“It was a real pleasure to have Martin with us…”
My mother and I are admirers of Colt Houses – when we lived in Danbury during the seventies there was a Colt Bungalow next to us which led my late father and a carpenter friend to erect the current Colt Garage.
We have always oiled the Garage and requiring to replenish our aging Texnap 22 supply this led us to Colt Houses now run by Caroline and Martin.
The plan was to complete the oiling of 3 sides of our now 40 plus year old double doored Sussex Garage by the end of November and finish the fourth side sheltered by a hedge running alongside it next year. Everything was running to plan – Colts had provide more Texnap 22 oil — Martin had supplied me with very useful tips on how to do it the professional way – oiling was running at a brisk pace for a 78 year old who thinks he is twenty one again. Then progress ground to a halt when an old medical condition surfaced leaving just the gables above the two front doors together with the two front panels to complete — a day’s work at my slow speed.
Martin kindly came over to complete the oiling. While with us he looked the garage over and we had very interesting and fascinating discussions on the Colt Housing System and the updates incorporated into the new garages in the relation to our old one. I also explained how the garage was moved over to its current position on a crane when my house was extended with a Granny Annex for my mother. To strengthen the door frame areas for this move L shaped knees running above the doors and down the insides of each side panel to the concrete floor had been added by our builders. Unfortunately over the years the DPC at the base plate of the side panel by the hedge had been slightly bridged allowing the base plate to become softened. Martin kindly replaced the base plate with hard wood I had to hand and opened up the side panel areas on both sides of the door so allowing plenty of fresh air to circulate.
It was a real pleasure to have Martin with us and look forward to having him finish the forth side in the summer.
David Burdett, Essex
