February 24th 2020

[H] The last fortnight has been rubbish weather-wise, with day after day of strong winds, showers, hail squalls and even snow. We’ve been working on and off at Cragside, salvaging downpipes, slate sills, stone and any windows that might be re-usable (either in another property or to make cold frames for our future vegetable garden). The conservatory door was also worth saving but getting it out took some doing - we had to demolish the walls either side of it in the end and cut the rest away from the adjoining windows with an angle grinder. And we spent a day pulling hundreds of nails and roofing felt tacks out of the old roof timbers so they're now ready to be re-used or chopped up for firewood. The slate paving by the existing front door will be re-used around the new shed but it was so well embedded in concrete that we had to use Kubi to lift the whole slab up, concrete and all, and then drop it to break it into more manageable pieces so we could then knock the slate loose from the concrete using a sledgehammer. It was not a subtle or delicate operation! And while Malcolm was up by the house with the digger he thought he’d have a bit of fun…

We haven’t actually got enough of our own slate to pave the whole area around the shed but, as luck would have it, someone posted on Freecycle that they were getting rid of their garden paving and the slate (which matches ours) was going begging. So we toddled off with the trailer and spent a morning (in the snow!) digging up someone else’s patio, loading it into the trailer and bringing it home! It’s now all beautifully stacked in a corner of the garden ready to eventually be re-used.

The caravan has (so far) survived the windy conditions and is proving to be an absolute godsend, worth every penny just to have somewhere warm and dry to escape to with hot water for washing hands. Working on site would have been a bit miserable for the last few weeks if we hadn’t had that. And it has also been worth the investment in decent, sturdy workwear – proper jackets, boots, gloves and waterproof trousers. As the saying goes: There’s no such thing as bad weather, just inappropriate clothing! We’ve been out there working away in much of this dreadful weather and have remained pretty warm and comfortable most of the time. That said, we are both fed up with the incessant wind, it does seem to sap your energy and make everything feel like harder work.

This weekend we had a well-earned weekend away with friends and really enjoyed the break. Today we were back on site in the rain, doing a final check around what’s left of the house to salvage anything else worth rescuing, because tomorrow demolition proper starts. How exciting!

February 8th 2020

[H] We bought Cragside in March 2016, nearly four years ago now. Today it's looking rather different - decidedly more open-plan and we've embraced the modern trends of "in-out living" and having lots of exposed concrete everywhere!

February 7th 2020

[M] We have been warned about 'Langdale time', which means that if a tradesperson says they'll be there on Monday they will be, you just won't know which Monday. So having got the asbestos out of the way I got in touch with the demolition company, who are from Langdale, to see if I could tie down a Monday when they could start and to ask if they needed the scaffolding left up in order to take the roof timbers off. That was this morning, it's a Friday. The boss was round within the hour, the boys (Mike and Gareth) turned up at about 1 o'clock and the roof timbers were off by 4.30. How's that for Langdale time!

Gareth and his chainsaw get stuck in.