STACK NEWS ISSUE 2 - December 1998
Welcome to the second edition of Stack News.
It hardly seems possible that it’s a year since we sent you our first Christmas Card from ‘The Stack’. We’re either getting old, or enjoying life here in Cornwall (or maybe both in my case -R).
This year we have included a photograph of the former tin mine pumping engine house which forms part of our back garden wall, and after which our house is named -Tredinnick Stack. We believe this is a listed building, and it is one of the oldest surviving buildings of its type. Fortunately, we don’t own it - it is in urgent need of ‘stabilisation’ to stop it falling apart completely- a rather expensive job! We are hoping to establish who owns it, and encourage them to do some restoration, if only to stop rocks falling onto the road and our heads! See issue three for progress?!
You may remember that our card last year featured Billy & Steve, our builders, in a precarious position on the roof guiding the support beam into place. We’re pleased to be able to report that they survived! They completed their work on February 6th, leaving me ( R ) to work on the fitting out including wiring, plumbing, underfloor heating etc., etc., etc., etc.
Looking back over the move to Cornwall, some of the highlights were:
- December 1995, Roger made redundant
- 10th June 1996, agreed to buy The Stack
- 19th June, Kilnside put on market
- 20th September 1996, Stack purchase completed
- 28th February 1997, planning permission granted
- 6th June, Kilnside sold
- 28th July, builders started demolition work of old rear part of house - a rotten 1940’s timber construction, followed by much digging & mud, mud, mud.
- October 14th - roof beam craned in (see stack News issue 1)
- 17th December -snow - unusual for West Cornwall. Our roofer - Mark- didn’t start work until after lunch -wimp! But he finished completely two days later enabling the scaffolding to come down before Christmas(’97).
- 22nd December, I installed our first inside toilet (we’d being using our garden toilet since July)
- April 20th 1998, first underfloor heating laid, after nearly four months delay in obtaining the correct insulation
- August 1st our first new carpets laid - to kitchen & ‘office’/spare bedroom
- 15th October, John visits and is the first to use the new shower - this was quite an innovation as we’ve been using temporary facilities in one of the garden chalets since July last year.
- 2nd December decorator started painting upstairs, Roger having finally decided he couldn’t face any more paint this year.
And so, as I write this, it seems possible that we might be using our new bedroom by Christmas. Which will mean the next phase can start - moving the lounge stuff temporarily into the new kitchen area, so that partition walls can be removed and underfloor heating installed in the front part of the house. When that’s done, & the room decorated (ugh!), we can move everything yet again, and start fitting out the kitchen. Not forgetting that the upstairs bathroom & dressing room also need fitting out!
Then, the now temporary kitchen becomes our workshop, and then work starts on the garden!
JOBS-WISE(that is real paid work), Jayne is still doing three days a week at the Cornwall Wildlife Trust, and has recently been busy setting up their ‘web’ site.
Why not pay it a visit - it might help protect her job! Http://www.cornwallwildlifetrust.org.uk
Meanwhile I’ve been doing some more work for LWT. I’ve drawn the line at travelling up to London, and now work from home administering their ‘Competent Contractors (Health & Safety) Database’. I usually do about the equivalent of two days a month - more than enough seeing as I’ve supposed to have retired early.
We seem to have missed summer this year, though a couple of trips to the beach were managed between showers. We’ve been out & about on various field trips and walks learning about the history (natural & otherwise), geology, archaeology etc., of the area. Jayne has continued with her artistic endeavours and has recently painted some nice ceramic tiles for our shower room - they’re just as good as the ones in a mail order catalogue which cost £10 each! I’m half way through an astronomy course, and still can’t identify any constellations!
How we both found the time for full time employment is a mystery.
We’ll sign off for now - can you wait a whole year for the next thrilling edition of Stack News?
All the best for the festive season and the new year.
Roger & Jayne
