Curiouser and Curiouser

Someone asked me yesterday if we had found anything interesting in the Old Rectory since we moved in.  This reminded me that I have had this blog post in draft form for some while, awaiting photographs, and it highlights some oddities that we have discovered around the house.  The first is in the room where the computer server was when this was offices.  It is now H's 'wardrobe' but is destined to be a wet room (perhaps) in time.  It took us ages to realise that there are hinges on the windowsill and that, therefore, you can lift up the top to find this.  It must have been for a washbasin and tumblers perhaps.

The second thing is graffiti on the wall where we park the cars.  I was reversing out one evening and, with the sun in a certain direction, I could see the numbers '1801'.  I went back the next morning to investigate.  There were initials and a date.  But it is hard to see what it reads.  THARRIS?  THARRIP?  THAR RIP?  

We were clearing out a cupboard under the stairs that leads to the so-called mezzanine bedroom.  This is where the new water tank will go.  Then we discovered that there is a blocked up window in there.  At floor level.  We had thought that the wall was originally an outside wall as it is so very thick.  But we have yet to work out where the window would have been in relation to the rest of the house.  In the photo, you can just see the brick lintel for the window above the pink section where the window has been infilled.

The other oddity that we've yet to investigate is the window in one of the back bedrooms.  The suspicion is that there are shutters in the panelled area below the window that are intended to pull up on the tracks that you can see in the side of the window.  This is according to one of the window specialists who visited but a quick search of Google hasn't revealed anything about this type of shutter.  To be investigated further.

And while we're wandering around the house in this way, we have done some work on trying to complete the bathroom.  S has been working on the floor in the small lobby outside the bathroom.  The plan is to put this back to floorboard (it did have coir on it but massively stained) and then varnish it.

We'll paint the lobby off white and have bought this picture to hang there.  It is a railway poster for Bath, advertising the spa obviously.  Very apt.  We may well hang some shelves here as well.  If you remember, we didn't plan well for storage space in the bathroom.  (It was done in a rush to secure the mortgage, in our defence.)

I've also finally sanded the windows and they are ready to be painted.  A job for next weekend, I hope.

We spent the morning stacking logs, clearing one huge pile before the lumberjacks come back to do the rest.

And the good news is that the bulbs are sprouting so spring must be on its way.  Here's a picture of our most tamed flowerbed at the front of the house to the left of the gates.  A sunny spot usually.  But not today.

Finally, and in answer to the complaints from my reader that he doesn't feature enough, here's a picture of Sprocket in the windy garden.