Some old brickwork supported by fresh air!

This Saturday I finished off removing render on the south wall - all except the very top of the gable which is out of reach from a ladder.

The south wall, almost done! Held up in some places by fresh air.

Having stopped work on this wall in last weekend's freezing conditions, the job was completed this week. Two brick arches were found, one above the door and the other above the bedroom window in the centre of the photo above. Interestingly, this window used to be quite a bit larger than the present one - we knew this already, based on a photograph from the mid-1940's in which this window is taller than the modern one.

Arch intact above the door but its looks like the brickwork above it is held up by fresh air! 

This upstair window was larger in the past - you can see a nice old arch above the existng window opening.

One very eroded area of mortar joints was found between the door and the window above. Some of this had been patched with cement and in other places there is simply NO mortar - just dust - between the outer course of bricks. Thank goodness OLF has thick walls and the deeper layers of brick are still holding the walls up!

Some VERY dodgy brickwork above the door This will need some surgery! 

So, having completely stripped all the most easily accessible areas, the next step will be to erect a scaffold tower to deal with the tops of the gables on the North and South sides of the house. Hopefully this can start during the Christmas holiday period. Then, probably in January the east gable end can be stripped when my neighbour has time to help me out with a telescopic loader - I'll deal with the wall from the "safety" of the loader bucket!

Here's a quick reminder of what's been achieved over 7 weekends since the end of October:

The lean to was the starting point......

next came the North East corner............

followed by the North gable.....

and finally the South wall.

Watch this space for updates over Christmas and New Year!