Progress?

As Victor Hugo so wisely said, a man is not idle because he is absorbed in thought.  I guess he meant to say 'and a woman' too.  Here at the Old Rectory, we have been absorbed in thinking and planning what to do with this house and how to use the rooms.  But it is not simple.  We want to sort out the heating before the winter.  It was soooo cold last year.  And so very, very expensive.  We thought we would make the cellar the boiler room.  But when the builder came to survey, the advice was that it would be much cheaper to keep everything where it is.  But then he wanted to know which rooms would be bathrooms and which would be the kitchen.  So then we had to try to make some decisions.  And every decision seems to unlock another problem.

However, aside from all this angst, we have done lots in the garden, although it is hard to see what because as fast as we attack the ivy and brambles, more grows back.  However, we have cleared the trees and the back wall  of ivy, cleared the walls on the south side, apart from the bit beyond the new wall, which we're scared to touch in case it reveals another few thousand pounds of repair work.  And the wilderness to the north of the garden still needs to be cleared.

Inside, S stripped one of the doors leading to the current kitchen.

It is a lovely honey colour, very smooth to the touch and you can see where the old tee hinge used to be.  He stripped off the handle too, an object that is obviously handmade by a blacksmith.  You can see the dents of his hammer.

And I painted the door to Cuffer's Lobby, which was a dull navy blue, using the green that we had used at No.7.  However, I have now noticed that it clashes with the colour of the tables that I painted for our wedding party.  So I might have to rethink this.  Luckily, it needs another coat.

Oh, and we got a compost box and a wheel barrow.  The excitement!