The project...

This is what we have bought. As you can see, the cottage is dwarfed somewhat by the conifers surrounding it. The left hand part of the cottage that you can see behind the trees is the north end, which is the oldest part of the building. The thatch has been damaged beyond repair and some of the roof timbers have gone too. The evergreens keep the house in perpetual shade so the house has become increasingly damp, although it was lived in two years ago and I have high hopes that the damp can be easily remedied, in part by removing the trees and letting the sunlight dry out the cottage a little.

This is the view from the rear of the property. The conifers here are simply massive, in fact so big that if they were blown over in a storm they would smash the house. You can also see the north end of the property again: note the lean on the chimney. This isn't caused by the refraction of the lens on the camera, it really does lean that much towards the house. I am not overly concerned as the surveyor, Rober White, has said that it is relatively stable but I will need to knock it down and re-build it if we want to use the fireplace, which we do.

On our first day as home/wreck owners we packed the van to the brim with tools and made the short journey from Larkhill to Burbage. Despite having a plan, we didn't really know where to start with the cottage? However, we made a concious decision not to start doing anything on the inside as the roof leaked and we thought that any effort inside might be wasted and also thought it might be useful to create some space in the garden.

We wanted to get it re-thatched first but had to wait until the thatcher, Alan Coles, could start, who in turn needed Listed Building Consent (LBC), which will take a couple of months. We also need to put up scaffolding for the thatcher, the scaffolder, David Lidiard of ONC, needs the conservatory and utility room demolishing, which also requires LBC. The scaffolder and thatcher also need the trees closest to the house felling, which requires approval from the conservation department within the council. The aborist, Dan Last, needs the electricity supply cut off as the connection to the house ran through the trees. Once the trees are down, demolision complete, elecricity cut off, the scaffold up, the thatch removed, the roof repaired and felted, chimneys pointed, knocked down, built-up and lined then, and only then... the re-thatching can begin!

So, wandering around the garden with a small axe in one hand and lump hammer in the other, I started looking for a job. By the utility room (which the surveyor described as a shanty-like-structure) was a wooden lean-to nailed into the wall of the house. Underneath the lean-to was a working area that the previous owner once stood at creating bonzai trees. Underneath the work surface were filtration tanks. Adjascent to the lean-to was a wooden box construction containing more filtration tanks for the four ponds. A swift smack with the lump hammer and some of this wooden box fell off. A few more smacks and it was soon a rotten pile of timber on the floor, I then set to on the lean-to but upgraded my lump hammer to the sledge hammer, assisted by a crow bar. Jess kindly ferried the timber to the road side where we later took it to the recycling centre.

The ground underneath the lean-to is over a 30cm higher than the floors on the inside of the house, which has caused a degree of penetrating damp over the years. It will need digging out, but before I can, I need to remove the filtration tanks and all the associated plumbing. The garden is riddled with pipes and filtration tanks and I have no idea where any of the stop-cocks are? In addition there are a number of electrical pumps, which are causing not just a little concern! Anyway, I took the plunge and started to saw through the connecting pipes and one by one removed the filtration tanks. They were all far to heavy to shift intially, as once they had been drained they were still half full of gravel and silt. We kept the gravel to use for garden paths later and used the ten-or-so tanks as bins, which we filled with rubbish and took to the recycling centre.

Following this job, Jess and I made a start on the bamboo. In all there was about 12-15 metres of 'bamboo hedge' which was about a 30-50 cm thick in places. We cut it all down and began to pile it up. We have great ideas about re-using as much of the materials as possible and thought the bamboo would make useful canes for the vegetable patch but once the pile of bamboo was two metres high we just wanted rid of it so plan to ask Dan if he'll chip it and take it away for us.

Next up, the ponds!