The Old Lady Of Lanoy

We couldn't have moved into this old house at a worse time of year really.... Dec 2013, Britain faces severe storms with gusting winds of 80 mph and much of the South of England under water,  flooded villages.... homes wrecked from flooding,  thousands of families left without electricity over the Christmas break.   I have never listened so intently to the weather forecasts on the BBC.  We listen every night to the roaring of the wind through the big oak trees in our garden and wonder how much of the roof we will lose tonight. In the morning, we check every room to find yet more leaks coming through the ceilings and down the walls  and find the 2ft Delabole roof  slates have become dislodged, the rusty nails holding them in place have given way and they have slid down the roof and are lying smashed in the lane.

But we love it here.  This old house has basically been left unloved and not maintained for decades.  Every day is a challenge.   Shes like an old lady, that's how I think of Lanoy.  Shes been here for over 150 years...shes solid and well built.  Shes lived through wars, originally built  as a hunting lodge for the Lanoy Estate, then she had something to do with the suffragette movement, and for the past 100 years been passed down through the generations of the farmers who live further up the lane.

OK, shes lost her glamour of youth, but were here to coax her back into the 21st century.  Her roof is our first major part of her renovation.  The roof is huge, and pitched, and has valleys and gables, and 4 huge chimneys.   The attic is a big scary area that I have not dared to venture into.  Apart from poking my head through the hatch and waving a torch around. I'm not going up there.  Its something from a haunted house... great big brick chimney breasts tower above my head, and enormous rafters and beams stretch into the darkness.  There appears to be some rather large nests up there, old redundant Rook nests I would imagine.

The roof above the master bedroom is the worst.   There is great gaping holes in the roof where slates have slid down.   At the moment we have some plastic sheeting nailed to the rafters  and stuck in key locations, effectively making 'chutes' in which the rain water can run out rather than run in to the house.  From the outside big blue pieces of plastic can be seen protruding from the slates.  Being an old house. there is nothing under the slate.. no water proof membrane.. so when a slate is missing the rain pours through and onto the ceiling of the room below.  B&Q sell builders buckets at just £1 each... our present to each other yesterday was 10 new buckets, which are now sitting under the leaks in the ceiling.  We are trying to catch as much rainwater as possible,  desperately trying to prevent it from affecting the ornate drawing room ceiling in the room below.

One of the bathrooms has a serious leak too. When its driving rain from the South West, water pours in from above the window lintel and down the inside of the window pane, so we have constructed a rather ingenious method of dispersing the rain water.  Again a trusty blue plastic sheeting, is attached to the inside of the  window sill, making a chute across the bathroom and empties into the shower cubicle in the far corner.  It works !  

Anyway. I'm sitting in my office ... which is dry... with a cup of tea...looking across the fields.  I cant see another house at all...its completely rural here.  There are lots of sheep grazing in the meadow just the other side of my garden .  The dark clouds are blowing away to the east, white clouds are replacing them  and I do believe I can see a patch of blue sky ...and even the sun seems to be making an appearance after the stormy night.

Roll on the 6th of January with the first of the scaffolding going up!

Jo