The Chimney in the Stone Caravan is clean! It draws. I can light a fire at last without smoking out the cottage and most of the neighbourhood. Even the mice had little hacking coughs. Turns out it is first time it's been swept in over a decade, and as it has been principally a coal fire, it was pretty grungy.
Progress is in fits and starts, as bits of the jigsaw fit together.
The chimney sweep visit was one of the key pieces, as didn't want to start painting or laying the new floor until I was sure that the soot was shifted and wasn't going to come down in one almighty drift one stormy night.
I've now stripped the building, shifting all the furniture, crockery etc, into the back room (that's the half of the cottage that is going to fall down), removing all the carpets (5 layers in some places) and chipping out any areas of rotten plaster, ready to give the whole thing two coats of old fashioned lime and milk distemper. The milk proteins bind the lime, and make the surface technically wipeable. So painting is the second piece in the puzzle.
Then there is the floor. The original flags were long ago replaced by concrete, which is practical but ruddy cold on the feet and arse. With needed to find something cheap, warm (ish), mouseproof (they'd think rush mating was a housing scheme), and suitable for sweeping daily (again, to deter the rodents). Oh, and capable of withstanding a huge range of temperatures and humidity.
The previous tenant's solution was carpet - lots and lots and lots of carpets, laid one on top of each other. We stripped it all out, layer by layer, taking the wool rugs down the hill (hoping to clean them when we get a nice spring day) - the older stuff went on a HUGE bonfire.
Now, thanks to IKEA we have 15 boxes of pressed bamboo floor click-n-fit flooring, sitting in the back room over xmas, to adjust to the humidity.
Next installment - learning how to paint with milk...
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