When it is cold outside, the cottage can be icy and take an age to warm up and when it is boiling hot outside the bedrooms especially can become extremely hot to say the least.
Bwthyn-y-llan (a name in Welsh that means cottage of the Church (or cottage of an enclosure) is south facing, so when I am on nights and the sun is shining I always wake up early in the afternoon which the oddest feeling that I have been transported inside a large oven, albeit on a fairly comfortable mattress.
This usually puts paid to any further rest I may have, as I feel a little like a slug which has been caught outside on a hot stone. (humm a nice mental image there)
I have just got up, staggered downstairs in a rather unflattering pair of y fronts, demolished a cheese bagel and have staggered back to bed with the laptop.
I will try to get back to sleep after typing this blog, then will get up to see to the broodies.
Meg is desperate for me to be "available" and is mooching around the house in a pathetic kind of "I am an orphan " way.
I am so tired, I could spit
I'm surprised, John. My old house (a youngster compared to yours at 150 years old) is slow to heat up, and slow to get cold. Of course, the modern insulation and the big trees may help.
ReplyDeleteAre you under any restrictions as to what you can do with your house, due to its age? I suppose an awning would look ridiculous on that stone house, but it might help.
Maybe a hammock under a tree would be more restful. I see your temp is close to ours.
ReplyDeleteMaybe Chris could hose the sunny side of the house down? The evaporation will cool the stones. I used to do that every day in the big, red brick house I used to have, it helped a lot.
I hope you can get some more sleep!
A slug in y fronts......nice....NOT! It's so bloody hot everywhere isn't it?! xxx
ReplyDeleteOoh, but a 300-year-old stone cottage, how divine!
ReplyDeleteOh to live in a stone cottage! I can see where it would have it's ups and downs with the temperature but what character it must have. What about ceiling fans if you don't already have them? I remember as a child growing up in my Grandparents home in Manitoba Canada...it was so hot in the old house that had shavings in the walls for insulation. I would wake up in the night...no fan...dripping wet. My bedroom was on the second floor and faced south and west so was the hottest room in the house. No wonder my Grandfather didn't say no when I wanted to trade with him! Have a wonderful Sunday..once you get up :) Take care....Maura
ReplyDeleteNone of the houses that are built around me will stand as long as yours, mine included!! A true tribute to those craftsmen who built it!! But imagine the tales the walls of your home could tell if they could talk!!
ReplyDeleteA stone cottage...a climbing rose...an adorable dog...NICE!
ReplyDeleteI am learning so much since I started blogging. always thought that a stone house would be cool in the summers and warmish in the winters. What do I know!
ReplyDeleteGreat suggestion from Sharon though......re hosing down the the house.
Boy, I,m learning so much.
Hope you get some rest and sun/heat reflecting shades of some kind on the South windows. That should help a lot. I used to live with a south facing window that would let the sun and heat in and heat up the rooms until I got some exterior (cheap plastic) sun blinds to hang over the outside of the windows. I kept them rolled up most of the time but they were great to let down on hot sunny days. Amazing the difference they made. There are more expensive shades and also sun reflective tints to put on the window glass. I don't like to think of you suffering. Hope you get some rest.
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely rose John, sorry about your sleep though, I think it must be hell to work night shifts. I agree with the comment about outside shutters being a help, when we had a house in France we couldn't understand why people always kept their old wooden shutters closed in the lovely sunny weather - we soon found out!!
ReplyDeleteYour home is so lovely and 300 years old... amazing!
ReplyDeleteHope you got back to sleep, sounds like you need some big old shade trees to shade your whole house. I guess those would take a while to grow :O)...
While you wait on the trees :O), lots of quilts piled on the bed for when cold and some nice polar fleece jam jams ... the heat I find the free jam jams we were born with are pretty effective for dealing with the heat in Texas...
Love the roses by your front, I just cannot grow a rose, all I get are stems with no leaves usually due to one fungus or another and one or two roses maybe... grrrr ....
Would running a fan help circulate the air? I'm with Jabacue as far as thinking the stones would keep the air cooler. Hmmmm, learned something there!
ReplyDeleteI like the hammock idea! :)
Hope you got much needed sleep.
I'm sure Meg understands and will be patient.
Personally, the high temps tend to turn me into a bit#@ ! Thank goodness for air conditioning.
This kind of weather is always expected in late July and early August in Nova Scotia...2 weeks + with miserable sleeps and nights...my daddies try so hard to help me through this with fans and a nice cool linoleum floor. They'll take care of me ...no worries ;-)
ReplyDeleteOur house is a 120 year old timber cottage of 3 bedrooms with a modernised kitchen, bathroom and laundry added to the rear. The locals say it was built from the cedar and cypress pine crates that were used to ship out furnishings and belongings of immigrants from Europe - mainly the UK - an idea coined by some entrepreneurial shipping agent who apprecited the value of such timbers in a colony bereft of quality softwoods. Could be one of Australia's earliest forms of "re-cycling", tho' the humble square kerosene drums cut up and beaten flat to make cladding for basic huts and chimneys for fireplaces must go close to that claim. (I hope to collect some images of these after I have my knee replacement operation).
ReplyDeleteAnyhow, the cedar weatherboard walls, cypress pine floors, inner walls and ceilings coupled with high vaulted corrugated iron gable roofing adds to the 'flow through' of air from the front door directly to the rear door, which not only funnels cool air throughout the house in our 40C+ summers, but also allows for the place to be closed up and rapidly warmed by reverse cycle heating in winter.
I hope you got a bit of rest. Your Meg is so much like Hootie. He is (at this moment) squished up against me on the bed. He wants to be a part of everything I do! BabyRocketDog, the Airedale, is most interested in playing ball (& eating).
ReplyDeleteBelieve it or not, we have had freezing weather in the mornings for the past 5 days. Luckily my tomato plants aren't in the ground yet, so I bring them inside at night. We've also had rain and hail. Crazy cold weather, but I'm liking it!
Our house takes about three days to turn into an oven, so by tomorrow it will be an oven, due to the fact it is going to be hot and humid again, 33 oC.
ReplyDeleteYour house though is just gorgeous, a typical British cottage.
Gill in Canada
My hubby works nights so I know all about dark cold rooms, etc.
ReplyDeleteWe have even thought about turning our office(which is the coolest, darkest room in the house) into a "nightshift" bedroom for him.