Stag's Head

We have been looking for something to fit into the alcoves either side of the fireplace in the lounge, and may have decided on a stags head of some design. The trouble being, that once you start to look around the stores and online, the choice is enormous. These carved wooden ones are a piece of art work, but are quite large, maybe we need one for each alcove!

 

I found this festive stags head - quite cute to use as a Christmas decoration.

 

Old Bishop Auckland Map

This old sepia map of the Bishop Auckland area turned up on the internet a while ago.
See if you can decipher the village names and recognise any that you know.
The nearest to the cottage is Wytton Castell (now Witton Castle) and S.Elen Auckland (now St. Helens Auckland).

Snowy Days

After a relatively mild November, the weather turned cooler towards the middle of December, and we experienced a few days of unexpected snow!

Etherley Incline Railway

Interesting pics found on the web showing the old bridge at Low Etherley where railway tracks used to run under neath, now demolished or filled in. Map shows route taken by old colliery railways.

Ten Thousand Page Views!

Today we have hit the 10,000 page view mark.

Thanks to everyone who has visited our blog and followed our cottage renovation over the past few years.

Slight Panic??!

Our neighbour contacted us urgently last night, she had passed by the cottage and spotted a "for sale" sign standing prominently in our front garden. 

Now this is the first thing that we knew about the cottage being advertised for sale, true, it has been in our minds over recent times, as the cottage was first purchased with the view to renovating it and then selling, before moving onto a next project, but I think that as we have carried out all of the work, we have built our hearts into the renovation and are now very reluctant to move on.

After an email message to the estate agent, it became clear that the erection of the sign was a genuine mistake; it appears the company who fix the signs may have been given the wrong postcode for an actual house for sale, and they have guaranteed to the remove the sign very soon.

It will certainly give the neighbours something to gossip about!

Rendered Walls are now finished

Lots of tidying up done, cobbled yard washed down several times, and garden bench and plants back in place, and it all looks lovely, very pleased with the render finish.

Outside Rendering Works - ongoing

The rener materials were delievered on a rainy afternoon, and we spent next few days ensuring that they stayed dry under the storage.

 

 

The first two coats of render material are plastered onto the wall quite thickly, and allowed to dry for approximately four hours. 

 

The finish is then "scratch coated" to give a smoother finish, and the walls are then allowed to dry.

 

Rendering Outside Walls - as work commences

Finally, after being postponed due to rainy weather conditions, the Plastering company has finally made a start to prepare for rendering the outside courtyard and rear parking area walls.

The walls are a mix of stone, brick and breeze block, and we wish to have the same cream effect plaster finish on them all. We are told that the material they are using comes with a 25 year guarantee, should see out our lifetime!

These pics are of walls after first preparation with "glue" to make render adhere more easily.

Painting front cottage windows

We have never liked the aluminium windows in the cottage, but as they are of Everest make and guaranteed to "last for ever" we decided to have a go at tidying them up with some Farrow and Ball French Grey paint which we used previously on the sun room woodwork.

Preparations began, window glass was masked off, and woodwork and aluminium was first given a primer undercoat. Top coat was then applied to give a smooth matt finish.

 

The window sills over the years have been given various coats of paint, the latest being white masonery paint. While we were browsing at Homebase, we found a spray can of  textured paint which we are experimenting with to see how long the stone finish lasts in outside weather conditions.

The cottage now looks much nicer with the French Grey painted windows...now what to do with the white UPVC porch??

Imprinted concrete in courtyard and driveway

We made the decision to have imprinted concrete cobbles, rather than a block paved driveway in the rear courtyard area and on the driveway for car parking.  After a couple of quotes, we awarded the contract to a nearby company, who arrived on the first day of work and broke up all the old concrete base, before preparing the ground for the new base layer.

 The following day earmarked the arrival of the concrete wagon, which of course proved to be too large and heavy to reverse up into the driveway, so the concrete had to be barrowed by hand before being laid and tampered down level. After setting for an hour or so, during which time the workers left site to go find a fish and chip lunch, they returned and imprinted the cobble pattern into the concrete using large rubber mats.

The following day the cobbles were washed down, left to dry and sealed with a protective coating.

Cooker Splashback

After a wait of several weeks for it to be manufactured, our new cooker splash-back has now arrived and been fitted, and how amazing it looks!

Before pic

When fitted

Roof Edging Tiles

We have had black roof edging tiles fitted to gable ends of the cottage roof 

Etherley Colliery

I found this photo of Etherley Colliery, from many years ago.
We have been interested in researching history of the Colliery, as the cottage previously belonged to one of the Colliery Managers.

Old Photographs of Bishop Auckland

I found some interesting photographs of Newgate Street in Bishop Auckland, our nearest town, on the internet.

I used to work in this newsagents shop when I was a young girl of 16!