Roasty Toasty

Probably not the most exciting bit of DIY but I have a feeling we’ll be thankful of it come winter. Klaus has been busy insulating the walls and floors. because the rooms are big and airy we’re anticipating some chilly winters. So each room has been insulated as much as possible and we’ll control the temperature in each room individually. Plus it’s also intended to be good sound insulation.

There’s a really chunky piece of oak in this shot.

It all looks a bit mock-Tudor.  This will be covered over again soon and plastered as the rewiring is also finished.

Newspapers from the 1950s

When we took up the flooring in the hall we found newspapers from the 1970s. But when we took up the floorboards to put in the central heating in the upstairs sitting room we found some even older papers from the 1950s.

It seems that it coincided with Ascot based on the coverage.

for queen and commonwealth no less!

 and then some lighter material…

Scandal!!!!!

all very reasonably priced.

and some adverts from the time.

One of the papers ran a strangely familiar article. They sent a little old lady out to see if anyone would offer their seats, help her across the road etc. No one did, conclusion the country has gone down hill – not like the good old days!

Fireplaces

Klaus has been busy uncovering fireplaces. At the moment we’re just removing the heaters that were in front of them. The room we are turning into our kitchen / diner is the best as a guide.

Here’s a before shot that shows both chimney stacks in that room.

before shot of new kitchen

The one in the foreground we have knocked out ready to replace with something more period appropriate.

The one at the back we are going to leave open and use the recess to slot our oven in. The only problem we have at the moment is that the stack needs to stay structurally secure (obviously) and so a lintel has been put in, but also wide enough to fit our range oven in. Currently that looks like this.

kitchen

The oven is actually in shot covered by a forlorn piece of curtain to protect it. Around the stack we’ll have work surface and shelves.

And then upstairs in the bathroom and sitting room we have the following. The beer can is a bit of unfortunate art direction.

sitting room

 We will at some point take the paint off the sitting room fire surround and fingers crossed we’ll find something good underneath.

bathroom

Again we’ll look to replace these. The sitting room should be a working fire again. But the fireplace in the bathroom will probably end up being in a small study area and so we’ll have to see what works in there.

All the old heaters we’ve removed and put in the front garden ready to go to the tip have been taken by members of the public before we had a chance. I dread to think what they are doing with them as I am pretty sure at least one was rained on.

Patterns

While we have been removing wall paper etc (and frankly even without bothering) we’ve found some startling pattern choices. We’ve also found some that have almost come back into fashion.  

Here’s a selection of some of my favourites.

hallway carpet

wallpaper on first floor landing

wallpaper from one of our basement / dungeon rooms

fireplace surround - not a favourite

found behind a kitchen cupboard in the now defunct upstairs kitchen

  

bathroom tiles, popular in the 70s I think

a vibrant choice for the outside bathroom

 The outside bathroom walls are my favourite. I imagine that made a bath feel a bit warmer on a chilly January night.

And one more that I forgot to add before, the carpet on the upper stairs. Did Jackson Pollock ever do a range of carpets? It would seem so…..

When one door opens so does another one

In the continued theme of lifting things up and seeing what’s there we’ve done the same thing with the doors. When we moved in the vast majority had a simple panel on them which made us suspect that the original doors were underneath and luckily they were.

There’s some patching up required as multiple locks have been cut into the doors.

The ones shown here are all in the more public rooms and have six panels in what to my eye is an unusal formation, the centre panel seems much smaller than I’d normally expect. The doors on the top floor bedroom doors are simpler with only four panels. So one type for family and one for guests.

They also need to be stripped back and I think we’ll probably just take them off their hinges and get this done professionally although in some cases it’s a bit of a shame, particularly the bathroom door which has actually ended up with quite a nice effect.

In the pipeline

Work is well underway now with the plumbing and rewiring. The plumbing is for the central heating but also to replace some of the pipes in the house which are not the best. We’ve spent £1000 on copper so far, not the most exciting purchase ever. Here’s some.

and some more..

Because all this is happening we have no hot water and so we’ve been temporarily forced out and are staying with some very kind friends. The dogs are also still away too and with bear traps like this as you come in the front door we really can’t safely have them back as yet.

 

hole inside front door

 

I have already stepped into this several times, mainly when struggling with yet another section of carpet we are removing to allow access for the plumbers and also because it needs to be replaced. 

Here are some images of the pipes going in.

 

sitting room

 

looking into the first floor sitting room

 

bathroom

 

All the boards that have been lifted will be carefully replaced as at least on the ground floor we intend to have exposed floorboards. We have about another week and a half to go as we have to wait for the new system to be linked up to the mains water plus we need the radiators to arrive. 

We’ve gone for radiators that look like this for most room, although we are sourcing them via a friend so hope they will be cheaper. 

Open plan living

The first big piece of work to take place was taking down the stud wall between what was the bathroom and the kitchen which are both on the  first floor.  Here they are before:

The wall coming down….

and now as one open plan kitchen – bathroom. Soon they’ll be all the rage.

where the old walls once met

On the first night Klaus had a bath and I did some washing up at the same time.

Stairway to heaven

Klaus and I stayed up late recently and took off all the panelling on our stairs. The results were both good and bad.

The staircase itself is a nice design, quite slim and elegant and once given a bit of tlc should look great. We’re thinking of having the spindles white and the hand rail plain wood.

However many of the spindles are missing, probably a third so we will either need to see if the design is already available to buy or get them copied.

Plus the ends have been chopped off presumably so they fitted into the paneling more easily.

And the final blow is that the ends of each step has also be knocked off on every single one and so they will all need to replaced too. Again it’s probably not that tricky just a shame.

 

Caught short

So in the garden we have a kind of outhouse. It’s on two levels. One is in line with the basement and used to be an outside bathroom. Here’s the outside view.

lower level of outhouse

 

And the inside complete with old bath (that really must have been nippy in January).

tempting looking bath and sink

 

We are actually hoping to knock through from the basement level into this outside space and reinstate a bathroom. But that’s for a bit further down the line.

The the other half is on the level with the garden and includes an outside loo which no longer works. But Klaus has found a use for it.

Before photos

To go back to the beginning I have been meaning to post some shots that show how the house was before we moved in.  These images taken by our photographer friend Paul are a good guide.First up is the front room which we will make into a kitchen / dinning room (the current kitchen is part of a room on the first floor that has been divided into two; a narrow bathroom and a narrow kitchen which unfortunately cuts across a window). The plan is to have the more formal eating area at the front and the kitchen at the back so we look out over the garden. Not the heating, we have this kind of thing in every room and they will all need to be replaced with central heating. 

what will be the kitchen

The staircase has been enclosed and so we’ll remove that and need to restore the banisters etc.

enclosed stairs

 A peek at the bathroom which is one half of the upstairs room we will remove the partition wall from. This side has its half of the window boarded up and so a new smaller window has been cut to give some light. 

peeking into the bathroom

  

 

Then on the downside (literally) we have the basement / lower ground floor. This area hasn’t been lived in for quite some time, probably decades. We’re hoping to make this a semi-independent flat with a small kitchen and bathroom which friends and relations can use but as you can see it really needs some work. 

  

  

And the creepiest room in the house. The storage space under the outside stairs which run up to the front door. Many people are too scared to even approach. One day this will be something cool like a wine cellar but if we’re honest that’s some way off. 

dungeon