Inside Bryn Teg

Although Bryn Teg has only two bedrooms, there are sleeping facilities for up to seven people; duvets and pillows are provided.

Downstairs

There are three main rooms

• kitchen More on the kitchen
• main lounge More on the main lounge
• smaller lounge More on the small lounge

plus

• scullery and toilet off the kitchen More on the scullery
• a rather decrepit glass lean-to at the kitchen end of the cottage More on the glass lean-to
• an even more decrepit stone lean-to at the other end More on the stone lean-to

Upstairs

• Double bedroom More on the double bedroom
• Twin bedroom More on the twin bedroom
• Recently-renovated bathroom More on the bathroom
• Toilet It is only a toilet!

The door at the top of the stairs leads out into the garden. Many of the doors in the cottage are rather low by modern standards and this one is particularly low so mind your head!

Heating

Heating is by a wood-burning stove in the main lounge, an electric faux wood-burning stove in the small lounge plus storage heaters - three downstairs and two upstairs. The one in main lounge is also a convector heater. There is a small portable fan heater, usually kept in the cupboard under the sink in the scullery, and a fairly portable oil-filled heater, usually kept in the garden chalet.

All but one of the windows are double glazed so the cottage is cosy even in the most wintry weather.

The stove in the main lounge burns wood, supplemented by coal where necessary. Supplies of both, plus kindling, are kept in the stone lean-to and there are fire lighters in the glass lean-to. There is also a mass of burnable timber from the collapsed shed at the top of the garden, but please beware that this is riddled with woodworm so do not bring into the house or the lean-tos unless it is going into the stove immediately.

With careful management and in exceptionally cold weather the wood burner will stay in overnight and, even if it goes out, it keeps warm until morning.

We are still experimenting with the right balance between this and the storage heaters during cold weather. Hitherto we have kept all three downstairs storage heaters at about 2/3 full capacity but the one in the main lounge will probably not be required if the wood burner is being used. The upstairs is usually warm so we keep the two heaters upstairs on low settings.

We still have not fully understood how to prevent blackening of the glass in the stove doors so advice would be welcome (or even gratefully received!). Coal appears to cause this promptly so please use it sparingly. The glass gets obscured if the stove is in overnight but it is usually easy to get this off in the morning before reviving the fire.

We had a rather disconcerting experience when lighting the wood burner for the first time this autumn (2008). It had been exceptionally wet in the previous few weeks so the chimney stack was sodden. Lighting the fire and thereby heating the chimney caused clouds of water vapour to appear upstairs, particularly in the double bedroom. Despite the alarm which this caused us, we are assured by the installer of the fire and the local repairer of chimneys, that the vapour is harmless and soon disperses, as indeed we found.

When the house is unoccupied in winter, the storage heater in the main lounge should be left on at about 1/3 full capacity and the other four switched off.

Frost stats in various places switch on various forms of heating if the temperature falls close to freezing. When the cottage is unoccupied in winter all the upstairs doors and all the downstairs doors except the one between the kitchen and scullery (but including the door to the downstairs toilet) should be left open so that the heat spreads to adjacent rooms.

Water heating

Hot water for washing up and baths is provided by an immersion heater; the switch is in the scullery, over the door to the kitchen. The shower heats water as it is used; there is a pull switch in the bathroom for the shower.

Water stop cock ...

... is at the back of the cupboard under the sink in the kitchen.