THE SECOND COTTAGE - Clearing out

The start of our second year dawned and having finished the first cottage we now had somewhere to live whilst restoring the rest of the property. The prospect of starting work on the second cottage was a mixture of anticipation and trepidation. This part of the property was in the worst condition by far, having been vacated just after the war. Because it had been lived in it was still full of the paraphenalia of everyday life - old bottles, tiles and associated junk which had been stacked away in there rather than throw it out. On the plus side was a pile of rough oak boards which would come in useful, sadly the rest was unusable. The grain mill had mysteriously disappeared between viewing and buying the property. The fur coat had been left behind but had a life of its own, and woodworm had all but eaten the sled bed. The first job would be to completely clear the place out.


The original staircase had collapsed, not too much of a problem because it was in the wrong place anyway. The first floor of the cottage had been just one large bedroom - useful because we needed to create two bedrooms and a bathroom on this floor. The joists between the beams were, however, too low and were severely distorted - a sure sign that the attic area was full of "tuf". Sure enough we found a depth of around a foot compacted on rough boards above the joists - it would all have to be removed. This was the first time that I had ventured into the attic and although initially we had no plans to convert it, when I saw the king post and beamwork up there I knew it would be irresistable. This would be the location of the third bedroom Once again the carefully prepared plans were thrown in the bin.




It took just over a week to remove all of the old joists (some of which had been eaten by our little woodworm friends and were literally defying gravity) and to dig out the tuf in the attic, drop it down two floor and barrow it away. Now we were, once again, left with a virtually blank canvas. The walls, however, had been constructed with a lime mortar and then limewashed - we decided to keep this effect - simply repairing where necessary and re - limewashing. The floor was sound, so all that was really required here were some minor repairs and, of course, treatment.








After two weeks the beauty of the roof timbers was exposed to full view and work could begin on the attic conversion - with new joists laid slightly higher to increase the ceiling height on the first floor. The king post was a magnificent structure - each piece marked with notches for correct assembly and a beautiful honey coloured patina.