The sky is falling in....

Well ok, not the sky, but the kitchen ceiling....

On the day I said a final goodbye to my friend at the hospice, Friday November the 18th, I drove home to find my kitchen ceiling had collapsed.

Now this isnt actually as melodramatic as it sounds. Dave had called me on the way home, something he NEVER does, so I knew something wasn't quite right. Dave was in the kitchen and he said he heard what he described as ripping paper, then a creak and a big chunk of plasterboard swung down narrowly missing his head!

There were huge chunks of ceiling resting on my newly made pickled onions in their Kilner jars and the Kenwood blender. At this point I would just like to advocate the quality of the afore mentioned items as they all survived...as did Dave!

So, I walked in to the left over parts of the ceiling propped up by a broom and the cooker covered with a towel (one of my new cream towels...horrors...) so it didn't get wrecked either. All I could do was laugh very hard. I may have been a tad hysterical at this point, as it was the end of what was to be one of the saddest weeks of my life to date. Dave was covered in dust, there was bits of rubble everywhere and the light was swinging precariously. The ceiling had consisted of layers of plaster and plasterboard, and under that was another one, equally knackered but with patches of black mould...you know, that really bad mould. I couldn't help but wonder if my dear departed friend was sending one final message to get on with this renovation. He loved what we were doing with the house and enjoyed my daft tales about what we had found or done next. He would have belly laughed at this timely calamity!

Dave and I decided to leave the ceiling as it was for the night. the children were safely tucked up at their Dad's and the cats kept out of the way, so no more harm could be done. We talked about the day, warmed the house up (as far as we can at the moment -  refer to previous post) and drank wine until we giggled, which was a welcome relief.

My darling friend died later that evening. The following day Dave found a crowbar and ripped the rest of ceiling one down. Ceiling two is bulging badly but still up for the moment. It's only a matter of time though. I suspect 2017 will be the year we have to build a kitchen!

Collapsed ceiling & black mould!

The ceiling on the floor - note the cream towel!!! 

Triggers broom giving the ceiling some support

Warming yer cockles

According to Wikipedia:

Etymology

17th century, Unknown, possibly due to resemblance of cockles to hearts. Alternatively, may be corruption of Latin cochleae in cochleae cordis ‎(“ventricles of heart”),^[1] or of Irish Gaelic origin. Possibly also inspired by mollusks opening when exposed to warmth, notably cooking.

Verb

to warm the cockles of someone's heart

1. (idiomatic) To provide happiness, to bring a deeply-felt contentment  

According to me:

21st century, Finding a way around freezing your arse off in an old Forest stone cottage.

There is nothing to motivate you more to get the stone fireplaces working than being cold to your bones. It makes me cross and crotchety. My knees are like that of a 60 year olds, so when they get cold, warming them up takes ages, makes me stink of deep heat and hurts! 

We have three fireplaces, one in the dining room which has a botched burner that needs repairs, but works well, one in the room of doom, which I wasn't going to initially use, but turns out this is easier to fix up than I first thought, the last one in the sitting room, this was lovely, but partially bricked up and the chimney was battered (you may remember this one was the chimney that had no pointing left between the bricks, so the rafters were getting scorched...bloody hell)!! I felt getting these last two up and running would be a hideous job, but the house is cold and my heating bills have the potential to be massive as two of the rooms are over a drafty cellar, so I looked into it.

I picked up a Rosieres enamel burner in France for 50 Euros and Dave picked up an old Broomside Foundry 1922 burner for £80 locally. We didn't really know what we'd do with them, but they looked handy. As always we chatted to Clive about this, he quoted us, we deliberated and decided bugger it, lets save up and get it done. One of the best things about living in the Forest (amongst the billion other great things) is that for £30 a year you can forage as much wood as you like. we don't need to do this just yet as we have loads left from clearing stuff up, but in the future that will be a life saver for skint times! 

Last week Clive came over and put the liners down the two chimneys (room of doom & sitting room). Dave drilled the bricks out of the fireplace (knackering himself in the process). We just need to tidy up the fireplaces, get the burners in situ then Clive will hook them up (I hope that's a simple as it sounds - I'll let you know). We also have a hole that needs bricking up in the wall of the room of doom....it's on the list! 

I keep getting told this winter will get a lot worse, so fingers crossed we'll get this completed before then and all be toasty and warm. I also love a bit of controlled arson and lets face it, who can resist the primitive beauty of a proper fire keeping you cosy on a cold,dark winter evening? 

Partially bricked up fireplace in sitting room

Bricks drilled out in sitting room

Broomside burner, ready to be put into sitting room

Rosieres burner in room of doom - not installed yet. Note the top hole in the wall that needs bricking up.

Burner in the dining room...toasty!

The Loovre - Arting up the bathroom and last chores

Bathroom progress is still slow, but not so steady. Due to a number of things, one being the death of a very dear friend, this has rocked those of us close to him to the very core and broken our hearts. When something like that happens, everything else takes a back seat. The minutiae of daily life becomes unimportant, and as I'm finding, is remaining so for the moment. Merely having a bath or shower became a task, let alone finishing the renovation.

My friend was a do-er, partly why we got on so well, we both preferred to get on with something (after a little procrastination on my part) rather than sit around being apathetic. He'd often be busy rushing about completing tasks, stopping for a cuppa and chinwag, then saying 'right...gotta keep moving' off to his next set of chores...such is the life of a single parent, which again, we both understood so well.

So....the goal was to complete the bathroom, initially by last Easter, however as always seems to happen, we missed that by miles. In old houses, you often uncover botches that have been kept secret for decades, or that something you thought would work, so was finished, doesn't, so it isn't! Our new goal is Christmas, but with only a week to go and feeling pretty bloody fragile, this may be missed also!

As a result we've only done smaller tasks in the bathroom. Builder and friend Clive redirected the soil pipe as that was proving to be problematic. Dad has built the shells for the cupboards, put the lights and radiator in, I have framed some pictures and Dave has put them up.

I am a clutter freak, if there is a bare surface or wall I WILL put something on it. I just cant do minimalist. I want the bathroom to be a calm place, where you can wash away your cares and shut the world out for a while, but I also need things to stimulate the senses. Interesting things to look at. Ive collected bits and pieces for years, knowing one day they'd all have a place. So here is a snapshot of some of those pictures and curios (believe me there are many other bits and bobs such as a gold monkey holding a tray, a vintage vets horses piss collection jar and black opium soap).

• PORTRAIT OF ADELE BLOCH-BAUER I, 1907 BY GUSTAV KLIMT

 -  beautiful print from a friend who played in an orchestra in Vienna

Technically this isn't in the bathroom, it's just outside the door, but I love this!

Vintage French chocolate cards and 1920's postcard

Artisan metal angel wings (god I sound pretentious, but they are massive and sexy)

Found these two in craft markets, and the letter stamps I've had for years from Baileys in Ross-on-Wye

The light, this was the most expensive thing I've ever bought. Cut glass from Scandinavia, but it's safe and pretty - check out the fairies it leaves on the ceiling!

Vintage tins and shit!

There really isn't much left to do now:

• Patch plastering and painting
• Skirting boards on
• Boxing in pipes  
• Architrave around door
• Fixing down window shelves
• Tiling behind the sink
• Sand floor
• Make cupboard doors
• Mount shaver point.
• Final snagging

There you have it. In an ideal world I will blog next week about the finished bathroom, but I very much doubt it. Grief makes you extremely tired and I think I've hit the wall! xx