[Closed] A shed thread with a difference...it starts with refinding it.

Am speechless..

Am speechless

Stunning. It will be amazing to see it restored to its former glory.

Am speechless..

Indeed, we are not all created equal !

As aside I wouldn't climb up steps that high with a perfect elbow / thumb to do any pruning !

I am going to come up and visit one day soon. I have got to see an estate where one can "lose" a structure of that size in the undergrowth and not miss it 🙂

As ever, P, your tales are inspiring.

What exactly is a

field stone lassoing accident

. I have got to see an estate where one can "lose" a structure of that size

Likewise. And burn that much wood

So, are you (1) crack on type person or a (2) get man in type person

Or (3), the man we should call in 🙂

Intriguing photos.
What's the story McMoonter? How & why did you/your family chose that place forty years ago?
I realise this is very nosey, but you opened the box! 🙂

Cap doffed

Nice green tie

What exactly is a

field stone lassoing accident

?

Seconded!! This needs an explanation

Incredible. Looks beautiful.

Currently sat in the garden looking at the wooden gazebo that needs to TLC. But like Shifter says I just want to know more this 'Tea House' now.

mcm, getting the wrong side of a rock
http://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/hairline-fracture-of-the-radius-bone-at-the-elbow-end-recovery-times

you seem posh as hell

you seem posh as hell

lolz

Ooh, another McMoonter project. Bookmarked to see how this one turns out.

Very nice.
I saw it on my friends Facebook feed and didn't realise it was yours.

😀

Brilliant.

That is so cool

Everyone loves a McMoonter thread.

Brilliant as ever but is that a miniature Kew Gardens in the background?

Need some photos of that, please.

"What's the story McMoonter? How & why did you/your family chose that place forty years ago?"

We moved here mainly because of the potential the garden offered. Although we maintained what here we didn't really start to change much until about twelve years ago when we had more time.

I'm not remotely posh. My folks moved from a two roomed house which housed three children and three adults to a council estate in Hawick in the forties. They went to art college too and got lucky living an unconventional life.

I think what we have collectively created here is probably our best art work. We do something new most days so it never feels like a chore.

Thanks for the enthusiasm for the Tea House. I feel more energised to crack on with it now.

lovely.

how does this sort of thing get past building control 🙂

I'd love a little hidey hole like that!

Looks awesome. 🙂

Love these threads! Needs more photos.
I'm dying to have an opportunity like this.

Edit: And following on Instagram. Surprised you've not got more followers!

and here my wife and I think our garden is too much to handle...

enjoyed the pics McM...great eye and skills

After another challenging morning in corporate life, this is exactly the antidote I needed.

Thanks mcmoonter

Thanks for feeding back McM, curiosity sated. Well, apart from the cars that is.

That's ace - though also a bit like that bit in Greystoke: Legend of Tarzan where the apes find the treehouse with the bodies in it 😉

Brilliant as ever but is that a miniature Kew Gardens in the background?

Need some photos of that, please.

Pigface, the greenhouses were built by MacKenzie & Moncur around the turn of nineteenth century. The house was then owned by a minister called Jardine, who was one of the Jardines behind the Jardine Mathieson banking corporation who made their fortunes on the back of the Opium Wars.

It was Jardines who commissioned the greenhouses and also the big wing at the back of the house which was demolished in the fifties by an architect who then had the house. Eleven rooms vanished from the bell board.

We've done what we can to preserve the green houses but its an uphill struggle. The best surviving examples have been subject to lottery funded restorations. Liverpool has one and the RBGs in Edinburgh is another.

The greenhouses were heated via a basement boiler which pumped hot water to grow exotic fruits.

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Back to work on the Tea House today. I uplifted the scaffolding tower this morning and set to repairing some of the sarking to enable us reach the top of the roof.

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The roofing felt had provided the perfect conditions to promote a living roof. A mat of roots three or four inches thick was an effort to cut through.

With the sarking renewed we could nail a step to the peak where we managed to recover the old weather vane which had collapsed under the weight of the vine. Hopefully I can salvage something from it. The second tier of the roof was rotten so it needs replacing.

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Good luck fella - I know how much work maintaining those places can be! Are you based near Hawick?

I was up that way (Ewes Valley) for just over a year but the remoteness got to me so me and my fair lady parted ways. Her family own an estate there and part of the saddest parts was 1 of the properties had a large heated walled garden and the largest heated greenhouses I have seen. I wonder if they were fairly popular in these parts of a time?

It'd be interesting to know if you had any thoughts on restoration via funding means and I'll pass that onto her.

This is going to be a woodstore yes? Or an excuse for another woodburner 😉

Does look a lovely building though 🙂

Historic Scotland listed our greenhouse but weren't at all forthcoming in offering any financial assistance in its conservation. Their argument was that it wasn't at risk enough. Its a very thin line between being at risk and being in smithereens.

There's a very good example of a MacKenzie and Moncur greenhouse at Logie House just west of Dunfermline. It was Carneigie's old house. The current owners apparently spent a fortune on its conservation. Not everyone is that flush.

This is another M&M greenhouse up near Kirriemuir
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I'm in Fife.

one of the first things we built was a Tea House

as you generally do....

Thanks for the information - that's what we had found already really - happy to list it but not happy to help fund any repairs.. The greenhouse in question is about 3x bigger than the one above and inside the garden there is another greenhouse the same size as the one above... I wont be surprised if they have disappeared entirely in 10 years.

I started reading the first post without looking at who posted it. By the 2nd paragraph I knew it was another McMoonter special. Good on ya! Thanks for sharing with us

The second pitched roof collapsed under the combined weight of the vine and the weather vane. Today I managed to remake the skeleton which involved some forensic measuring and guesswork to re-establish how the heavy metal support that held up the weather vane was fixed.

It should be reasonably straightforward now to board that portion of the roof to then clad it in tin. I'll give the tin a slightly longer overhang to more efficiently shed the rain water.

Its not that easy to step back from the top to get decent pictures. Here are couple from ground level.

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I'm in Fife.

Dude, you're in Sixfe.

*High fifes Cougar*

McMoonter - are you the kind of family the the phrase "any resemblance to persons either living or dead is entirely coincidental" was invented for? You sound like you're the living embodiment of an Iain Banks novel.

Take that as you will, I wouldn't be entirely unhappy with that comparison myself...

Another fine thread mcmoonter, thanks for sharing

I've always wondered on your builds, why you build up on stilts rather than piles (oo er) or a concrete base? How long do you expect your stilted buildings to last?*

*apologies have to ask as I'm planning my summer house/office.

CaptainSlow - Member
...I've always wondered on your builds, why you build up on stilts rather than piles (oo er) or a concrete base? How long do you expect your stilted buildings to last?*..

They last for over 100 years in places like Queensland and can survive cyclones if properly tied down.

Great way to build a house IMO.

McMoonter, thanks for the greenhouse info

I hope the Bell board still shows the missing 11 rooms, lots of scope for scaring kids silly as the bells suddenly ring from the ghostly vanished wing 😆

Fair play fellah you work your socks off maintaining that property, I think Scotland should be thanking you.

Fascinating stuff as always!
Keep up the good work!

CaptsinSlow, my buildings are seldom on flat plots, so it's much easier to build off posts. Their roofs shed water far from the posts so their foundations should stay dry.

I recently replaced our old hen house which had posts set into the ground to create a lean to wall. I think that building was close on a hundred years old. The posts were still in good shape. It was the tin mostly that had given up.

Look at drainage. Buildings on posts allow air to circulate underneath which does wonders for longevity.

Thats a very interesting plant in the first of those three pictures.

Thanks Mcm and epic.

I'm on clay and its relatively level but have a design in mind with a large over hang on three sides for wood storage, tools n wot not. The non overhang side will still over hang about a foot but back on to hedge.

I like the idea of posts as it reduces cost and is a little more Eco.

How do you insulate the floor (or don't you)?

How do you insulate the floor (or don't you)?

In my studio I laid a false floor between the joists with OSB and filled the cavity with rockwool insulation, then laid boards on top. I spend more time in there than any other shed, so it was worthwhile.

I've made some more headway on the second pitched roof. I just need the sort out a repair to the weather vane and a little pedestal across the ridge to support a little base detail.

I've now stripped the entire west side as it was rotten. It will be easier to replace the entire side rather than faff around with fitting boards between boards.

The first picture is by Robin Barrie, a local photographer who happened by yesterday afternoon.

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Equal feelings of admiration and inadequacey ! Keep the updates coming

It was a nice sunny afternoon, so I cracked on with cladding the west side of the roof. With a lick of paint it feels like it's coming together.

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Just read this through without noticing the start date of the thread, thinking it must be Autumn 2015.

Skillz

This is pretty much all that remained useable from the weather vane.

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I set off this morning on a quest to find something I could fettle into a base. I returned with a....

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The dustbin was a bit to large in its diameter. I cut out the base and the top, then the joint seam, then rerolled it around two stools which were all I could find of the correct diameter.

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I then had to cut it down to fit so the vane spindle would connect with the fixed point on the roof. It needs some tweaking but with some judicious paint effects I think it will work.

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Blimey - I hadn't realised the scale of it until you put the bin on top!

I'll wager passing stools of that diameter made your eyes water 😀

I've made some headway. A bit of faffage working out how to clad the pedestal that the weather vane sits on. I found a roll of lead, I think in the long run it was the best solution.

I've painted the dustbin a drab grey to kill some of it's shine, I hope it will weather quickly.

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The remainder of the tin should be here on Tuesday, there was a screw up with the order.

Fantastic. Great use of the bin. 🙂

I found a roll of lead

And I feel chuffed if I can find the right length screw in my garage when I need one, once again that sinking feeling of inadequacy and awe... it's an mcm thread 🙂

Over the weekend we replaced some broken glass and repainted the front elevation in preparation for the arrival of the roofing tin tomorrow. Once its up it will make getting back up to the top a bit more tricky.

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The promised delivery of corrugated tin never arrived. I cancelled that order and have tried another supplier.

Meantime I've set to rebuilding the spiral staircase. The wooden treads were rotten. I've welded some sheet steel to replace the wood and some heavy duty pipe to half the treads to make it safer and self supporting.

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Brilliant. Will you cover the metal with something woody?

Will you cover the metal with something woody?

I don't think so, I'm not going to put any guttering on the roof so the rain water will just shoot down onto the steps. I'll try and paint them with some non slip paint though.

I painted some fascia boards last weekend, I feel rather unworthy. I'd love to pop over the water to see it all in the flesh as it were.

And here I was, feeling all "fix-it busydog" when I replaced a door weather strip this morning.
Really quite a project and I am truly envious of anyone that do things like that.

The Tin Man was finally forthcoming. One side done - three to go

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Absolutely marvellous .

I made some decent headway yesterday. My brother came over and we got all but the last hip flashing up.

Just the stair to reassemble and the interior to repaint.

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inspiring work mate.

I made a start on putting the staircase together.

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Work in progress. Putting the rust into rustic. Last section of handrail needs welding to the treads, a little platform and brace to the door and it might just work.

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Is the whole thing braced to something else or does it just sit on those 4 pillars? Looks very shoogly

It sits on about eight posts, so it's pretty much self supporting. The final brace should eliminate the last of the shoogle.

leffeboy - Member
Is the whole thing braced to something else or does it just sit on those 4 pillars? Looks very shoogly

It's a good system so long as the corners are braced. House from the 1890s like this one were common in Queensland when I first lived there. The underneath was left open. Brilliant to live in, and pretty well cyclone resistant until they got old and a bit rotten.

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Loving that Epicyclo!

Leffeboy - I made up the brackets today, the shoogle has completely gone.

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Don't laugh at my welding please, the whole stair is a bit of a scrapheap challenge.

Superb as always. Thoroughly enjoy these delights in my Instagram feed.

Will make the effort to visit the house next year to see those glorious gardens!

This afternoon we gave the interior a first coat of paint and played at hooses.

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