I know I've been suspiciously quiet here lately...but when your walls are undergoing life saving surgery and are looking like this at the end of the day:
...it is indeed enough to keep even me quiet! My day for the last week has been punctuated by the sounds of the massive power drill and hammer and chisel which are gradually eating away at the rotten stone and mortar of this poorly wall. And of course I am duty bound to provide regular supplies of refreshment! It certainly is dusty dry work for them, especially in the glorious weather we have been blessed with.
Its amazing to look a few days later and see the lovely new good stones going in, like an enormous jigsaw puzzle:
There was an alarming moment when I realised that one of the holes was really really deep and dark...on peering in, I found to my shock that I was looking at the soot blackened bricks of the inside of the chimney! The back wall of the chimney stack here is only one stone thick!!! Admittedly it was one hell of a stone, but still, quite sobering. And of course that would mean that the rainwater soaking the wall was also probably running down the inside of the chimney.
Apparently it is going to take around 4 weeks altogether to rescue her, this is what happens if a little maintenance problem is ignored wilfully for 10 years - be warned, people!
Meanwhile, I have not been resting on my laurels...
Heaven forbid! With the rest of the south facing facade of the house looking like this:
..with stone in almost as bad a condition as the wall having to be stitched, I could not rest back whilst this lovely dry sunny September weather screamed at me "Paint the wall NOW before the winter wet comes again and manages to get into this stonework and destroy it!!"
We knew we wouldn't sleep easy during the winter weather if this wall were still unprotected, the west facing and north facing walls will be repainted too, but this one was the worst of the lot. It did look as if this one hadn't been repainted for over 15 years, a lot of the paint was simply worn off, whereas the other walls are much more pristine.
I knew it would be a nasty, fiddly job, as the stone surface is so wibbly wobbly and seriously flaky in places...it should have been done at my leisure earlier in the summer but of course there was no point until the sandblaster had finished making all that mess. As it is, I am occasionally engulfed by a cloud of stone cutting dust but needs must - this period of good weather may be my last chance to get this stretch of wall protected. I'll be happy to work on with the better walls as and when the weather is suitable, even if that means waiting until the Spring. But this side is desperate!
Sadly as is often the case, I am not fully happy with the colour - I really wanted a softer, more sandier shade somewhere between the old shades of limewash cream and ochre yellow that I can see layers of attached to the stones under the more recent pale pink paint...but in the time available to choose the colour I just couldn't find that illusive perfect shade. I had thought this one was a reasonable compromise, it's a Heritage range colour called 'Bathstone Beige' and on my tester board seemed duller, less forceful a shade than it has turned out to be on the wall...perhaps it will mature down a little. If not, next time (!) I will definitely allow myself more than 3 days to find the right colour.
We were pleased with how well the wall tie came up after using the eco paint strip to remove the nasty flaking old pink paint. It will look much better in proper dark metal paint, and protect it from rusting.
So, painting this wall is ongoing at the moment, I do as many hours as I can manage each day to fit around all my other chores. Fingers crossed the weather keeps holding out x
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