"Never was anything great achieved without danger". Niccolo Machiavelli

This alarming picture shows the gable end doorway from the kitchen into the rest of the house. Three feet of granite with two stories above it. The wood was partly rotten and 

the brick that supported at one end it was just resting on a couple of loose slates. The main overhanging stone was propped while the wall was rebuilt to support structural concrete lintels.

The gap between the lintel and the loose stones above was filled with supporting blockwork leaving conduit for electric cables during first fix.

"There are two types of people, you see. One type keep their heads straight, and look around as they walk. The others look up - at the tops of houses, at the eaves and the lintels and the roofs, which can tell you when they were built - and I've always done that." Peter Ackroyd

One of the jobs that has been nagging away in my subconscious was attending to the lintel over the front door. It was clearly rotten and in need of replacement but it has always seemed the sort of task that was easy to put off in preference to something less complex. New year, new resolve - surely a good time to take it on, especially as it needed to be done before I could continue framing the downstairs.

Working around the central heating pipes made it a slightly trickier job, but after a few scratchy head/strokey beard moments we worked out a sequence. This involved strengthening decayed beam ends

temporarily supporting the existing stonework above the doorway

and replacing the wood with concrete lintels (see second picture) Tomorrow will see the rest of the lintels installed and the rafters chocked and braced. A lesson learned here - not dealing with a difficult problem results in it seeming even more difficult when in fact it was never that difficult in the first place

"You don't quit after you get beat. You pick yourself up, and you start rebuilding to accomplish your goals." Daniel Cormier

Yes I could try and explain all the reasons for the inactivity here, but I'll leave Daniel's quote in their stead. New year, new commitment to the project but the same resolve to complete.

I arrived early this month to find that some slates had slipped on the front of the kitchen allowing entry to the wet and windy storms. Good news - It was the perfect weather to work on the roof. Bad news - there was so little daylight in which to strip off the tiles, take out and replace the rotten wood and reassemble the tile "jigsaw" that I had to work eight hours solid with no time to think about taking a picture of the damage before starting. 

However, I did take this the next morning (feeling reasonably pleased at the result) The affected area was nearly the width of the chimney from top to bottom.

"When you get a groove going, time flies" Donald Fagen

I know there are a few people who follow my blog and I would like to apologise to them for not having updated since February. My thoughts are especially with the family of one follower who has suffered major trauma after a fall last November.

I have been working steadily on the project, mainly framing and insulating the kitchen. After two months of inactivity following minor surgery, I took over 64 sheets of plasterboard and a lorry load of furniture and effects which I collected from Aberdeen and Edinburgh. This entry will comprise a pictorial diary of progress since February. 

First a rotten beam was removed in the kitchen

Then a replacement length cut and treated

so that the walls could be framed and insulated.

The space above the kitchen was also prepared for the first fix

Finally a sink to wash up in - even though it's on a different floor from the current temporary kitchen

and permanent access to the upstairs storage area over the kitchen

An incident with an electric plane

whilst preparing the old floorboards led to the purchase of my latest toy - a wood thicknesser

which enabled us to get some idea of what the floor will eventually look like.

and finally the plasterboard

and the contents of the van

so that's the current state of play - except for possibly the most important addition to this wonderful old property

"The interval between a cold expectation and a warm desire may be filled by expectations of varying degrees of warmth or by desires of varying degrees of coldness."

The interval between the slates on the kitchen roof and the space below however, will be filled by some sheets of Celutex insulation (other brands are available)

The framing will be next, and made easier hopefully by the addition of this item to the toybox

"I have discovered the secret of happiness - it is work, either with the hands or the head. The moment I have something to do, the draughts are open and my chimney draws, and I am happy. John Burroughs"

One of the most satisfying things about this project is when you come across an unexpected problem. When all the doors, furniture and general detritus were removed from the kitchen one such problem became apparent.

A previous attempt to reconstruct a support for this massive stone lintel in the kitchen hearth seemed to be missing something

and turned out to be not the strongest - a gentle push with one hand reduced it to this!!! Over the next couple of days 

a stone support was put in place; ready for framing and insulating.

  

"You start out playing in kitchens, and you end up playing in kitchens." Trisha Yearwood

So now it's the kitchen, probably the most important room in the house. Somewhere to sit, relax, cook, chat, socialise and just generally live. It's a blank canvas at the moment - but my memory keeps filling it with images from my early childhood.

I clearly remember being washed in the stone sink in the kitchen of the pub where I was born. It was less glamorous but more exciting than this one - I used to get to "push the button" on the gas water heater to magic the cold water hot.

and the tin bath was put in front of the fire once a week, on Sunday, and my brother and I took it in turns to be scrubbed clean. Speaking of Mick and kitchens, I also remember the day he locked mum upstairs and shooed the chickens we kept into the kitchen before running away. She had to call for help from an upstairs window!

However warm and fuzzy these childhood memories are, I decided to bring the Manse kitchen into 21st century. To be honest, I didn't have to do too much to make a difference to the room as we found it. So...on with the show!