 |
Rose Cottage was built in 1775 and was previously named Red Briars Cottage. It was used as a dairy farm for many years before being converted into a house in about 1990. We bought it in April 2008 and decided to renovate it, using renewable energy technology where possible.
(Click on the photos to enlarge them.)
16th January 2010
The project really started when we attended an open day at Hansom Architects in Northallerton for free advice. We were impressed with Roger Hansom and invited him to visit Rose Cottage to advise on the feasibility of an eco renovation. He and son Guy measured up on 22/2/10 and produced 3 alternative plans for discussion on 16/3/10. Above are the final plans we chose.
19th March 2010 Gillian and I attended the Homebuilding and Renovation Show at the Birmingham NEC to get some ideas about the refit and also to learn more about insulation, heat pumps and electricity generation. Gillian and I also attended the Grand Designs Show at the Excel Centre in Docklands on 4th May. At about the same time we chose our new kitchen from Harvey Jones in Harrogate.
17th May 2010 The first job was to install a borehole to supply our drinking water and also the underfloor heating and domestic hot water. The water would be heated by a water source heat pump, which is more efficient than either an air or ground source pump. Dales Water were commissioned to drill the borehole but the lorries were too big and heavy to drive up the track, so came down from the Drover's Road over our neighbour Ron Starkey's fields. (See pictures below)
Dales Water had expected to drill down to 75m for water but found the aquifer at only 27m. The borehole was lined with a 150mm steel casing pressure grouted onto the rockhead. The electric pump was then suspended on 45m of galvanised steel rising main and a butyl covered submersible cable fixed to the pump. The borehead chamber and pump are shown below:
These are the drilling logs for Dr Islip and a Mr Potter!
GL to 0.2m Topsoil
0.2 to 3.5m Boulder clay
3.5 to 9.0m Sand
9.0 to 22m Broken sandstone
22 to 27m Sandstone
27 to 32m Broken sandstone
Water at 27m
And below are the results of the Water Analysis:
|
25th May 2010: The architect Roger Hansom met us at Rose Cottage with the final plans to inspect and then send for Building Regs approval. Temperatures are up to 30degC at present!  |
20th July 2010: Harlands Builders arrived on site at last! They started by digging the foundations for the new Garden room. That day we had torrential rain and floods! |
26th July 2010
We spent our first night in the rental cottage in the village (2A). It is certainly very handy for the pubs, the Top Shop and the Fish and Chip shop! Below is a picture of our cosy little cottage:
30th July 2010
This was the day that the containers arrived - 2 for all our furniture and 1 for the builders equipment. Farmer Malcolm Hart kindly brought them down from the Drover's Road on his tractor. Goodness knows how he did it! On the weekend of 1st August, Nick, Gemma, Tom and Ren came up to help us move the furniture into our containers and we all went to the Golden Lion for tea after an exhausting day. This is a view of Rose Cottage from Quarry Lane and you can just see the yellow containers in Malcolm's field:
Below are some pictures of the building progress in August:
 |
Conservatory gone and foundations in for the back porch. Strange to see a radiator on an outside wall! |
 |
Martin trying out the dumper truck |
 |
The old timbers of the barn roof are being saved. The tin roof is being replaced with a tiled roof to match the house and the east wall is having double doors in it. The barn will house the heat pump and associated equipment. |
 |
The shower room has disappeared! It will be rebuilt slightly larger and with a higher roof. |
 |
The old bath appeared in the Garden room along with stone dug out of the ground, which will be recycled in the new walls. |
 |
The floor has been laid in the rear porch and the radiator finally removed from the wall. |
 |
Our poor kitchen looks very sad now that all the units have been ripped out and the floor dug up ready for the underfloor heating coils and insulation. |
 |
I will reuse the old units as storage in the barn. We are glad to get rid of the old oil-fired boiler as oil prices are rising and our new heat pump should be much cheaper to run, more efficient and a lot more environmentally friendly! |
 |
This was where the staircase used to be. Simon will make us a new wooden staircase appropriate to modern Building Regs. The door into the bathroom now leads straight into the garden! This will be blocked up and the entrance will be from the Dairy (Utility room). |
 |
Floors are up in the snug and dairy. |
 |
The fire surround and grate in the hall will be removed but the fireplace will remain. |
 |
23/8/10: Knocking down the wall between the hall and snug has made a huge difference to the size of the new sitting room and the stone will be reused to build the front porch. Gillian and I plan to clean up the range. Meanwhile the builders sit in front of an open fire to have their sandwiches. (See pictures above and below). |
 |
Front of the house before porch |
 |
Front of the house with porch under construction (on August Bank Holiday!) |
 |
The ceiling has been removed in the dairy (utility room) as the floor of the en-suite above needed to be lowered to give the height required under Building Regs. |
 |
The shower room is taking shape with new window and roof. The stone comes from Whitby. |
 |
6/9/10: The barn roof timbers go on and a frame is fitted for the double doors beneath a carved stone lintel and keystone. (Above and below). |
 |
A mini digger in the annex sitting room about to start digging the floor up for the insulation and UFH (seen from the annex kitchen through a newly formed doorway above and within the sitting room below). When the sitting room floor was up it became clear that the walls here would require underpinning as there were virtually no foundations. |
 |
Stone slabs were removed from the kitchen floor and under these was a second floor made of quarry tiles. The stone and tiles will be reused in the garden later. Concrete was laid on top of a layer of visqueen, then the damp proof course, Kingspan insulation and finally the UFH pipes and screed. The concreting was completed throughout by 26/9/10. |
 |
Some of the new Whitby stone to be used on the Garden room and shower room. |
 |
A new window has been formed in the East wall of the annex kitchen and will catch the morning sun when standing at the kitchen sink. |
 |
Another new window has been formed above the shower room in the old study, which will become a dressing room and spare bedroom. |
 |
Above is the annex sitting room with bedroom above. The bedroom floor has to be lowered to allow enough height for the staircase according to Building Regs. A second flue is being formed in the chimney as we are having a woodburning stove in the sitting room. On the other side of the wall is the range in the main house sitting room. |
 |
This is the inside of the shower room with its new East facing window. |
 |
The battens are on the exterior walls of the kitchen ready to take the Kingspan insulation / plaster boards. The interior walls of the house will merely be plastered in a lime and plaster mix, put on roughly to match the existing old walls. |
 |
John Harland is inserting the string course into the Barn roof and filling in the gaps with stonework. (Above and below). |
 |
Digging out the floor of the annex sitting room revealed no foundations under the walls, so this room is to be underpinned. |
13th September 2010
We have by now had 4 quotations in for the heating system (Ecovision, Tiptoe, Earth Test Energy and Lucion). We chose Ecovision as they seemed to have most experience and their quote was also competitive. They are based at Highgrove in Surrey but have an office in Doncaster. They have experience with water source heat pumps and won an award for the pump installed in the lake at Castle Howard.
On 20/9/10 we had a site meeting with their Northern representative Dirk van Lennop and the electrician Ed Nicholson. Dirk agreed to design a system of underfloor heating run by a heat pump using water from the borehole.
30th September 2010
I retired from work, giving me more time to concentrate on co-ordinating the building work.
On 12/10/10 we visited the Northallerton Heating Centre and chose 2 logburning stoves for the kitchen and annex sitting room.
We chose 2 Stanford multi-fuel stoves made by Euroheat, a 10Kw burner for the main kitchen and a 4Kw for the annex sitting room.
We have a limitless supply of fallen trees in the forest next to the house so running costs should be very low!
13th October 2010
The sewage treatment plant was installed in the back garden. We chose the Klargester Biodisc made by Kingspan Environmental. It offers a high performance low maintenance system producing effluent which meets the rigorous quality standards demanded by the Environment Agency. It uses a rotating biological contactor run by an extremely quiet motor and operating costs are minimal. The effluent will drain into a soakaway outside the garden.
Below are pictures showing the Biodisc being placed in the ground and then surrounded by gravel released from bags held overhead by the digger:
Towards the end of October the roof went on the front porch, some of the new windows were put in and the barn roof was also completed.
 |
This shows one of the double glazed windows made by Simon in Harlands' workshop. They have been made out of sapele hardwood from West Africa, to match the style of the old cottage windows and we chose the black iron monkey tail fitments, again to match the original. Below this kitchen window there is to be a window seat by the dining table. |
 |
The annex sitting room has its new window, ceiling joists and wall battens ready for the insulation panels. Note how the battens have been curved inwards at the bottom to match the shape of the original old wall. |
 |
The insulation panels are on the barn roof ready for the clay pantiles to go on. |
 |
New windows in annex kitchen and guest bedroom, with new stone sills. |
 |
The door to the old 'netty' has been formed into a window in the annex wetroom. |
 |
The front porch door lintel and gable end completed. |
 |
John putting the roof tiles on the Barn |
 |
The finished roof (23/10/10) |
 |
The chimney being rebuilt with 2 flues
|
 |
The underfloor heating pipes were installed in early November. This is the annex kitchen. |
 |
There was a delay in the delivery of the steel for the Garden room but it was finally erected on 9th November. |
 |
Unfortunately the builders let a cow get into
the garden and it trampled on my hellebores! |
 |
17/11/10: Here she is taking a walk around the site.
|
 |
23/11/10: The roofers are removing and refitting all the roof tiles as the felting all needs renewing. |
 |
The new breathable felt produces a green hue in the kitchen. |
 |
This is where the builders have their lunch by an open fire. Temp. outside 0 degrees C. |
 |
The roof takes shape on the Garden room with spaces for the 3 Velux windows.
Then the snow came and all work on the roofs stopped! |
29/11/10



 |
Whilst it was snowing, Bill put the insulation panels on the kitchen ceiling.
2nd December 2010
This was the first day that the builders were unable to get down the track to the cottage due to the thick ice and snow. The following day temperatures dropped to about - 10C in North Yorkshire.
6th December 2010
It was - 12C and we had resigned ourselves to putting the whole project on hold when Ecovision rang to say that they had sent 2 Hungarian heating engineers up from Surrey to install the heat pump! They had arrived in Osmotherley but were stuck in the snow at the top of the track. We drove up there from the village in the Land Rover to find a small white Combo van a few yards down the icy track, unable to reverse up. Luckily, I had recently bought a tow rope so we were able to pull them out backwards. They had a lot of equipment and were determined to continue the job, having booked into a local hotel for the next 2 nights so we put them and all their tools into the Land Rover and drove them cautiously to Rose Cottage. Halfway down the track the vehicle starting sliding on the ice and we lost control. We were picking up speed towards the stream at the bottom and Gillian and I tried not to show any fear in case we worried the Hungarians. Luckily we regained control at the bottom and made it up to the cottage.
Of the 2 Hungarians, Peter spoke perfect English but Balo did not speak a word of it. They set to work until 8pm that evening and then walked back up the track to their van. Meanwhile, earlier on, Gillian and I had set off back in the Land Rover but on the final steep ascent we met the electricians coming down in their 4WD Mitsubishi. I stopped while Gillian got out to ask them if they could reverse but as she did so I started slipping backwards down the track, picking up speed as I went. This was a very scary experience as I had no control of the vehicle again but this time I was heading for the stream backwards. The next thing was the sound of splintering wood as I hit the fence and spun round onto the bridge. I thought the Land Rover was going off the bridge onto its side but it stopped with one wheel hanging over the edge.
Thankfully the electricians were able to tow me off the bridge and I decided to abandon the Land Rover and walk home. It remained there for the next five days until a slight thaw allowed me to get it out.
|
9th December 2010
Peter and Balo did a fantastic job to get the heat pump installed in 3 days and Farmer Malcolm kindly took their equipment out in his tractor via the Drovers' Road.
 |
The heat pump is on the left, a Ciat 300L cylinder in the centre and reserve water tank on the right. In the picture below, the blue cylinder is the filtration unit / water softener provided by Dales Water and designed to raise the pH as the water is slightly acidic. |
20th December 2010
The weather in North Yorkshire and indeed most of the country is colder than it has been for 40 or 50 years. Osmotherley is still covered in snow and the farm track is so icy that even tractors can't use it. Despite this our builders have still managed to reach the cottage either on foot or via the top fields. Night temperatures are around -12C and often don't rise above freezing during the day.
Since our visit to Rose Cottage last week the joiners have put several doors and windows in and the builders have made good progress with the insulation and plasterboard. We are very pleased with the new barn doors (see below). We are hoping that Ecovision's electrician will come this week to turn on the UFH as the screed needs drying out over Christmas before the tiling can begin.
 |
New doors on the front porch plus plaster board in the sitting room. |
 |
This shows the depth of the insulation on the external walls. |
 |
The new back door in the dairy, seen from the sitting room. The first fix electrics can be seen and will soon all disappear under the dry lining. |
 |
Here are the new doors on the barn. This will become the plant room for the heating apparatus as well as a general workshop and garden storage. |
 |
The snow has partially thawed and refrozen on the roof of the guest bedroom. Luckily the new guttering has not been installed yet as the weight of snow is bringing many people's guttering down at present. |
21st December 2010
Well the Ecovision engineer did not turn up and is now coming on 6th January. Unfortunately this delays the drying out of the screed and hence the tiling, kitchen fitting etc. Everything has stopped now for the Christmas holiday. Lets hope that the snow and ice disappears by the New Year!
 |
A brief respite from building work - Christmas Day at Spofforth!
5th January 2011 The building trade closed down for 2 weeks over Christmas and New Year but work resumed on 5th January. The weather is still very poor with temperatures around freezing and ice on the track. The roofing work is on hold due to the rain but the heating engineers are attempting to start up the underfloor heating. |
 |
10/1/11 The plasterers are busy downstairs and the plumbers are doing their first fix in the bathrooms. This picture shows the insulation on the exterior walls, producing even deeper window sills. |
 |
The new Velux windows have been fitted to the garden room and kitchen. |
 |
Most of the new doors have been fitted now. This is the annex front door. |
 |
The front porch now looks as if it has always been there. Nicer weather will hopefully mean that the roofers can get on. The main house still has its old roof, notable for its hump! |
 |
18/1/11 The roofers are now working on the rear of the house. The old tiles are being taken off to renew the felting, and are then relaid. Once the house is watertight the plastering can begin upstairs. |
 |
John is helping the roofers on the main house roof at the front whilst the weather stays dry. |
 |
28/1/11 We had a site meeting with George Harland. Having just arrived from Horsforth we were delighted to see the new folding sliding doors and the gable windows on the garden room. Simon the carpenter has done a wonderful job making these out of American Oak. The doors are top hung and open outwards (see pics below). |
 |
The roofers have now finished the main house roof to include the two new chimney pots, one for the range in the sitting room, the other for the flue of the woodburner in the annex. |
 |
Some new guttering has been fitted to the barn. We had originally planned on having cast iron gutters but this special hard plastic is half the price and looks good. |
 |
This picture shows the completed window and roof on the new shower room. |
 |
1/2/11 There were 11 tradesmen working at Rose Cottage today! The plasterers above are working in the garden room and below, Sid is in the rear porch. |
 |
The oak structure of the rear porch is in place and awaiting the roof. The porch is made from English green oak and will be left to turn silver with age. |
 |
This is the roof of the annex bedroom with its velux window. The weather has certainly improved since the terrible December we had! |
 |
Nigel has fitted the annex staircase (made by Simon). It is made with a half landing so that we don't bump our heads on the beams anymore. It is also to comply with Building Regs. |
 |
Still plenty of work to do in the annex kitchen! |
 |
12 Feb 2011 The kitchen has been transformed by the paintwork and floor tiling. These tiles are limestone, laid in the grande opus pattern. Some have fossils in them. The cottage is now also warm since Ecovision have at last got the heat pump working to power the UFH. |
Above left is the main house staircase which is proving difficult to fit and will probably not comply with Building Regs!
Above right is an example of the window ironmongery from Kirkpatrick. We chose the monkey tails to match the original windows. These are modern and lockable however.
 |
The rear porch now has its roof and sides, which will be left open to allow the sun through. |
Details of the woodwork in the rear porch.
It is mid February and we can at last see completion in sight. The heating is on, floors being tiled, first fix plumbing and electrics all done and plastering completed. Painting has started and we have chosen the paint colours. All the internal walls and ceilings will be white. Externally the windows will be cream and the doors an olive green. This week we have even been to choose carpets for the bedrooms!
 |
15th February 2011: Harvey Jones fitted the kitchen units and Rangemaster cooker with induction hob. The units are to be painted cream and the black granite worktop is still to be fitted. We will tile the area above the cooker with Fired Earth Cotignac wall tiles. |
 |
March has arrived and the kitchen has been painted, the worktops fitted and the splasback tiling done above the cooker. Above is one of the antique brass spotlights from B&Q. |
 |
On 21st March we painted the tongue and groove in the en-suite bathroom. The colour is 'Breakfast Green' from Farrow & Ball. The copper bath has finally been installed. |
 |
The sitting room is now complete apart from the laying of the wooden floor. The beams have been soda-blasted and stained. The interior doors have all been made by Simon. |
 |
These units in the utility room (the old dairy) were made by Simon at Harland's workshop. The worktop is solid English sycamore, grooved for drainage. The quarry tiles on the floor were handmade terracotta from the York Handmade Brick Company. |
 |
This is the downstairs shower room. We painted the tongue and groove in 'Lulworth Blue', again from Farrow & Ball. The shower fittings (below) are made by Imperial and were provided by Ripon Interiors. The floor is tiled in the same terracotta as the dairy. |
Spot the photographer!
 |
And here is the sitting room with the oak floor down. |
We are now into April 2011 and there are still several snagging jobs left to do. The pictures below are of the Annex. The carpet will be fitted in the bedroom within the next 2 weeks.
 |
Sitting room with San Remo woodburning stove. |
 |
Sitting room looking towards kitchen and wetroom. |
 |
Front door into sitting room. The hole in the wall is an old salt lick for cows. |
 |
Simon made the kitchen units and sycamore worktop. Our old calor gas cooker has been cleaned professionally and is like new. The spotlights are from B&Q. |
 |
This is the wetroom. The units are from Imperial and the tiles from Terzetto. The walls are honed and filled travertine and the floor is marble. |
Don't forget to click on the pictures to enlarge them.
 |
The photos above and below are of the annex bedroom before the carpet has been fitted. |
25th April 2011 (Easter Monday)
Below are some photos of the exterior of the house. The paving and walling is being done by my sons, Nick and Tom (Chase Gardening). They told me they were good but I didn't realise how good until now! Even the builders have commented on their excellent work.
Some of the flagstones are purchased but the walls are all made from recycled stone from the house and garden, as are some of the larger stone slabs, the brick edges and old quarry tiles.
 |
Large stone slabs found under the floors used in the annex front porch. |
 |
Before . . . . . . |
 |
. . . . . . and after. |
Martin & Gillian, your choice of builder was brilliant! Their commitment to your job is just amazing - many other builders would have just upped tools and disappeared until fairer weather. All beginning to look fantastic - you must now be getting really excited. Martin, have a great birthday today and see you on Christmas Day. Lots of love, Shirl & Steve Xxx
ReplyDeletewell done
ReplyDeleteRose Cottage Renovation has transformed a quaint space into a charming haven! The attention to detail and craftsmanship are truly remarkable. Absolutely love it! Dallas Tile Installation
ReplyDelete