And an also good Saturday

On going back to the house this morning for an early start, well 9am, it was immediately obvious how open the back of the house now was. The view from the first floor out to the ferry was much clearer and likewise the view into the walled garden was clearer. The first task of the day was to further clear the two trees that remained in this area and the ivy on the reverse of the wall to the now christened orangery.

There was a lot more cutting (some of which I will explain below) before this picture was taken but it shows the view from the first floor living room out to the ferry after removal of the two trees and the ivy. There is now clear demarcation of the inset part of the walled garden (the orangery) and perhaps from this height you can also imagine a glass roof with citrus fruit growing beneath?

So with the land clear behind the house (beyond the shed) we took the focus into the walled garden, first to remove the ivy from the inset and to clear / burn brambles that were cut last week. Again evidence of how destructive ivy can be and I compelled to post this photo because until I saw it myself I couldn’t appreciate how much a force of nature ivy can be. Started to reclaim now but there is damage to repair. I am thankful it’s not on the house itself.

Opposite the inset was once the bible garden connected to the Manse, we see this as a formal garden for a nice lawn surrounded by a border of flowers. Right now it couldn’t be more opposite a space approximately 15m square full of brambles and weeds. I also found to my pain that there was an abandoned, but still sharp, rake left behind (upturned). So more burning in situ whilst the brush cutter and hedge trimmer went to work. The bible garden had a fence that felt surplus to the hedge behind it so the decision was made to remove also. It did however highlight the work needed to the hedge. It probably does not look as though we made great inroads in the following picture but several hours and many scratched limbs would suggest otherwise.

Again I was trying to paint a picture of what we would like but there is much to restore. Remnants of the fence still remain and the out of control hedge can be seen on the left and rear of the garden. Not immediately apparent but we have found a water feature in the middle also – again needing much work. Two other features of note, which I will attempt to highlight as they were pointed out to me, on the right is both a Mimosa Tree & a Eucalyptus Tree.

Probably the most marked improvement came from the experimental hedge cutting. The photo below illustrates the before and after of cutting perfectly:

So, a huge amount of work over two days and some great wins in glorious weather. A realization of how much still to go when looking at how long it took to cut back the first of the hedge and the equating that work to the two runs of approx. 20m. Still a long way to go in clearing the rest of the fence and the brambles it borders but we will get there. Nothing left to do tonight other than to eat lasagna with a spot of light refreshment. For after dinner exercise we decided climb the hill and enjoy the views, no TV necessary.

A good Friday

A 6am start gave us plenty of time for a stop on the route for a bacon roll and still make the 10am ferry. Fantastic weather had been forecast for the weekend so plans were already changing from the indoor task of wallpaper stripping to further clearance of ground in the garden. The journey to the ferry didn’t disappoint, clear skies and scenery that makes me smile every time we make the journey.

We had cleared many brambles the week before, but there was little opportunity to dispose of, so a fire was the first task. We figured there would be plenty more cuttings to add over the day and we weren’t wrong. More brambles were cleared from the meadow and attention turned again to clearing the out buildings and the space immediately behind the house. A good job we came fully armed with boys toys.

I hadn’t appreciated how invasive ivy was to buildings, in fact I had always quite admired old buildings cloaked in a coat of the climbing plant. As ivy grows it seems to seek every crack to gain a further foothold and, once it has infiltrated, continues to separate the mortar and reek damage. The best illustration I can find from todays photos is the one below where the ivy has lifted half a dozen bricks from their intended position. Care needed when cutting further.

So with some care whilst employing the might of the chainsaw and loppers the task proceeded to good effect. Still work to be done but the outbuildings are becoming more accessible and ideas for how they can be used in the future are already starting to take shape.

Another feature of ivy is how well it burns. I am told by a learned friend that it contains large amounts of oil making it highly combustible, very handy to our cause. The fire that was started at 11am raged well until we stopped at 6pm and included a ceremonial burning of the ‘For Sale’ sign that until last week hadn’t been taken down and stored for this very purpose. After a 2 year journey to buying it felt very good to remove it.

Further work on Saturday would be required to finish clearing behind the house but the work party was pretty spent and the aforementioned chilli-con-carne was calling (as was a gin & tonic). I didn’t think to pack sun tan lotion it being April in Scotland but I’ve left feeling a little burnt tonight, although I’m not sure whether it’s from direct sunlight or the heat of the fire.

Anyway after shower and food we decided a trip to the North of the Island was in order to seek out a sunset that the day had promised. A very clear view out to Jura provided a brilliant backdrop for the photo below. I cannot state how much I love the natural beauty of the West Coast of Scotland, I feel at home here already.

Preparation

One of the problems we have at the moment is that we live an approximate 2 1/2 hour journey from our renovation. In the current COVID environment the local hotel and restaurant (there are one of each on the Island) are closed which means all meals need to be thought about in advance giving me a great excuse to cook. The accommodation hired for the weekend has good facilities but knowing how much there is to do a quick return from the prepared food is absolutely necessary. So I am writing this three meals down on a Thursday night.

Friday nights delicacy will be chilli-con-carne, pretty pleased with this already….

Saturday nights dinner will be chicken and bacon lasagna. Both planned to be heated without fuss and fuel for what will hopefully have been more productive works over the Easter weekend.

And my final thought before bed tonight. I have explained to a number of friends that we have started a journey to a more self-sufficient life trying to implant the thought of a modern day Tom & Barbara Good (for those old enough to remember). Instead one of my friends clearly thinks of me more in the mold of another old sitcom when asking if it was ‘back to Craggy Island this weekend’. To be fair there is an affinity to Ted and I did after all buy a Manse on a small Island.

Taking Stock

First week working on the property done. We are tired but enthusiastic still and it is with a sense of dismay we have to leave early tomorrow morning. The locals have been welcoming, particularly Kenny who invited us to look at his own renovation, a stunning property with the most spectacular views. It would be wrong not to mention the hospitality afforded by Christine, Joe and Hannah also – the accommodation on the Island I can highly recommend for a visit when lockdown opens beyond essential works.

Good wins as I have mentioned before but a little frustration in that we haven’t managed to get our architect to visit yet to due the ferry disruptions. On the last day here I walked the property with Karen to take stock of next actions and we have plenty still on our initial to-do list. Plenty done also and a week to be proud of as I hope the camera reel demonstrates:

Upper floor stripped of carpet and ventilation to the chimney opened

First floor living room stripped of carpet – bedroom likewise

Stairs clear of underlay and gripper rods

furniture, carpet, curtains removed from the ground floor

Still lots more to occupy us and paramount that we get professional advice on many aspects. Already looking forward to the next visit.

Flawed floors.

As per yesterday’s blog, with new tools in hand we set about reparation of floors and stairs. I wont bore you with details but lets say it’s not finished yet and isn’t a quick job.

With the afternoon, and better weather, attention turned back to outside tasks. The plan to burn brambles was thwarted by showers and a lack of suitable starter material – a job for our next trip now. Instead we decided it prudent to clear the path into the walled garden. This was the feature of the property that Karen and I were most attracted to on first visit, both wanting to become more self-sufficient and an aspiration to own land for vegetable growing and possibly small livestock. Possibly, for much later in the journey.

So back to the more industrial tools of brush cutter and loppers to set about a recess in the walled garden we have already started to call the orangery. It sounds quite pretentious writing it down but you have to dream don’t you? We have already noticed, amongst the trees in the garden, apple, fig, cherry and we think olive but dream of somehow adding a roof to this section affording a warmer climate for citrus fruits (yes I’m trying to cultivate lemon or lime for my gin and tonic).

So I can see now when I look at it myself it doesn’t much conjure up a picture of an orangery, it’s a mess that needs further attention – as does much of the garden tbh. Let me try to set the scene

Still looks like a lot of out of control garden needing to be taken back from nature? Me too. How about this one?

A little better but most of it is still in my imagination. Let me turn to some of the trees I mentioned earlier that we think we have spotted and I will end the blog here for today.

Rest Day

Hump day, as I know it, found Mrs. York and I feeling tired from our first 3 days of activity. Some good wins already with the septic tank, the discovery of good floors under carpets and what looks like an original stone build of quality that can be exposed once the render is dealt with. Noticeably though, our 50+ years are not conditioned for a 7 day run of high intensity exercise, something I blame on having 30 years in a desk job, not diet or excessive drinking.

We also needed to find the nearest building supplies for future use and that essential travel meant we had to travel down the Kintyre peninsula to Campbeltown. The floors now exposed needed stubborn underlay (glued down) and an overzealous amount of staples removing from them and although we were tired, we figured our enthusiasm would allow continuance tomorrow.

One thing we need to learn as we acclimatize to Island life is the ferry timetable. The jobs we had to do were done fairly quickly so we found ourselves with an hour to kill and an excellent opportunity to walk along a beach. Something we love, and the beaches of the west coast of Scotland rarely disappoint. This was no exception. This is one of the primary reasons we have moved to be in sight of the water and one thing we will definitely repeat. Again and again.

What lies beneath

I spoke in the last post about the dampness that has crept into the building and is our first priority to resolve. The reason for calling in the drainage experts was to understand if water was being carried away from the property correctly and we have asked for a proposal for further works to that end.

The roof and gutters are also a potential source of problems but we are not qualified to explore this at the moment and need to organize both scaffolding and a trusted roofer. We have this planned along with a request to remove the render when weather is likely to better in a month or two. The render itself though is visibly cracked in places and we are certain that it is trapping water ingress against the original stone walls.

All we have read suggest that old buildings need to breathe. They are designed to allow a certain amount of moisture in, but this is also expelled by heat from within the building and forced back out – a living breathing system. Concrete render was a product that was used to insulate buildings and theoretically stop water coming in, unfortunately when it fails it suffocates the building and this appears to be the case here. Cracks in the render have allowed water to penetrate the outer layer and the concrete layer now holds the water with no escape. With no heat in the unoccupied building this has seeped through the walls as the main culprit of damp.

A complicating factor in this is the buildings listing. While we would like to strip the render immediately we need to do some exploration first, with the building officer around what the listing dictates and what lies beneath the render by exposing more in small patches where cracks are already showing. At some point a vehicle has backed into the front corner of the property nearest the drive and gives us the first opportunity to explore further:

First thing to notice is that the stone underneath looks pretty good. As someone pointed out to me the stone that is fully exposed appears to be ‘dressed’ and not intended to be covered therefore. It is also a concern that it is evident that water has eroded the pointing of the stone. Potentially where it has entered between stone and frozen it has the power to move the block also.

Perhaps not the most interesting of blog posts but certainly important to setting the right foundations to the renovation.

Where there’s muck there’s brass

I think that’s how the old (Yorkshire?) saying goes. It refers to dirty or unpleasant activities being lucrative. In our case we were about to learn today whether the septic tank (muck) was needing replaced (costing a large amount of brass). The previous day’s bramble cutting had revealed the septic tank’s location but we were still unclear of the path of sewerage pipes from the property and whether or not rain water also was directed to the tank.

We handed the task to the experts who arrived with camera equipment to explore drains and divine the flow of…….. water. Meanwhile we turned our focus to the inside of the building.

Damp has penetrated the building to a great extent, and one of the key things for us in this first week was to remove all of the soft furnishings left behind that are holding that damp in the property. Soft furnishings is probably the wrong word, I mean carpets, underlay, curtains and a solitary sofa that remained.

There’s good and bad in the above picture. It’s clear from the staining on the back wall that damp is penetrating through the wall and the carpet is holding much of the damp that has come in. The property has been unoccupied for a number of years and during that time a lack of heating (and airing) has exacerbated the issue. The good is that as we have removed carpets the floors underneath have mostly been good. Likewise in the photograph below:

The floors are looking promising and we need to make a decision on their refurbishment or replacement. Again a decision for later, the primary objective to take up the damp carpets was achieved over 2 floors of the property leaving the ground floor for later.

Back to the drainage. Wayne and Lee from Abel had quickly managed to identify that water was flowing freely from waste systems and gutters to the septic tank. An early visual inspection of the septic tank wasn’t promising in that it looked blocked and with further enquiry from two more inspection hatches that they identified it was clear that there was a blockage somewhere. Again this was resolved without fuss from the two gents and came with a cautionary tale to flushing wipes down toilets, the cause of the blockage.

I won’t produce more picture evidence here, it is not pleasant. I will however report that the big win for today, one that surpasses the floors is that it looks as though the septic tank is good for now. It needs to be emptied, which presents a logistical challenge in where it is, but that should be a much lesser cost than replacement. S**t news turned out to be ok after all.

Really pleased with the service and advice from Abel: https://www.facebook.com/abeldrains

Hide and Seek

Before I publish this first in a few blogs I need to say that they were written on a day-by-day basis in an attempt to provide a commentary of the work we started on our new home to be. Unfortunately, the realization soon struck that the capacity to upload photographs via the tech I took with me wasn’t going to work. So here they are all at once……

It was approximately 10 years ago when I last played hide and seek. That event ended in humiliation as my arch nemesis JJ found me hiding behind a bath, the humiliation wasn’t in being found but having to send JJ for adult help to extract me from behind said bath. Today the task was to find a path to a septic tank that had cunningly hidden itself behind a forest of brambles.

The picture shows the girth of the problem but not the depth – no pun intended but I’d estimate that there was a run of 30-40 meters. I was advised by my good friend Allan last week, who has previous for a landscaping business (20+ years ago I suspect), that a good brush cutter should see the back of anything like that. His advice proved pretty good in cutting down the brambles but dragging them from the path and ultimately disposing of them (one of tomorrow’s jobs) proved more of a problem. Karen did a sterling job armed with rake in clearing the path, which was the main point but the brambles took the first round scarring us both.

A further 4 hours of brush cutting and we definitely had the better of them though…..

The path clearance to the septic tank had a secondary objective, to clear a route to a number of outbuildings that are on the land. We had spotted them as having great potential on our first visit to our new home but the brambles had prevented much investigation. Nature has claimed much of the them making the buildings not out of place in a fantasy novel but the worry is reclaiming them from the ivy may result in further damage. That however is for another day, but right now they provide some interesting photos. More on the septic tank tomorrow when the drainage specialists visit.

A bright start

For those friends who know our whiteboard from Christmas games of Pictionary it has become much more of a business tool of late. It sits at the center of our planning for the first tasks that we need to start the renovation. The size of the challenge was never in doubt or underestimated by ourselves but committing those first tasks to paper makes it all the more real. The week has been a heady mix of excitement at what lies ahead, telling friends of our news and starting to take the practical first steps to the project (mixed with small amounts of fear and trepidation).

So the first stage of the plan is one of exploration, a week off work has been booked and we’re looking forward to some physical activity. Stripping the house back to bare walls and floorboards will be the first objective – carpets obscure the condition of the floors beneath but I am hopeful that they can be restored. Likewise we know that there are problems within the walls, a likely source of water ingress being burst pipes. The drainage is also on the list of items to understand better and to that end a survey is booked.

Even with the condition of the property and many hurdles to overcome we are enthused to be starting the adventure a proper. It has been a long road to the start and whilst the negotiation was both long and necessary it didn’t make for good writing material. It remains to be seen whether the hunt for and revival of a septic tank provides good copy….

Next week will tell us how fit we are and how good our estimates are to what we can do ourselves. The photo attached to the top of the post is there to remind us of the beauty and potential we are saw on one of our first early morning visits to our new home. I will hold this image in my head next week when ripping out carpet and searching for the septic tank. Say a little prayer that it isn’t blocked and the bright start I envisage materializes.