Not too much to report, but we are making some progress. We have pulled up the rest of the cement floor. We’ve removed the last pieces of roofing, which wasn’t easy because the iron had been built right into the wall and required a lot of chipping of stone/mortar and the liberal use of the angle grinder.
It’s an odd angle, but this shot is taken from above the internal wall. It shows the remains of the gutter that ran along the wall, now flattened and corroded, and shows the trench we have had to cut into the wall to remove the roofing iron. This will all be made good once the new iron is installed.
We’ve had a replacement gutter formed and that’s now sitting with our growing pile of building materials. Replacement roofing timber has been ordered, and we’ve located 600+ bricks to match the original quoins (60 mm bricks are hard to find in decent condition!!!) Finally got a quote from the stonemason, so hopefully we see action there soon!!
Not much to offer in the way of photos, but we have been enjoying a bit of an archaeological dig in the rubble under the floor. It looks like we have uncovered the remains of an old rubbish dump, with butchered bones, bits of pottery, broken glass bottles, remains of an old lock etc, indicating either that there was occupation on the site before the building was erected (odd because we think it’s the same age as the house), or it shows that fill was brought in that included the rubbish. The nicest find to date is this lovely little intact ink bottle that showed up today.
Lots of decisions still to be made on the build. I’m undecided as to whether to have the floor in the fish room sloping towards a central drain built into the floor, or if I just have a gentle slope on the whole floor towards the “back door” with a drain running just outside the door. I can see pros and cons to both. I’m trying to consider that the room may not always be a fish room (perish the thought!!) Still some thinking required in that direction.
Eventually we will come to a standstill on the building until the stonemason works his magic, so thoughts will turn to setting up my side drops, building a couple of sumps, and perhaps starting to put together some of the plumbing.