Over the past few weeks, we’ve put a hold on work inside the Cottage and instead have turned our attention to the area of patio at the front of the house. The terrace runs the full length of the Farm at the front, wraps around the east elevation and continued all the way along the back of the houses too - covering around 6,500 square feet in total…

When we began work on the bathroom, like all of the rooms here, there wasn’t anything inherently ‘wrong’ with the space at first glance. It was a generous sized room, with neutral marble-effect tiles on the walls and floor, simple fixtures, and magnolia walls and woodwork. The room felt sparse, with a large area of unused space, and it was quite tired…

When we were scouring the property market for the Farm, the one very explicit requirement I had was that I did not want to buy a property with beams. I didn’t like them, I didn’t want them in my house, and I definitely didn’t want the job of restoring them! But, a year and a bit later, I’ll admit I now find the sight of these old lengths of timber pretty inviting…

Once your plaster has cured, you can start to think about painting. Whilst lime plaster doesn’t have to be painted, its likely the finish a lot of us will choose, both for its aesthetic benefits and as an added level of protection for our plaster. However, standard, off the shelf paints that you might find in your local hardware store just aren’t going to be right for use on lime plasters ….

It’s no secret that taking on a project the scale of the Farm has at times left us scratching our heads, and nothing more so than making the decision to replace the windows at the Farm. When we purchased in April 2021, we did so with the knowledge that every window and door here needed to be replaced, but that didn’t make the practicalities of doing so any easier…

I’m writing this post from my office at the Farm, surrounded, finally, by piles of samples. This is a stage of renovating that has often felt completely out of reach, and is a reminder of how far we have come with the renovation of the Cottage, whilst also being a sign of the exciting times ahead. We’ve been renovating the Cottage for just over a year now…

One of the biggest technical challenges we faced with lime plastering was how we would finish the window reveals. We thought it might be a helpful post to share if any of you are in the same boat, and are wondering how to finish your reveals too.

Following on from last weeks post, Lime Plastering Part 1, today we’re going to look at the plastering process in more detail, the plaster’s we have used, and a brief look at paints and finishes.