The ivy battle continues on the 200 year old Irish stone outbuildings.

Here at The Corner house, the smaller of our two 200 year old Irish stone built outbuildings has a rotten roof on one side which is caused by the ivy and plant life on the corrugated steel roof. With wanting to position some #solarpanels on there, we thought it time to clear the ivy, without the roof falling in this time so we an do exactly that.
Dawn takes you on a walk around the top of the land which she is clearing the brambles and other various weeds from so we can eventually start turning this old, neglected farmland in our dream homestead and also shows the massive fallen tree from a previous storm.
What was called "the sink" by the previous owners, we set to work removing the ivy, trying not to disturb the two century old lime mortar keeping the stones in place.
#farmhouserestoration #oldfarmhouse #livinginireland #ireland #irishfarmhouse

[@jeanhawken4482]

I look at ivy in a totally different light after seeing the damage to your gorgeous property and many others I love watching.

[@thecornerhouseproject]

It is just horrible when left to it's own devices.

[@guanabacoaguajiraguanabaco3280]

There is a British couple of father and son who clean (usually elder) people’s backyards overtaken by brambles, and what I have seen them do with the piles of green cuttings, they run the weedwacker over the pile, over and over (they re-pile and run it again several times), and basically create mulch out of it. They are called Flawless Cleaning I believe, and they are awesome. But I think this could be a good option for you guys. Just now catching up on all the videos. Best of luck to you both! Much love from Florida 💚🐊

[@thecornerhouseproject]

Hi GuanabacoaGuajiraGuanabacoa, thank you for watching and commenting. We tend to do that with the lawn mower when we have a lot of brambles and just keep chopping it, which works well, but we haven't tried with the ivy. Maybe we need to add it to our to do list. We will have a watch of them and see. Good luck catching up and sorry for the bad quality for a lot of the early videos. Thank you again :-)

[@patsampson6990]

I watch Ben and his Dad Paul on Flawless Cleaning too! Great watching them and the gang that helps when needed!

[@susanlucero5958]

That's an awesome idea!

[@sharonhuntley6682]

Your out buildings are looking so good without that ivy, good work guys

[@thecornerhouseproject]

They don't look as nasty now do they. The lime (what is left of it) and stones can start and get some air around them again and the ivy will be much easier to get rid of fully. Even all of this time later, it still tries to have a little grow out of a hole in the walls. Once we spot it, it isn't there for long. Thank you Sharon for all of your watching and commenting :-)

[@peggycrady8197]

Wow that's looking good ❤

[@neutonrenda2303]

Love the look of the stone outbuildings, adds a lot of character.❤

[@thecornerhouseproject]

They’re lovely aren’t they…we love them!

[@johnoneill5812]

First of all, congratulations on achieving 2,000+ subscribers. I have to admit that the overgrown vegetation is driving me crazy, if I were there I would go at it like a wildman :) Looks like the middle outbuilding can be made into a nice shed. Eventually, you might want to add another course of stone or block on the front side to increase the slope of the roof a bit. Looks like the roof beams might need replacing but i suppose you don't get much snow load in your area so it may be ok. Will be fun to see what you can do with the outbuildings when you get to it in a year or two. Best regards.

[@thecornerhouseproject]

Thank you! How good is that with the subscribers! We’re chuffed to bits and thank you for being one of them! Oh, the overgrown vegetation is driving me nuts too, as soon as I have a little free time I’m out on the land! Yes, there isn’t much of a slope on the roof, I’m hoping in time we can replace the concrete blocks that were put in with stones…so maybe the time to slope it then or reinstate what is suspected was originally a gable end.

[@KJ-kg8kc]

Good job- best way I have found to remove the small and large ivy stuck to walls is a large old screw driver and or chisel. It gets under the root easily and a simple back and forth action to get it off with very little damage if any to the stone. It’s very rewarding seeing it gone. Also white vinegar at the roots on the ground

[@thecornerhouseproject]

Love those tips! Thank you. We have a few really bad chisels, which might now become Ivy removal tools! Lol

[@neutonrenda2303]

Wow, I didn't realize there was a building behind the the other stone outbuildings. It looks amazing.👍❤

[@thecornerhouseproject]

It’s a lovely building isn’t it that one. It used to be double that size back in the day.

[@Cuernavacachica02]

You’ve done so much and it’s really beginning to show!!! I love it!!

[@thecornerhouseproject]

Thank you We’re finally feeling like we are getting somewhere now….still masses to do but it’s all starting to come together well.

[@mycoolcraig9294]

That is a lot of work!! Well done.

[@thecornerhouseproject]

Thank you 😊

[@kimrafferty7170]

What fantastic progress you are making, I wouldn't even know where to start with the grounds, one of the you tubers I watch also has a lot of brambles and one thing he said was instead of battling to clear them he uses them as a hedge, which actually makes sense as it will just be a case of keeping it trimmed with hedge trimmer a couple of times a year. I have also started watching The Irish Homestead, it's a family from Stockport who have bought a property similar to yours and in their last video they were talking about a grant you can get to renovate derelict property's, you can get upto 70,000 euros but they won't pay for any work you have already done. I don't remember you ever mentioning about a grant but as soon as I heard about I thought of you. Hope you have a good week, love to you both xx

[@thecornerhouseproject]

Wow what an idea with the brambles being a hedge! I will have a look on the land and see if we could maybe do that in places…unfortunately they seem to favour areas in the middle of the land more than the edges 😂 typical! Yes we also watch the Irish Homestead too, lovely place they have there! No, we didn’t go for the grant in the end….we did think about it, but decided against it for a few reasons….you only get 13 months to complete the work you would be claiming for and have the money upfront to get the work done and you can’t start any of the work you would claiming for until your application has been approved and we needed to get cracking straight away with sleeping in the tent! Haha Also what if the work we did wasn’t good enough lol and they didn’t award it back to us…There are also clawbacks put against the property too by the council. I can’t quite remember the percentages but you would be liable for paying back either all or a percentage of the grant if you had to sell the property within in a certain time frame. Not that we are planning on selling anytime soon but you never know what life will bring you. I think in certain circumstances it is a good grant, but just not for us unfortunately. We also really didn’t want the added pressure of trying to get it done within the 13 months….we’re not the quickest of workers 😂 xx

[@colettelavery7452]

You are both getting plenty of jobs done,that needs doing and getting sorted before the really bad weather sets. Great progress been done every video. Iam sure you are both chuffed to bits.Take care and stay safe.

[@thecornerhouseproject]

Thank you 😊 Very very chuffed with it all. We’ve heard the weather gets bad, so try and get as much done as we can.

[@ronaldlucas5360]

Nice ✔️

[@thecornerhouseproject]

Ooh I like the tick!✔️

[@Debbie-kt6ck]

That’s such a huge task but really satisfying for you to see progress, good to get outside. I know what I would do once the house is finished, take the middle building down and use the stone to restore the end one and the one in the field, you’d also have full sight of most of your land from your house, but, it’s not my home it’s yours ❤

[@thecornerhouseproject]

I love your thinking with being able to have full sight of the land! That would be lovely, but not sure I could knock a building for it..I’d feel too bad. Lol we’re quite lucky in that there are soo many stones dotted around the land we should have plenty enough to fix the outbuilding. ❤️

[@10928rob]

That's a lovely shot, 26:10 in, you will win with the ivy, little and often my Girl. xx

[@thecornerhouseproject]

Thanks Pa. 😊 Yeah I think so too....less tiring than trying to tackle it all at once too! It looks great doesn't it, from that side...seeing the house and the outbuildings like that and the smoke from the chimney? Xx

[@sheilaarthurs8220]

Have you ever watched flawless cleaning he's in Ireland but he has a great tool for brambles ❤

[@thecornerhouseproject]

Hi Sheila. We haven't but we will certainly have a look. Might be a bit late now but nice to know what is available should we need something like it in the future. Thank you so much for watching and commenting :-)

[@kathleenroberts4319]

Maybe lay the ladders across the roof to safely remove those vines ….?

[@thecornerhouseproject]

Hi Kathleen. In the end I managed to push the huge lump of roots, grass and plant life through the hole that was in the roof. I did lay a ladder across though to fix the roof bolts down, it worked well. Thanks for watching and commenting :-)

[@neutonrenda2303]

Being outside for a few days is also great for you, even if it's hard work, it's not joists.😂

[@thecornerhouseproject]

Oh it was really lovely to get out there and do some garden work.

[@neutonrenda2303]

You guys have a few years of chipping away at that ivy, it might never stop trying to grow back. With living there and making a garden it should be easier to manage. Huge change already, New finds with every clearing.👍

[@Ragnar8504]

If you dig up the roots it will eventually stop growing back but it's a pain.

[@thecornerhouseproject]

There is so soo much of it, I think you’re right with how long it will take to try and get on top of it. Very excited to explore the land but by bit by clearing patches here and there when the time allows.

[@wandakoehorst8734]

Looking at the row of outbuildings I suspect that that was the original very old farm. Maybe 400 yr old or even much older. The outbuilding where you find fireplace traces on the floor had a chimney and was lived in maybe together with animals for extra warmth in winter. These were built with only natural available stones and trees cut from local area. The original roofs were probably made of flat stones piled on top of each other. Your "house" was built much later and put in front of the much older farm. Maybe only 100-150 years ago. They never would have built the big house behind the original farm because than was less usable acres to grow crops on which they needed for themselves. So that is why I think that the big house is built so close to the corner of the road in order to lose as less as possible productive soil. But you've got a rough gem. It will be very beautiful once restored.

[@thecornerhouseproject]

Wouldn’t it be great if there were photographs so that we could see back that far into time! I think you could be right with the outbuildings being dwellings a long long time ago. I’m not sure if I can put a picture up on the community area of our youtube page but I’ll have a look and if I can, I’ll put the aerial photo that we have of the house and surrounding area taken 40+ years ago.

[@wandakoehorst8734]

May in the archives you can atleast try to find out who lived there, baptism records in church closest by might give names of inhabitants. Or the elderly close by who lived there 60-80 yrs ago. Than you have a start.

[@thecornerhouseproject]

@wandakoehorst8734 Already on it lol I love a bit of genealogy so it was one of the first things I did when we were in the process of buying the house. The same family have lived and worked this land for at the very least 220 years up until 15-20 years ago. We've met 3 of the family members that lived here as children so far...it's been great to hear about the house and the way the land was used and the animals and crops that were grown just on the plot we have! I will get on with getting that aerial photograph that we have on the community area and maybe get Ben to stick the drone up at the same place to see the comparison. 🙂

[@wandakoehorst8734]

@@thecornerhouseproject wow, and indeed as I suspected much older property. Really very special idea. You can make a little history chronical of the house for future owners. We did the same with for our house. Looking forward to an episode with your historical findings

[@kathleenroberts4319]

Can’t you have a big fire pile to throw that in? I would think that would be the most effective thing for you. It would also create heat to dry out the land abit.

[@thecornerhouseproject]

Sadly fires were banned in Ireland in Jan 2023, not even the farmers can burn stuff now. There is however a bonfire night on 23 June where people light a bonfire, which we are saving for :-)

[@sergioespinosa6377]

ustedes son geniales....los estoy siguiendo con este proyecto.. pero me he dado cuenta que necesitan herramientas...por ejemplo con la maleza, ramas y la enredadera, necesitan una maquina chipeadora que les producirá un picadillo que lo pueden usar para la tierra.....espero que que ya la tengan en los próximos videos.....saludos. pd para las vigas del este #taller# pueden usar rollizos....palo redondo de mas de 6 metros....

[@thecornerhouseproject]

Thank you for watching and commenting. Our wood chipper was held in customs for four weeks but as soon as it arrived it was in full use and we got rid of so much in quite a short time.

[@sergioespinosa6377]

OOhhh 😌 genial......eso les alivia el trabajo..teniendo herramientas adecuadas todo se hace mas facil......saludosss

[@thecornerhouseproject]

We have a video coming up soon of our first time using it :-)

[@dorygeancunningham8027]

Golly, what a intruding secret garden…LOL. I love the look of ivy but it is so destructive. I recently saw using a combination of vinegar, salt, and dish soap, when applied, will kill it off at the roots. I’m not sure with the size of ivy you have but maybe applied to the small stuff just starting to grow might help the future of your out buildings. Smart move though, once winter sets in at least you have plenty to do in the house, but arranging some use of one of the buildings now was some good fore-thinking. I love watching you reveal your home even in the garden.

[@thecornerhouseproject]

It’s a great piece of land, we love it! Can’t wait until we can get really stuck in to it! I’m with you on the Ivy…it looks great trailing up and over a building…but wow sooo destructive, especially when it’s been left to it’s own devices for the best part of 2 decades! Strangely somebody else said exactly the same thing about the Ivy and vinegar, salt and dish soap. Will give that a try as well! I think we really need some outside storage space sorted, so will try and get that sorted out sooner rather than later.😊

[@christinerowlands539]

Good job Dawnie and Ben.👏💐 ❤

[@thecornerhouseproject]

Thank you Auntie Chris! 😘🥰

[@user-gc8cs9oc8t]

I’d still Knock the outbuildings down that way it will give you direct access to your Field, later on you could look to rebuilding something. A day with a digger would clear the lot. Great to watch I love Ireland

[@thecornerhouseproject]

It really is an amazing country! We love it too! 😍 we can’t knock the buildings…they’re sooo old…over 200 years old. Glad you like to watch 🙂

[@kaye-q1k]

Once you get the brambles cleared the land should dry up a bit as well.

[@thecornerhouseproject]

Yeah fingers crossed….it is very boggy land around this area so we may need to stick extra drainage in places to get it a bit dryer as well.

[@debpate9405]

Have you gone around the buildings and cut the ivy at ground level to kill the vines?

[@thecornerhouseproject]

Yeah we’ve done that and wow there are some trunks to get through. Years and years this has been growing. The house had been empty for around 15 maybe 20 years so it’s had a long time to do what it does best! Lol

[@mycoolcraig9294]

You need a Mulcher.

[@thecornerhouseproject]

There is one in my shopping basket already lol. Up to 70mm petrol chipper. The chips will be kept as mulch for the future. We could go bigger but anything greater than 70mm can be good fuel for the fire and would be a shame to chip. Thanks for watching and commenting.

[@peggycrady8197]

Are you aloud to burn some of the weeds and brush

[@simonworthington3330]

Way to go guys as thats a right clear up your doing and a nice job. Ah i nodded off so there is going to be a part 2. Great job.

[@thecornerhouseproject]

Haha nodded off! Was it a little long for you? 😂 this will be an ongoing process for a long time lol

[@simonworthington3330]

@@thecornerhouseproject Nodded off for too many things but handy as can repeat the video again

[@michelleschwan]

You’re doing a very hard thankless job but it’s looking heaps better. I saw on one of the KZbin videos about using boiling water, salt and dish washing liquid mixed together to kill off the ivy. It might by worth checking out

[@thecornerhouseproject]

Thank you 😊 we will give that a go with Ivy, handy because we have all of those things lol

[@janinebell4336]

Such a lot of work! Bloody ivy!

[@thecornerhouseproject]

If you have a spare 5 minutes, there is plenty still to be removed hahaha. Thank you for watching and commenting.

[@bobbiebrandel3152]

Wow, what an amazing job of clearing the roof, looks so much better than before. Cannot believe all the clearing you have done and still have to do. I was curious....what kind of heating will you have for the house. Also, would love to see that aerial view of the place to get an idea of what is where. That would be great! Keep up the good work.

[@thecornerhouseproject]

Thank you, yes it looks loads better now 😁 like you say…still lots to do but little by little we will get it done 🙂 Heating for the house at the moment is from an old (very old) Stanley range in the kitchen that, even though, it’s on its last legs…it chucks out a fair amount of heat! We are hoping to get the living room chimney uncapped so that will give us some heat the other side of the house. Hopefully in time we will have a boiler and radiators as well. Ben did some drone footage of the house and area but maybe we can do a new one for you 😘

[@GraceSmith-e3o]

Wondering if you can burn some of the debris? I’m afraid you’re going to get nothing else done but constant chipping once you get your machine.

[@thecornerhouseproject]

We can’t burn I’m afraid in Ireland, we have piled it up into big piles and will stick some tarps or carpet over it to mulch it down eventually. It is a pain to be honest, all,this garden waste and we can’t burn it. 🤦‍♀️

[@minisareus]

Can you use left over ceiling beams to repair the shed see if you can buy the building covered in ivy i would have thought it would have been yours since its on your plot?

[@thecornerhouseproject]

That’s our plan with the leftover joists and any joists we’ve taken out that are good. If I remember rightly a lot of the land around the house was owned by the people who owned our house and then when bits were sold off, the other building went with another plot at the time.

[@amykindred4854]

Thanks!

[@thecornerhouseproject]

Many many thanks for being our very first Super Thanks viewer, it really means a lot to us that people enjoy watching. And of course, thank you for watching and joining us on our journey.

[@SweetOne.]

You need to store your bags of plaster mix inside where it won't freeze. You've done a lot of clearing there, well done. Get as much done as you can now and it will be easier come spring, you are right about that! That house/building that isn't yours - there is no land to it, just the building?

[@thecornerhouseproject]

Well funnily enough I was thinking about the lime being out in the outbuilding a couple of days ago and wondering where we can put it indoors! Lol no, just the building that isn’t ours…the building used to be double the size it is, so there’s that part of land that belongs to the building. Will definitely chip away as much as we can with the land in the hope of getting it under some sort of control before spring comes.

[@SweetOne.]

@@thecornerhouseproject If you don't get it now - it will be full of birds come spring and you will have to wait until after hatchings. I know you won't evict a mommy bird

[@thecornerhouseproject]

@SweetOne. oh god no! That would be awful. At the moment we have resident Robin that keeps coming into the house. He sits on the kitchen window singing at us through the window until we open the window and then he comes in. I will try and catch him on video and upload it! It's extremely cute! ❤️

[@SweetOne.]

@@thecornerhouseproject Yes please! I would love to see your resident Robin lol

[@thecornerhouseproject]

@@SweetOne. he’s a sweet little thing…Ben named him Egg because when we first met him he had no tail feathers and looked like a little Egg! I tried filming him earlier but he disappeared once I found my phone…I promise I will get him on video for you!

[@seancasey2444]

With a roof that bad you really need to replace it all.

[@thecornerhouseproject]

We will, eventually. Just need to cover it over until we can to it properly. 😊

[@LewisC1944]

Well they say " a change is as good as a rest" but L guess you needed a good rest after making such a change around your ground. I hope you have been careful not to disturb any Leprechauns in the Ivy, you don't want any more bad luck. I wonder if the separate Outbuilding was the original Cottage! 😘😘

[@thecornerhouseproject]

Lol no we don’t want anymore bad luck 😂 it’s highly possible that long ago it may have been a house. It was lovely to have a little break from doing the same thing. Xx

[@colinchick2692]

an you not burn the vegetation - it would save skip costs etc?

[@thecornerhouseproject]

Hi It is very very rare we skip any vegetation, I think Dawn shows our pile at the end of the outbuilding. We are going to sort a chipper to mulch it and burn the larger bits.

[@susanlucero5958]

How long has the property been vacant?

[@thecornerhouseproject]

Hi It was empty for 15 or 16 years 😞

[@susanlucero5958]

@thecornerhouseproject amazing . How much soil you're digging out, but it seems about right!

[@Joans20thCentury]

Call me pretentious, but I might refer to the out buildings as Cottages😊

[@thecornerhouseproject]

Not pretentious at all as the one we don't own was a house (cottage) and possibly the hidden building was also a house. The one with no roof was a cow shed and the flat roofed building was where they kept the pigs. So you aren't being pretentious, you are actually right 👍 Thank you for watching and commenting.

[@coby6417]

🌟👏👍🍀💐

[@thecornerhouseproject]

🍀😘🤛✨🙂

[@mag1071]

Dannie a little bit talking without doing anything

[@diratlion1664]

I get 3 goats to give you a hand . Emm helping mouth they'd eat all that brush. They'd need tying up with a screw in the ground and the circled top turns 360 degrees. Generally speaking, yes. Goats eat many Ivy varieties, including Common Ivy and English Ivy. They also eat Poison Ivy which is known to cause a nasty rash for many humans but is devourable to goats. That would give you time to reach milking And I know nothing about Ireland and goats breedsI had 3 to clear my place and there's 2 typesone that comes on heat once a year and 2 that comes into heat every month. I had one at rest, one milking and one pregnant. Gestation is 150 days, (5 months) and lactation goes for 300 days (10 months) and they give anywhere from 2-3L a day. and I admit to having crossover milking time for cheeses etc. Which leaves you more time to stack limbs to use in the fire But don't have a billy When goats are in heat the bleat like the cow and wag their tail and find a farmer close at the first sign/ The main reason not to have a male goat is that they have a strange idea that is. The think they're sexer peeing on themselves and on their females which taints the milk. So Billy reeks. But if you do decide to have a Billy get a hazard suite lolol sorry so ;long But I just seen what your up against. TT will have nothing in episodes lololololol But your both Hi5 your doing well for Newbies you might not know what your doing but you're both entertaining bc you're describing what your doing when you're doing it 10 outta 10. So you use to watch TT. Then you know what I'm saying but you don't think so You think 2 boring old ....., whose was so excited about 200 years of history. Oops 6k of subscribers who are still watching you (is that a U2 song and this one episode was out 6 months ago

[@thecornerhouseproject]

Thank you so much for all the info with the goats that’s amazing thank you! I had read about the billys and what they think is attractive to do! Eww! 🤣 Oh yes used to love watching TT, I watched a KZbin video the other day of the 3 best farms that TT uncovered just for some pointers but the farms they were uncovering were much grander than ours! 😂 so it didn’t give me any clues as to what ours ‘should’ look like. It’s been amazing to see it appearing bit by bit. Thanks again for your lovely comment and encouragement and also the info on the goats and it is something we will definitely look into getting.

[@marcusd2380]

Your just killing urself there doing the back garden. A few hours with a mini digger and the job would be done. Put a drain or too in as well. It’s the only way to get roots etc out. Great location but a lot of work.

[@thecornerhouseproject]

There will be a mini digger in the next few weeks to do various jobs and fingers crossed we can clear some of what is behind the outbuildings out the back. Drains are on the agenda too.

[@marcusd2380]

@@thecornerhouseproject plan what u are going to do with it. Maybe use the big wide grading bucket to scrap the garden into two pile one for burning and one for burying. Then see what u have and do the drains. Best to get someone to drive that has experience. U can get a lot done in a day with a digger.

[@nevisscot7697]

Too much talking

[@thecornerhouseproject]

Sadly it is far too hard to please everyone in one video but we do take note of all the comments people make and try to chop and change things from time to time. Some people prefer time lapse, some prefer narration and others like a mix of all things KZbin. Thanks for watching though and taking the time to comment.

[@nevisscot7697]

@@thecornerhouseproject yes of course i understand you cant please everyone .doing a great job though .well done