Sawmill Cottage

Sawmill Cottage is the third of our larger renovation projects just outside the village of Hawkshead. The cottage is an old corn mill built and owned by the monks of Furness Abbey. The monks used it for storing malt, parts of the original building still contain the drying plates for the corn. The property still has some of the original crooked beams, there is also a mill dam in the grounds. Although it's near completion we just wanted to show some of the final stages of the work that is going on.

Before and after of the basement

Here you can see the depth the floor in the basement needed to be dug out.

Fernando at work on the fireplace.











External walling.

Happy New Year

We'd just like to wish you all a Happy New Year. There's been a lot of merriment over the festive period. Some have been visiting families in Scotland, fabulous husky rides on New years Day, whilst others have been seeking out various parties. Here's some festive piccys!!

Here's the crew from left to right: Myself, Merv, Mike, Adam, and apprentices Mike and Joe.

Grub Up!

Mike, my brother is a man of many talents, a lunchtime treat is to sample one of Mike's many recipes that he cooks for us over the fire, all the prepwork is done at home ready to cook while we work. This week we sampled the delicious roasted butternut squash, sweet potatoes and garlic. Ideally mash with creme fraiche. Drain well so it doesn't go too mushy. And there you go, it's great what you can cook outside on a cold winters day! Watch this space for many more of our culinary delights at work and at home!

Wych Wood

The second of our projects "Wych Wood" is quite a large renovation near the Graythwaite estate south of Hawkshead. The old cottage and barn has been completely gutted apart from the external walls which maintain the original character of the building. A portion of the external walls which were in disrepair have been rebuilt using the original stones. The roof and lintels above the doors and windows have been replaced in green oak a traditional wood for this type of barn.

Our skilled workforce with years of experience carry out extensive landscaping and walling renovations. Retaining walls and landscaping with unique features are now near completion. One of the features is a stonewalled seat using reclaimed oak from the barn, finished with some nice slate detailing. This will feature in a later blog. Once it is completed, we will be moving onto the internal work to maintain a clean working environment.

We use the Manitou telescopic handler as a labour saving device to lift heavy materials onto scaffolding and other inaccessible places.

Welcome

Welcome to the project news page. Our plan is to keep you posted with weekly updates of our building developments, and announcements that may be of interest to you.

We will open by showing you one our three larger projects which we are currently developing.


Ravensbarrow, originally built as a kennel house, is a major re-build for a local client. It is due to be completed by Autumn 2009.


We started by taking the roof off the main house and adjacent barn, completely gutting the interiors leaving two empty shells. The finished project will have a linking extension between the main house and the barn containing a hallway, kitchen, living room, utility and boot room. We feel it's important for it to be in-keeping with the characteristics of the house and barn.


Adjacent to the main house and barn we are starting to put down the foundations of the garage. Next to the garage is an old outhouse/barn which will eventually be the boiler house.


















The site of an old well which will be fully restored to become an internal feature within the extention at the back of the house.















We will keep you updated on this project at a later date with more photos and news.

Next week. - Take a look at our second of the bigger projects.