19th November

A tremendous amount of work done by John and his team this week. All the fireplaces are now out and bricked up. The floor in the left side of the house between the living room and 2 upstairs bedrooms has now been replaced. The concrete floor in the kitchen and downstairs toilet has been removed, damp course laid and re-concreted. The windows have been ordered and arrived on Friday. The gas supply is now laid to the house and is ready when we need to get some heating and plumbing installed.

So, Sharon had the day off yesterday as John and Rich were coming up and I was playing apprentice. The aim of the day was to get some windows in. I got the pressure washer going and tried to clean the smoke off from the bricks above and to the sides of the living room windows. I used some TFR and smoke remover along with a wire brush. It’s massively improved but I think it coild to with a bit more fettling. We managed 5 windows which is great. There are only 3 left to install but the ones they still need to replace are currently functional. It’s made such a difference, the whole house is light and feels bright. Unfortunately Rich broke one pane of glass but only slightly. It’s fine for now but we’ll replace when we need to.

Sunday morning saw Sharon and I go up for primarily a clear up. I removed a door and frame from the master bedroom entrance and a remaining bit of wall suspended from the ceiling on the other side. I also removed the ceiling from the downstairs passage and downstairs toilet and ripped out any old remaining wiring that was very charred along with the slightly scorched door in the toilet. Slowly but surely the burned stuff is coming out We’ve still got to decide what to do with the beams in the kitchen, I’m going to see if they will wire brush next weekend and if the smell is any better. It’s almost gone but there’s still a small trace. Removing the charred cable and ceilings may have helped, we’ll just have to see. We then had a good clean up, John came up and foamed the windows in and then we left.

Progression will be a bit slower until after Christmas as John goes in for his operation on Tuesday. We wish him well and hope all goes well.

Very happy with where we currently are, really enjoying it and we’ve only had it for 7 weeks.Read more