Renovation chic

by In Ethel's House, Renovations Tagged , , Leave a comment

This is not one of my better looks – you know it’s gone badly wrong when the selfie mode on your phone can’t identify a face!!

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You can do a cracking Darth Vader impression in that breathing mask though 🙂  I decided to take a brush to the walls to get as much plaster dust off as possible – one of the reasons the plasterboard in the kitchen and living room was damp at the bottom is because over the years the lime plaster behind it had crumbled off the wall and filled in the gap between wall and plasterboard, making a nice absorbent bridge for any moisture to work its way through.

Anyway, it’s all swept up into rubble sacks, waiting to go to the tip (we have an old Mitsubishi L200, which is tough as old boots, but even it starts to sag if we put more than 10 bags of rubble in the back!) and we’re pretty much good to go with the professionals next week.

Dougie the electrician called in today to see how things were going and to find out when David the joiner would be on site.  When he heard that Pete was hoping to start next week and would have David around, he said he’d stop by too and put in a temporary power supply for them, as it would be safer for them to work with than the existing power.  Hopefully next week we’re going to start making giant strides forwards.

Mick’s big week off

by In Ethel's House, Renovations Tagged , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

So my lovely husband decided that he needed a week off work, since he hadn’t had any time off yet this year, and last week he put in a massive effort to get the house more or less ready for the trades to start.

He got a little over-enthusiastic in the bathroom – we’ll have to rig up a sheet for some privacy!  Pete, Dougie and David all know each other well, but possibly not THAT well!!

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Bedroom one – wall ready for raking out and repointing.  You know that the hot water cylinder was there a long time when there’s a perfectly circular dent in the floorboards.

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Studwork removed between the rooms upstairs – that’s standing in bedroom one, looking through bedroom three/the landing to bedroom two.

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Lime plaster coming off downstairs.  Still waiting for the final verdict on supporting that lintel, which means it’s not a ‘No’ yet!

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Living room lime plaster coming off.  I’m sure there are probably better, safer and faster ways to do it than knocking it off by whacking it with a hammer, but I did that wall in the second and third pictures (and about a wall’s-worth in the kitchen) and it’s bloody good fun!  On a more practical note, I am a lot happier with my balance on a stepladder than I was before I started.

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He really did pick the right week to take off – we’ve enjoyed some stunning weather here over the past 10 days.

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So we are more or less there on the stripping out part of the job.  Upstairs has now been swept up and is ready to go.  Downstairs we still need to bag up and remove the lime plaster on the floor, but decided that a better breathing mask were required first – the filters for it arrived today, so we should be able to get tidied up downstairs by the end of the weekend, particularly since the Rayburn was rehomed today to someone who’s prepared to give it some TLC and restore it (and he very kindly brought us a bottle of whisky to say thank you!).