Monday 11 March 2013

Freedom's Just Another Word for Nothing Left to Lose - Part Two

OK - I did promise you some more of the story, so here it is...

The house has three rooms downstairs and so far you have only seen two.  This is the third one...




It actually is only used as a storeroom now, and I have had the wood-burning stove taken out and put in the middle room.   It is a lovely big room though, with a door out to the garden and there are two electric heaters that are pretty good at taking the chill off in winter.

I have hung up pictures and painted the walls since these pictures and, of course, moved in a lot of junk things I need to store.

This room is a single storey and it used to be a barn but was converted long before I bought the house.  It attaches my house to the one next door, but only a part which is a log store, so I don't hear any noise from the neighbour.

This is what it looks like from the outside...


It is an extremely useful room, as the upstairs of the house is quite small, with only two bedrooms and, as they were converted from the attic, no storage space!

There is one more 'room' downstairs, although it is not accessible from inside the house.  This is a workshop and wood store, which is at the other end of the house. Again, it is single-storey, but without the high ceiling.  In fact, the original ceiling was so low (as well as the rafters all needing replacing) that I had it raised by a metre when the roofs were re-done. At one end it originally housed the pumps and pressure tank for bringing water up from the well outside for use in the house. When the roof was done I also had a window put in and later, electricity.

You get in from here...


... (this picture was taken when we were painting the outside of the house) and the small door you can see to the left opens directly into the wood store, which is much easier when the wood arrives and needs stacking in there

Inside the wood shed will take about 2 cords of wood, which just about sees me through the winter.  I was told a cord is 3 cubic metres, but nobody seems to know exactly and it DEFINITELY varies according to your supplier!  

For example - I NEVER get this much in a cord...



This is a single cord (in 40cm lengths), stacked in my woodshed...


It does seem adequate, especially when I have just spent an afternoon stacking it.  They say wood warms you three times: 

once when you cut it; once when you stack it and once when you burn it!  

It's absolutely true!

This little extension to the house, containing the woodshed and the workshop, is called a 'dépendence' because it 'depends' (hangs) on the house.

The workshop part of the dépendence is L-shaped and lovely and light now the window is in, although there is also a strip light for those dark winter days...



Part Three to follow...

3 comments:

quilterliz said...

G'day Penny. Your house really does look gorgeous. Take care. Liz...

Anita said...

I love the pics you've been showing of your house. I'm not so keen on modern, new homes, just adore the older houses with the worldy charm of yesteryear. I love where you wood shed is, my hubby would faint if ours was so close. He knows what I'm like with the wood!! lol. Thanks for sharing.
Cheers, Anita.

Carol said...

I wish we had a woodburner but DH isn't keen. We certainly have the supply at the moment from all the hedge/tree cutting/lopping last Autumn. Perhaps if further threats to gas supplies might change his mind.

Carol xx