House Progress ~ August 2014
Morning Everyone! As it's the beginning of the month, I thought I would spend a little time updating you on the progress we have made at Sprout's House. (If you're new reader, you can visit the Home Tour page to catch up on everything else we have done.)
Exterior
Most of our time over the last couple of months has been focused on the outside of the house. We have knocked down the porch at the front.
This was one of the easiest tasks that we tackled taking all of about 15 mins. So we have gone from this......
The front of the house looks a bit bare now, but we will put something else up instead at some point!
As you can see, we have also demolished the little stone wall that was at front of the house. The heavy snow in January 2013 meant that a lot of the concrete between the stones had blown so a few of the larger ones had started to work their way loose. Every so often we would come outside and find that one had fallen into the road so it had to go. There is still a little bit more to knock down on the right hand side, but we'll tackle that when we dig up the rest of the concrete.
No mean feat I tell you! We anticipated that we would probably need a couple of skips to take away the concrete and soil, and that we would also fit the porch and front wall in those too.
In the end, it took 5 skips and three weekends of digger action to reduce the driveway to road level.
Or watch on YouTube.
Once we had got rid of all the excess soil and concrete, we levelled the remaining earth and then used sleepers to create a wall on three sides. At the moment, the sleepers are performing two jobs - one hopefully it looks a bit nicer(!?) and two they are holding back the earth each side. The driveway is still quite narrow, but once we have got rid of the concrete path we'll be able to expand the driveway on the right side. We have also spread some Type One MOT (crushed stone) over the soil and whacker plated it down so it's nice and compact.
Once we had got rid of all the excess soil and concrete, we levelled the remaining earth and then used sleepers to create a wall on three sides. At the moment, the sleepers are performing two jobs - one hopefully it looks a bit nicer(!?) and two they are holding back the earth each side. The driveway is still quite narrow, but once we have got rid of the concrete path we'll be able to expand the driveway on the right side. We have also spread some Type One MOT (crushed stone) over the soil and whacker plated it down so it's nice and compact.
Eventually, we will cover the driveway with gravel, but for now we leaving it as it is as there are still many more skips full of concrete in our future!!
Oh.... and did I mention the asbestos? That was a joyous saga. Check out the outfit!!
There used to be a garage on the driveway many moons ago and we think that when it was taken down they buried the roof and poured a layer of concrete over it instead of disposing of it.
Did you know that as a householder you can take asbestos to your local tip? Check with your nearest one to find out how it needs to be bagged and tagged!
Interior
There's not a whole lot of action going on inside the house at the moment. Whilst we were away on holiday the mixture of hot weather and storms did not suit our little house and we are battling a lot of damp at the moment. I even found mould all over the front of my lovely dresser!! So Sprout's Daddy ordered a whole load of Kontrol Moisture Traps to place in all the downstairs rooms.
We have used one before just after we dug out the fireplace and found it really effective at absorbing excess moisture.
The damp has also played havoc with the food in our kitchen cupboards - soggy oat cakes anyone? I was a bit loath to put anything with chemicals near our food so I have resorted to placing small jars of salt (GU dessert containers are excellent for this!!) in all the kitchen cupboards to try and absorb some of the moisture in the air. I let you know how I get on with this method!!
There are also a couple of new holes in the house. One in the downstairs bathroom ceiling - we want to knock through from the sitting room into the bathroom and small lobby to create a bigger room.
Sprout's Daddy made a small hole to see which way the joists run and whether it is a load bearing wall. This will also help the structural engineer decide whether we need a 'steel'.
The second hole is in Sprout's playroom and was definitely unplanned!!
Once we uncovered the second fireplace, it allowed a lot of trapped moisture out. This appears to have travelled under the stairs and started to become trapped behind the plaster board on this wall. So we removed the plaster board and quite a lot of plaster came away too!! Ah well, this wall will eventually become a doorway anyway.
Apologies for the marathon post - I'll try to write updates more regularly! Anyone else tackling a DIY project or two?
Sprout’s House
xox
More posts from V de Trense
