2016 – Purchased Enfield House
We purchased Enfield House in October 2016. It seemed like a good idea (at the time) to buy a 13th century stone and cob cottage to renovate. Our first night was spent sitting in the living room on camping chairs eating a Chinese cooked in a microwave (there wasn’t an oven), cold red wine and no heating as we didn’t dare light a fire until we had the chimney checked. However within 3 months we had a functioning kitchen, wood and slate floor laid downstairs and a new wood burner fitted. We painted all the walls and ceilings using Farrow & Ball paint, it can’t be oil based as the walls won’t breath properly.
2019 – New Garden and Dry Stone Walling
The garden was overgrown and a high bank greeted you as you came out of the back door. The amazing views over Exmoor were blocked by a shed and large bush, but these were soon taken out and knocked down. We then decided to create an outside dining area by the back door. We dug out 16 tons of earth by hand and manually transported the earth to a skip at the front of the house, bucket by bucket load! In hindsight this wasn’t the most efficient way of clearing earth, next time we will use diggers and do it in half the time. However we were proud of our dry stone walling (done by Sarah), we both laid the patio, followed by a newly laid lawn
2017 – Upstairs New Walls & Ceilings
The plaster on the walls was pretty much held on with wallpaper and the ceilings were sagging and very spongy! There was nothing for it but to take off the plaster and old latth’s, who knows how long this plaster had been on the walls but what we do know, it was dirty dusty work taking it off. New Latths and lime plaster were put back on using traditional methods, not by us but local builders/craftsman. Tw0 to three months later, once the plaster had dried we could finally paint the walls and even install some heating upstairs!
2018 – New Bathroom
The old hot water tank had seen better days and had to be replaced. The rest of the bathroom suite had been installed in the 60’s so it was time for a radical overhaul! The bathroom was two rooms (but only divided by a stud wall), so we opened the whole room up, installed a new shower and free standing bath. The vanity unit was bought from a charity shop (£60) and our plumber installed the two basins. New flooring, a coat of paint and some well chosen finishing touches and the bathroom was finished!
