September into October. More plaster, more woodwork.

This has been taking a lot longer than I thought.  Been making sills and false lintels for the new windows and front door, then plastering over the lime/hemp.  K has had to sieve sand through mosquito net because we can't find sand fine enough to do it!  Also, due to me having a herniated disc, things have been even slower.  Still, the Screed Men have just left and they're all set to go on Friday.  I'm pointing while they're indoors.  And digging drains (carefully).  And making new boiler house doors.

 Bathroom with slate (dug from the path) and hemp-lime walls.  Going to make a new ceiling because I just do not trust the terracotta brick ceiling that's there already - it's very fragile and I'm not taking a chance.  Laths counter-battened and screwed through the terracotta brick into the joists above, plastered with a very very very very hairy fat lime plaster with some sort of lightweight aggregate.  Maybe vermiculite if I can find fine enough (1mm down) stuff, or maybe not, more'n likely...

 Living room's now done - both walls now plastered.  The walls I did first have now got hairline cracks all over them because the first sand I used was too regular in size.  Hoping a few coats of limewash will hide it...

 Same with the kitchen...

Wood trim to hide crap beam and old wall by stairs.

Found a double sink unit with a double drain board for 20 euros, so things are moving on and up.

August = woodwork.

Ok, we've had to make some more compromises:

 The floor tiles we bought need to be glued down, so out goes the breathable limecrete floor - we're paying someone to put a cement screed down through the house and then to tile it.  Very disappointed because it was a hell of a lot of hard work to put the lime sub-floor down, but hey, I'll plant some more trees to offset it or something.

Same with the shower.  If you glue tiles onto a wall, the pressure from the shower will force the water behind them and they'll fall off unless you have a waterproof backing.  So we've decided to do a bit of ventilated dry lining around the shower area and clad it with extremely un-ecological polystyrene/cement/resin tilebacker board.  More trees to be planted...

Basically, you have to do one thing or the other.  Old way or new way.  Beautiful, hand-made thick tiles that you can set in mortar that cost a bomb, or cheap(er) tiles that cost half a bomb and need gluing on something made from plastic.  If I was to do this again (which I hope I don't!) I'd buy the real terracotta, the posh wall tiles, a couple of oak trees sawn up into planks first and then worry about the rest of it later.  A handmade terracotta floor or wall would still look good if it was a bit wobbly coz I'd done it but machine-made ones wouldn't and need to be accurate (horrible word) to look good, which needs someone who knows how to do it.

Got some oak windows though, from a father-and-sons workshop locally, made from French oak.  Being French they did what they thought we should have and not actually what we wanted (bare wood) so they're a bit orange from the oil stain, but that'll calm down in a bit.

I'm now cutting down inch-thick planks of chestnut (thought it was oak, but ain't) by hand, joining them by hand, planing them flat and smooth in a rustic charm sort of way by hand, treating them with boron preservative coz I'm not sure about this "tiger oak" wood applying to chestnut and then oiling them with linseed oil a couple of times.  This is for covering the rough ol' oak lintels and making sills.

 The workshop.

 2 inch bit of chestnut with rotten heartwood - I'm using the bit on the right!

2 bits joined with dowels and being planed up. 

 Alcove frame in, new plumber's done the stove properly!

 Boron/oil section.

 Sill trial fit.

 New kitchen window - pentice board's crap and will be re-done, and the window opening to be rendered.  Wall to be limewashed at some point...

Sill being re-built in bathroom, awaiting a nice bit of slate...

And why I've been messing about, K's been doing everything else!

 Polytunnel full of toms.

Garden full of veg!

June = plastering.

 Bathroom partition wall re-built with the biggest aerated concrete blocks known to man, and a planed, double mortise and tenoned door frame.

 Top coat done in the bread oven - lime putty/bagged lime/fine sand mix.

 Making a workbench so I can do the woodwork in the house - 2 railway sleepers sawn in half, planed flat (thanks D & R!), and joined with floating tenons drawbored with thick hardwood dowels.  Work in progress.  Very heavy indeed.

 Lime hemp going on - on the right is the first coat, on the left the second.  Will be skimmed with fine plaster when set.

 Bathroom plastering in progress - same recipe as the living room: lime/hemp with fine plaster top coat.  Cracks like buggery, so will have to add more sand and hair next time...

 Kitchen work in progress.  Battens on wall are guides to get the hemp dead flat so we can tile it.

 Back door frame detail: the bottom was rotten so I scarfed a new bit in and re-hung the door.  Glad it fit!

Not sure if I mentioned this before.  Pentice board experiment over the kitchen window, linseed oil mastic to seal the gap.  Works perfectly for 30cm on the end!  Have to re-do it some time...

...and some veggie shots:

 Half a plot this year - no time for runners, etc.

 Toms only in the tunnel.  No melons!

Over-wintered garlic looking good - drying out nicely.

Halfway house? Nearly halfway...

 Been a while.  Been busy, K's been busy, camera's power switch is buggered so in all, blog updates have been a bit tardy...

 We did have a postage stamp of Complete done, but the stove has to come out again - it's level, which is wrong.  Being open-vented, it traps air in the boiler jacket...

 Bread oven nearly done though.  Plaster coat no.1...

 ... and plaster coat no.2 with red socket box for washing machine.

 Previous owners had covered this window in the larder with plasterboard for no reason I can think of, apart from to make the bread oven behind even darker!

 Bathroom is a bit of a mess... 

 ...so's the plumbing under the bathroom window!  I think the original plumber was looking forward to a plate of spaghetti for lunch and let his stomach control his pipework.

 There will be a bathroom again!  Honest!  The ceiling is individual terracotta bricks, 5cm thick, held in place with plaster of paris and wee hooks.  Why??

 Ex-meter cubby hole, becoming a shower shelf with an ecclesiastical bent.  Umming and ahh-ing about whether to have polished plaster or tiles.

Workbench coming up as soon as the bathroom's back to half-done, then we go back to the front of the house and get plastering, laying floor, making sills, etc, etc.

K's cut 4 cords of wood with a wee hand saw while I've been pottering about in the house!

Oh, and the spuds are in.