Family at Upton House

Finally, we got a copy of the group picture taken on our family visit to Upton House.  There's an odd couple inserted into the picture - the grandchildren of someone who also worked at the bank, who came to meet up with us.   I like the way all the little boys, who don't see each other that often, cosied up with their arms around each other for the photo.

And just when you think it can't get any worse!

Hall floor foundations

Last Monday we found out that our builders, a highly respected family business with a great reputation (they look after the Queen's Norfolk house for heaven's sake) have gone into Administration!   In other words, are on the verge of going bust.  Fortunately, we think, they have made a commitment to finish our job and we are keeping an even closer eye on things now, checking who's there doing what and progress.   At the moment the kitchen does not exist and a lot of the boards are up.  There's plastering to do and a piece of roof to sort out.   The whole house is thick with dirt and dust.  We're trying to stay calm.   In the meantime, we have a solid foundation for the new hall floor and new boards have gone down and been covered to protect them.   We've been sent photos of

We added more soil improver and fertilizer to the raised beds and begun planting.  I expect I'm putting all the wrong things in the wrong place, but at least with plants you can just move them about. 

More trouble at t'mill...

As soon as the kitchen floor was sorted, the investigations in the hall showed up another dire set of circumstances.   Apart from the woodworm and the death watch beetle damage, there is damage to the joists caused by the high level of soil under the floor.   Excavation has shown that there's hardly a salvagable joist in the hall and the staircase is supported on a wing and a prayer!   Ah, well.   Nothing that money can't fix...now where's my lottery ticket!

The hall 'floor'

Digging down

Temporary supports

Holding up the stairs

And holding up the wall

Upton House Family Visit

Saturday 16th July 2016 was a great family day out at Upton House.  There were 19 of us - all related in some way to my father Barney Adler - and we were looked after very well by the staff at Upton.  ,
Peter and I arrived first, quickly followed by Eliot, Nancy, Abe and Saul.  Sadly we had only time for a quick hug before we had to dash away and meet a couple who's grandfather had worked for the same bank as my father and who had also spent some of the war years at Upton House.  While we were talking to them in the restaurant, the rest of the family arrived and then we were treated to lunch, courtesy of the National Trust.   Then it was off to the house for free entry and the tour.

Upton House was transformed into the Country House Bank, recalling the years when the staff were moved out of the city of London to Upton to escape the bombing.  My father had written about his time there in his 'memoirs' and some of his stories had formed the basis for the exhibition.  Peter and I had heard the tour before when we went for the opening, but Barney's grandchildren and great-grandchildren were fascinated.   Ann Thomas, a volunteer with responsibility for oral history, was our guide and she had been my contact while the exhibition was taking shape, checking facts with me and asking for photographs.  The great-grandchildren ranged in age from 3 to 7 so there were some understandable moments of inattention!   Ann coped with noise, and questions and touching!

Barney and Joyce, my parents

This was my third visit to Upton House and I always come away feeling sad that my parents didn't live to see their own story captured in this way.

The family gathers for lunch

The start of the tour

In the 'banking hall'

My father's desk...

Boys reading

Supposedly, my father's bed

More introductions

The work continues

We are now in week 5 of the building works and although things are happening, it does seem to be taking a long time.    Achievements so far include:

• Repairing a lovely old brick and flint wall
• Removing and replacing raised beds - doing away with the crumbling bricks and replacing the sides with timber
• Removing more unloved plants and broken pots
• Laying new paving and brick edging for a shingled area 
• Making a new kitchen floor which is dampproof
• Dampproofing the walls in the kitchen and one of the sitting room walls
• Taking up floor boards here, there and everywhere and discovering rotten joists, woodworm and death watch beetle to name but a few! 
• Making safe the old electrical system and getting ready for the electrics for the new kitchen
• Moving lights to more suitable places
• Measuring up the new kitchen cabinets
• Replacing worn bricks in the outside wall

Well, when it's all listed they do seem to have done quite a bit, but the house is in turmoil with all our belongings being shifted from one side of the living room to another, beds being up-ended and bedding stuffed into cupboards and tools everywhere.  We want our house back!   And clean!

We are also anxious to get on with some of the work we want to do ourselves, but we're having to be patient. 

Only one things has gone slightly wrong and it's being put right this week, we hope.   The raised beds were filled with top soil which had no organic matter in it.  None of the builders seemed to understand the need for compost/soil improver in the mix, although the landscaper where they bought the soil could have told them.   It seems we were all new to the requirements for raised beds and I hadn't thought to check as the company is very well known and of long standing.   I assumed they had done this before.   They are the Queen's builders for heaven's sake!

Moaning over!  On the plus side, all the builders are extremely pleasant and careful.   I've started taking a cake down when we make our weekly visit, to keep them sweet! 

Conference in the kitchen

The garden taking shape

The new kitchen sub floor

The central raised bed.

The builders are in!

 The builders started on 13th June 2016.   In the garden is Dan, a gentle giant, and a helper or two and in the house is Adam, sharing the two helpers.  The plumber and the electrician have also dropped in to help sever the services to the kitchen.

The kitchen wall

It turns out that the previous builders did a pretty rough job on the house, which is what we always suspected on the evidence of misplaced window catches and poor quality tiles.  When the kitchen was pulled out we found it was suspended on a stud wall and some of the cupboards were held on to the plasterboard with clips and not fixed to wooden battens.  All the services had been routed on the outside of the wall.  At some point a sink fixing had been screwed through a junction box narrowly missing the live wires!  In other words a rough and ready job.

Kitchen floor - a horror story

 The tiles on the kitchen floor have been taken up to reveal, in archaelogical order,  a) rotten hardboard, b) original floorboards, c) concrete with d) rotten (damp) joists between.   The rotten wood is being scraped out so that the whole floor can be concreted and waterproofed.  Kerching!  (The sound of the cash register in action!)

Today work begins on looking under the hall carpet to see if the floor there is in a similar condition.  I suspect it is.

Three layers of flooring.

 Outside, the pots are neatly stacked in groups leaving space for various activities.  The raised beds with their crumbling brickwork and weeds and dead shrubs have been removed. 

Tidy workmen

Peter and Dan discuss the wall

Brick and flint wall after removal of ivy

The lovely old brick and flint wall had been badly damaged by ivy so the men have been carefully raking it out prior to repairing it.   The men are incredibly tidy.  Yesterday they were removing the kitchen floor and taking out the kitchen, today there no sign of either.

Valiant attempts were made to move two shrubs and two trees that we'd like to have kept but it looks as though they have been too shocked to survive.   Dan will keep an eye on them and remove them if necessary.   He's taken the huge compost bin for his father, which is another unwanted item out of the garden.

My poor trees!

Next week the sleepers arrive to create the new raised beds.  So, progress is being made and so are one or two uncomfortable discoveries!  

Our first family weekend: Easter 2016

For the first time, the Southwold house had all the bedrooms in operation!   I'd made some bedding purchases and we went down on the Wednesday before Easter in anticipation of the family arriving.  Eliot, Nancy and the boys arrived on Thursday afternoon and the boys were thrilled with the house.  They scampered everywhere exploring and particularly liked the three staircases and the possibility of going up the wrong staircase!   Rupert joined us on Friday and Simon and Tania arrived on Saturday and stayed until Monday.  Rupert was back to work on Tuesday and Eliot and Nancy also headed home.

We had a couple of good walks (one of which ended in a hail storm which saw us all arrive back frozen and damp).  The other walk included a ferry crossing to Walberswick and a pub lunch there.  We also ate out at the Sole Bay Fish Company on the harbour and and on Monday the boys treated us to champagne and lunch at the Butley Orford Oystery in honour of my birthday.  After lunch we went to look at Orford Castle.  It was so windy that Saul was blown over on the edge of the moat,  but fortunately did not tumble too far.  We also ate at home and took turns with the cooking. 

Despite the fact that the weather was mixed, the small boys managed to play on the beach at least three times with the bucket and spades that we found in the garden.   We even took down the body board  which was another garden find and Abe and Saul got into their wet suits and made a very brief attempt at surfing!   Well, it was very cold and I thought they were brave even to dip in their toes!  I was pleased to be wearing a windproof coat and warm hat!

Rupert was chief fireman and made some purchases of logs and coal and we had some roaring fires.  All in all we could see how well the house accommodated the whole family and our purchase got the thumbs up from everyone. 

At the harbour

On the ferry

On the ferry to Walberswick

Peter

Cosy!

Early morning lego session

The Liss Brothers

Two boys pretending to be babies!

Orford Castle...orfly windy!

Tarzan Saul

Cool Abe

Abe strides out confidently

Brave Dad!

Abe and Saul testing the water

Abe on his way back in a hurry!

Warming up with Mum