Lime mortar and snot

Whilst the boys were busy doing the heavy stonework in the kitchen, I decided I would get on with doing the new lime mortar in the room of doom. Having finished my nemesis of mortar raking out the old lime at the end of the week and cleaned the stone up, this was the next step for the exposed stone wall.
I cant pretend using lime didn't mildly bother me, I had visions of the lime turning my flesh into a seething, fizzing mess of decomposition. It didn't, but I have had a spot outbreak (so unfair aged 40 something), split my nails , dried my hair out and gave me an itchy rash on my back. The other joyous side effect seems to be that I may have an allergy to it. My nose was running constantly and my tongue swelled up, despite wearing a mask! Two days on and my nostrils are peeling and I'm still very snotty. It's brutal bloody stuff...or have I just got a cold...who knows!

Jenks used to be a builder by trade, so after me watching several YouTube videos on how to apply mortar, he also gave me a quick lesson. The lime mortar we used was a ready mix version, so was dryer than expected, however it was pretty easy to do once I got started and had the right tools for the job:
A decent bucket.
Gloves (loads of pairs of the disposable ones)
A stiff brush
A softer brush
6 inch pointing trowel.

I managed to do the entire wall in two days! It looks lovely and has lightened the room right up. I still have to install the flue for the fireplace after my mini disaster, then I can rebuild the bits that need repairing. I will also need to clean off the red bricks on the surround, they have concrete on then so are a much harder job. Then I need to give the stones a quick clean and seal them with a breathable sealant (which is REALLY expensive)!! One step closer, and one of the worst jobs Ive had to do so far done!

Mortar raking done. It really is THE worst job ever!

Dusty as a dusty thing.

The stone wall before mortar raking

After mortar raking

Repointed

The wall is repointed, but the flue still needs to be joined up.

Fireplace and floor reinforcements!

After discovering the fireplace went further back than I first thought and subsequently pulling all of the stone out, we had another quandary. If we could get the cooker further back it would buy us more kitchen space, 5 inches all round, which when you consider how much will be in the kitchen plus the 3 inches we are losing all round to add stud walls, is quite a lot of space. The problem was, there was no lintel holding up the sides of the fireplace, and the end beam needed reinforcing. Risking at worst, a collapse at best the bathroom sagging. We could afford neither of these issues and the trusty acro prop couldn't be there forever.

The other reinforcement we needed was a lintel across the internal kitchen to room of doom door, the original beams only had about three millimeters to sit on, which, when you consider the weight of the bath upstairs was a bit of a worry!

Last Saturday Dean came over with three new lintels ready to start building these in. I was terrified it may all collapse, but with some gentle but brutal drilling out, chocking and logic, he got them all in without too much drama. Dave mixed concrete, Jenks placed bets, and I got on with lime mortaring the wall in the room of doom...keeping out of the way. All this to a backdrop of Motorhead and Zion Train, billions of cups of tea and pasties from the Crusty Loaf in town. We're a good team when we get going, and despite knowing each other for over 25 years we are all still very good mates. It also gives Clive a rest as he has grafted on the house for the last 18 months and has his own new exciting projects on. Although, it doesn't get him off the hook as this is a lifetime project!!

Ultimately we will reinstate the beautiful old lintel that was in the kitchen as a statement, but first we have to rebuild up the sides of the new (old) fireplace. Dean has reinforced the top of the fireplace. This part will be covered so we recycled the strongest bricks we had for this. Dave has prepped the space up, but is taking a well earned rest for a few days to let his back, arms, and hands recover from drilling out some of the remaining stones so the gas man could get in and re site the cookers gas pipe. I need to take a trip to Hales, the local builders merchants to get some sand and frame ties before the weekend. Never a dull moment!

Today is Shrove Tuesday, we don't have a cooker the cooker back in yet, so I've left pancake supplies at Mum and Dad's for tonight. They make much nicer pancakes than I do anyway according to the kids! xx

New lintel and reinforced wall above the fireplace.

Ceilings and wires

After the weekend of destroying the kitchen, the next step was to start at the top. This meant insulation, checking upstairs plumbing, electric cables, and boarding out the ceiling. As you can imagine, the ceiling was not level and if we attempted to get it so, we'd be here forever. So Dave and Dean added wood to the joists, this gave some extra support as well as getting the ceiling as flat as possible to avoid bending or splitting the plasterboard.

Some of the plumbing from the bathroom needed lifting up so that the ceiling could be made level, so that took more time than anticipated, especially as it meant widening a hole in the wall.

Dave and Dean then pulled the multitude of messy wiring through. They unraveled, capped off and generally made sense of what was up there, so that it would be ready when we add in sockets and lights. Dave set to work with adding the insulation and did a fab job with batons to keep it in place (it has made a difference already). Dean made a massive jigsaw puzzle from plasterboard ready to get the ceiling up. I made tea....until it came to using the auto-feed screwdriver. Ooooh, now thats a nice bit of kit. I did get over excited and pulled the trigger too early once or twice, but it was fun and when I messed it up we just pulled the screw out put in another! It made drilling the plasterboard up SO much easier. By the end of the day I had 2 kitchen lights and an insulated plasterboard ceiling up. Dave and I were also £20 down, we all decided to have a couple of bets, but won nothing. Jenks won £300, Dean also won nothing, and made us all laugh by walking off proclaiming it a mugs game!!

We worked till quite late that day as we all wanted this job finished. It's tough going sometimes, but working with old friends makes it so much more fun!

Wires and reinforcement

Adding insulation

The start of the old chimney, to give you an idea of the scale

Two lights and plasterboard up!!

Discovering a fireplace within a fireplace

Whilst knocking the plaster off the kitchen wall, we exposed the old fireplace, or what we thought was the old fireplace. It transpired the chimney had been taken away years before, so the fireplace was merely a cosmetic feature now. This meant there was a gap between the ceiling and the top of the fireplace. I would have to remove a few layers of bricks in order to give us access to the beams ready for nailing on the new plasterboard for the ceiling.

I got the trusty jackhammer out and put a board over the cooker so a)it was protected b)I could stand on it. Then fired the beast up! The corner stones fell away easily, but the middle ones took some brute force. I was also very wary of anything collapsing as I knew there would be some bricks that tied it in to the wall. I pulled out a couple of the bigger middle bricks, felt a rush of cold air and a huge gap appeared. Two thoughts went through my mind; excitement that I'd found something new, fear in case there was a body bricked up behind it (I have an overactive imagination and have read/watched too much horror).

I drilled the next two layers down, removed the stones and stuck a torch in the appearing hole to have a look. No bodies were in there...PHEW! It revealed a large old original fireplace. It was very crude, narrow at the top, wider at the hearth and no longer a working chimney. It will need quite a bit of restoration, as some of the outside is lime mortar and 'rubble, but it's beautiful and an important original feature of the house. I think I also have the original lintel, which will need reinstating back in its higher up position during the rebuild.

I haven't found anything significant up the chimney, no witch marks or talismans yet, however, I think this is a very old part of the house. I might pop my own talisman up there for good measure. The brickwork around it looks like it once had a window and perhaps a bread oven. It is also very thick.

Eventually, and after some restoration and a gas pipe move, I will put the range cooker further back into the fireplace. This will be quite a job but keeping original features is important in these old houses, it's part of our heritage!

Cleaned off cosmetic fireplace - they have used the original lintel here

Taking off the first layer of stone and finding the hole!

Another brick layer removed

Stripped further down to the lintel

Nearly all opened up

Kitchen obliteration

Work on the kitchen has started. I am writing this absolutely covered in dust and in need of a cuppa!

When I moved in the kitchen resembled a somewhat battered early 90's fitted kitchen. From the outside, although not to my taste, it didn't look so bad. However on closer inspection there was a lot of damp and mould, The fixtures and fittings where blown or rusty, and at least one of the power sockets was live, as discovered by Dave plugging in the toaster! This we discovered was due to water running down the walls when it rained.

The two main rooms in a house that have the highest footfall and utility tend to be the bathroom & kitchen, so naturally these are my priorities. With the bathroom done, it is now time to address the kitchen. I packed up everything that was in the kitchen stored loads of it away, warning the kids that this was going to be chaos for quite some time. Then made a little makeshift kitchen in what had been the dining room. Ikea trolleys and butchers blocks come in to their own at times like this! We defrosted the freezer too before moving it over, that was a joy, I am stingy at the best of times, but finding things with a use by year of 2008 suprised even me. Dave was pleased that I threw loads out, my friend Mark who was also over, vowed never to eat in my house again...he will!

We decided the first job would be to take what was left of the ceiling down, then simply demolish the rest, floor, cupboards and strip the walls right back to stone. So, that's where we started. My builder (and old school) friend Dean, came over with tools and a decent wheelbarrow. He and Dave covered the doorways with clothes pegged tarpaulin, donned masks and then went through the kitchen ripping down anything they could, including the old lath and plaster ceiling. I drilled up the rest of the floor tiles, and between numerous tea breaks we chipped the plaster off the walls. The pipework and electrics are now accessible also, so we can tidy these up and drop wires down to wherever we want sockets. It was a long day, starting at 8.45 am until around 7.30 pm. By the end of the day the room was a shell and we were all knackered. This is a major renovation project so I'm expecting it to take some time, but praying not as long as the bathroom took.

There is a thin veil of dust over everything in the house. I like to think it makes all my vintage finds look ethereal. I also have a monumental rubble pile outside now, so suppose when the weather is a bit better I'll need to order a couple of skips.

Destroying stuff is fun, living with it afterwards sucks!

Pulling cabinets, tiles and ceilings down

Rubble!

Dave and his trusty wheelbarrow

Dave and Dean destroying walls

Dean on his work box!

Exposed pipes and electrics.

The shell of the kitchen

Mortar raking - a special kind of hell

Renovating an old property comes with many twists and turns. Ours is dated around 1850, so it has it's fair share of quirks that we've come across. The damp was the main problem when the kids and I moved in, getting a new roof sorted this out, however it has left its scars on the house, therefore drying it out and fixing the damage is taking time.

I want to do the house up sympathetically, not hiding the beautiful features it has. I suspect over the years some have been covered or taken out, or 'updated and modernised' a term I shudder at when used in relation to these old properties. This also often does more harm than good. The old stone houses need to breathe, rendering the outside and plastering the inside, means the stone cannot do this and invites all sorts of damp problems. Many of these are what I inherited! After the little push we did on the Room of Doom (see previous blog post), I concentrated on finishing the bathroom and having Christmas and so on. Now that's all done, it's time to go back to some of these unfinished tasks, one of them being more work on the exposed stone wall in the Room of Doom.

The walls have dried out beautifully now in here, which is a pleasure as it was the wettest room. So now is a good time to do more work on the repointing of the stones. The first task is to rake out the old lime mortar. The mortar is soft so it is a little easier, but all the same this is possibly one of the worst jobs I've had to do.  I think a lot of it is the original stuff, although there does seem to be some small patches of concrete which is harder to shift. Dave initially started doing some of the raking by hand, but it was taking an age. One of my builder mates suggested using a mortar rake, and said they had one we could borrow, they even gave us a lesson in how to use it! It's a Makita electric angle grinder tool with a mortar rake attachment. It's also bloody awesome, in two hours I managed to rake the worst bits off half of the wall!

The down side is that the dust this creates is unholy, I had a dust mask on, but next time I will wear goggles and a head scarf. This stuff gets in your eyes, it scratches and hurts, the other delight was that my hair became a matted thatch, seemingly resisting shampoo until the third wash, even then stones were still dropping out. My hands are rough and desiccated, feeling tightly stretched over my aching finger bones. My face lost any moisture it had, making me resemble a anaemic raisin. The dust and stones ping everywhere, I even had rubble in my bra (cue over shoulder boulder holder jokes)! Also my thumb hurt where I had to continually keep it on the grinder button to control it.

There is another half of the wall to do, but I will need to psyche myself up to do this. There will then be a lot of tidying up the stones, and a hole in the chimney to mend, before the repointing can be done. I know it will be worth it once it's finished. It will add that air of authenticity to the house and showcase the lovely calm, rich colours of the ancient forest stone. I also know this is gonna be an utter hellish, bastard of a job for the next few months!

The wall when it was first exposed

Safety first - something I'm learning fast

Wall before mortar was raked out

Wall after mortar was raked out

Stairway to heaven....

The stairs up to the bedrooms left something to be desired! They were broken, had a big 70's style double banister handrail (the type your Nan would have in a 60/70's new build) scribble and a grubby red carpet. I actually had no intention of doing anything with them for quite some time. That is, until my friend lent me a decent belt sander to finish the bathroom floor with....mmmm this tool is good!

I wasn't sure what to do about the stairs in all honesty, I am also playing it fairly safe with the decor for now. Having three grubby little boys and their many friends in and out, means I need to have things that are robust and can stand heavy usage (they've already pulled the curtains down twice and broken a lampshade...ahhh the joys of motherhood). Paint that is hard wearing, easy to source & touch up, together with things that are simple to maintain and fix is definitely high on the agenda.

So we ripped the vile carpet up, hoping the wood underneath would be passable - it was... Yaaay!
Sanding was hard work as it had paint and varnish glued on from years of heavy footfall.

i MUST JUST TELL YOU THAT oSIRIS is rolling all over the keyboard as I'm typing this, HAPPILY PURRRING AWAY! XXXxx

....however, suitably attired in my dust mask and headscarf the sanding commenced. With a lot of elbow grease and a sanding sheet per stair, the stairs came up a treat. I precision sanded the corners, then used a light oak hard wearing wood varnish on the tops, and a grey hard wearing paint for the risers, paying homage to the grey wall downstairs (I now know what the down bit is called thanks to Cathryn googling this for me)!

The banister still looked vile though and no amount of sanding would change that. I popped to the local builders merchant to get some paint and screws and noticed they had a load of different stair spindles that I could just cut to length. I only wanted plain square ones so I bought four lengths. I have a dreadful habit of doing things by eye, being visual and artistic means I'm often not far out, but sometimes I get it wrong! I explained to Dad and Dave my idea of keeping one handrail and cutting the spindles to length and screwing them on. They both said this would be a nightmare. However, true to form and in their usual engineering style, they discussed how to do it and Dave cracked on. In a few hours I had spindles (there was plenty of wood) - looking wonderful too! Mum then said there was some kind of legal spacing requirement, whereby it had to be safe should a child get their head stuck in them. I said, in that instance we would just get a saw (not for the child's head) or call the fire brigade!!!

So, I painted the spindles and banister white and wrapped a sweet flower garland around it. The upstairs hallway is called the hallway of judgement. I am not a religious person at all, however I do love a good icon. They make me smile and are actually quite beautiful (ok some are just kitsch, but hey). I wanted a wall where they were all together and up the proverbial 'stairway to heaven' seemed the most appropriate place.

The stairs look really great, fitting in with both the downstairs room and upstairs hallway they are in, and more importantly they will last a damn sight longer now! How's that for a days work!

This post is dedicated to my parents lovely friend Mike, whom they've just lost. Mike gave me some of the religious pictures from French brocante finds. xx


You can listen to Led Zeppelin playing Stairway to Heaven whilst you look at these pictures if you like...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Q7Vr3yQYWQ

The hallway of judgement 

old red carpet and crumbling walls

Your Nan's banister & grubby red carpet

wood under the carpet - treasure

New spindles, one painted banister and tarted up stairs

Finished with flower garland