If you've never witnessed May Day it's a sight to behold and one I would highly recommend as it's an ancient fertility festival which is celebrated every year on the 1st May. Here's a photo to whet your appetite.
This is the 'Obby Oss' of which there are two, and they spend the whole day dancing around the town with a crowd of followers occasionally meeting at the Maypole. You really need to go and witness it for yourself.
Anyway back to the cottage, which is really starting to take shape. We now have four walls and a new roof making it watertight which is a relief, however, on our first visit at Easter we had lost the first and second floor ceilings which gave the main building the appearance of an old barn.
With no stairs we could only access the back bedroom via these ladders which were a bit scary for us non-builders,but it gave us a birds eye view of the property and enabled us to see how far the new staircase would encroach into the lounge.
We are keen to keep the space as open as possible as it is a narrow room and otherwise could feel small and cramped.
We were very excited about the wall going back up as this had been the most difficult part of the whole project and were relieved to see it back in situ, doing its job holding the roof in place : ).
The main construction is made of wood placed on blocks but the external wall will be hung with local slate tiles and I'll show you the before and after pictures when we go down at the end of May.
Inside, the other internal walls are really interesting and appear to have a medieval look about them. They've been constructed using a wooden frame filled with slate downstairs and brick upstairs. It would be interesting to know whether the original building had only been one storey or whether the top floor ran the full length of all three cottages? I would have loved to have kept them as a feature but the work involved in making them good was too expensive.
And finally here's John surveying what's left of his investment!
In part II of this post I'll introduce you to our fabulous builder and show you the new roof and how we are trying to bring back some character to this charming old building. Until then have fun and please do leave any comments or questions which I will happily answer.
With no stairs we could only access the back bedroom via these ladders which were a bit scary for us non-builders,but it gave us a birds eye view of the property and enabled us to see how far the new staircase would encroach into the lounge.
We are keen to keep the space as open as possible as it is a narrow room and otherwise could feel small and cramped.
We were very excited about the wall going back up as this had been the most difficult part of the whole project and were relieved to see it back in situ, doing its job holding the roof in place : ).
The main construction is made of wood placed on blocks but the external wall will be hung with local slate tiles and I'll show you the before and after pictures when we go down at the end of May.
Inside, the other internal walls are really interesting and appear to have a medieval look about them. They've been constructed using a wooden frame filled with slate downstairs and brick upstairs. It would be interesting to know whether the original building had only been one storey or whether the top floor ran the full length of all three cottages? I would have loved to have kept them as a feature but the work involved in making them good was too expensive.
In part II of this post I'll introduce you to our fabulous builder and show you the new roof and how we are trying to bring back some character to this charming old building. Until then have fun and please do leave any comments or questions which I will happily answer.
