Posts Tagged: ponsforth

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9
Mar 09

Another wall, another level

Having finished the back level in the garden the next stage was to do the next level down. Eventually this will have a shed and some vegetable beds. For now I just want to get it flat and get the wall up. The wall retaining this level is the same as for the back and upper level – made from sleepers.

First step is to dig another trench :roll:

Then dig some pits for uprights. The sleepers you can see are already buried in the ground for a third of their length. I’ve also added some metal straps for extra support.

Next bolt more sleepers to front until you have a wall:

“No daddy, you’re doing it all wrong”

“Let me show you how to do it properly”

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1
Mar 09

How to remove a tree stump – the hard way!!

Another day, another stump. For reasons previously explained no machinery here – all hard graft and digging. This time though I did take regular breaks which enabled me to snap a few pics as I was going.

First dig a trench all around said stump:

Then attach rope and winch. Try to winch out. Realise that it isn’t going to move just yet :(

More digging. Then use digging spike to cut all the roots from underneath the stump.

. . . .sometime later, after more digging and winching. The stump is out.

As if digging a stump out wasn’t hard enough, there was this huge field stone underneath the stump as well. I’ll be off to the chiropractor tomorrow!

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12
Feb 09

Back up top

I completed the electrics under the ground here a couple of weeks ago. This meant I could carry on and complete the covering with membrane and many, many, many wheelbarrows full of gravel. If you want to lose weight quickly I can recommend the wheelbarrow diet – it’s simple just take 50 barrows a day up a steep slope!! ;) 8)

Every project like this needs a site manager :)

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24
Jan 09

Woodburnin’

As the house currently has no central heating, or heating at all for that matter, this was a job I have been really looking forward too. We’d looked around the net for stoves and found a nice contemporary model which would fit the existing opening in what will eventually become the kitchen snug.

Here’s the existing opening with stove drawn on for size and then stripped out:

The bigggest job of fitting this stove was to feed the flue pipe down through the existing chimney and into the fireplace. I had bruises on my shoulder for a week from this job:

You can see in the last picture the slate tiled hearth made for stove. Again a building regs requirement.

Finally a couple of pics of the stove installed and working. If you don’t have one of these you must get one. If we ever move house again this will be one of the first things we install!

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15
Feb 08

Extreme diggering!

So this week, we got the help of my brother. A good time to get on with the digging in the back garden – and there is a lot of it =:0

With mini digger hired we didn’t foresee the issues with getting it up the garden. On several occasions we so nearly tipped it – left us running for cover and hoping for the best!

Getting up the hill:

Stopping to refuel:

Leaning on a spade :) You also get a little idea of the bank that needed to be dug out:

With a digger in the garden it was inevitable that someone would want a ride:

Muck piling up down the slope:

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28
Jan 08

Recycled Stairgates

When we moved from Meadowside we brought the stairgates with us. These were the standard ‘off the shelf’ type which adjust to fit different width stairways. . . . . or so they would have you believe. The stairs at Ponsforth however are much too wide for any shop bought gate to adjust to.

So, needed to make something to stop little monkeys practising their mountaneering on the stairs.

Fortuitously when we removed the wet room we salvaged a number of pieces of 3×2 which I reused to make some stairgates to fit our stairs.

Very basic joinery here. Screws, glue, butt joints and edges rounded over with the router. Very simple but very solid and very effective. So far neither of the two ‘inmates’ has escaped through them ;)

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16
Jan 08

Shower move

With the old ‘wet room’ ( :) ) demolished we were left without a shower. Therefore a job to move the electric shower to the upstairs bathroom.

Pipes and wires had to be rerouted through the airing cupboard:
Ponsforth shower movePonsforth shower movePonsforth shower move

Some ‘nice’ shelves moved from one end of the room to the other.
Ponsforth shower movePonsforth shower move

Finally running wires pipe down the wall into the old shower brought up from down stairs.
Ponsforth shower movePonsforth shower move

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8
Jan 08

Wet Room Demolition

Not much to say about this. We had a ‘wet room’ downstairs in the lean-to/conservatory:

And then we didn’t:

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3
Jan 08

2 Flats no longer

Before we moved into the house it was let out during the summer as 2 flats. In order that this could happen there was a very odd diagonal type wall in the rear hall. Leaving not much room for actually getting in an out of the back door.

Below you can see the removal of some plasterboard from one side of the wall. Note the bandit electrics – one fuse box this side of the wall and the rest the other – nice!

A bit more pb removed and view up to lovely glazed section above.

Getting there now – you can see through to the door which leads under the stairs.


Finally the wall gone – all that is except for the glazed unit above which proved to be very stubborn. Why is it that some things are a complete bodge and others have belt and braces where the don’t need them?? I had to get the crow bar and my big hammer out to persuade this window down ;)

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9
Dec 07

Laura Ashley it’s not!

Not much progress in the garden over the last couple of weeks due to weather :( .

We have however been pulling odds and ends of loose wallpaper off the wall. One such loose end at the bottom of the stairs revealed this delightful specimen. What do you think? Should we keep it? 8)

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