Old Irish Thatch, the restoration project....: Winter 2009/Summer 2010

On the 19th of December I finally convinced Ian that it was time to upgrade to a slightly bigger living space for us. We had been living in the touring caravan for nearly 3years and with no running water and no flushing toilet, it was starting to get tough. Lily was growing rapidly and had moved into our bed, which meant we had to pull out the bed at the front every night...It wasn't the worst living conditions. We had heat and food and beautiful grounds around us. But it was time to move.
Luckily we have a neighbour who sells second hand mobile homes and was sure he could get one into our little stretch of grass above the house and close to our septic tank, which meant a TOILET that flushed indoors...I could hardly contain my delight...
The Big Wagon arrived on the 19th December and on that day it started to snow, and snow, and snow......

This was taken a few months after the Big Wagon arrived.

Lily taking in the new view a few days after we moved in.

The House was covered and remained that way until Febuary 2010.

We were snowed in for weeks and working on the house was slow at this time as you can imagine. We still made plans of what we would do once we got a thaw.

In May we had Yuiko from Japan come and stay with us. She was with us for a month. The main focus was to get the ground turned over and the vegtables growing. No work really started on the house until July when Clint from California arrived.

Clint had originally come to Ireland to be an extra in The Game of Thrones, which was being filmed in Northern Ireland. He became a bit unstuck when he realised he needed accommodation and food to keep him here while the work came in...He stayed with us for nearly 6 months.

Ian wanted to make the roof fireproof for the new thatch that would be going on in the future.

Ventilation between the felt and the foil.

Bracket for kick board.

Then a mesh was laid over the foil to protect it from future damage.

All ready for some new thatch...If only we knew the best place to get it from.

Ian and I had been researching good sources for reed mainly due to it lasting the longest quality over flax and straw. Although not vernacular for this area, we want to have something that will look appealing and last a long time. Reed if maintained and good quality can last up to 40yrs.

We still have yet to find a good source.....2013.

We have 2 small add ons to the front of the house. Probably added about 150yrs ago. One is the front porch and the other has always been none as the "dairy." We made a doorway through from the house to the dairy which was previously only accessed from outside. This will become our new bathroom.

But first they needed new roofs and sticking with tradition, we needed some good second hand Bangor Blue slates.