Another Old Job Done

[MatthewC]

We've been living here more than three years now, and I still have jobs left over from before we moved in. Today I finished another of these, and Jane is very happy with the result so I can feel quite smug.

The hall and lounge both have a wooden corner bead at each vertical right angle; this photo shows the hall as it was after the initial plastering and decoration: The original feature was to maximise the amount of the visible wood by having a chamfer at the edge of the plaster instead of plastering flat up to the wood in which case you would only see a very small amount of wood. The chamfer allowed perhaps even half of the wood to be seen; of course at some time someone had papered the walls and covered all the wood!

My plasterer found the chamfer difficult although at each one he did make some sort of effort. As ever, there was no time to sort it before we moved in, so it has waited for my attention until this summer. Back in March I removed the paper and cleaned up the wood. Then I cut back the plaster to give a rough 45 degree chamfer on each side, and then in June I plastered these chamfers to make them smoother; finally today I applied the limewash to each of the four corners in the lounge (two for the window bay and two for the chimney breast), as well as limewashing various bits left unrepaired after the fitment of the new window in June 2011.

I'm very pleased that the limewash has dried to match the earlier stuff so you can hardly see the new application. Overall a messy job but well worth it. Now I just have to do the same to the ones in the hall!

No doubt others will report on their long-outstanding jobs - I'm sure this is nowhere near a record.

 

[JoceAndChris]

That's lovely, I believe the technical name for the hollow before the moulding is a quirk. They used to be standard. We've got identical archways to yours, with quirks, and yes, when we moved in in places they were papered over. I learned very precise cutting in on the quirks, they look so lovely picked out in off-white.

Good work - well done! I started on the iron bars outside the basement kitchen window today - it looks like they were last painted around 50 yrs ago.

 

[plasticpigeon]

That looks really nice, those beads and quirks are a lovely little detail.

I'm on about week 10 of the bay window repair and repaint which I was hoping to do 2 years ago. Got the primer/wood preserver on today. Filling and sanding tomorrow, as well as reinstating some repaired very rotten old beading. I also dribbled some wood preserver on my new cast stone sills. The wood preserver is a thin turquoise water based liquid and doesn't seem to come off too easily. I got these nice sills made and now they are stained with mud, peelaway residue and green wood preserver. I don't know why I bother sometimes. I feel like I am putting too much effort into a rather humble house (although interestingly a friend of mine has bought a similar sized similar aged house to mine in Peckham for around half a million!!).

 

[JoceAndChris]

Oh no! Try a very worn green scourer and some sugar soap on the sills - failing that -white spirit on the scourer. The boys working here have taught me the usefulness of boards - have a thin piece of chip board below anything you're painting or restoring to catch drips or debris.

And don't give up- vernacular buildings very important and set the tone, if everyone had your attitude think how lovely the UK would look.

 

[Moo]

.... a friend of mine has bought a similar sized similar aged house to mine in Peckham for around half a million!!).

Gosh - that's a bargain!

 

[88v8]

I also dribbled some wood preserver on my new cast stone sills. I got these nice sills made and now they are stained with mud, peelaway residue and green wood preserver.

All trades damage other trades' work. This is traditional. Keep it up

Ivor

 

[Moo]

Flanders and Swan wrote an excellent song about that very topic.
Perhaps Penners will oblige......?

 

[MatthewC]

That's lovely, I believe the technical name for the hollow before the moulding is a quirk. They used to be standard. We've got identical archways to yours, with quirks, and yes, when we moved in in places they were papered over. I learned very precise cutting in on the quirks, they look so lovely picked out in off-white.

Good work - well done! I started on the iron bars outside the basement kitchen window today - it looks like they were last painted around 50 yrs ago.

A quirk? Today's education!

I would think they would look nice picked out in white, but I've done mine the same colour as the wall - they had been white for a few months after I did the plastering (not very well) and Jane was so pleased to see the walls "properly finished"!!

I also have quirks in the front bedroom. Yesterday I found a comment in the Victorian House Haynes manual that the Georgians used the front upstairs room as a drawing room which could put a different interpretation on how/when my house was designed/converted.

 

[FamilyWiggs]

'Tis true...:

quirk
kwəːk/
noun
noun: quirk; plural noun: quirks

1.
a peculiar aspect of a person's character or behaviour.
"they accepted her attitude as one of her little quirks"
synonyms: idiosyncrasy, peculiarity, oddity, eccentricity, foible, whim, whimsy, notion, conceit, vagary, caprice, fancy, kink, crotchet, mannerism, habit, characteristic, trait, feature, obsession, fad;

2.
Architecture
an acute hollow between convex or other mouldings.

 

[LadyArowana]

. Yesterday I found a comment in the Victorian House Haynes manual that the Georgians used the front upstairs room as a drawing room which could put a different interpretation on how/when my house was designed/converted.

So along with your quirks you may have had a piano nobile too. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano_nobile