All coming together

[MattW]

Things seem to be happening really quickly on site at the moment - shutters are all done; first coat of dark green paint on the ground floor (yes, a bit of inspiration from Nigel's pics - thanks); 1st floor gaps in floor boards now filled with slivers & sanded ready for waxing (just need to put in small shallow stud walls between shutters to make them flush); and the bathrooms & bedrooms are now done too
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Should be moving in on 1st March all things being equal. Just wanted to thank everyone that contributes to this site - had been a mine of useful information.

 

[Flyfisher]

It certainly looks to be coming together. I particularly like that dark green. Thanks for posting the pics.

 

[philpjuk100]

Looks great! Wonderful colours.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Oh, that is just too fantastic! Very jealous, how wonderful not to have to do every little thing yourself.

The colours are great - what's the yellow? I'd like that for my front room. How old are the floors? They're looking really good. What have you chosen for light fittings?

More!!

 

[Nigel Watts]

Its looking great. Glad my pics were of some help!

just need to put in small shallow stud walls between shutters to make them flush

I don't understand this. Shutter boxes often stand quite far out from the wall. If you put a stud wall in what will happen to the cornice?

Suggest you try to go easy with those heavy duty sanding machines. Light sands with hand held machines are better and preserve more of the floor's charater.

 

[MdB]

Looking good

More pictures when it's finished please!

 

[jocelyn plummer]

Matt, perfection, well done!! Enjoy .

 

[MattW]

Shutter boxes often stand quite far out from the wall. If you put a stud wall in what will happen to the cornice?

Nigel, if you look very carefully at the cornice at the far end of the first floor (yellow room) either side of the shutters you can see it stands proud of the wall below it by about 3-4 inches (i.e. it is on boxing - you can see the shadow just). The front of the shutters stands proud of the cornice and hence is over 6" from the wall. This caused me a lot of consternation until I went back to my neighbours houses. In both of them (which have original shutters) the cornice appears flush to the wall, but the wall between the shutters is hollow. I.e. the front wall of the terrace is not thick enough to house the shutters so the cornices were built out and plaster & lath used to create the illusion of deeper walls. When my shutters were ripped out, these plaster & lath infills were removed and need to be put back to make the cornice flush to the wall. THat make any sense?

Suggest you try to go easy with those heavy duty sanding machines.

We have done that downstairs where the boards are scavenged from throughout the house to create one good floor - these are 1830s. However the first floor boards were acquired from a salvage yard and many of the boards had a heavy bitumen coating and were also slightly different thicknesses. Wasn't really practical to do anything other than sand them heavily unfortunately. They have come out pretty well from this, but definitely not as nice as the ground floor ones. The salvage boards are from a house of c.1850 - slightly narrower and different type of pine.

what's the yellow? I'd like that for my front room

The colour rendition in the photo isn't great and the walls are covered in fine dust - together they make the yellow look fairly mellow. In reality they are fairly lemon fresh and the final coat will be in something a bit more creamy to bring back closer to how the photo appears. While post some pics when it is all done if you are interested.

 

[Nigel Watts]

the front wall of the terrace is not thick enough to house the shutters so the cornices were built out and plaster & lath used to create the illusion of deeper walls. When my shutters were ripped out, these plaster & lath infills were removed and need to be put back to make the cornice flush to the wall. THat make any sense?

How interesting. I've never come across this. Some Islington houses have what look like shallow alcoves with semicircular arches above in the spaces between the windows, although whether these would have been original I dont know. My 1840 house in N7 has a pretty deep shutter box at the front but no such detail. The almost identical shutter box at the back sticks out less.

 

[MattW]

How interesting. I've never come across this.

My neighbours looked somewhat surprised too! I am going to see another house of the square shortly that pre-dates mine & my immediate neighbours by 5 years - will report back on whether it was built differently. Why the thicker wall on the ground floor that doesn't have this issue go up ot the 1st floor and taper at that point I don't know. But either way, if I don't put the infill back in, it looks somewhat weird to have the cornice proud of the main wall and it makes the shutter boxes look very heavy.

Would you mind measuring how far your boxes stick out, just for curiosity sake?

 

[Nigel Watts]

Not as much as I had imagined: three and a half inches at the front and one inch at the back. Difference is the result of exterior detailing. At the front the arch around the window is recessed slightly, whereas the back exterior wall is flat.

 

[MattW]

Thanks Nigel. Without the infill, front of my architrave is currently 5.75" off the rear wall. Will be 2" when infill is put in, which seems more sensible!

 

[Penners]

Congratulations, Matt. It looks beautiful. Have a wonderful day on the 1st March - you must be so excited.

 

[FamilyWiggs]

Looks wonderful Matt. Sumptuous even. Bathroom looks fab and I love the radiator. Well done.

Many more pics, please!

 

[MattW]

Thanks everyone for the kind words - been a long journey, but compared to many on here that have done all the work themselves while living on site over many years I've been very fortunate to have a great team of builders to do the hard work over the past 8 months.