I have dodgy noggins, doctor.

Kitchen ceiling down, revealing noggins put up by Stevie Wonder.  Solution: off with them!  Yo ho ho.

 Cut at an angle with a nice Disston D6 saw that's older than my dad and still going strong so I can belt them off with the hammer without them jamming.  Nice arm-burner, this.

All off after a hell of a lot of hard work, and all the 6-inch nails pulled out.  Top Tip: don't pull nails, push them by hammering a slightly smaller nail into the hole to back them out.  Much easier!

Still got a long plank of wood to remove from the back which held the false ceiling, which I can't get to because the beam's in the way.  Answers on a postcard please...

There's some rot in my kitchen...

...what am I gonna do?

Its like a goth's bedroom with all this black lacy stuff draped everywhere...

It's wet rot this time.  There was a dry-lined, insulated, metal stud wall on the window side, and look what was behind it.  Yet again more proof that modern impermeable materials in an old house do not work.  The rot is in all the wood, and most of it has the consistency of soil.

Discovered a wee alcove behind a cement false wall, and the lintel is knackered.









Big Hammer sorted it though.  All off, let it dry out and replace rotten wood.  Simple.  Really!

 This will make a nice alcove with shelves in the new kitchen.

A sample of the wiring - this is for the oven.  The back wire is a piece of steel wire poking into the soil on the other side of the wall - a crap version of an earth.  Again, the solution is - all out, replace properly!

Living room done.

Big Hammer came out and now we're down to earth and stone.  Two of the joists were fine, the other six were rotten.  There was a nice woolly covering of rot under all the parquet flooring as well.  This is what happens when there is the Holy Trinity of:

1. No ventilation.

2. No drainage.

3. Cement.

 

Amen.

Walls have been scrubbed with a wire brush and all the loose material (up to a point - I could keep going and end up outside!) swept up.  Then a borate solution has been sprayed over the walls and floor to kill and prevent more rot.  The dark patch is borate, not rot!

Here is some super-bonny stonework where all the rules have been cast aside and the mason has used magic to keep the wall from coming down:

Oh well, nothing a few wee stones and mortar won't cure.

Next up is the drains - I need to move the french drain I put in earlier this year as it's too far away from the house, and put some linear drains in across the frontback door (the back door we use as the front door, as opposed to the backfront door out front) and along the bathroom wall.  Onwards and upwards, people...

Smash the System, er, living room!

Started in the lounge as this is where the dry rot is.  More than we thought - the whole floor is covered in it!

Before...

...After.  The blue wall was 2-inch terracotta bricks held together with plaster of paris and not tied to the main wall in any way.  Came down very easily.  There is a huge oak lintel above the built-in cupboard and a wee cement one above the uncovered fireplace.  The fireplace has a slate bottom which was covered up with re-enforced cement.  All the wood is rotten because the suspended timber floor is not ventilated and not actually suspended.

Dry rot shot.  Hasn't reached the beams, but is under the floor and in the old lime plaster.  All to go.

So far it's coming along ok and there are no surprises!

A little history.

Half an hour ago we decided that we're on holiday for a week.  This means getting up when we want, going for walks, eating nice food, sitting by the fire, and absolutely nothing at all to do with renovation, at all.  I am to flagellate myself with old dried flageolet bean plants while begging for forgiveness if I go within 3 feet of the cement mixer or a hammer.  This is because I kind of reached a wee crisis point just now, this time about the drainage.

I want this to be a blog of our work on the place as my other blog is meant to be about smallholding matters and is fast becoming something more akin to a renovation rant.  I thought it might be useful in case anyone is thinking of doing the same thing, as I had trouble working everything I've done so far out, having to patch it together from many sources, along with a lot of trial and error.

Being concerned that the world we inhabit is about to go bang due to us as a species using too much too soon, mostly on tick, I prefer to work in traditional, natural materials, bought when I can afford it, so there is little here that isn't stone, lime, wood and linseed oil.  I also as much as possible work with hand tools and with little paid help (K works, but she gets paid in foot rubs).  This might be why I'm a little worn out!

I have never done work like this before, having spent most of my life in an office dying of boredom, so am learning from scratch as well.

This is about working with your hands, with natural(ish) materials, in as simple and low-key a way as possible. If you, dear reader, have a simple rough house with few straight lines, this might be useful.  Anyone else is better advised to employ someone who knows what they're doing or risk making a hell of a mess!

So here goes...