Renovations - Part Fifteen

First of all my apologies to any regular readers of the renovation posts for a bit of a delay in the fifteenth edition. Despite tumble weed blowing across the blog things have been busy busy busy on site.

The boarding and plastering has now spread from the first floor room out into the stairs and hallway. The picture below is of the upstairs landing looking over the stairs. The building is still missing a few windows here and there so its very slowly but surely drying out.

The first floor of the little wing at the back has also been skimmed now too and new double glazed windows put it.

Below is the view looing up the stairs of the new super smooth skimmed wall.

The two windows in the hallway where the front door is have also been replaced. Unfortunatly due to the porch roof leaking so much the orignial window frames were completely rotten and had to be taken out. They had been boarded up until now so its lovely to get another area full of natural light again.

In the main room downstairs where the shop will be, a special membrane to prevent any dampness working its way in was put in place first, then the big mama insulation boards on top.

The insulation boards will really give a huge window ledge...I still can't get over how thick it is!

The most dramatic thing to have happened of late is a bit of a change of plan with the ceiling in the downstairs room. It wasn't in the best of conditions in some parts.....

.....and when you put a plank of wood across it to check how level it was, the plank pretty much turned into an upside down see-saw in places as the ceiling had dropped so much. This would mean that once it had been boarded and skimmed the plaster would more than likely just crack over time. The question arose...should it just all be taken down? and I was feeling disapointed as its another original part of thats had to go. On the flip side though.....due to building regulations we had to double plaster board the ceiling anyway which would have taken out part of the coving. Then the big mama insulation boards that have to go on the exterior walls took out a hige chuck on the coving as well, so actually in the end only about 30% of the original coving would be visible anyway. Taking it down seemed drastic but it means all the old dirt and dust can be taken out and we can replace it with a new, just as lovely coving that will look better then a mostly covered up original one.

So all the floor boards from upstaris were lifted (which needed to be done to put the underfloor heating in anyway)....

And then the ceiling could be pushed down....

It looked so strange (and extremly messy!) when it was all gone. And I got that frustrating feeling when things start to look worse before they look better.

Now that its all done and the rubble is in the skip I'm really pleased it was done.There was so much rubble and dirt and dust between the upsatirs floor and downstairs ceiling. When everything is finished you won't even be able to tell whats happened. I see it like when you de clutter your wardrobe...no-one will really see that your got rid of all the old junk but you feel good inside about it.

The window lights of the first floor room have arrived as well and have been painted in preperation for going in once the rotten parts of the frame have been repaired.

An on the exterior, the Tudor paneling on the side and back wall has almost all been painted now and is looking really good!

The window in the picture below still needs quite a bit of work but I' sure it wall all come together quickly.

And....if your local and have walked past the site recently you may have noticed...we have a big banner up outside!

Stay tuned...I've got loads more great pictures of the replica window being installed!