Isn't it cold? I have the misfortune or the inefficiency in living in the coldest room in the house; I have a kitchen with a Rayburn so that is warm, the bathroom, which is beyond the kitchen, is the warmest room in the house. The other room has a wood burning stove, and I live in the room in between which has some fairly inefficient central heating. Unfortunately, the heat from the Rayburn doesn't penetrate to the living room, they are divided by a wall that is four feet thick with a doorless doorway/corridor between. The Kitchen, Utility and bathroom used to be the shippon, and that wall the end wall of the house. The main reason it's cold is that we have slate floors which are laid directly on the earth, so they are always cold. When we had the house extended into the shippon we did consider having the house slates lifted and some insulation put under them but quite apart from the cost the slates are very big mostly 6x3 feet, and therefore very heavy. The builders said they couldn't take them up without breaking them, they are very snugly butted together. At the time I could bring myself to have that done. Now, on cold days anyway, I almost regret that decision.
I am fascinated by the way people built these houses. As I think I've told you before I'm well off the road and how they actually got huge slates like these up to the house defies belief. When we had the alterations done we used the slate dividers from the shippon to make the additional flooring, and I know the builders had considerable trouble moving them. They did put insulations under those which adds to that room being warm.
Actually, with the exception of one wall in the middle of the house all the walls are two moderately good stone outers filled up with rubble, it only stands up by the sheer weight. As I said one end wall is a good 4 feet, the other end the same and the front and back walls about 2 and a half feet. If you want to put in a new pipe you just make a hole in the plaster then wriggle the pipe through till it comes out the other side!
1 comment:
Sounds complicated. We have 3 original floors downstairs: wood (living room), tiles (front hall) and slate (utility - a posh name for the old Victorian washhouse which still has the chimney though the copper boiler has long gone. These slates are also on earth and the previous owners and their children lived in there during the summer while renting out the rest of the house, sleeping in an annexe built in the sixties on the site of the old coachhouse. I suppose it would be a bit cold in winter.
We are an environmental nightmare at this time of year: oil central heating, open fire in living-room, calor gas imitation wood stove and gas hob in kitchen, electric oven, halogen heater for extra warmth in my attic study when the central heating isn't on or it's blowing a gale through the eaves cupboard doors. But I do love being warm!
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