29.05.06 The Front Garden

Just see how white our wall is! In between the rain showers today I painted the walls and 2 people who walked past said it was about time! The graffiti has now gone but it was windy and some of the paint went on the pavement too...oops!
One day when its nice I will tidy up the garden. Sometime when "men" work is happening and I cant do anything. Im not brave enough to tackle the back garden on my own as its huge!

29.05.06 The 2nd Floor Bedroom's

Arent men funny?! It takes ages to find the hoover never mind use it and here was Rob informing me whilst at Wickes, that he was going to buy a hoover! Apparantly to clean the roof. I think you can see from the pictures, that we have the cleanest roof space in England!
It has been de-nailed and the carpets and underlay are now up and ready to go to the skip.
There isnt any felt so all the tiles have to come up. Oh joy!
There's woodworm in the floor boards which has to be dealt with.
The roofer should be coming on the 30th May.

28.05.06 The kitchen

The kitchen has been finished. Note the flowers in a vase on the windowsill. These say this is officially our home!! The flowers are home grown, through no help from ourselves! Also, note the new kettle as the one I used about 25 times to boil up a full kettle of water to wash and scrub the whole kitchen died a death yesterday. RIP! Hopefully the gas boiler man will visit this week.
The reason I had to scrub the kitchen was due to all the lathe and plaster coming down the 10 dustbin chute and some of the 200 years worth of dust landed in the kitchen. I can in some way empathise with any home that has been overcome with volcanic ash. Thankfully, I was buying bridesmaid dresses with my bridesmaids, my mum and mother in law to be when this event occured. My father in law and brother in law to be helped Rob with this happy event.
I like the colour gloss, but it just doesnt go with the orange floor tiles. I suspect that sometime when Ive got a spare day! I shall re-paint it in a cream colour.

21.05.06 The Kitchen

We removed all the wallpaper in the kitchen. This is the only room that we are not going to alter for sometime as we are converting the out buildings into the kitchen. I think psychologically painting this room will be good for us. It's one room finished! On the first picture you can see that Rob has already started making a channel for the re-wiring. The plaster in the room is something to be desired but hopefully painting over it will make it look better than it does now.

The Kitchen

This was the kitchen in its full glory! Unfortunately for us we have to live with this kitchen for quite some time, until we have enough money to convert the out buildings into a kitchen. This house was previously rented and you can tell! There's grease and grim all over it and we dont have the option of hot water. Rob switched the central heating on and flames shot out of the back of it! We've decided that boiling the kettle to get hot water is the better option.

The First Floor Bedroom

Its now without its fireplace. It fell on the floor and the tiles dropped out of it. We have decided that we will put dark red/red wine coloured tiles in it now and take it downstairs as it is actually a gas fire. So its definitely not original!
The skirting boards have come off in all the rooms. Both Rob and his Dad have been working on it at the weekend.
Lots of old wallpaper and wood has been taken to the skip too.

20.05.06 Back, 2nd Floor Bedroom.

The ceiling is now down in the back bedroom and we have managed to borrow some buckets from Rob's friend rather than hire at a ridiculous amount for a day. The ceiling is complete with a wasp/hornet nest. Thankfully it wasnt active! We can see daylight in this room to but its not as bad as in the other 2nd floor bedroom. Hopefully, sometime this week we shall get a roofer to come and assess the damage.

18.05.06

This is how it looks now. There wasnt much damp on the main hallway but further up it looked like it was possibly coming in from the old windows that were blocked off but not rendered properly. This is where I found the message from 1986. Near to where the hammer is on the radiator.

The Stairs

The stairs once upon a time looked like this. With its deep haunting burrrrrr door bell. I did mend it and it sounded dreadful! But it was quite quaint. But it possibly reminded me of the Psycho film! I expect that there's lots of damp in here.

16.05.06 The Stairs

I was removing the wallpaper on the stairs today and came across another piece of history. Only this time it was only 20 years ago. On the first part of stairs was an inscription which stated "We hope you have as much fun as we did". Further up the stairs was the inscription, "I hate decorating these walls". They'd obviously changed their mind!
My Mum and Dad came around tonight. I think my Dad now worries about us. But it will be ok and the house will become lovely in about 4 months time. It just looks horrendous at present due to knocking it about. But in the long run it will be worth it and will save us time, money and worry in the future.

16.05.06 The Bathroom After

This is the bathroom after the wallpaper and walk in shelves and cupboards had been removed. Note the amazing 1940's (?) painting, Very stylish! We found a 1943 threpence under the wood. There's been a secret apple pie eater as the evidence was tucked away in the cupboards! The blue wallpaper was a real pain to get off too.

16.05.06 The Bathroom

This was the bathroom prior to the destruction today!

15.05.06 History

According to the lady who used to own the house, the marks on the living room wall are from the Regency period. They are on 3 of the 4 walls. You can see from these etchings that the door has moved from one wall the another. So the layout isnt as it was when it was first built. The fire was also removed today too

15.05.06 2nd Floor, Back Bedroom

Unfortunately, after removing the wallpaper and basically just pulling the ceiling wallpaper off the ceiling without any effort at all. The ceiling will need to come down in just the same way as in the front. The glass panel will be removed as we are not sure why it is there anyway. I suspect its to let more light in, but to be honest there's enough light getting through anyway. Today I started stripping the bathroom too.

15.05.06 News

Today we had a lovely letter from the previous owner and a HUGE bunch of keys. Most of them dont fit any of the locks! Apparantly, our house is one of three called the Nearside Villas and they were close to the river where the Pilgrim Fathers set sail from. The river was diverted to make way for the railway. Our home used to house merchant's who dealt with the port. The out buildings were used by the servants to wash the clothes and themselves. Out of the three houses, ours is the only one left with the original wash house, tub and fire grate. Apparantly the glazed sink is also from around the 1815's too. Had anyone noticed that I'd changed the original date. Estate Agents..Bah!! I have asked the Solicitor for a paper copy of the house deeds. Im keeping my fingers crossed that they exist to get some history about the house.
The shed got broken into on the 14.05.06. Nothing went missing so far as we know. Rob tried to open the door earlier in the day and wasnt successful. I only wish that they'd taken at least the mouldy wardrobe...or even the shed! Being able to go inside and looking at the roof, its a demolishion job.
I forgot to take pics today. We stayed longer than expected and I thought I'd come back for my camera, but didnt.
Forgot to add, as it was raining today, we could see the rain coming in through the roof where we had removed the lathe and plaster.

15.05.06 2nd Floor, Back Bedroom.

We made a start on the 12.05.06 by removing some of the wallpaper but we had a helping hand from a small child I suspect. This is the other room on the 2nd floor. It has wallpaper on the ceiling too so I guess that's not good news and that ceiling may need to come down too. I get to find out tomorrow. Ive got the next two days off work.

14.05.06 The Master Bedroom

Ouch, Ouch, Ouch, how I ache today! But all this exercise will help me get into my wedding dress in 4 months time! This is the roof. You can no longer see the floor for dust, wood and dirt. This room is now a complete mess. I doubt we will have much worry about convincing the council that this home is no longer habitable! The second picture shows the internal valley. I can see it, but maybe everyone else reading this will struggle! See the light too! The picture is taken at the opposite side of the room to the window so it dips down into the middle of the house. We need expert advice from a roofer, so hopefully he will be coming this week. We cant get a skip until we know whether the other 2nd floor bedroom's ceiling needs to come down. Fingers crossed it doesnt.

14.05.06 1st Floor, Front Bedroom.

With the wallpaper removed you can see the HUGE problem in the corner of the room in the picture with the stepladder. That stepladder is becoming a huge star in all the pics! The damp problem is due to cracked rendering on the corner of the outside of the house. There's a small amount in the corner of the room in the second picture. But generally the other walls are alright. The electric junction boxes were covered with a piece of cardboard and wallpaper over it, very health and safety conscious! The paint did start to come off the ceiling but the stepladders are a bit rickety to enable me to get it off at present. This room will be re-visited at another time to remove the ceiling paint.

14.05.06 The 1st Floor Front Bedroom

The darkest room of the house with possibly the most interesting wallpaper! We quite like the fireplace, maybe not to everyone's taste but its kind of period taste but its probably only 20 years old. It seems to fit in with the house. I think it will go into the dining room which is presently the kitchen. This will be our bedroom whilst the rest of the house is being finished. We plan to carry out the re-wiring, gas central heating, mend the roof, damp proof the house and then finish a bedroom, bathroom and the living room before moving in.

13.05.06 The ceiling starts come down.

The first picture shows the walk in wardrobe removed and the start of the ceiling coming down. The first layer of plaster has gone and my other half is removing the lathe and plaster. Its getting messy and it can only be removed a bit at a time as he can't see the other side of the room! There is a 200 years worth of dust! Removing the ceiling will assist us to mend the roof and hopefully put a velux window up there to enable us to sort out any future problems without having scaffolding and also put insulation up there too. We can't go through the roof space due to the internal valley. It wasnt possible to get anyone or anything up there before.

13.05.06 The Master Bedroom 2nd Floor, Front.

This is the master bedroom. The walk in wardrobe with active woodworm is to be made wider and that will be the ensuite. But thats a plan for a far distant future when we have extra money.
The plasterboard ceiling is hiding something sinister. We know that there are problems with the roof and internal valley. We need to know how far the problem goes. We are going to remove the ceiling..wish my other half the best of luck!

13.05.06 The Living Room After

These pictures are of the living room after the wallpaper and dado rail were removed. There is definitely damp in the corner near the radiator. Damp proofing experts are needed. The damp rises from the cellar but that's not causing the damp in the living room. I think the garden soil is higher than it should be. The fireplace also needs replacing as this one will look out of place for what we have in mind.
We plan on having this room painted in cream with a milk chocolate covered settee with hints of burgundy in pictures, cushions and ornaments.

13.05.06 The Living Room

The living room has elements of damp in it near the radiator in the second picture. The wallpaper needs to come off to enable us to re-wire and check where the damp is exactly. There is one single plug socket in the living room. How odd! It was last re-wired in 1982.
These are the before pictures that we took on the 12.05.06

Station Road 12th May 2006

Today we got the keys to our lovely 1815's decrepit property. A full 4 storeys of house, including the vaulted cellar, which has been neglected over the past few years. It has rising and penetrating damp, roof problems and has not been re-wired for the past 20 years but looks much more like 40 years! The gas boiler looks like its been there for the same amount of time!
With huge apple trees and an overgrown garden its going to be a challenge! I suspect we shall be renovating it for the next 200 years!