Fire! Fire!!

Yes, we've had a fire . . . luckily no major damage and no-one was hurt!  Actually, it was a well controlled fire in our new woodburner!   Now, how's that for excitement?  We just got fed up with it being cold - too cold for vrnish, silicone, mortar and too cold for fingers to work properly for fiddly oak joints, etc - so we (well me really) decided we should go and collect the small woodburner we bought in the Autumn and temporarily install it in the kitchen fireplace as we have already installed the flue in there (we did that about a hundred years ago when the builder re-built the chimney).  The other, bigger woodburner has a backboiler so needs plumbing in before you can use it and we'd have to lay the quarry tiles on the floor before it could go in.  This one was a quick job to do, just a connector piece (£75!!!!) and a bit of fire cement and we were ready to go.  I have to say it didn't light too easily, it was really windy which I don't think helped but we did get it going eventually.  Just makes you wonder when the last time smoke went up that chimney (I think your can just see smoke in the picture).  When I cleared the bread oven out a while ago, I found some old newspaper dated just before the 2nd world war - sad really, it was full of optimism about peaceful settlements, etc.  Also in there were some little logs - obviously there to dry out.  Well, they'd certainly done that, most of them crumbled to nothing when I moved them, but a few stayed together so I kept them to put on our first fire, and that's what we did . . . soppy really, but it is nice to have a connection to the house's past. 

We didn't get much done on Monday afternoon for looking at the fire and then Roy and Sophie popped in having seen smoke coming from the chimney on their walk.  No sooner had they gone than there was a knock at the door (!!!! still a novelty !!!) and it was the plumber calling on the off-chance that we'd be here.  While he was here Phil and Ann (neighbours who look after our chickens when we're away and fellow smallholder quiz team members) called in curious to see where the smoke was coming from.  By the time everyone had gone, it was past 5pm, so hardly worth starting anything!

Having said that, the plumber did some work - he sorted out the pipework for the outside tap and for the radiator upstairs.  We also discussed the Building Inspector's comments about the pipes on the cold side of the insulation.  He thought it was an overreaction and it had never been queried before and he was sure they would never freeze.  However, the seed of doubt had been sown and it is certainly easier to change now than later (and Bob would worry about it).  So we spent yesterday ripping out the lovely silver insulation upstairs followed by £200- £300 worth of plumbers work ready for him to reconnect it all following a different route next week.  It is fair to say that I was well and truly piddled off yesterday!  It took me ages to fit insulation around all these blessed pipes and now, because it's too expensive to just throw away and cut nice new square bits, I had to rip it out and then fit more insulation in the bits where the pipes had been!  Anyway, I've cooled off now and Bob has cut bits out of the studwork to make an easy route for the pipes between the plasterboard and the insulation, so I guess it's a good job done.

Today we hung the kitchen door, it hasn't got the lock or knobs yet, but we can close it to keep the heat in from the fire!  One of the reasons it hasn't got knobs, etc yet is that we did a couple of really silly things when we were doing the other one.  They have a threaded bar that goes through the door and the knobs screw onto and then little grub screws you tighten so the knob doesn't come off when you pull.  We put the bar in place though the lock and screwed the knobs on each side to see how long it needed to be, unscrewed them and cut the bar to length.  Didn't realise that the grub screws were done up and had stopped the bar going all the way in - derrr!  So that bar was no good now!  I then unscrewed one of the grub screws . . . . all the way dropping it in a pile of rubble and dust - gone forever.  Oh, it wasn't a good day.  We tried all over to get replacements with no luck and so eventually I had to confess to the company we'd bought them from and they were brilliant and put replacements in the post which arrived this afternoon.  'From The Anvil' is the company (where we've got all the window and door furniture) and they are brilliant - highly recommended!

I need to tell you about the way we spent Sunday sometime - neighbourhood disputes, caravans and narrow lanes and the police.  No time now as tea is ready, but I will do soon.