The House that Jack built

The first post in ages!

Matt — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 22:28:36 +0000

Okay.

We’re rolling. It’s been over 12 months of having services installed, having a nightmare with Window fitters, Plumbers and generally wasting money.

We’re so far:

-rewired (new consumer board and all)

-replumbed; bathroom has been installed on the first floor

-rewalled

more to come.

here’s a sneak peek:

I HATE LATHE & PLASTER!

Matt — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 10:38:18 +0000

In preparation for turning the bedroom into the bathroom, we need to take off the 100 year old plaster from the walls. it’s generally not in good condition, and we need to rip down the plaster from the internal stud walls and renew it.

Because these walls probably haven’t been messed with in a while, they have been plastered using an old technique called lathe & plaster. Stud framework is erected, and then small wooden batons are hammered across, which are then plastered onto.

Needless to say – it’s a real pain the arse to remove. Have a look:

Bathroom wall before:

Bathroom wall after:

The batons have to be removed and denailed from the stud so we can fix plasterboard sheets to the studding. Here’s another – bathroom before:

bathroom after:

It’s going to be a long Easter weekend……

Bathroom To Be – Starts Taking Shape!

nic — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 10:40:47 +0000

The beeeeeeautiful roll top bath arrived! I ordered it from TrueShopping.com for a steal – their normal prices are cheaper than other outlets SALE prices! The only problem was that if the product you order is big, they will not bring it in the house! So, on a rainy day last month, the bath arrived and i had to somehow get it in the house…ON MY TOD as i was home alone!

So, i made lots of soggy ramps out of spare cardboard and placed them over the 4 different steps into our house…and dragged the beast in!

Half Way

Matt and i got it upstairs OK, and i was a very happy girl. Next i got creative & sprayed the feet white…

Then I got busy taking the dodgy plaster off the walls, and exposing the fireplace…messy work!

Tackle the damp problem – Job 3: replace joists & floor

Matt — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 17:52:48 +0000

One of the largest jobs, the damp course and ground floor needed to be finished. With help from Dad and a friend of his, we were on a 5 day mission to sort it!

Part 1. we hired a DPC Injection machine and drilled a bunch of holes. We then injected a DPC around the inside of the front and back living room.

Part 2 The ‘orrible wall on the stairs was removed, as was every radiator, and the stairs were propped up using acrow props. Instantly looks much brighter and airy!

Part 3 – Dig out the rest of the rubble underneath the floor and relay new joists where the old ones used to be, and spray with Timber & Wood preserver to prevent dry rot, wet rot and any woodworms munching on the wood.

Part 4- Relay and hammer down the floorboards from the front of the room to the back!

Master Bed Room…the plan

nic — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 13:14:10 +0000

The bedroom is the room in the best condition. Its a great size, with two lovely big windows and a chimney breast which we plan to add a small fire place to. We want it to be light, bright and calm, a bit like the image below.

Bed Room Inspiration Pic

We haven’t done any work to it yet, as we have been concentrating on the damp problem down stairs. But we have managed to make it feel quite homey around all the cracks and patches!

Tackle the damp problem – Job 2: Remove Rotten Floors

nic — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 16:58:09 +0000

The damp and the wood boring beetle have destroyed our wooden floor boards and joists. Nearly all of these will need replacing, which is a shame as i wanted to try and keep as much original character from the house as possible. Unfortunately they are beyond repair.

So last weekend, Matt and i got stuck into lifting the boards. Unfortunately, we also uncovered about 15 bags worth of rubble too, which we had to shovel out and take several trips to the tip with! This is obviously another reason why the floor was so damp as it didn’t have room to breath as it was packed so tight with debris. We also found that the joists werent actually anchored to the walls – but just rest on bricks & slate…hmmmmm

Take a look at the pics!

Rotten Joists! How Was The Floor Even Staying Up?

Tackle the damp problem – Job 1: Remove The Plaster!

nic — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 12:57:06 +0000

Job One - Removing Plaster From Front Room & Dining Room

We are getting a DPC, which requires us to remove the plaster off all the walls! This has not been an easy job as a lot of the room is skimmed with really thick cement! Matt and i have done all this in two weekends and looong evenings after work!

Cement Hell

Front Room…the plan

nic — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 13:39:53 +0000

The from room has plenty of scope to make it a cosy, bright room with lots of character!

It has a chimney breast, which we plan to install a traditional gas fire. Two large PVC box windows which we plan to replace with sympathetic double glazed shash windows and colonial blinds. The window frames are rotten as are some of the wooden floor joists and boards – so they will need replacing. We would also like to add a window seat to make use of the dead space within the window alcove, creating storage and a place for Lilly our cat to sit and watch the world go by, which is one of her favourite hobbies! We also want to reinstate cornacing, skirting boards and a ceiling rose too.

We hope it will look a bit like this beautiful flat we viewed last year which was oozing charm, but was too small and too expensive for us!

A Pretty Flat We Viewd Last Year

As you can see…we have got quite a long way to go 1st!

Viewing Day

Bathroom-To-Be…the plan

nic — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 12:44:06 +0000

We would like to install a bathroom upstairs into the middle bedroom. This room is an awkward shape and size to be a comfortable double bedroom. But, it would make a very special bathroom! The plan is to add the big skirting boards, cornacing, ceiling rose and re-expose the fire place. With my 30thbirthday cash-stash i bought an acrylic roll top bath, and for Xmas i got a loo, so now i am saving up for the sink…hopefully i will still be able to catch the Jan sales! We are hoping that it will look a little like this when we are finished:

Bathroom Inspiration

We have got a long way to go though!

On Viewing Day

The Beginning

Matt — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 12:54:18 +0000

This is what the place looked like when we viewed it back in September 2008. These are the pictures taken by the estate agents and ourselves on our 1st viewing. They don’t really convey how bad it was inside, but never the less, we fell in love with it straight away.

We love Victorian/Edwardian properties, and were searching for anything with a bit of character or original features. Although most of the features have been ripped out of the house, we knew we would be able to restore it back to it’s former glory. Every other period property we could afford was badly converted with only one floor and one bedroom – so this was a total stroke of luck. As soon as we said the words “shall we go and look upstairs” we knew we wanted it!

After 3 months of arsing about, we managed to exchange and complete on the place, and we were in by XMAS 08!