It's been over a year since our last blog post - and the less said about that year the better! During the government-imposed restrictions on holiday lets during the pandemic, Thurne View has for the most part stood empty. However it remained empty longer than most holiday lets while we undertook an epic project worthy of a Channel 4 property special.
Back in mid 2019, we arranged to close in 2021 from April to June to raise the cottage. You heard right. Lifting the entire building so it would sit above the high water table and winter flooding. Easier said than done.
While it sounds like the stuff of nightmares, raising the bungalows along the Thurne is actually a fairly common exercise. Being situated on a riverbank, over time (decades) they slowly sink. They don't have traditional foundations and for the most part, rest on concrete blocks. We believe Thurne View has been raised at least once before.
Thurne View's plot on the NW riverbank is precisely in the middle of a dip where the water table, rain and tides can create a perfect storm of deep water under the house and all along the path running parallel with the flood wall. When we first bought it, wellies were only required in the winter; recent changes to the way the drainage is managed on the riverbank have meant that the water is frequently deep year-round.
During every winter though, the house sat in water for months on end. It never flooded, but it was a constant concern not knowing what might be going on underneath the structure of a near 100 year old building. As an aside, I have wondered if we should rename it "Trigger's Broom" as almost every part of the cottage has been replaced at some point and I'm not sure how much of the original building still exists!
In mid-March 2021, work began to raise Thurne View. A dozen or so jacks were placed around the building and over a week or so the house was cranked up 40 centimetres. This might not seem like much on paper, but when the difference is a dry or soggy bottom, even a small amount is welcome.
Fortunately, the builder found no horrors lurking under the house. The structure was sound but sadly there were no treasure hoards or stashes of vintage loot hidden there. Equally, there wasn't anything worse! We were almost disappointed. The most interesting discoveres were some vintage beer, wine and milk bottles.
Once the main work was completed, the reinstatement of the decking came next, which included what we had long-nicknamed the "Sunset Gin Deck". Thurne View is aligned East/West, which allows for breakfast and coffee in the sunshine with a view of the river, but by evening, when the sun sets spectacularly over the marshes, there was nowhere to sit, relax and enjoy it. Now there is.
All that work, along with new sofas and chairs, new fridge and freezer and a new management team looking after changeovers and any other issues, means we're continuing with Thurne View's upgrades. There is still more to do, but in the meantime, if you're booked in this year, please enjoy what we've done so far!