Work In Progress .....

That's pretty much been the craic round here for the last three years now. Having bought myself what turned out to be a semi derelict cottage, I've been gradually ~ mostly extremely gradually! ~ renovating it.

Now, I know that such talk will make most of ye picture either a pile of stones, in France. Or else a musty little place in the middle of god knows where. Either way, one of the first things is to get a team of Spreads in. Yeah? Plaster is what makes a room. And no (old) room is ever right. Ye don't want to put fresh vinyl silk on century old plaster.

Bollocks. The walls in this place look like they were spread by a Drunk. Fact is, who ever spread these walls probably wasn't a time served, highly skilled 'Plasterer' at all. More likely just a man with a job to do. And to be done with limited materials, let alone skills. It shows. And that showing gives this place character.

I like Character. I'm also a bugger for Tradition. I like Authentic. I also like Quality. This can make me an expensive bitch to keep! But, being as how I keep myself? Fuck it. I'll have what I want, when I can have it. And my only guiding light is sympathy for this old place. Respect for its history ~ and future.

So; Having had every rotted out, boarded up, or just plain 'a hole in the wall' window in the place ripped out and gorgeous, 'in keeping', top of the range double glazed units popped in, I'd left myself with This:




And That was in my kitchen. Yeppers. That is an old scrap of ply wood, nailed to the bottom. There was no glass when I got here. And that Is a few plastic coal sacks, stuffed in the gap between the top sheet of glass and where the bottom of the top frame once was. In fact; The top frame of the bottom window is where " The Leitrim Experiment " took place! I believe I covered all that else where on here? Go look it up.

So anyway, I had to leave that mess as it was, because I couldn't get a Builder to blast out the stone work at the bottom, make good, and leave me a Doorway. I never did. Instead, I found an outfit of fucking Cowboys. They charged me a heavenly sum. Did a very mediocre job. Then ran away, leaving me with a few dustbin loads of gash and rubble strewn across my ground. Par for the course here. Unless ye went to school with their Dad.

But, I can live with it. They may have been shit. But. they still knew how to do things I wouldn't have known how to do. Thus they left me with a hole which Munster Joinery where happy to make a door for. Munster Joinery are probably The Best in Eire. They made my front door and all my windows. Fucking brilliant!

Now, here's a (Very Bad!) shot of my new, back door. Just placed and ready to be foamed, filled and dressed. I'll get a better shot of the outside, later. Natural light and showing the colour and finish. Right now, I just wanted ye to see what had become of my window.




Now I have work to do ~ slowly and gradually, as ever. Look at that reveal. In fact, look at the reveal on the original window. Then look at the reveal I now have on this door. (I mean the 'walls', inside the door. That wall's over eighteen inches thick, by the way!) Couple of slabs of board and some bare cement. Daylight showing through the frames edges.

Job On! Let's see how a 'Rat Catcher' gets on, finishing this project so a person born and raised in this old cottage would believe it was all Original.