Exciting news!!!
I would like to declare that Clough Manor is officially under construction!
After 2 years in the house and an entire summer of delays getting the project off the ground, on Tuesday evening we got the go-ahead financially, and by Wednesday, the back of the house was demolished. See, we really were ready to go, just waiting for all the paperwork to be signed off.
Let’s rewind a minute though. Earlier this month we had a flood in the kitchen, and now only a fortnight later, it turns out there was plenty about that incident which helped us get organised for the building work. We ripped out the old flooring –something we would have had to do at some point anyway – and thanks to a top dehumidifier we were able to avoid any damage to the floorboards and prevent any growth of mould in the kitchen and lounge structural walls. Phew! In addition, we were pushed into clearing out a lot of the boxes (read: junk) and got generally organised.
Here’s a look at what the kitchen looked like at the beginning of the year, compared to earlier this week.
Fast forward to Tuesday night after we got the good news and I decided it would be a good opportunity to take a final look at the outhouse at the back of the kitchen, before it gets demolished!
It was never going to be a permanent fixture, but it sure did come in handy for storage over the past 24 months. Here it is in all of it’s glory, alongside a few features I’ll always remember, such as:
The many locks (and broken security light) that didn’t really offer any form of security if truth be told.
The asbestos roof, the mouldy guttering and the washing line that someone cut off before we moved in so we couldn’t use it. Bah humbug!
The double glazed window. I wish I could have solved this mystery as to why anyone would go to the effort to install a window designed to lock in heat, to a lean-to that is only single brick, and has gaps in the exterior door, yet only has single pain windows in the house. Crazy!
But for all its battered and weathered appearance, we were grateful it was there. When we moved in, it helped us to store so very much whilst we got settled, and before we had our shed, it housed all our gardening equipment. In many ways, it’s been a real asset.
We did try to make it look as nice as possible. We even added these cute little garden tea-lights on the exterior wall, and I imagine they’ll be used again when the new brickwork is built.
But now is not the time to look back, it’s a time to look forward. I even made Joe sit down in the area that will soon be where we eat tea (reminder to self: start shopping for dining table sets !) He started pretending to eat with his imaginary cutlery but then got embarrassed at the realisation of what he was doing. All this housework will drive you a but nutty, I guess! We did have a good giggle about it though.
I’ll obviously be really sad to see the outhouse go (….not) but it has done us really well for the time being. I’m just so relieved that the process of getting a kitchen has finally begun, and I can’t wait to show you what progress has already been made in my next update.
For now, I’ll leave you with one last Before picture of the back of our home. Byebye outhouse!
