Sixth Annual Review : 2020/21
It is February 20 2021 and exactly six years since we took possession of The Old Rectory. As usual, on this page we review the last 12 months and discuss what we expect in the coming year. The thumbnails below are active : click on a picture to see a larger scale version. The larger pictures open in a new window so just close it when finished.
Mike was back to full health but the period was somewhat hampered by the lockdowns associated with covid19.
The House
Twelve months ago we set the following objectives for the house : mortar the tiles and add guttering to the secondary porch roof; decide what to do with the bedroom 3 alcove and do it [subject to LBC]; construct the porch at the main entrance; and work through room by room finishing items not fully complete. The list was short compared to previous years because the house is nearly complete.
In essence, the year saw the work on the house completed because we decided, in the end, not to do anything with the bedroom 3 alcove.
By mid-March the weather was good enough for working on the secondary porch roof. The mortar work to the ridge and verges was all finished in a single day.
That just left the gutter work and it didn't seem to make sense to undertake that until the gutter work of the main porch was being done.
In the event, that was only in October but at least the secondary porch could finally be declared complete. Note the fence section added along the way to screen the area.
It was June 2019 when we won the planning appeal which allowed us to build a main entrance porch. With all of the other work last year it was decided not to do anything until the current period.
The oak sections for the porch were delivered at the start of this period so the stop chamfers on the main post were soon complete [right] but thereafter the garden took priority.
It was early June before preliminary work started on the 'wet works' [left] ...
... and early July before they were sufficiently advanced to contemplate starting the wooden structure [right]. [The last of the brickwork and the paving could only be done once the upper work was finished.]
Getting the dimensions and the cutting angles right was very difficult and, to make it worse, each roof slope was a different angle.
Nonetheless, with the help of sacrificial softwood templates and lots of repeated trimming, the basic decisions had been made by the end of the month [left] and the structure was finished by mid-August, waiting for the professional roofers to tile the porch [right].
In the event, it was the beginning of October before they arrived but they quickly progressed. By the end of day 1 the battening was finalised and the lead flashing up the house wall had been started [left].
Being October, day 2 was rained off but day 3 dawned bright and sunny and work progressed rapidly [although there was some work to complete on day 4].
Once the roofers had gone we settled down to finishing the work, installing the guttering, boxing-in the volume above the door, laying the paving and building the dwarf pillar around the oak post.
The boxing-in was given the same treatment as the gable over the secondary porch.
The finished porch is exactly as we wanted it.
The final objective for the house was to work through room by room finishing items not fully complete. The work had actually started before the period began and covered a myriad of items from filling pinholes with oak coloured wax filler to painting small areas such as the sides of the fire recess in the dining room. Rather than work room by room, we worked type by type so that things like paint brushes were not being cleaned every half hour.
The biggest outstanding task was the windows and associated window ledges which had been deliberately left in order to press ahead with more important work. The biggest challenges were the old metal units in the orangery because they used to be external windows. Once the windows were complete it was possible to clad the quarry tile ledges. This was done by laying down a 12mm MDF board on top of them, trimming the edge with an oak strip and then veneering the top of the ledge with oak.
The Garden
In the fourth review we set ourselves the following objectives for the garden : finish main road with self binding gravel; build the south abutment and lay the final bricks of the weir at River Pond; complete the well-head at the patio; complete the pebble path along the west side of the house; finish clearing the remainder of North Glebe and continue planting here too; carry on weeding ...
In the event, some of the objectives were achieved and others were added and achieved too. In one we are even ahead of ourselves!
Putting down the final course of Main Road [the wide path from the drive right down to the oak where yellow brick road starts] was delayed, first by the very wet winter and then by the lockdown. The self-bonding gravel was finally delivered towards the end of June and the work started immediately to lay it.
Over the following two weeks it was not only laid but compacted to deliver a very pleasing final result.
The first two weeks of the reporting period were very wet and it looked as if work on River Pond would have to wait for the summer but then nature threw a switch and the rain stopped.
By March 23 the flow of Winter Stream was so low that it was possible to build the south abutment, albeit in a race to keep ahead of the rising water level.
By the next day the pond was full - and the dam was holding ...
A week later and we had a pair of mallards settling in - or so we thought. [They soon started coming and going, undecided whether to set up home in this house or that one or maybe the other one?]
However, the fundamental problem was that although the dam was holding, it was not water tight so in times of no flow [and the summer of 2020 was a very dry season] the 'river' was more like a 'dry gulch'. On the other hand it did mean that the final course could be added to the weir easily in early August.
By the end of August, not only was the weir complete but a landing pad had been cast at the south end of Chinese Bridge.
October showed that nature is a great compensator : we had 173% of the 30 year average rainfall and Winter Strea flowed so strongly that River Pond was full throughout the month.
Next year the two parts of the pond will have to be lined.
The Well-Head at the patio had been on the horizon more or less from the start. It was planned-in when the patio was designed and was on the 2019 work list - but not achieved - so 2020 had to be the year.
Building a brick ring is a challenge of course. We decided to use 'radial' bricks that are cast in a curved shape to make things easier and built a special divider [a compass that doesn't draw anything] over the well. The arm of the divider raised up the vertical centre pole as the brick courses were added. The brick delivery was delayed by lockdown but they arrived towards the end of July. In the picture to the left a trial course has been put down to check the system.
In practice, the bricklaying went very smoothly and the basic well-head was soon complete, albeit still messy.
The finished result is very pleasing to the eye.
[The pump behind was a non-scheduled project : see below.]
The final section of the pebble path to the west of the house was held in abeyance until the secondary porch was complete. It was completed towards the end of June but with shingle rather than grey Icelandic pebbles. The concrete slope divides the two finishes.
By the end of the last reporting period the top third of North Glebe had been rotavated while the middle section was still covered with carpet mulch, albeit with some planting through it.
No sooner had the current reporting period started than we moved the carpet up to the top section and by mid-April we were apply Strulch to both the first and second thirds.
Planting up of the second section then continued sporadically through the spring and into the summer.
During the summer, the unfinished parts of the paths around North Glebe were also finished off with a wood chip dressing.
In the autumn the carpets were removed from the top section, it was rotavated again, composted and then re-rotavated [left] so that the autumn planting could take place.
By the end of October planting of this section was under way, something which continued through November.
In December the planting was followed with a top dessing of Strulch and then we could declare the three year plan for North Glebe complete [although there will be further planting in all areas as the bed matures].
There were quite a few other objectives added to the list and achieved : the development of the south bank of River Pond, acquisition of an antique harrow, the renovation of the old water pump, the construction of a fence at the compost bins, the installation of a sundial and the installation of a concrete pad for the rubbish bins.
The River Pond South area needed rescuing from brambles and clay left over from the original excavation. Work took place sporadically through the spring and summer of 2020.
The picture on the left was early on after the clay had been moved to create a path through the area and the good[ish] soil moved to replace it.
The picture on the right was taken at the very end of the period. There is still some clay to sort out near Chinese Bridge and the soil heap to spread.
We were offered an antique harrow in late June. It was in a sad state with a lot of corrosion.
Work started to preserve it, initially a chemical treatment to stabilise the rust and then a primer coat.
That was quickly followed by the finish coats ...
... and the end result was placed down in North Glebe by Winter Stream.
When we took over The Old Rectory in 2015 the 1930's water pump that pumped from the well to an attic tank was still in evidence, albeit not usable and in a poor state. We decided to renovate it in 2020.
The first task was to clean and degrease it so it was stripped down to individual components, That was when we found that the body was a solid brass casting [left].
The non-brass [steel] parts had to be treated in the same way as the harrow, the blue black hue on them [right] is the chemical rust stabiliser.
Once repainted the pump was mounted next to the well-head. Rather than put the gear cover back on, we put on a clear acrylic cover so that one can see the recipricating mechanism when the driven pulley is rotated.
The cover was mounted on the adjacent house wall.
The fence at the compost bins was designed and built to not just hide the bins but to create a garden storage area for all the bits and pieces that one accumulates and needs for maintenance that won't fit in the man cave.
It was all finished by the end of June.
Our friend Ian, the painter, gave us a sundial part the way through the year so a plinth was built for it in the Orangery Bed during August.
During September a concrete pad for the rubbish bins was cast next to the garage and hence convenient to the gateway for putting out the bins on collection days.
So, with a lot more hard work and despite the lockdowns, we are able to declare the house complete!
The amount achieved in the garden is also good. It is therefore time to establish a 'road map' for the seventh year [2021/22] in the garden. As we go through the year the progress bars will indicate how we are doing.
The garden will become more maintenance than anything but there will be some projects too :
- drain down and line River Pond;needs a long spell of dry weather
- add maintenance 'stepping stones' to North Glebe and finish planting up the last part;planting work started ahead of time in the previous period;
- sort out the boundary stream between the glebe proper and 'Horse & Cart' field;needs an even longer spell of dry weather
- start work on Glebe Pond;would make sense to do at the same time as the boundary stream
- finish the River Pond South areashould start when drier weather arrives
- carry on weeding, weeding, weeding ... and mowing, pruning ...never finished!
This will be year 7 of our self-imposed 10 year programme for the garden but then, gardening is never complete! With luck the pandemic restrictions will ease and there will be the opportunity to have another 'open garden' event to show people what progress we have made.
