ASBESTOS IS REMOVED AND A LOG BURNER INSTALLED - Jan/Feb 2012

Following the chimney fire and the resulting damage caused to the potentially dangerous asbestos we arranged for it to be professionally removed.

Men arrived to remove the asbestos. They wore complete overalls and masks and created ‘cubicles’ attached to the fireplace to reduce the risk of contamination. The lounge resembled a crime scene from 'Silent Witness'. 

The men installed a shower unit outside to wash themselves following removal of the Asbestos. (Outside shower in January??? I think I'd have put up with the contamination risk!)

Before installing a new log burner, we decided that a slate hearth would suit the fireplace. So we researched the price of second hand roof slates to use and discovered the 'best kept secret no 1': in the Midlands they sell for a third of the Wales price. They may not be Welsh slates, but we're not here to fool anyone, we just want a floor that is inkeeping with the character of the house.
So equipped with roof slates from the Midlands, Will drove over to Wales to lay a floor ready to take a new burner.

A new burner was installed on a half tiled hearth, and made all the difference to the house. It increased the temperature, improved the appearance of the room and assisted greatly in decreasing the damp and smell. 

With the installation of the log burner, during our visits we relocated to this lounge instead of the lower lounge.

Logs have become as valuable as currency in this household, and clearly in other nearby homes too.  We have offers of cheap tree felling (but only if the feller gets to keep the logs). Local visitors inquire with interest about where we obtain logs, how much they cost, etc. Neighbours compete in the 'best wood pile competition'. Equally, wood piles are respected and although on show to the public, nobody would steal from a log pile - but there again there's not much evidence of any stealing going on up here (best kept secret No 2). In our travels across the country, we contemplate the degree of difficulty involved in taking home any logs or branches (or whole trees, come to think of it) we come across for sale or otherwise.

There is a sawmill nearby which sells all things wood, such as fencing, etc, It also sells ready chopped & seasoned logs. We buy a truck load about every fortnight.

There is a saying that logs are value for money because they heat you up 3 times – once when you chop down the tree, again when you chop them up and again when they are lit and giving out warmth. I would argue that there's a fourth time – when you load and unload the truck.

Many thanks to my brother who was in the process of clearing up a vast garden of trees and kindly gave us a couple of truck loads of branches to later chop into logs. 

Will's Christmas present this year? A log splitter! (Sorry Will - that didn't happen - maybe next year?)


Next blog -  A potential wind turbine nearby?

THE WORK CONTINUES & WE MEET THE LOCAL GOATS - Nov/Dec 2011

There was/is so much to do on the house that we have to be prepared for the house to be in a worse condition before it gets better. Will removed all the double layers of pine and hardboard paneling on ceilings, walls, stairs, etc. We also removed all kitchen units, shelves, etc. The layers of paneling hid damp, mouldy rotten wood, including beams and joists. As the rubbish went out to be burned at a later date on a bonfire, it took with it a lot of the foul smell, damp and mould.

The original stone walls are a few feet thick and research tells us that when built, the internal fire along with the wind and the sun would probably have kept the house dry. In recent years however, walls have been concreted both internally and externally and painted with plastic paint. These modern products do not suit the original building materials and appear to keep the damp out by keeping the moisture in the stone walls. The concrete walls are now damp and in places, crumbling so we (Will & Richard) set about removing the concrete from original internal walls. This is a long, painstaking, tiring and extremely dusty job, but bit by bit, stone walls are exposed and we realise the extent of the dampness.

Kitchen

Upper lounge

In preparation for a whole family post Christmas visit, we attempted to make something of the lower lounge. We painted the concrete floor and concrete steps and along with some cleaned up and dried out furniture we managed to get it to resemble a lounge. A fan heater, fleece and hat just about kept the chill off.

On a cold clear sunny day we all climbed the mountain on which we live. This time we found the proper path making it a much easier and quicker climb. It took about 2 hours to climb from our house. 

 

Again it  was extremely windy and very, very cold, but beautiful. We took protection from the wind in a dry stone walled shelter before returning back down.

 View over Tre'r Ceiri - Iron Age fort

 On our descent, we met the local wild goats.  

This is sheep country and we have discovered how difficult it is to keep sheep out of the garden. We don’t mind their presence and they keep us amused, but they eat virtually every living thing – or at least we thought they did until we met the goats. Yes this is also wild goat territory. When they come down from the mountain, they hit the garden in mass, 30 or 40 of them at times, big, little, young, old, brown, white, multi-coloured, horned, you name it, they are there somewhere. Keeping them out is virtually impossible, considering that they jump to great heights, climb trees and onto rooftops! I now have a personal war against the local ovine and caprine inhabitants. I am determined to grow plants, colourful plants in my garden. I had anticipated the weather and location being a barrier to growing certain plants but I hadn't considered goats. I may not be successful, but I'm going to try. However the goats were after all, as the local farmer said, here a long time before us.



Next blog - Asbestos is removed and a new log burner is installed

FUN WITH THE FIRE BRIGADE - Oct 2011

By the end of October we had cleared the main part of the house of most of its contents. We had hoped that removal of the rotting slimy carpets would reveal some ancient flooring, but all we found in most places were vinyl tiles, identical to ones I remember being state of the art in the 60s! The lounge floor carpet hid a damaged quarry tiled floor, covered in concrete in many places. Not old or beautiful enough to want to keep which was a blessing in disguise as the floor was going to have to be dug out and a new floor put in with a good solid damp proof course.

 

For reassurance, although very costly, we had an Asbestos check. We were concerned that the walls were possibly Artexed in the 70s/80s when it was a common procedure. The check revealed that the walls we thought were Artexed are in fact concrete and more importantly, safe. The shed and garage are made from Asbestos cement. The only part for real concern is above the existing log burner. However, none is of any danger if left as it is.

Despite the old radiators running, the house is very damp. Some bits of furniture seemed worth keeping, but however much I cleared them of mould and put in the conservatory to dry, the mould returned. The rooms were wetter on the inside than out. Forgetting a previous warning from Will, I opened the conservatory door to let in some fresher, warmer, drier air. The bottom of the door stayed in place while the top part opened, the glass slid down & shattered over the floor! So the door was replaced with a large piece of polythene which did little to hold out the gales.

As the weather became cooler, water started running down internal walls. Will had managed to fully dry out one room using a mixture of fan heaters and dehumidifiers so we could use this as a temporary bedroom. The other rooms were proving difficult to dry so we decided to try out the existing lounge log burner in an effort to help dry out the house. Will did a smoke test to check it worked and then put on 2 logs we found in the lounge and which we hoped were dry enough to use. As he was working on drying the lounge, I worked in the lower part of the house, continuing to remove contents. 

 Original log burner - note the dust particles in the air!

Will suddenly shouted me to bring some water. I was about to pour him a glassful but asked "How much?" “A bucketful . . . quick!” Oh! That sort of amount! I filled a bucket, took it to him and he immediately threw it at the log burner and requested more. This was repeated many times. Meanwhile the flue sounded like a steam train and the part which comes out of the back of the log burner and turns a right angle up the chimney, blew off, emitting huge flames and sparks as a rocket does on take off! The noise became deafening. I did not understand the seriousness of this until I heard Will phoning the fire service. The floor we had so patiently spent weeks trying to dry out, was now sitting under about 2 inches of water! 

About half an hour later, the fire subsided just as 5 firemen arrived on foot, running up the drive, carrying large containers of equipment. Having realised the context, ie. nobody’s lives at risk and a house not permanently lived in, they had decided to leave the engine about a mile away at the nearest wide point before the road becomes too  narrow to drive along without taking the sides off their vehicle or dislodging century old buildings. 

Due to recent cutbacks to the fire service,  they had lost their narrow access vehicle 2 weeks previously. The nearest one was now situated an hour away on Anglesey which would be of little use if there was a serious house fire along our road. They hoped we had done them a favour proving that potentially lives could have been at risk. They also told us that they had passed a lady back along the road who told them she forgot to tell us not to use the log burner as the previous owners had had trouble using it and hadn’t used it for years! 

The fire officers checked out the building to ensure its safety.  In doing so, they tore down part of the Asbestos surrounding the flue above the burner and declared the flue faulty and the cause of the chimney fire. Having scrounged teabags sugar and biscuits from neighbours, we stood in the garden chatting for some time before the narrow access vehicle from Anglesey arrived then disappeared again when they realised they were not needed.

My visions of 5 poor firemen running for a mile wearing all their heavy gear, carrying their equipment between them, arriving exhausted up our drive was later diminished as I learned from neighbours they had seen them ‘sauntering’ along chatting, and certainly not running! I also wondered how the fire officer who remained with the fire engine occupied him/herself while the 5 at our house were having such fun.

 

 Post fire fireplace

We were now left with a new problem - how to dispose of the remainder of the now unsafe asbestos above the fireplace!

Next Blog - Work continues and we meet the local goats

WORK STARTS - Sept 2011

'Our' road has about 10 properties dotted along its narrow 3 km length, a mixture of lived in and holiday lets. It's a very pretty road with spectacular views, however with Autumn on its way, the road and our steep drive were becoming soggy and slippery as leaves started to fall and the weather became increasingly damp.

Our transit van was starting to find the conditions difficult. Locals told us we needed a 4X4, ideally a quad bike which when it is snowy and icy, could be used to climb the road to our property having parked the car in the village below. As a property is of no use if it can only be accessed in dry warm weather we decided that a 4X4 had to be included as part of the house cost. 

We are now the proud owners of a pick-up truck fondly known as 'Beastie'. It eats the Welsh roads and more importantly, our drive! It is the most useful thing we have bought for transporting a variety of things across the country from furniture to logs, and building materials (and family).

Summer holidays over, Will spent several days at a time in Wales while I remained at work (should I choose to take early retirement, I can do so from summer 2012. In the meantime, I hang on in the hope for voluntary redundancy, but the authority are having none of it). 
 

Speaking of authorities, the local council and all other local services and agencies in Wales have been excellent. From the initial estate agents and solicitors through to electricians and builders they have been the most welcoming, helpful and friendly people we could have chosen to do business with. We aimed for the first new instalment in the property to be a gas boiler so we could get some heating. A hard working team of experts spent several visits working on this. 
 

The water supply to the house is from the mountain. It comes up in a well in the adjoining field and then serves the nearby properties. 

Our own supply enters the house via two 500 litre tanks which were put there by the previous owner in case the water supply ever dried up. Having been unused for over 2 years, we decided to empty the containers, clean them out, re-seal then refill. Easier said than done! Emptying took time, but was not too difficult (that’s because I left it to Will!) Will as ever, worked out ingenious plans to clean out the tanks. The difficulty arose when we (Will) tried to refill them. The water supply had disappeared! 

Will, in particular spent days braving the wind, rain and mud to try and locate the problem which was becoming increasingly urgent because the gas people were to return 2 days later to install a new boiler which would fire up the old central heating system. A central heating system needs a water supply!! On the Saturday evening Will sent a message to the mobile of the lady who had been overseeing the boiler installation to explain that we had no water supply so asked if Monday’s visit should be cancelled? She immediately phoned back and spent a good 30 minutes of her Saturday evening willingly discussing ways to try to reconnect the water, all of which Will had tried. A little later her husband phoned back with a lengthy call suggesting further ideas!

   

Having progressed no further the following day, we visited a local garden centre (only suitable place open on a Sunday) and bought 100 metres of hose pipe which on return we laid across the field from the well to our water tanks which managed to fill sufficiently enough for the heating work to take place. Phew! 

Semi-adequate radiators in some rooms now helped keep us warmer and aided in drying out the property.

However, this didn’t give us a long term answer. Still no proper water supply. Water came in through the normal taps via the makeshift hose from a fly/mosquito infested well surrounded by sheep, cows & manure. We drank bottled water, and used the local leisure centre for showers. 

It would be some weeks before Will, using his Maths/Physics knowledge, the hose pipe, a vacuum cleaner and several rolls of tape, managed to get the water flowing again. 

Although the bathroom was in a state of dereliction, the bath worked and was clean and the water warm. So it didn't take long before we braved bathing in our luxurious surroundings. We cherished the baths after long hard days of dirty work. 

Next blog - Fun with the North Wales fire brigade!

 

MORE ABOUT THE HOUSE - Spring/Summer 2011

The main part of the house is estimated to be about 400 years old. It appears to have originated as a one roomed cottage with large inglenook fireplace and a crog loft above. Over the years, existing barns and outbuildings have been added to the original building to create a four bedroomed cottage with 2 lounges, 2 bathrooms & 2 kitchens, clearly one half has been used as a holiday let. It also has a large dilapidated shed and a small detached garage. It borders close to another property (a holiday let) in one direction and other properties are distanced by a small field.

                                            

The cottage can be found along a very narrow (and steep in one direction) single track mountain road between two villages. It sits in about an acre of land including a field in the middle of farmland on the side of a mountain. 

 

It has views of mountains, the north coast of Wales, the sea and Anglesey depending on the viewpoint and the weather.

Following some wet weather, grass, nettles and weeds were growing in abundance around the property. Inside, toadstools and fungi had taken over, growing up from soggy carpets and more interestingly out of walls. Ear shaped monstrosities would open up and eject puffs of spores each time we passed them! Dr Who and Harry Potter would be proud of the cobwebs and their residents. A soggy arm of insulation hung down to face height from a large hole in the ceiling waiting to attack anyone who dared walk beneath it. All in all it was wet, cold and smelly and we couldn’t wait to get our hands on it!

 

In August 2011, our offer on the house was accepted. The house was full of the previous owner's belongings. Bit by bit during weekend visits, we sorted and bagged up the contents. The council have an excellent recycling policy and everything taken to the local tip is accepted (except Japanese Knotweed) and neatly sorted. Most items were too soggy to do anything with other than include as general household rubbish. I tried to sort through piles of papers and documents in case there was anything of importance. Other than the old man’s death certificate, there was nothing. As I picked through the papers to dump into black bin liners, they slipped through my hands like gigantic slimy slugs!

 

 Living room 1

 

 Living room 2

 Lower kitchen

Shed

 Conservatory floor

 Room, later to become utility room

We decided to explore the walk to the peak behind the cottage. So we set of on an afternoon stroll up the mountain which we estimated would take a couple of hours at the most. After 3 hours we were still to be found scrambling very steeply up through heather, gorse, bilberry bushes and bracken, legs torn to shreds, with no obvious path and no summit in sight. I swore I would never ever attempt this again! The vegetation was soon replaced by rocks and shale and eventually we reached the peak. This is the coldest, windiest place I have ever been on an August day, but the views over the whole peninsula are spectacular. (I was later to discover it was comparatively mild!)

 

 

On the way down we came across the path we should have taken on the way up. Perhaps I will climb it again!

Next blog - Work starts on the house