Yank’s House – The Web

I love the Web – looking at other peoples houses, checking out crafts people, looking up different products, searching for a bargain or just chatting with like-minded people. Whatever I am at I can spend hours browsing.

So when Pat and I started restoring the Yank’s house I turned to the web for ideas, information, knowledge and just old-fashioned support. And guess what? I found everything I was looking for. So this week I decided to share some of my favourite web site with you. Who knows you might find what you are looking for too.

Early on in the restoration I needed to learn about Lime. Web sites like The Traditional Lime Company http://www.traditionallime.com/ where we found our trusted adviser Ed Byrne and St Astier http://www.stastier.co.uk/ web site were we found some great guides and information are just two of many.

For an Irish perspective on restoring old buildings I love the Former Glory web site http://www.formerglory.ie/ . The Advice and Info section has some good reading and for inspiration have a look at some of the stories of other restorations or even go and stay in one that offers guest accommodation. 

For guest accommodation in a restored property in Ireland also have a look at the Irish Landmark Trust web site http://www.irishlandmark.com/ . I really enjoy being able to view the interiors of these beautifully resorted properties from the comfort of my own armchair.

The Old Builders web site http://www.oldbuilders.com/indexmainpage.htm shows lots of lovely examples of work they have completed. Another chance to have an inside view and again Irish buildings, many of which are  of very modest proportion.

I also like to drop in on The Irish Georgian Society http://www.igs.ie/  web site every now and then to catch up on anything new there and also the Irish Heritage web site http://www.heritageireland.ie/en/

Period property UK is another site I love to visit http://www.periodproperty.co.uk/ and I especially like reading about the Period Property of the Month section. There are also lots of articles to read on all kinds of topics.

The National Inventory of Architectural Heritage site is of personal interest http://www.buildingsofireland.ie/ especially as we were featured under Co Longford http://www.buildingsofireland.ie/niah/search.jsp?county=LF&name=&town=&townland=0681&type=quick&page=1

When it comes to shopping and searching for special things for the Yank’s house I love ebay http://www.ebay.com/ . We have found everything here from our vibrating table to make our floor tiles to the little Bakelite brown dolly switches for our lights.

   

When it comes to sharing and chatting to friend I have my blogs and all you lovely followers, twitter and facebook.

I hope you found some of this interesting. I could go on and on as I have visited thousands of sites over the years but this is just a few that spring to mind and that might interest my readers.

Why not leave a comment this week with your favourite restoration/building web site and I will check them out.

Yank’s House – 2013

My God – where has the time gone? It seems no length at all since we were all excited about the new millennium and now in a blink of an eye it is 2013. Why is it that as one gets older – each year appears shorter? For me it is a double whammy because I was a New Year baby. So on the turning of each year I am also reminded that I am a year older. 

I just spoke to my mother on the phone before I started to write this week’s blog and she reminded me that 2012 didn’t end too badly even if it wasn’t a great year for us. Personally 2012 brought a major challenge to our door. And while I know Pat won’t want me to blog about it – it was the year we fought cancer – fought and won. So yes we are glad to leave 2012 behind us.  I guess my mam is right and so this gives me more reason to make 2013 the first year in the rest of my life.  Forget about age – it is only a number.

Right – so what is the plan for 2013 then? Well at Yank’s house work continues. Excitingly, maybe this will be the year we finish the restoration and can start to enjoy the house and share it with our friends. Pat and I are 30 years married this May and I have set us a deadline to have the house ready for a big party to celebrate this event.  So watch this space and see how our plans progress.

One of my plans for 2013 is to preserve the footprint of the old yard. There are bits of old stone walls and broken down buildings from times past. I do not intend to rebuild these as full buildings again but rather to restore and point the old walls to create some outdoor rooms/spaces and at the same time preserve the history of the site.

Inside the house there is a lot of finishing off jobs to tackle. So as soon as we start back I will keep you informed with photos and chat.

So no photos from Yank’s house this week but here are photos of two painting I did this Christmas. Both commissions so gone to their new homes at this stage but just to prove I haven’t been idle. I will talk again next week and welcome back friends and followers.

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!