Tuesday, January 13, 2009

What Can we Save and Re-use?

We're hoping to keep some of the original features of the cottage.


For example, there are tiny diamond shaped holes high up, in what was the hayloft. One of the holes is packed with old bottles. The diamond holes are where we want to put in windows to let light into what will be the bedrooms,but we will not get rid of the holes, we'll just move them further along, something like this ...


When the roof was taken down, years ago, the tiles were piled up at the back of the cottage. Gail, Christopher and Rosemary cleared the brambles the first September we were here and unearthed the tiles. They've been carefully moved and restacked by the builders, so they can be part of the new roof. The angular tiles will be laid on the roof facing upwards and the curved tiles will be placed on top facing downwards


The imposing wall dividing the kitchen and the hall was made of thick, large stone blocks and we hoped to use them in the restoration. It's been a shock to discover they are soft sandstone, just dug out of the fields around. Kick them and they crumble to pieces! So the kitchen wall will have to be built with other materials.

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