Daydream thread... without the rose-tinted specs

rhiwfield

It's beginning to look like most of the soft fruit will ripen at the same time, strawbs, gooseberries and blackcurrants. So after an abortive Wednesday its nets on today.

If I was building from scratch or making a major conversion I'd consider solar air/transpired solar wall as posted before. Will be interested to see if this takes off over the coming years.

Itsme, spot on that insulation works both ways. On hot days the house is pleasantly cooler as our gable end faces south. But late afternoon the sun shines through the patio doors and warms up the lounge for the evening, very useful in the shoulder months and avoiding the need to light a fire.

Oh well, more packing to do, people are spending.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

Morning all:j:j

its a bit cooler this morning, after the rain, but it is still close

I think its the longest day today, and then its all down hill,

just over 6 months to :xmassign::cool:

BD the only thing I can add to the woodburning topic, we have a rayburn living room fire, which runs our heating, ok it suposed to be a coal fire, BUT for the last few years we have been burning alot of wood to, to try and keep costs down..what I have learned you got to think ahead, Buy/get wood at the end of the winter/summer when the demand is low.

Or If you got your own source of wood, chop and prepare the wood steadily throughout the summer, not have a mad pang when the weather is cold and you need some wood:cool::p

We are lucky we bought a place last year which have got quite a few trees, which needed either cutting down completely, or a bit of maintenance ... It is suprising in the begining people/person was 'nicking' the wood, but a few F'ing words, and the general threat of broken legs if caught put a stop to it:D ( so far) But its suprising when peeps see pics of the piggies with the trees around etc then allways have we got any wood lying around its a bit:mad:

We dont care we will burn anything pallets etc, but keep an eye on the chimley, and sweep regular,

Sorry havent got any advice on the fires, We managed to blag an old rayburn, dont know if it will do the heating, but I will worry about that when the time comes to installing a heating system:cool:

But on saying that, when we have lit a fire in the open fireplace, to try and dry some of the stone walls out, the heat that the building retains from that one fire is brilliant!!!!1

Davesnave

Earlier in the week, on another thread, it was brought to my attention that the very first property we tried to buy (2002) has returned to the market.....at double the price it was then. :eek:

OK, there's been a bit of work done, but not that much!
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-35575207.html?premiumA=true

Back in those days, we were intent on developing a nursery close to a suitable area of high population, and this place fitted the bill perfectly. It was also just down the road from an RSPCA small animal outfit, where we thought our "less academic" daughter might one day find gainful occupation.....It all looked so good!

Anyway, the owners created a lot of interest and even advertised with a second agent (?) then kissed, made up and took the place off the market! :mad:

At the time, I wondered if this was God working in a mysterious way, as our main competition would have been a lady who'd just rescued the existing local nursery and put everything she had into it.....:o

Wrong about daughter and wrong about God. The lady's nursery failed without our help! :rotfl:

We tried to move on, but the legacy of this place followed us, because everything else we saw was measured against it. We even turned down a much nicer smallholding because it was not so commercially viable. After that blunder, prices took off big-time, and suddenly there was absolutely nothing we wanted within budget in this neck of the woods.....:(

Cue total re-think...:)

rhiwfield

Davesnave wrote: »

We tried to move on, but the legacy of this place followed us, because everything else we saw was measured against it. We even turned down a much nicer smallholding because it was not so commercially viable. After that blunder, prices took off big-time, and suddenly there was absolutely nothing we wanted within budget in this neck of the woods.....:(

Cue total re-think...:)

If I look back I can think of all the things I got wrong or could have done better

But ultimately that becomes damagingly introspective, far better to focus, as you have done, on all the positives

COOLTRIKERCHICK

rhiwfield wrote: »

If I look back I can think of all the things I got wrong or could have done better

But ultimately that becomes damagingly introspective, far better to focus, as you have done, on all the positives

totally agree with not looking back, when we were looking for there was an old farm house with 5 acres which according to the details needed a lot of work, and a 4x4 to get to it, as you had to go off the mountain road via a field to get to it, at the time it was approx. 8k more than our house, we went to go and have a look at finding it, but couldn't, so we didn't bother asking the estate agents for a viewing:o:o in hindsight, we should have, and possibly struggled a bit financially at the time.. that was 19 years ago, it was priced at 30k:cool::cool:

Itismehonest

This place - it was a wreck then, mind - sold for £30K in the early 80s. By the time we got it (about 5 years later) it was almost 4x that. Now? Well, we have to wait & see.

Davesnave

rhiwfield wrote: »

If I look back I can think of all the things I got wrong or could have done better

But ultimately that becomes damagingly introspective, far better to focus, as you have done, on all the positives

Agreed.

To be brutally honest, we fouled-up because we were seeking the a place that could carry the business and allow us to house my aged father, yet give him a degree of independence. It was a miracle that we found three affordable places(all ag-tied) in the Westcountry that ticked the boxes.

However, Dad's deterioration and our own physical difficulties meant that failure was the best outcome in the end. I'm in no doubt about that.

Itismehonest

rhiwfield wrote: »

Itsme, spot on that insulation works both ways. On hot days the house is pleasantly cooler as our gable end faces south. But late afternoon the sun shines through the patio doors and warms up the lounge for the evening, very useful in the shoulder months and avoiding the need to light a fire.

True but the house would then be getting heat from the sun through the glass of the patio doors so when there's no sun there's no heat, if you follow what I mean.
It's then no longer really about the insulation working efficiently as reliance on the level of sun through the 'weak spots' of windows.

Old places like this, with thick walls, have always had the cool in summer advantage but the thick walls would never allow one afternoon's sun to penetrate to any effect.
They need a longish spell to warm them. Then they retain the heat as the weather turns colder.
Of course, it wasn't a problem when they kept the fires going 24/7/365 as they used to when they cooked by them as there was always heat being generated inside.

lostinrates

If only the mistakes were not so expensive I wouldn't mind making them. You learn in no better way.

Why would people have hung wall paper back to front?


Secret draws room more exposed

Itismehonest

Did they paint the wallpaper or was it used as lining?
Maybe they just picked up, or already had, some bargain paper but didn't want the pattern to show?:D
Very MSE

The secret draws room could be any number of things. I think you'll work out what eventually.

One end of this place seems to have been a sort of one storey with loft which, presumably when they changed from thatched roof to slate in the 19th century, was turned into 2 storey. This meant changing the heights of the rooms by moving things up.
The downstairs ceiling (bedroom floor) was raised & also the bedroom ceiling but slightly less so.
The windows are noticeably lower in the wall in the upstairs rooms than downstairs & the kitchen inglenook chimney (which is in the middle of that end of the house as opposed to on the outside of the wall like the other chimney) plainly has the 'steps' showing in what is now the loft so was once outside.

It could be yours was anything from an old cellar, a change in room height like ours, done to prevent damp to the floorboards or any one of several things. You need to hunt out the clues, LIR, to see if you can work out when/why it was actually done. It's one of the fascinating things about tackling an old place.