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What a shame when it is wet on a public holiday. Yesterday was perfect for being out of doors. Full sun and not too hot.
It was noticeably darker in the living room with two layers of shade net on the greenhouse. There are three, rather small windows in that wall to let the light in.
I could fit pulleys at the house eaves to retract the net in dull weather. Then it would need ropes to pull the hem back down again when needed.
It never went above 80F in the greenhouse yesterday and it was utterly amazing to have a completely clear ceiling out there. Without drooping, lightweight tarpaulins. Constantly shedding white dust as they disintegrated under UV assault. For the very first time, in two decades, it felt more like a real conservatory. Than some cheap, aluminium, lean-to greenhouse. It's all swings and roundabouts.
No holiday for me. I still have the contents of more furniture to empty into boxes. The plywood back board is dropping drifts of worm dust on one low sideboard. It had a large, "flat screen" CRT TV sitting on it for many years. My wife would not let me get rid of it. It was the first thing to go when I was free to choose! It weighed a ton!
07.30 56F. Still raining steadily. I have just expelled the low sideboard into the rain. It contained two cubic feet of vitamins and patent medicines. Plus lots of empty prescription medicine packaging. Two more cubic feet of letters, cards and papers going back to the 1960s. Now carefully boxed but yet to be sorted. Lots of wine and beer glasses. About two cubic feet of bin fodder. I have gained two square meters of clear floor space!
There follows a lengthy discussion on a "difficult" window. Which came with the house when we bought it. Feel free to skip this monologue. I find discussing things in text helps me to make decisions.
08.00 57F. Morning coffee. Still raining steadily. I am unsure what to do about the tall window. Which the low sideboard was supposed to be protecting. The window frame is of pine and has a very unusual, lanceolate design at the top. Of unknown vintage and contains but one layer of glass. Four panes below and two, openable above. Obviously antique, judging from the various catches, hinges and reinforcing ironware.
It is almost 6' high and sits right beside the main [back] door entrance. Though separated by an internal wall. It felt too vulnerable according to my wife. Which was probably why the massive CRT TV was parked in front of it. On top of the low sideboard. There were full length curtains. Permanently drawn of course. My wife had neatly stapled polythene to cover the inside. No doubt to keep the cold, winter draughts out.
Who knows the thermal properties of this multilayered mess? Nor where to go from here. This window helps to light the bottom of the steep stairs. So just filling in the window, to make a solid exterior wall, would not be without consequence.
Having plain glass denies privacy and potentially reduces security to the occupant[s.] One cannot pretend one is not at home. When one is standing visibly only a few feet from a visitor. It was never possible to check a [terrifyingly rare] visitor through this window. Due to the permanently closed curtains.
Now I understand the decorative, Singer sewing machine, cast iron stand. Stationed right outside the offending window. It had an equally massive, slate slab on top. This was to support huge and heavy, iron plant pots. It became such a permanent feature that I hardly ever noticed it. Until now.
From the outside the window is a cosmetic eyesore. Undecorated in decades but the quality wood is still sound. Something must obviously be done, but what? Fit a tall, narrow window with obscuring glass? Allow light indoors but with privacy and security. Mirrored glass? Rather than old fashioned, textured glass? This might look badly out of place in a scruffy old cottage.
What about a small, but raised window? Let the light in, but be too high for the curious to casually peer into. I did a trial screening of the lower window with ply. Just to get a feel for useful options. It is not the only window in that wall. So might still be considered redundant.
It faces north. With tall trees, 20 metres away, blocking some of the light. On a dark day, like today, the indoor light levels are already low. Having a glazed door out to the hall helps. [Now that my wife's obscuring curtains have gone!]
The light can enter this end of the lounge via the bathroom window when its door is open. As is usually the case. The glazed balcony also lights the stairs from above. As a test I have just covered the entire window. It immediately becomes Stygian at the foot of the stairs! Light is definitely required.
The main entrance [back] door has to go. I made it out of thick, old, vintage pine flooring years ago. It has weathered to an ugly dark finish. Both inside and out. It shrinks in dry weather and swells in the damp. On a cold winter's day there is frost on the inside! No glass to formally let light in. Though the gaps around the door do show slivers of light. "Sealing" is definitely not in its job description.The frame was secondhand and I made it to fit the hole in the wall.
A properly insulated and sealed exterior door, with a secure window, would help to light the entrance hall. Allowing more light to be "borrowed" through the glazed door to the lounge. The kitchen, at the end of the small entrance hall, has a glazed door too. This was an attempt to bring some light into the hall. Which had no light at all with the solid doors closed. As it was when we moved in. Similarly with the front entrance hall. All the doors in the house were of "medieval" height. I would bang my head every time I went through them! [It was so dark and my mind always wandered between collisions.]
Regarding indoor light, security and thermal issues: I could build a simple porch around the corner where the back door is situated. We bought some tall, glass, secondhand, wood framed, conservatory panels, for making a porch, two decades ago. They have been standing in the shed ever since. A porch would help to insulate. While providing security for the lanceolate window and a properly glazed, back door.
A tea chest has been concealed in plain sight, in the corner of the lounge, for two and half decades. I have just unpacked it. Image at the top of the page. Much of its consists of antique, stoneware, pottery jars. [Jams and marmalades] My wife was always digging these up in our cottage garden in Wales. She would carefully wash the undamaged pots and then they would disappear.
Presumably the chest came with us from N. Wales. Was parked here and long forgotten. There was always a load of junk on top of it. With the familiar, floor to ceiling curtain, to hide it all. The Corgi Toys "Ice Cream Van on Ford Thames" was amongst the items. A new set of tires and it would be ready for the road. Value on eBay[UK] depending on condition. Brexit taxes, customs clearance charges, VAT and modern postal charges, probably ensure that few bother with eBay[UK] from Europe or vice versa.
10.30 59F. Still wet! Only one working day to make some space for the visitor. No doubt much of today's finds would have no value to most people. There is no context in Denmark. Thinking back to our time in Wales. Now I am feeling even more depressed!
11.00. It has finally stopped raining. At least for the moment. I quickly removed and sorted the hallway's newly found "refuse" into the appropriate bins. The sideboard was lifted into the trailer. To be joined by the tea chest. The hall/lounge door can now be folded back right into the corner. For the first time in many years.
The serial sideboards are now down to two. One antique, oak, chest of drawers will stay. The other is nondescript and its days are numbered. Perhaps I can clear it in time to take two pieces to the recycling yard tomorrow. That would make room for more boxes on the floor. Sadly no. It's eight drawers are filled to overflowing. With lots of difficult to sort items. Unless I want eight drawers stacked on the floor the sideboard is staying for the moment.
11.20 64F. I have lifted the small carpet in the lounge coming in from the hall door. It was absolutely threadbare. The other carpets are large and "Indian" and still serve their purpose. An L-shaped lounge has it's own, floor furnishing difficulties. A fitted carpet never figured in our budget nor our tastes.
We spent so little time in the lounge. Preferring to live almost entirely upstairs. So, the lounge floor now has a bare and badly patched concrete area. Instead of a scruffy carpet. Perhaps I can find a suitable "Indian" carpet in a charity shop? Or go with artificial turf? It is lucky [?] there are so very few visitors.
15.00 I have just returned from a half hour walk in warm, afternoon sunshine. There is completely different feel to my, all too familiar, route. The light and its direction are totally changed. The brightness is really quite shocking. A Red kite was circling over the village church. Looking for easy prey? The grasses on the verge were all leaning. Under the weight of the rain drops.
16.40 A cloud burst! I am trying to teach myself to send SMS. There were features of the button presses which made absolutely no sense. Fortunately I was able to turn off auto completion and next word prediction. I have since sent myself several messages in text and numbers. I was also able to increase text size to make it visible without a microscope.
As I was preparing dinner [before 8pm] there was a bright flash of lightning. Followed by loud thunder and a cloudburst. It must have been local for me to see it. Because it was still daylight. It never really gets dark at 55N at this time of year. The longest day is only a couple of weeks away. [21st June]
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