The Exposed Fireplace in the Living Room

What's left of the hearth in the main fireplace

The Missing Edge

Iron straps supporting the floor above

Up the main chimney

The main Fireplace almost fully exposed

The Fifties Fireplace under the East Chimney

Another Fireplace! This time in the main Bedroom, again West End

All intact and ready for exposure

A timber beam in an upstairs bedroom

The Window Seat in the Living Room exposed

The wrotten timber up close

The damp filled wall between the Living Room and the Kitchen

The Old Plaster exposed

The Victorian Timber in place

The Older Timber exposed

The Date Stone - 1691 DI MJM

The Cement lid on the East Chimney Stack

From the Chimney looking West

Looking down on the East Garden from the Chimney

The 20th C lining boards removed from the Living Room

The Living Room Fireplace

Upstairs - Chaos Reigns!

Looking up the newly exposed chimney - upstairs

A Third Fireplace takes shape!

The exposed Window seats in the Living Room

Huge Lintle small - very old - Fireplace

The sun streams in on the excavated main fireplace

The upstairs fireplace takes shape

Our wattle and daub wall

A nook inside the newly exposed third fireplace

The third fireplace starting to appear

It's getting there!

The roof timbers of the living room start to appear

Half way there

Still standing

The 'Dining Room' exposes it's fireplace

8ft wide and 4ft 6in high - the cavity that is.

The staircase with the plaster stripped off

The Living room with no ceiling and all of the plaster removed

The other side of the stairs - outside, cement removed

The 'Bread Oven' bricked up and removed - something else to dig out!

Stripping off the old wall paint to check the state of our 320 year old wattle and daub wall

The wattle and daub wall with the loosest material removed

What is this sticking out of our ancient wall? A shirt?

That'll be a family of mice nesting in the wall!

A small window exposed in the main bedroom

Slowly, the bedroom is cleared of material

Some of the cement pointing removed, washed out and ready for re-pointing in lime

Our first attempt at lime pointing

The front door devoid of creeping fuschias - to enable us to point

The wattle and daub wall construction up close

Detail of the construction

Another detail up close

One of the bay windows in the living room, showing the debonding of the facing stones and the core

The other bay window in the living room, showing the debonding of the facing stones and the core

Pan tiles stacked up in the garage

A new view exposed post brancage

Pretty little place!

The sun shines on Springbank

The area around the front door, now pointed in lime

The living room, even more stripped back

The pointing is coming along

The back door, as it is

The bank that needs excavating in the near future, lets hope we find rock!

The space behind the back wall that also needs digging out

The dining room being stripped out and 'head office' for the pointing

The outside by night

The bedrooms start to look like a film set being deconstructed

The walls come tumbling down after standing for only twenty years

A fine beam, in good condition with slots for rafters cut in along the top

The 'recycled' 18th C Newall post, to be recycled once more once the last of the stripping out is complete

The oldest part of the house and the most unique beams (wonky as anything) supporting the materials above

The main bedroom fully stripped

The smallest bedroom starts to reveal a fourth fireplace

Filled in at three different times

The top bricks had lime mortar, the bottom, cement

Half excavated

Te view up the newly exposed chimney

Nearly fully exposed

The ceiling follows suit

The top of a window exposed with wattle still in place

Stripped out upstairs

The living room fully stripped

The bricks from the rececnt bread oven, T. Copp

The chamfered beam

The beams, wider than deeper

The old tool holder in the Workshop

More tool holders

Top, centre, the entrance to the bread oven

The view from the main bedroom

The first find - who knows what it is? A spear head?

The 'spear head' from the shaft end

The kitchen nearly stripped fully

The old back door with panels exposed

The view from the kitchen towards the bathroom

The bathroom with the wall missing

The old handle on the back door

2005 starts with a bang - one days work and the wash room has gone

The parking area is taking shape

Down to ground level

The only area where we found anything - namely glass bottles

Difficult to see - but a metal pot full of old bits of broken pottery

The lean to has gone and the garden entrance is looking larger

The Granite removed from the lean to wall which we will re-use to fix the fireplace that has a missing upright

The lean to has gone, it is the Kitchen's turn next!

Eric, husband of one of the two ladies who inherited the house get's the Aga for free

The kitchen has gone

A huge spike of bedrock beside where the kitchen wall used to be

The view from our temporary bathroom looking down on where the kitchen used to live

The bathroom was built against the bedrock with no masonry, simply rendered straight onto the rock

The space is growing

The garden is getting smaller - the back path has been lost

The site is looking like... a building site. The house still has a chimney

Next doors wall is stil in one piece

The house is feeling a little sorry for itself

The garden gets smaller still

The chimney stack is surviving and will continue to do so

The parking area part 1

The parking area part 2

The old well head still in-situ

Amelia using the stairs while they are still there

The smaller Garden needs some thought

The parking wall footings are marked out. The levels are apparent

The completed excavations behind the house with the French drain lined and working

The site from the road

The well has gone and re-enforced cement is drying

The view from the road has changed somewhat

The french drain moves the water away from the house

The extension is looking large enough to provide us with 2 bed accommodation - it just needs to be built

A detail of the bedrock the poor guys have had to remove

They will be the springs then

Our outside loo hangs somewhat precariously

Nice quality build!

The 'dining room' floor is stripped of timber

The floor sounded hollow - it was made up in layers timber - clay - slate roof tiles - zinc gutters

A gap in the hollow floor shows the tiles

The blocks start going up

Hey, where has the chimney gone?

Blocks, waiting for a slab

The french drain is covered in sand / shingle ready for a DPC then slab

The Northern Gable looks pretty crap - ultimately it will have a lime render finish

Tims sign tucked in by the road

The floors stripped which highlights the development of the house, windows are also being stripped

The floors stripped which highlights the development of the house

A little bit of snow - note the lack of snow on the roof - great insulation

The extension is going up

The oldsest wall with the loose daub removed

No floors in one side, the relationship of the chimneys visible

The worryingly wet new extension

Water pooring in down the new sodden timbers

The break out through the rear wall - 30 cm's too far right

Soggy new timbers again

A repaired panel of daub ready for some lime render

I have tried to leave the beams exposed to show the construction techniques

The repairs ongoing

Up close on the old timbers

The wall - repaired

The view down through the beams

The new extension going up

In need of a roof

Not much of a view

Amelia, taking a break

All the timber in place

The wall plate holds up the roof (thankfully)

Light fantastic

The garden still needs 'a bit' of work

The light streams in before the roof goes in

Looking a mess

The light streams in to the extension

The extension is up

The old window with no frame

Even from underneath, no hint of a frame

This will be retained as a nook within our room

The slightly askew floor heights

The living room ceiling with the joists removed for cleaning

The main beam has been lifted to sit below the new floor above, the old joists will be re-installed once cleaned into the old sockets

The old fireplace in need of cleaning

The end of the beam, treated and seated back in lime

The new Oak beam hoisted into position in one end only

The doorway out of the back being tidied up

The socket to take the new Oak beam

Difficult to see, but the side of the window, half repaired

The new Oak Beam now in situ

The stonework next to the front door, interestingly made up with large lumps of timber as well

Finally, I get to repair rather than rip out! The dubbing out and then the first coat of St. Astier lime in place

The view up into the new extension stair well

The window heads are replaced in the Dining Room

The fireplace is cleaned ready for cutting

The granite is markd up ready for cutting

The new granite suport cut and ready

A wall repaired in lime

The granile quoin cut and ready for the new stone

Two 15thC cut stones from the previous arched front door is recycled to form a side of a fireplace

Everything is taking shape

The extension is studded out ready for the en-suite

More stud work is taking place around the house bathroom

The old clay hood looking like a French fireplace

The upstairs fireplace prior to being cleaned up

The fireplace in it's entirety

The old clay hood repaired using old clay and lime

The hearth upstairs is missing, sadly we have to use cement to support the broken rear wall and to meet Bye Law controls

The doorway to the en-suite from the master bedroom

Upstairs bay window repaired (well, dubbed out at least)

Another patch, trying to retain the existing lime where possible

Things are taking shape

The ground floor starts to be excavated for underfloor heating

The Fireplace repair is nearly finished

The dining room floor being excavated and taking french drains

The fireplace is half repaired

We just need to sort out the floor, the walls, the bread oven etc. etc. etc.

Coat number 1 is on

Coming along

The kitchen to be

The extension is up and the first coat of render applied

Looking straight - unlike the rest of the house

A little room for the extension to breathe without the bank pouring water straight against the blockwork

The gable end awaiting a coat of lime render

The timbers from the living room awaiting cleaning

A little bit of timber has been used to strengthen the roof to take pan-tiles

The bedroom is taking shape - of sorts!

Loft ladder in, the bedroom is nearly finished

The view up behind our newly vaulted bathroom

3 attempts with the brick acid is finally revealing the stone from the soot upstairs

The en-suite awaits a door frame

The loft in all it's glory - well what is left of it as useable space

The house waiting for some windows

The front door removed for stripping and repair

The kithen floor is laid

All we need are doors, windows, under floor heating, insulation etc. etc. etc.

The Utility room will soon be that

The sun pipes are amazing - they actually work far better than we thought

The old loo on a sunny evening

Locked and secure (we hope)

The rubbish is mounting and so are the rats

Worrying damp before the lime slab goes down

Tool marks in the old fireplace

More on the construction of the firehood

The old beam inside the stonework above the hood

Up the stack before it gets firelined for the flue

A way to go still

The staircase is in and just needs protecting - let's pray it does not get damaged!

The view from the upstairs landing

The house bathroom needs more studding and plastering still

But the Velux is in

The guys have done a great job working around the features

The old lathe in the window head - to be retained

This will be changing!

The window in the main bedroom

The other one

The fireplace upstairs now it is being blocked in

The view through to theen-suite bathroom from the bedroom

Evidence of the construction techniques - all the tool marks from splitting the granite

More tool marks

The en-suite needs some work

The sun sets in the West over the newly insulated roof

The windows go in!

The view through to the kitchen before the screed is laid over the under floor heating

The system in place in the kitchen

The windows and stable door are in as well

A little worrying, damp rising up an internal wall... over a modern slab?

The Kingspan unsulation in the corner of the dining room - lacking a slab below (in the corner only)

Hard to interpret - the staircase being plastered

The house bathroom is taking shape - at odd angles

Trying to fit the height of the bathroom inot a photo just does not work

Getting there... if you lie on the floor

Some of my handycraft - key coat ready for rendering then tiling

The en-suite is coming along as well

The old wattle and daub wall with telling mesh affixed ready for a protective coat of lime

A window fitted in the main bedroom

The old lathe still in place and ready for lime

The workshop full of builders materials

No work can be done with this lot in here!

Evil cement

'Richard's Office' with Cheese Toaster at the ready

All this will have to find a new home when the kitchen turns up

Looks like chaos but I am sure Richard knows what he is doing

Damage to the window during delivery to site (from Greve de Lecq)

Nice straight battens - hopefully rejected!

The roof slowly takes shape

Holes in the rendering between the old and the new

Worrying storage of materials - thankfully fitted the next day before any rain

Wonky battens ready for our wonky tiles!

The chimney awaiting cement removal and lime pointing

Alot of work still outstanding on the stack