Old hearths make good paths
This last month we’ve been putting finishing touches to the path that leads from the cottage to the Belvedere. We wanted to recycle old materials if possible, so what could we use? And what was the problem?
Locking in the top of the path to the start of the stairway was always going to be tricky as we’d built the path a year before the Belvedere was even started and before we had decided how exactly the decking round the Belvedere would be linked to the path.
The result? The stairway down to the path was almost twice the width of the path and in limited light someone might step off the stairway – not onto the path – but onto a steep slope and lose their balance. The path needed widening. What could we use? Enter the old sandstone hearth (see top picture above).
This was making way for a new oak floor in a Victorian house of a similar vintage to The Larches but had been broken into separate pieces to enable its removal.
Measuring up showed we had a near perfect match (see 2nd picture) for the start of the path which could be then feathered into the existing path by adjusting the margin and using slate chippings. A great result! Good too that our first guests after installation were encouraged last week to have pre-dinner drinks in the Belvedere on six out of their seven nights here!
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