Hello everyone, welcome back to Saving Elinlegh! For those who have been with us since the beginning you will know that I’m trying to write these posts roughly monthly and this time round I’m going to update you on where things got to during the month of December (actually up to 6th January – Ed). It seems like ages ago! So, read on to find out what we have been up to.

Somewhere during December we had Christmas, but I’m not sure how or when we fitted it in! I’ve been told that traditionally it is around the 25th December, if not actually on the 25th. Joking aside, I do remember that we did take the 25th off to celebrate, but other than that every weekend and spare half day that I could get away from TPL projects and family life have been dedicated to moving our Elinlegh project along.

During this period we continued to focus on ripping out, this time the target was several bathrooms and associated pipework and boxing in. We also managed to finish most of the insulation, except the loft which will be tackled once the replumb is finished. We were able to book in the replumb for first thing in the New Year and agreed the layout with the plumber (Andrea used to be a Building Services Engineer so took the lead here) although there was some back and forth discussion about whether we went for a high pressure or open system for the hot water.

Another Saving Elinlegh focus was further clearing and preparing brickwork around the outside of the property and opening up the access to and around the site in general. We have removed all the loose paintwork from the outside walls and every single cable that was pinned or nailed on and painted over. These were all points for water ingress. The walls are now being left to dry out until spring when we will repaint the outside of the house. Unfortunately, some of this water ingress has caused damage to some of the interior plasterwork which has had to be removed.

After considerable and renewed effort – coupled with the use of a metal detector – we were even able to find the water meter which the water company couldn’t find after 2 hours on site. The impetus for this was subsequently receiving our first bill – estimated of course – for a five bedroom house with a swimming pool. 

It is difficult to convey in this blog just how overgrown the site was and still is in most parts, suffice to say our first and second delivery of materials was dropped off at the side of the road because the lorry couldn’t get onto the site. We didn’t want a repeat of this a third time – try offloading half a tonne of materials by hand in the pouring rain and walking them fifty meters into your house and you will understand why! We can now get from the road round to what was the ‘farm yard’ with a large van if necessary and a large lorry can get as far as the house. This has been useful when multiple trades are on site or if we just to find space to park away from things. Ultimately we want to open up all the old tracks around the site so we can get machinery onto the paddocks.

We did get some time as well for more exploration of the site, and on Boxing Day morning we came up to Elinlegh to ‘beat the bounds‘. This historically was a traditional activity for a whole parish to participate in, but we adapted it quite easily for our little patch. In some places we couldn’t of course get to the boundary (overgrown remember) but we did our best, aided and fortified with a hip flask of favourite tipple and a machete (wouldn’t normally recommend mixing these two items)!

There has also been much cutting and splitting of firewood (no shortage of course) and burning of fires – all very therapeutic and seasonal activities when viewed from a certain angle, whilst conveniently ignoring all the more important things that need doing!

Finally, during December we made one very interesting discovery, which we already suspected was somewhere on the site from references on ordnance survey maps: an old disused letter box. Buried under several decades of ivy growth, the still readable note fixed to the front said that the letter box was permanently sealed in 1996!

Next time round in Saving Elinlegh we report on the new heating installation, whether the roofers have actually been able to get any roofing done, and we have a brave electrician on site repairing rodent damage among other things. Thanks for reading.  – Richard #savingelinlegh.