The Yank's House - List making

I am a great list maker. At every stage of the restoration of the Yank’s house I have made a list and ticked the jobs off one by one as they were complete.  Then I would set about writing up a new list. This gives me a lot of satisfaction. 

The restoration at the Yank’s house is now nearing the end so it is time for another list. I feel at this stage we have made the house safe for the future and we are at the ‘finishing off’ stage. We have decided to go to the top of the house and work our way down room by room. Each room will have its own list.

So we have started with the top floor bedroom. 

The List

• The windows and window surrounds need to be painted – yet again
• The walls need to be lime washed
•  The ceilings need to be painted
•  The window shutters need to be treated for woodworm, cracks filled and sanded, painted and rehung
• Smoke damaged wall needs to be repointed and finished off in some way
•  Something needs to be done about the missing fireplace
•  Floors need to be sanded and finished
•  Door needs to be treated for woodworm, cracks filled, sanded and painted. The door lock and knob needs repair or replacement.

First let me remind you what this room looked like at the start.

Lime washing the walls and painting the ceilings was straightforward enough. The place looked much brighter once this was done. We had one wall (chimney) that was very smoke damaged. We pointed the brick and stone on this wall but I was worried about plastering it as I felt the smoke stains would keep showing through. I read that painting the wall with cow manure was a good solution for this but decided not to try it. I didn’t think I had the stomach for the smell.

Once the wall was sealed and the smoke from the fire could no longer leak into the room, we decided to wood panel this wall. Pat studded it out and we use tongue and groove panelling. This also allowed us to introduce a colour because we could paint this wall then. We decided on a cornflower blue colour which I love.

We were missing a fireplace for this room. The old fireplace had a timber surround which was riddled with woodworm and turned to dust on removing it. We decided to copy this idea and build a new one. 

I search the internet for some nice tiles that I could use on the inset. I found what I was looking for at http://www.milagros.co.uk/mexican-tiles - Milagros is very good to deal with. I ordered over the internet and the tiles arrived very quickly.

We haven’t managed to wipe out all the items on this list yet but the room is starting to take shape. I am so pleased with the result that I have asked a friend to make me a patchwork quilt for this room in blues and reds. In my head I can see it all finished and dressed. I am also watching out on eBay for a nice old rug for the floor. Watch this space!