In 2001 I bought a flat in the charming East Lothian town of East Linton. The place was spectacularly pleasant, and had everything I needed, including lots of walks near at hand, excellent friendly neighbours, and what people refer to as a very genuine sense of community. I was extremely impressed by East Linton, and East Lothian generally, and for five years felt very much at home. In 2006 I took up my present position at Lancaster University, and had to make the trip South. I sold the flat to a lovely young couple, and was very happy to see the work I put into it go to people who I liked a great deal. I hope they are still there, and enjoying the flat, and East Lothian.

The first build of the flat I used to inhabit was in about 1760-1790. A major overhaul was undertaken in 1860 by a man called Charles Wright. Charles Wright's work included the fitting of timber surrounds to the windows and, I believe, the deployment of shutters. When I took the flat over the shutters had been badly neglected. They were nailed into the open position and had been painted over with many coats of paint. I decided I would like them stripped back and functioning again. It took a lot of work, but was well worth the effort because the 19th Century timber from which they are constructed is of superb quality, and quite beautiful to look at. They also worked rather well at keeping heat in. The effect was noticable, even with the modern sealed unit double glazed sash items I had. Here are some images of them.

Here are the shutters closed at night. The photograph had to be taken at night because the camera on the Palm had difficulties with the contrast between the lack of light in the room and the outside were daylight to be used. I stripped these shutters myself, and it was quite a job, and very unpleasent. I would advise anyone trying to get a lot of poorly applied paint from timberwork to leave it to the professionals. It is probably not a great deal more expensive to do so, is safer, and much better.

I have always found that the conventional kitchen, pedal or swing type, is liable to overfilling, falling over when you try to compress stuff into it, and getting kitchen waste into unwashable areas on the bin. Because I hadn't really enough space in my kitchen to have one without tripping over it all the time I decided to build one into a standard kitchen cabinet. The design is illustrated below, but is a normal bin mounted in a box of faced chipboard. The top is arranged so that the lip of the bin fits over it's wipeable surface preventing stuff missing and going down the outside of the bin. The box itself is arranged on two sets of heavy duty drawer sliders which can slide all the way out for emptying. It's performance so far has been great. Because the bin is supported you can compress stuff into it all you like and it doesn't fall over, and waste does not leak down the side. Were I to make it again I would use a lighter material than faced contiboard.

In 2006 I took up a lectureship in Statistics at Lancaster University and had to leave Scotland. I sold my flat in East Linton and bought a house for just a little more than I had sold the flat. This house was a traditional 17th Century Lancashire cottage. Unfortunately it was in quite a poor condition in some respects, although was structurally sound. The interior was awful, so I spent the first three years of my occupancy replacing it in depth. All the floors were replaced, most of the plaster was removed and replaced, and the ceilings were batterned and boarded. The kitchen floor was terrible. It had a laminate floor put over a rotten plank and joist floor which was over a cellar. The laminate gave the floor most of it's structural strength, and wobbled alarmingly as it was walked across. A house such as this will never become a stark modern urban "living space", and I would not want it to be so. So everything predating the early part of the 20th Century was restored and retained. Timberwork, where possible, was stripped back, and bare timber finishes employed. All patterned wallpapers are William Morris patterns (Sandersons).

The sitting room is dominated by a type of fireplace characteristic of the North-West of England. The photograph to the right shows quite clearly their construction. There are two massive slabs of dressed stonework erected vertically on either side, with an equally massive faced lintel across them. The rest of the fireplace and chimney is then made up of the same type of semi-dressed stone masonary which comprises the rest of the house. This form of fireplace seems to have been used in the North-West region well into the 20th Century.

The upper photograph to the left shows some cupboard doors in the sitting room, and the door to the kitchen. The cupboard doors are a bit battered, but are panelled (without fielding) and joined using mortice and tennons. This puts them in the 19th Century were they bought by the occupants of the house, however, the workmanship is first rate, and the materials decidedly second rate. So I would hazard a guess that these were made for the house by someone who worked in the Lancaster furniture industry, and given the quality of the joinery, that person worked for one of the quality companies such as Gillows, and may be later. The kitchen door is from yellow pine, and is legged and braced, so will probably predate the 19th Century. The lower photograph is the door to the main bedroom. It is made up of two planks in yellow pine, one of which is over 20" wide. This sort of timber has not been available in England since the 18th Century, possibly earlier. In line with my policy on leaving paint removal to the professionals I got Preston Old Pine Doors Ltd. to do a full rennovation of the doors, and they did a super job. They also pointed out that on the larger of the two planks from which the bedroom door is made there is some molding to give the 20" plank the appearence of being made from two smaller planks.

Some other views of the house interior are here. From the left looking up the stairs. The stairs treads were badly worn, so much so that on the second day I lived in this house I slipped on one and fell down them, rather painfully bashing my arm. When rennovating them I put aluminium edges on the leading edges of the treads, then non-slip tape on those. They have been perfectly safe since. Second from the left is the view looking back down the stairs. The colour the walls are painted is Mare-Tereza Yellow from the Craig & Rose 1829 range, and which is excellent paint with high pigmentation and good coverage. Third from the left is a short corridor running the width of the house with the bathroom and bedrooms coming off it. Rightmost is a photograph of the built in wardrobe and drawers. I prefer built in furniture, particularly in small houses.

The kitchen took some time to do. I replaced the whole floor, joists and all, had all the cupboards made from recovered pitch pine by Chris Fox, and replaced all the plumbing. Screwfix supplied many of the fixings and fittings, including sink and taps. When I moved in the walls were all plastered. The problem was that the rubble cored walls do allow some penetrating damp, and the plaster could tend to fall off, so the only thing I could think to do with it was to take it back to the stone. The walls have managed to dry out a bit since I did it. Looking the other way, the timberwork surrounding the door to the cellar is in yellow pine, so is probably late 18th Cenury. The hinges are hand made, and probably also 18th or early 19th Century. The exposed stonework surrounding the exterior door still has a bit of damp coming through it, and I don't quite know what to do with it.

Here is the bin. It fits into a squarish recess in the wall, which probably used to be a fireplace, and is hinged at the bottom. This arrangement works really very nicely. It has two pedal bin inserts, the left for normal refuse, the right for recycling items. It is easy to open and shut. The inserts can be lifted out easily for emptying. The bin all folds up to be more or less flush with the wall. This is probably the best design for a kitchen bin, and it would be easy to incorporate this sort of design into a standard kitchen unit.