Summerhill Oast
Our plans for Summerhill Oast |
||
Progress so far… To the casual observer it may not seem like we have achieved a great deal in our first 6 months at Summerhill Oast – largely because there is still so much to do. Looking back at the picture on the home page the difference can clearly be seen. Most of the work we have done so far is outside the house, working on the theory that if we had left the outside to nature the situation was only going to get worse. In particular we have:
The very first job we did at Summerhill Oast was to mend the 5 bar gate. When we arrived the gate hung rakishly from its post and dragged on the ground. John (Carol’s Dad) supervised the digging out the two rotten gate posts and replacing them with 2 new 7” x 7” x 7 foot posts. We then learnt how a 5 bar gate should be hung. Finally the garden was safe and secure for Lucy and Linus, the dogs, to be able to roam. Hedge When we arrived at Summerhill Oast the “hedge” along the garden, all 25 ft of it, was at risk of bringing down the power cables. It was so high that we had to call in EDF Energy to remove the imminent danger and then it took Geoffrey – a local contractor – 4 days to bring it to a more manageable 7’. Ivy When we bought the house almost every page of the surveyors report mentioned the damaging affect that ivy was having on Summerhill Oast. Ivy had been allowed to grow rampant over the brick and tile hung walls of the barn and the roundel. John, Sue (Carol’s Mum), Tim and Carol spent many days, if not weeks, pulling ivy off the walls of the building and pulling the roots out of the soil around the base of the building and along the banks of the stream. Stream It has taken months, to clear rubbish and vegetation from the banks of the stream that runs alongside the garden at Summerhill Oast. Getting rid of the debris has been another problem. Sue & John bought a chain saw and we used it to cut up the wood to use it for firewood. We tried to burn the twigs and the leaves, however the wind always seemed to be in the wrong direction; in the end we resorted to bagged it up and taking it to the tip. Side Gate Like the 5 bar gate the side gate to the property had seen better days and had to be wedged to shut it. John and Carol made a new gate and with the help of Keith (Carol’s Uncle) John mended the frame and put on a new latch so that the gate could be properly secure. Patio base We discovered a rather strangely situated patio base behind the garage at Summerhill Oast that appeared to serve no purpose. Given that we are using this area for storage it isn’t somewhere that we are likely to sit. Tim has levelled the base, lifting the paving slaps and using them elsewhere – both under the wood pile and as a base for the yet to be erected shed. The bricks that we have been able to recover we have used to make temporary flower beds to plant runner beans and as a “nursery” bed to bring on some small box plants which in due course will be used to plant a knot garden at Summerhill Oast. Garden path For most of the winter we waded our way along the garden path every time we wanted to go out. The shingle path was uneven and overgrown. Eventually, when the better weather came, Tim and John cleared the grass that had encroached onto the path and Sue worked very hard at “weeding” the gravel” and exposing the brick edge, which we were delighted to discover provided a complete border to the lawn. Lawn When we moved into Summerhill Oast it is not fair to call the grass a lawn. There was a dilapidated rose arch that “fell over” when Tim pushed it and some very overgrown and straggly shrubs on the far side of the garden that were beyond resurrection, it was a very sad and sorry mess. We decided to take out the rose arch and the “roses” that had reverted to brambles and the shrubs, we then had to re-turf and reseed the grass where they had been. Sue and John found ‘Marden Turf’ less than a mile down the road, a turf farm where they cut turf freshly to order at a very reasonable price. John and Carol planted the turf and Sue filled in the bald patches with grass seed, gradually the grass is beginning to look like a lawn, which Tim now diligently mows every weekend. Our goal is to have somewhere flat enough to be able to play croquet but we accept that it may take a little more time and effort yet. Shrubs In the account of the lawn, detailed above, we have glossed over the removal of the shrubs. Again, this was not easy; spades, iron bars, a saw, loppers and many hours of hard labour are what it took to get rid of the mass of roots that have been allowed to grow unchecked over the years. Garage The first problem we encountered with the garage is that the up and over mechanism door would not close easily. Tim chiselling away at the door frame and that problem was fixed but then the lock broke in the closed position. As there is no personnel door, this involved Tim removing the panelling to reach in to release the lock mechanism and then fitting a new mechanism to ensure trouble free operation. Needless to say that like the house the garage at Summerhill Oast was covered with ivy when we arrived. Having removed it we were left with the marks of the ivy suckers all over the wood cladding. Sue applied a coat of cuprinol to cover up the worst and to provide some additional protection for the wood. The “to do” list Summerhill Oast requires a lot of work. We know that before we move onto the niceties of decorating there is essential maintenance work that must be undertaken. The problem with this work is that because it is to the fabric of a grade II listed building much of it requires specialist intervention and so is expensive. We are not in the position to be able to do all the work at once so this is a list of the work that we know we need to complete over time.
|
||