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I love that pink velvet mid-century chair and hope it is salvageable.
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Feb 10, 2013 22:09
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Nice job, cleaning up is the worst!
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Feb 10, 2013 22:11
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Oh man, ceiling tiles? That's just a travesty in a house which surely had beautiful coving everywhere when built!
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Feb 11, 2013 23:46
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Arsenic Lupin posted:I love that pink velvet mid-century chair and hope it is salvageable. TheMightyHandful posted:Nice job, cleaning up is the worst! Rime posted:Oh man, ceiling tiles? That's just a travesty in a house which surely had beautiful coving everywhere when built!
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Feb 12, 2013 08:21
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Tiglath III posted:The coving is all still there, although it's been painted in some awful colours in the various rooms. Yeah as a former French polisher that's the kind of thing I feared. I still have PTSD from so many white paint jobs we had to remove. You don't know hell until you spend 4 weeks with nothing but a heat gun, scraper and a bucket of stripper six inches from your face as you try restore the skirting etc.
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Feb 12, 2013 11:58
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  drat dude, just the outside is a huge difference.
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Feb 14, 2013 01:24
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Deforestation is getting serious!
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Feb 14, 2013 09:31
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De-carpeting has commenced, the horid pink carpet is now long gone along with a few others. Rewiring starts tomorrow so all floor coverings have to come out, no bad thing really. Surprisingly not too much carnage under the carpets, the only cut boards are where the heating pipes have been accessed. Easy fixed.  
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Feb 17, 2013 10:59
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Thanks for the progress reports! Holy crap that's a lot of work. But what a gorgeous property.
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Feb 18, 2013 05:19
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Day one of the electricians, I've just let them get on with it today. The guys showed up at 8am on the dot, and got to work. They reckoned 2 weeks in total for all the work, that's 11 rooms, all sockets and lighting. So far on day one, all sockets on the Ground floor has almost been done, only the kitchen and sun room to do. Quite impressed by the speed of the work, although to be honest, all the floors are just boards, all carpets are removed, so it should speed things up a lot. The British regulations on electrical outlets keeps changing and the latest regulation means that the outlets on the skirting (baseboards) are all to low. One of the outlets is only 40mm above the floor level, so out it comes, along with the others. I've had a look under the floors and its amazing how the Victorians built houses. There's all manner of broken brick stone, roof slate under the floors, fortunately its all well ventilated and appears in good condition. This is a prime example.  Floor tiles and the gloop used to put them onto the floorboards, smells like cows for some reason.  Sorry for the poor image, this is a bakelite junction box, there's another 1m from that one, the pipes are the central heating pipes.  Again, sorry about the image, but there's the Victorian idea of foundations and under building.  These boards are probably 50/60's they are new but good condition.  Old boards and new boards, which is which?  New electrical outlets roughed in.  Internet and new sockets , yaaaayyyyy  Long before we bought this place there was a dry rot issue, it was fixed and the evidence is here.  More old and new.  Last two shots, the floor under the manky/rancid old brown carpet, not sure about the reddish brown floor paint. Bagpuss serves as my reminder of our dog fudge, whom we lost in november. Still miss her lots and bagpuss is always near my pc.  And my favourite photo of the day, Victorian wallpaper, I think it's the only piece left. I may remove it carefully and frame it. It's a part of the house and tastefully done I would like it to stay in the house. 
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Feb 18, 2013 23:20
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fork bomb posted:That mousey is super cute. Hopefully he and his live strictly outside of the house. It's a house mouse (Mus musculus), so I think it's fair to assume that he'll be more than happy to move inside.
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Feb 19, 2013 18:00
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Tiglath, I think that you've got a great fixer-upper! A couple questions: In this picture, is there an actual pattern on the concrete wall, or is it just my imagination?  Also, are you going to go with modern decor, try a Victorian restoration, or something totally different? Just wondered if you had ever thought of Lincrusta - which would be period correct - in some of the rooms, or if that's too far in the future. I'm wishing the best of luck with the project!
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Feb 20, 2013 01:42
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Pigsfeet on Rye posted:Tiglath, I think that you've got a great fixer-upper! A couple questions: That wall is patterned, it is the kitchen and I'm sure this was a fairly modern addition to the house. I will take some shots of it later today. Thanks for the link, I hadn't thought of doing this but will definitely consider it. Cheers
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Feb 20, 2013 08:29
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Tiglath III posted:
Oh vomit! Carpeting in a toilet room. That is so nasty; why do people do that? And I love the stuffed toys - they look suitably horrified about what lurks around the corner.
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Feb 23, 2013 09:50
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gingersmurf posted:Oh vomit! Carpeting in a toilet room. That is so nasty; why do people do that? And I love the stuffed toys - they look suitably horrified about what lurks around the corner. The house I grew up in had carpeted bathrooms. They were standard issue for that style double wide. Said carpeting was also once a brown shag sort of monstrosity. The bathrooms got re-floored around ten years ago, but that carpet still lives in the rest of the house. I blame the 1970's.
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Feb 23, 2013 15:00
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I think we should blame all the world's problems on the 1970's. That was a terrible era for home decor. They stapled orange shag carpet directly onto our original 3/4" oak floors! WHO DOES THAT? I will never forgive the 70s for the hours I spent pulling rusted staples with bits of shag carpet stuck underneath, let alone the awful linoleum in the kitchen. The house is looking much better with so much junk gone from around it! Keep up the lovely work!
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Feb 23, 2013 19:37
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Tiglath III posted:Front bedroom 2, thats a queen size bed btw. Please please check that those are not polystyrene ceiling tiles. If they are, remove them ASAP. When I was 11 we had a fire in our (also Victorian) house (also in Scotland) and these melted, caught fire and dripped down on my step father and he was badly burned. I'm not sure they are illegal to install now but they are a big risk, just ask your local fire safety officer. Also, thank you for posting that Bimbo album. I named my first (male) cat Bimbo because of that comic (I was 3) and I never heard the end of it. Nobody I ever met afterwards had ever even heard about it.
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Feb 25, 2013 16:28
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Laser Cow posted:Please please check that those are not polystyrene ceiling tiles. If they are, remove them ASAP. When I was 11 we had a fire in our (also Victorian) house (also in Scotland) and these melted, caught fire and dripped down on my step father and he was badly burned. I'm not sure they are illegal to install now but they are a big risk, just ask your local fire safety officer. You'll be pleased to know that all the polystyrene tiles are coming down, its a laborious job though. They cover the entire top floor ceilings so its a room at a time. So far, the ceilings all look reasonable, but I expect to find some damage when the tiles are being prised off. Not much going on other than electrical work at the moment, so few photos of progress. Cheers
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Feb 25, 2013 19:04
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You've lost all your images man. need to rehost or upgrade your photobucket. But from what I remember was looking good last time.
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Mar 2, 2013 07:27
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I'm still seeing them, on Chrome. Also I guess I'll take this time to say I like your thread/house! I need to stop being lazy and document some of the poo poo I'm doing to my ancient home.
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Mar 4, 2013 17:58
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Anphear posted:You've lost all your images man. need to rehost or upgrade your photobucket. But from what I remember was looking good last time. I've upgraded my account now, all photos should be there to view now. Cheers
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Mar 4, 2013 18:23
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Moving swiftly onward, the electricians have completed the rewiring of the whole house and garage area. Unfortunately it took 5 weeks to do, mainly because they stopped working 1 week into the job to pick up work from one of their cash cow businesses. A local estate owner who demands that they drop everything and work for them. Needless to say, we got quite annoyed by this, especially when the guy asked for full payment despite not having finished off the work. He's not been paid yet as the finishing plaster hasn't been completed yet, That should be done tomorrow. This still needs finishing, but new consumer unit in place.  So all the lights now work, including this one.  The second major change is the new windows, we thought about getting new sash and case but they are really expensive, instead another local businessman supplied these, I like them, they don't look out of place. Purists will argue the opposite is true.  From the front of the building.  Three vintages of window.  Inside, I now have to fill nail holes and prime before painting the surrounds, looking forward to it.  New bathroom windows.  Every two steps forward needs, by the rules, to be followed by one step backwards, in this case a pretty horrible one. When the plasterer was going round putting the rough coat on he spotted this.  Not the wiring, the stuff behind it. Hands up who knows what it is. Suffice to say that the plaster wall will need stripped back to see what the extent of the problem is, hopefully its not going to be much and we will develop a new friendship with the plasterer. Cheers for now.
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Mar 17, 2013 19:09
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Mice? Bats? Bees?? CTHULHU????
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Mar 17, 2013 20:56
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Mice and bats or bees I can cope with, Cthulhu, albeit a more feisty character has nothing on "dry rot". Its a fungus which grows into monstrous mushroomy type growths which spread throughout the timbers in the property. The stuff in the photo appears to be dead, however it may still have growths further round the front of the building. Here's hoping it hasn't. And in further news, I have started stipping.........the wallpaper in the Morning room. Seems that one of the previous owners has modernised it by removing the picture rail and the fireplace and put in a narrower door. You can see the faint outline of the fireplace, which I suspect was a later gas type and the plaster where the wider door frame was. So far no issues in this room, fingers crossed.   Ps the marks on the walls are pva glue which was holding on the polystyrene insulation under the wallpaper, it looks like the walls are damp in the photo, they're not. 
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Mar 17, 2013 22:02
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If you don't mind me asking, how much did a full rewire like that set you back and what did it include?
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Mar 17, 2013 23:08
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Full rewire was roughly 7.5k, in my opinion it's money for old rope, but i'm not an electrician. Basically its a new consumer unit and then all lights and sockets wired back to it. I've a feeling that its made out to be more difficult to do than is actually the case. Besides 3, 1 hour breaks on a 7 hour day sounds pretty good. I'm sounding slightly bitter about this as I think that the materials cost about £300, I removed all carpets and flooring so all these monkeys had to do was lay cables and tie in, they used existing lighting conduits so no additional materials were used. In essence, raggling out a few sockets, one light and lifting a few floorboards, slacking off to work for someone else and taking 2 and a half weeks longer than quoted equates to the final bill. Plus repairing the damage they have done to floorboards which need replaced, lets call it £8,000. Oh and the electrician didn't even mention the "dry rot" which is so obvious, the plasterer apologetically mentioned it and said he'll come back and inspect free of charge. Tiglath III fucked around with this message at 00:45 on Mar 18, 2013 |
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Mar 18, 2013 00:41
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Tiglath III posted:Full rewire was roughly 7.5k, in my opinion it's money for old rope, but i'm not an electrician. Sounds like a bit of a poo poo job, and i think you're right with some research and most importantly patience you could do it safely yourself, however i think that the new edition of the regulations makes that harder to do as you are supposed to inform the council about the work and i believe if you wanted to get insurance you would need to get it inspected by a qualified electrician, (i think).
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Mar 18, 2013 23:00
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HERAK posted:Sounds like a bit of a poo poo job, and i think you're right with some research and most importantly patience you could do it safely yourself, however i think that the new edition of the regulations makes that harder to do as you are supposed to inform the council about the work and i believe if you wanted to get insurance you would need to get it inspected by a qualified electrician, (i think). You're right, and I'm a lot pissed off with the guy but it's done now and I can move forwards, it's another job chalked up to experience. These days all electric must be done by certified pro's regardless of how tardy they are. I know they won't be coming back to do anymore work. Next job heating.... only because Scotland sucks and it's still snowing in the middle of March. cheers guys,
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Mar 19, 2013 00:06
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Augh, 7.5k for the electric?! I'm so glad my dad knows how to wire houses! If it makes you feel better it's snowing on this side of the ocean too.  We're behind on all our projects... but I'm glad you're moving along on yours! Those windows look pretty good. I'm all for keeping the original ones if they can be weather-proofed but I suspect you made the right choice with new windows.
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Mar 19, 2013 04:26
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I paid 3.5K for a two day apartment rewiring job. And they weren't even that neat. Looks like you are making some awesome progress though, are you going to put picture rails back in? They do look classy as gently caress with the right décor.
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Mar 20, 2013 08:49
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Progress is good despite the weather and the cold. I do plan on putting back all of the missing picture rail, and have found some neat stuff online. I forgot to mention that the plasterer is willing to teach me how to plaster the walls properly. One of the things that was left by the previous owner was 4 tonnes of welsh roofing slates, I don't need them and have done a deal in exchange for some of the slates. Sweeet!
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Mar 20, 2013 18:49
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Bartering is pro as gently caress. Have you turned a profit on anything else that was left there since you posted about it last time?
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Mar 21, 2013 03:54
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My housemate is an electrician and the amount of studying required to become an electrician is loving mindboggling, there's so many rules and regulations that have to be taken into account it's unreal. The 'bible' of electrician rules and regs is on the 17th edition with gently caress knows how many edits leading up to that... I'd rather pay the 7 grand to not have to do that, seriously.  That and the various retraining seemingly every year when they change something and the cash to pay to continue to be allowed to do the work and the not killing yourself when the previous awful electrical job needs to be removed and and and..... There's more to it than just throwing some cables in even though it seems like it to the layman. That aside, that house is so loving cool.
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Mar 25, 2013 09:45
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88h88 posted:There's more to it than just throwing some cables in even though it seems like it to the layman. Exactly. I'm comfortable putting an extra socket in or adding a light but anything more than that I would and should get a real professional in.
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Mar 25, 2013 20:17
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HERAK posted:Exactly. I'm comfortable putting an extra socket in or adding a light but anything more than that I would and should get a real professional in. I have no idea about electrics, it's wizardry to me. I'm glad the work is done, I just wish the guy had been honest and not dropped me for two weeks to work with folks that he is tied to. Thanks for the compliments on the house, you are all welcome to come help strip the crappy wallpaper and marvel at 50 year old DIY nightmares. I have beer!!
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Mar 25, 2013 23:33
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You're in Scotland, start talking whiskey and you have a deal... :P
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Mar 26, 2013 23:36
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Another tiny little update today. Things have been quiet here, mostly due to the poor weather hampering progress. Since the snow has finally stopped and we had a good sunny weekend, some more clearing has been done and the garden is looking better. Still lots to get rid of but its a fun challenge. As of today I've been learning how to plaster, well attempting to learn how to plaster is a better description. As you might already know, consistency and speed are the name of the game, I know neither and tonight I have a bucket of hardening pink stuff and am feeling a bit tired. However, I have managed to get a foothold and started redoing the morning room, which requires a skim of plaster to allow for decoration. Behold.... my attempt at plastering.  I'm actually quite pleased, I have a new respect for plasterers and I'm quite chuffed that I have a reasonably smooth finish, I'm not so impressed that I managed to get lots of plaster on the sheet and baseboards but hey ho, I'm learning. I had prepped the walls with pva prior to plastering and hopefully I have done things properly, using a general plaster type for the wall type as described on the packaging. On the bartering front my builder is gifting me a chop saw in return for some slate, maybe I should ask him about the plastering. So for tonight, signing off and having a celebratory beer, and hopefully sleep all night through because plastering is hard work. Cheers folks.
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Apr 3, 2013 22:30
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Bit of a mixed update today. The builder came round today to pick up the slate from the garden, in all 5 transit vans full, over 4 tonnes of slate. When they were clearing the came across 12 sheets of corrugated galvanised roofing steel, I let them take that too as I have no need for it. Afterwards we had a look at the joists in the upper level floor, this was in relation to the dry rot in the vestibule, pic above somewhere. This is what we found. The ends of the joists are rotten to the point of crumbling. They are completely dry however, so should be relatively east to fix.  Doesn't look to good but it's not something to panic about. I'm more concerned by the woodworm.  One of the guys that came with the builder was having a root around some of the other piles around the garden and shouted me over. He was quite excited by some railings he had found, turns out that he found these.  Its a crappy pic, so sorry in advance. There are 17/18 of these cast iron staircase bars and he also found the handrail to go with them. I'm so happy with these, they cost a lot to get reproductions, these are the originals to the house, all intact.
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Apr 4, 2013 21:45
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Your house just keeps on revealing it's secrets! Gorgeous railings, good luck with the woodworm.
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Apr 5, 2013 09:29
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Still here and still plugging away. Morning Room walls drying out, just need to sort out the rough bits (I'm not a plasterer) but generally I'm pleased with the way its finished.  Onto one of the bedroom. The back bedroom is lot quieter than the front,traffic noise does wake us up early so its time to redecorate this room. Getting the tiles off was easy they just popped off with the use of a garden tool. The ceiling is flat but dirty, there's evidence of old leaks but no damage. The crack are superficial so a bit filler/plater and all will be good. 
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Apr 27, 2013 21:23
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