Ten Days Later

I am back from my ten day working holiday at Shingle Cottage and i am a little chipped,bumped and bruised but i had the best time and really got so much work done i am smiling ear to ear....i really missed a certain little some one below and it seems she missed me just as much as she hasn't left me alone since i walked through the door yesterday afternoon....

The boys started to take off the old walls and window and found a bit more than they bargained for and there was nothing for it but to pull it all out and start again,tea and cake and a plan and off they went sawing and banging.....we are re building Shingle Cottage from the inside out....

 Do you see my rowan tree blowing in the breeze? i planted two along here  last week for privacy and as a wind break,all the shrubs and roses under here are pink or white and are edged with a box hedge,later in front of this window there will be a lawn and by then the shrubs,roses and box will be established .......fingers crossed it will all come together in the end...

So much better all new joists above and all new below,it was a bit scary looking in the huge hole from the garden and being able to see my fireplace....you can see on this picture below that you can not access inside the apex  as they are built onto the sloping roof so we are thinking of just shingling the whole wall instead of putting a window back......

But just in case we change our minds it is framed and boarded for future plans....do you see our gull nesting on our chimney? this is the third year she has nested on Shingle Cottage...Steve built the chimney four rows higher last year so she is nice and protected from any winds.......

The boys worked really hard for four days and eventually we had walls and a new window and they covered the front with a water proof membrane to keep the rain out until the shingles go on....the old window only had one small top opener but the new one has two middle windows that open straight out like  french doors so it is nice and airy and we can really hear the sea now.....

One side done below and one side to go...oh and the middle too!.....the middle is stripped and re built inside and you can see the silver insulation in the new walls and new windows sat inside,the roof on this room is in really good condition so we will just pop the exterior walls off and build new ones... above and below the bow windows will be shingled and the room in the middle we are not sure if to shingle it too or to plank it and paint it white as a contrast to the rest of the house,i would love to hear your views on this?,the new gutters and trim underneath will all be in white apart from shaped boards on the apex's that are going to be a pale french blue....

Inside the new window went from this......

To this below!...................more work to be done in here next weekend....i didn't manage to get the walls lined with backing paper or to faux paint my brick wall but i did grout the hearth.....

On the picture below you can see the french blue  shaped board that Steve cut out and fixed onto the front of the apex,i really love it and we are doing this to all three apex's and they will be finished with a Victorian turned spindle in the middle.....i thought i had a full length picture on my camera of the trim but i haven't,i will fix that this weekend....i was too obviously too busy taking shots of our gull...she makes Shingle Cottage sound very authentic....

After the boys had left i stayed on my own for four days and armed with various hammers,a crow bar and a skip i set to work.......i stripped an old wood boarded room out of the attic and carried it all downstairs,all the old walls and windows left in the garden by the boys went in the skip and then i knocked all the old plaster boards off the walls and ceilings in the  old bathroom,the toilet and the kitchen along with THREE layers of ceramic wall tiles,who tiles on top of tiles? THREE times?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I knocked down the  wall between my old toilet and kitchen,take note of the aqua window frame on the left of the picture below.....

Now from in the kitchen and looking back through were the wall was you can see that aqua window is now in my kitchen in the right hand corner of the picture below,this has made so much more room as the sink unit was up to the wall before,the door on the left will become a wall next week and we will use the old toilet door as the new kitchen door.....

You can see the devastation i left in the rooms behind as i was on a mission as Steve had said before he left "once all this muck is out and the new walls are up you can start bringing furniture and mirrors"....PASS ME THE HAMMER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! haha.....

The room behind with the other aqua window in the far corner will become our laundry room.....

Standing at the side of the aqua window in the kitchen and looking the other way below you can see the old door which will be a wall and the door will go straight across into the fireplace room...the cupboard frame along the wall is staying once it has been cleaned up and painted and the doors have been sent away for stripping,between the old door and the cupboard frame we are going to have two comfy wicker chairs with floral cushions and a small table as this room gets sunshine up until ten o'clock at night in the Summer and it looks out onto the front garden with the white picket fence i have plans to make it into a garden room come kitchen with bird houses and faux topiary.....

This is the front garden....these pictures are from Spring  when i started to clear it and dig flower beds and you can see we had a big yellow skip behind the picket fence then too...

Here you can see herbaceous perennials going in,they are now all in flower,i best take some pictures this weekend to show you.....

Here for my last picture is the skip that i filled myself over the last ten days and yes i am proud and rather shingled and i will be so happy this weekend to arrive home and find it gone!

Join me again this week when i will have more tales and goings on from Shingle Cottage......

XxX