When we started to house hunt in Yorkshire we said, no houses that need work, well then we came across this place, fell in love with it and thought, we can live with a bit of work.
The basement had damp, we knew this, we did not realise quite how bad it was until we started to remove the plasterboard, it was rotten in places where the dry lining had not been properly fitted.
As we stripped the place further back we realised it would be a shame to cover up all the old stone. So we made the decision to go for a lime render and leave the stone to breathe naturally.
It was hard work, hauling all the old materials out and getting the new stuff in. I ended up with a lot of bruises. It slowly started to come back together.
Our builder did a great job needle gunning all the render off the ceiling, no idea why the previous people covered up all the gorgeous stone.
We still have a little way to go, the floor is mostly clean thanks to this industrial sized scrubbing machine.
We’ve reblacked the fire and started to get things dried out, the trouble with lime is, it takes a long time to dry.
Eventually, we will replace the windows with beautiful wooden ones, the door is being replaced soon with another white one – but that will be flood proof to a metre deep, we felt being next to a river it was a wise investment, even if the houses here have never flooded in living memory.
