Insulation and keeping cosy

Hello again. I just realised that I forgot to post one important picture when I was showing you the photos of the house as it was when we moved in - the one of the kitchen, the room that is going to be transformed in this renovation project. Anyway, here it is in all its glorious melamine and teak-effect 70s glory!

We did actually rip these kitchen units out three years ago as all that brown was so gloomy and it was grimy too. We found a great company called Pineland, who charge very reasonable prices for solid wood dovetail jointed units. You send them a rough plan of your current kitchen with measurements and they then plan it for you so you actually get a made to measure kitchen for a fraction of the price. They deliver the units all made up. Fortunately, David, my husband, is quite handy and along with his dad installed the kitchen. Just as well as I was eight months pregnant at the time so not much help. We'll re-use the units from Pineland in the new kitchen as they are all free-standing.

So, onto insulation. Here is a picture of what lies under our new floor.

It may not look much and it may not be be beautiful but boy are we going to be warm this winter. I am a northerner by birth but lived for many years in London in a Victorian conversion so benefited from other people's heating systems. However, up here come winter and living in a detached stone house no matter how thick those stone walls are I have shivered. No double glazing, no roof insulation, none of this cavity wall insulation that seems to be the thing nowadays. Anyway, this thick layer of insulation has gone down under the concrete sub-floor and we will have cavity wall insulation, roof insulation, double glazed windows and dare I say it, an aga too.

I realise this may seem like a luxury but I really believe I will use it for many different uses. It should provide the kitchen space with an ambient heat as this is the room we will spend a lot of time in. So, hopefully, we won't need to buy as much smokeless fuel or wood for our stove which has kept us warm for the last couple of winters....... plus, I'll use it to dry my clothes (I have two little boys, who through love of water and muck and not fashion-sense go through several changes of clothes a day), I enjoy baking and David likes baking bread and is a good chef, we also love our cups of tea here so no need for an electric kettle, as yet we don't have new-born lambs to warm up in the aga's bottom oven but give us time......

Whilst we are on the subject of heating, do you remember that spectacular wall of stone that was the fireplace here? Well, here's a picture I have taken of what we replaced it with.

A multi-fuel stove from Vermont Castings. We used to burn smokeless fuel but have since gone over to logs as it's cheaper at the moment. I have to say burning wood is a lot cleaner too and you can use the ash on the garden which you can't do with the ash from the coke. I got the fireplace surround from Old Flames in Easingwold and it really seems to suit the space as this is quite a large room. Also as this was never a house it would have been odd to replace it with the usual Victorian cast iron fireplace. This was the room where the headmaster had his office whilst the children were crammed into the room next door which is now a dining room, hall and snug. That doesn't seem like a very even distribution of space, does it? As for us, we use this room a lot. It has windows on all the sides bar this one with the fireplace, including a big bay window and French windows, which don't half give you a great view out. So, even in winter you don't get that cabin-fever feeling as it brings in whatever light is available even on the gloomiest day. My only issue with the windows is the style of them - another 1970s touch. But I guess this is another project.

Ok, I think that's all for today. Friday night so glass of chilled white wine calling. See you later.