder, which would enable us to make a much greater range of things. Another half day tidying, and I think we'll be in a position to decide whether that's achievable.

Bee Platform

For many years, I've wanted to keep honeybees. We're finally getting round to it, partly because we discovered that a colleague of Liz's keeps them, and is set up to provide equipment and colonies. They need, obviously, somewhere to go, and we decided that one of the clearings on the hillside was ideal. However, the ground slopes rather dramatically, so we needed to create a stable and flat platform for the hives to go on, as well as stand on when working on them.

Bee Platform (© Ian 2016)

I don't like to do things by halves! The platform's about 8' by 5', which is big enough for two hives (with space for one or two more later); because of the slope, the right hand edge is only slightly above ground level—but the balustraded edge is about 4' tall. I think this justifies a construction. It's made of 100mm posts in drive-in stake/supports, with 6x2" joists and subjoists, with 6x1.5" decking, and although we need to make a set of steps, it's basically good to go. The hives will go on the back (right) edge, with the entrances facing uphill (away from the prevailing weather) towards the heather.

Cat basket/trug (© Ian 2016)

While we've been busy, Chess found a comfortable spot to sleep.

Thirsk

I've spent the weekend in Thirsk, which has been very relaxing.

Earlier in the week, I made a little door for the soot hatch in the chimney in the master bedroom. It will need securing, when I re-point the chimney breast, but I like it.

Chimney breast in the master bedroom (© Ian 2016)

Hall and Woodwork

My mum came through for another weekend of decorating, and we've got loads done.

We: repainted the entrance hall, and the last niggling bits of paintwork upstairs; repainted most of the windowsills; cut and attached the skirting boards downstairs (and a few bits upstairs); finished opening up the fireplace in the front guest room; put the cornices on the fitted wardrobes; did the last bit of tiling (fiddly bits I'd never finished!) in the guest bathroom; replaced a power socket in the utility room (that's been on the to-do list for three years, and is the completion of a job itself on the list for three years—things get done, eventually...); put back up ten shelves in the master bed and dressing room; and repaired the floor in the dining room. We also vacuumed quite a lot, and I believe all the windows & frames were cleaned.

We drank a lot of coffee.

Garden Design

Yesterday I went to Wilmslow to have lunch with a friend from my old job (and her newly augmented family). They've been in the house for a couple of years, and have just finished a major extension, which means they're turning attention to the garden. We spent quite a while wandering round, thinking about what they might do. I've suggested a beech hedge to...well, disguise a trampoline, and compartmentalize the garden, as well as some ideas for a couple of beds (a sharply draining rockery one that I think would be good for herbs, and a herbaceous one in front of an established hedge).

I got home mid-afternoon, and my mum joined me to help decorating. It was a late night (she was indefatigable and determined), and a productive day today, so we managed to paint the master bedroom, the dressing room, most of both bathrooms, and the sewing room.

Window Reveals

Another busy week and weekend. I've been working on window reveals and boards upstairs, getting them fitted, secured, filled, and so on, ready to paint. It's rather time-consuming, but I am winning. Evenings this week have been spent putting skirting board on upstairs, and plastering the chimney breast in my bedroom. That's looking really good, now.

The re-plastered chimney breast in the master bedroom (© Ian 2016)