Day 9/549

I have the letter which gives me the official grant approval. Which is amazing. Among various rules and instructions it also gives me the end date, 1st January 2028. Which is insanely far in the distance. But also in building terms, not very long at all.

It also feels radically more real now I have a date for the end.

So anyway, I made some progress, made the most of the good weather to cut down massive amounts of tree. It still doesn't really feel like I have made a dent there, and I will 100% require a bonfire to shift the sheer quantity of wood piling up around the house. It is a mammoth job, but I'm hoping completing it will make the house feel so much brighter.

Inside the house there has been a little less progress. It took me a long time to pull down the living room ceiling. The previous owners had sealed it with this plastic gloss paint, anyway it is now removed.

Living room ceiling

With the ceiling down I could evaluate the beams, which were beautiful. Very clearly much newer and straighter than the beams in the dinning room, so they probably have been replaced in the not to distant past.

Living room swept up

I removed all the carnage from the living room and started trying to sweep up. I say trying because I discovered that the floor was in significantly worse shape than I thought (Read my previous blog post to hear more). As I was sweeping large sections of concrete were pulling free from the floor.

Living Room Concrete Holes

Looking underneath the concrete revealed raw earth. The concrete is less than 5mm deep and was literally falling apart under the weight of a broom. This is surprising but not necessarily a bad thing. Already my plan is to dig up the floor, I need to put in a radon barrier, insulation, and then I am planning on underfloor heating. So it does make that easier. It also does explain the damp problem that room faces. So there are good things, but it was a surprise.

Next for that room will be to remove the trim from around the windows, and pull off the concrete render around the window.

Next up in the house is one of two things. Either giving the floors and ceiling treatment to one of the two bedrooms, or doing it to the kitchen. The decision will large come from temperature, whichever area is cooler to work in.