The Donated House

Well, it’s been another tremendously productive day. It’s amazing what you can get through when you feel like working.

The pile of wood at right is the stuff we’ve got from various free sources and which is going to build the most awesome pergola/outdoor kitchen. I’ve found a fairly nearby place that sells corrugated clear pvc roofing fairly cheap, so we’re going to splurge on the roofing (at about £100 in total) but that should be the only cost. I might hit ebay for some used paving slabs too, if we decide the budget will stretch to that.

I nailed some scraps of wood against the side of the woodshed and stacked the rest of the willow (what’s not still standing) which amounts to at least a year’s supply if this year is anything to go by.

I’ve also prepared the bottom tier for the arrivial (if it ever happens) for the second order of kiln dried, which I hope will be the last. It’s expensive stuff, although I swear you get twice the heat out of it. At any rate, it burns so readily that you can keep the stove barely ticking over on a single log, whereas merely seasoned wood needs a hotter environment to keep burning. I think I’ve just about got Elmo convinced that we need to go get the greenhouse from the old allotment and bring it up here as a log kiln. Apparently a well ventilated greenhouse with no plants (and therefore dry) is an excellent way to quick-dry firewood.

I have got so used to spring coming so early in this country, even if it does take months to turn into summer. Usually you get some lovely warmth from about March. But here it is staying below freezing all day and snowing.

It’s beautifully sunny, mind you, contrary to how it was when I took that picture, so at least from the cozy, lovely cabin, it looks beautiful.

At the weekend, Anna, Sam and Alec came and we got a bunch of stuff done. One thing I’d been meaning to do for ages is to audit and sort the wood we got from freecycle a long time ago, with a view to using it to build an outdoor barbecue and eating area.

Sam is a terrifically hard worker, and an all-round lovely guy. I hope he’ll come back. And do the dishes again, even though we forgot to mention the lack of plumbing, and point out the tiny drip-bucket under the sink, so when he charmingly offered to wash up, and dumped the water down the sink (as any right-thinking person would do) rather than take it outside to chuck, a veritable comedy of jumping about and panicking with towels ensued. No harm done, and a good reminder to me to mention the lack of plumbing to new people from now on. Poor Sam, I hope he recovered.

Between them, Anna and Sam moved the whole pile of freecycle wood onto the work area, where I can start cutting it up to length for the pergola/wendy-house/barbecue room I’m hoping to finish in time for Anna’s birthday in July.

There are 12 good long ones, 3m and change in length, which need some cleaning up, but that’ll build the majority of the frame. I’m going to use pressure treated 4×6 at the bottom and put it on foundation stones in the hope of this building lasting a long time, though they won’t be cheap. Also, if I can find some that’s not ridiculously expensive, I’d like to roof it in corrugated plastic, letting light through but keeping rain off.

This is as far as I’ve got on the plan. The mid-wall studs and door and window frames will just be pressure-treated 1×2, not at all structural. And I’ll fill the walls in some trellis and grow stuff up it. I’ve got to make a proper diagram and price up what I don’t already have. I can use up a lot of the scrap lying around, so hopefully it won’t break the already fairly strained bank.

Not the nicest of days for working, weather-wise, but when one has a workforce, one is well-advised to make good use of it.

So I made Sam (Anna’s Sam, not our Sam) split all the wood from the willow tree. Well, once I got him started, it was difficult to get him to stop. Not that I tried. Anyway, it’s all nicely split and seasoning, as you can see behind him. Now to get the rest of the tree felled…

Well, I got it to a point of almost done-ness that will have to do for visitors this weekend.

The can I had of non-repositionable adhesive went missing at the last minute, so I used the repositionable to stick down the table covering, but I suspect I’ll never know the difference.

I only got the button sewn on the left side, so the right side looks a little unfinished, but overall I love the effect. Much better than late 70s brown houndstooth.

I almost felt moved to get out a pretty tea set and put it on the table, but these candles will have to do. I love this table covering I found at Abakhan.

Now I suppose I’d better see about finishing my own house…

This week’s task is to tackle the caravans which haven’t been properly cleared out and cleaned since we ostensibly moved out of them last summer. They were (in one case still are) full of the bits and pieces that had accumulated in them while we lived in them and it was really high time I dealt with it.

I cleared out one of them, and am in the process of re-upholstering all the seat cushions and making new curtains, and today, since it was sunny and almost something like a bit warm, I took countless buckets of rainwater up there and scrubbed them down on the outsides of both. I didn’t take a “before” picture, basically out of shame, and it’s too dark now to take an “after” picture, but I will do when I post pictures of the whole re-decorated cottage-cute wonderfulness of them. It’s going well and I anticipate being really happy with the results.