House Diary - May 2026

So after our amazing month of travelling (read about those advetures here) it was time to get back to working on the house. This is a long term project and fitting around our dwindling budget and time - Fred now has a part time job - more on that later - so work on the house has slowed somewhat.

This month we have started to do some more on the master bedroom. Turns out, there is absolutely no insulation in any of the external walls or external ceiling cavities so this needs tackling as we discovered first hand just how cold upstairs could be in the winter, alongside how stifling hot it is during the summer!

So we have been removing all the original wooden slats that make up the internal walls to get to the external framing of the house. This also gave us a chance to take a look at the woodwork to ensure all is good, dry and as it is meant to be and, we are very impressed with the condition of everything, considering the house in 96 years old.

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  Master Bedroom before we start work on stripping the walls bare

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  Master Bedroom after we have started stripping all the wood exposing the external wall

With the interior of the walls exposed it gave Fred the opportunity to finish running all the cables, for electric and security cameras through the walls making the job a lot more easier than it would have been otherwise. He was also tasked with making a large hole in one of the rooms to expose the area behind so we can utilise the space better.

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  Master bedroom a new opening has appeared and fully stripped external walls

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  Master bedroom's new opening exposing the room beyond

Then came the insulation. Fred has opted to use Havelock Wool, made from sheep's wool sources from New Zealand. In his quest to use more environmentally friendly and energy efficient insulation, he chose this material for many reasons; wool regulates moisture, reduces noise, resists fire and even helps clean the air - synthetic insulation doesn't do.

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  Fred makes a start on fitting the insulation

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  Insulation progress in the Master Bedroom

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  Master Bedroom insulation complete, just now need to board it

It is also easier to cut and safer to handle, healthier during installation and during the lifetime of the building. As it is a wooden house, it needs to breath and this type of insulation allows that. It works by creating a stable interior environment by slowing the transfer of heat so it insulates more effectively keeping you more comfortble and making it more energy efficient all year round.

Of course as with anything that is good or environmentally friendly it is not the cheapest option, so bulk buying by the pallet load is the best way, as well as searching Facebook Marketplace for people selling remains of their bulk purchases.... and now our upstairs bathroom has been taken over as "dry storage" for our current stock.

Another job for this room was the repair work to the chimney, this chimney is not in use but I wanted to keep it as a feature for this room, so Fred was tasked with removing and making good the chimney cap? however the face he created in the filling in repair work was purely by accident, but did make us chuckle - it's as if the house is laughing at us!

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  Fred working on th chimney to make it good

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  Finished work and we now have a smiley face

Then came the painting and what a transformation a bit of paint and a different colour can bring to a room. We have gone with fairly neutral colours: white ceiling, the walls are Antique White and the chimney has been painted in Soft Panther a warm dark grey, both from Lowes paint range.

During our renovation we did discover an interesting random artifact inside the wall cavity and another that was being used as boards on the wall panels in the "snug" - we now have several metal signs advertising Conlon's bread!

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  Interest artifact found in the wall cavity a Prince Albert tobacco tin

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  Metal wall coverings found on the snug ceiling, an old bread advertisment

The next task on this room is to finish boarding the walls where we have fitted the insulation, then I hope to bring back to life the original floor boards, we have started to sand these - not an easy task as in certain places there is at least 4 different layers of paint coating them. The plan is to restore as much of the original features as possible as the natural wood is just so beautiful to see.

But it is not all just inside where we have been focusing on this month, we have had outside jobs too. We have planted a hedge.... well I say "we", it was Fred who planted it, I just assisted with telling him where and what plants to buy! The hope is this hedge will give us more privacy by screening the road, and also some noise reduction from the traffic. Already this area is looking better for being planted, though it was back breaking work for Fred due to every hole needing to be jack-hammered as it was right on the edge of the roads tarmac and with 22 trees to plant it took a little time to complete the job, but a worthwhile addition to the house.

Then there's Ems succulent plant collection, which is growing daily as more and more plants seem to be "appearing" in her collection, you can read all about how this came about in her blog: The History of Em's Green Fingers.

So that about covers what we have been upto for the house diaries this month, keep following to see how things progress this summer.

Thanks for reading

Fred & Em x