HELP I think i am crazy!

[JoceAndChris]

The poor house, what a hard time it had in recent years. Thank goodness it's receiving the love and care now that it deserves, and I really hope no structural horrors emerge- think you'd have become aware of them by now!

 

[Gareth Hughes]

Gareth,
Strong advice should always be accompanied by practical suggestions that will work. You will find bitumen under any old woodblock/parquet floor for the very good reason that it stops the wood swelling up; in other words it's a damp membrane.

No, it was used primarily as an adhesive for parquet, any alleged damp-proofing properties in that situation are coincidental.

Plenty of practical suggestions that will work on many threads in this forum, however a new poster's seventh contribution being to suggest laying a modern membrane (even with the caveat about finding out where the damp will then go) just read to me as the "dang'rous thing" that is "a little learning".

 

[headgear]

"No, it was used primarily as an adhesive for parquet, any alleged damp-proofing properties in that situation are coincidental."

It's a bold man that knows the mind of a builder from the past. I tend to ignore intentions and go straight to consequences; in this context the bitumen used as an adhesive ACTS AS a damp-proof layer.

I 'm new here perhaps but I wasn't born yesterday; my comments are based on what I've seen in old buildings being repaired, restored converted, demolished etc. I also bring a little learning to the party.

 

[Gareth Hughes]

"No, it was used primarily as an adhesive for parquet, any alleged damp-proofing properties in that situation are coincidental."

It's a bold man that knows the mind of a builder from the past. I tend to ignore intentions and go straight to consequences; in this context the bitumen used as an adhesive ACTS AS a damp-proof layer.

I 'm new here perhaps but I wasn't born yesterday; my comments are based on what I've seen in old buildings being repaired, restored converted, demolished etc. I also bring a little learning to the party.

Yup, well, welcome. I've read enough text books to know that it was specified as sticky stuff, glad to see you agree that it wasn't intended as a damp proof layer (in houses that had open fires and their windows open, and inhabitants who put on another jumper if it was cold.

I've also seen enough of what happens on site to know that what I say doesn't always go - but it's a hellish task to pin it on the builders who've ignored your instructions when it goes wrong. So the mind of a builder (or architect) from the past is likely to be an unfathomable thing, just as a builder won't explain, in my experience, why he's just popped a spadeful of holy cement into the lime mix I'd specified, whereas the subsequent collapse of the church spire was certainly his fault...
...even if not because of the cement.

 

[ilona73]

Well today i have had an interesting chat with a neighbour i hadn't met before... turns out our house came about for one of the kings runners who was apparantly the fastest runner in the country for getting messages through to the correct peope and they actually held a competition for all the runners int he country to see who could get a message from Simonswood through to a specific place the quickest..the house cellar also used to be a holding for the local magistrate and our cellar (which was filled in over 30 years ago) still has all the shackles present etc so we have been reliably informed it was only filled in with rubble before it was listed.... .... There has been 3 ghost hunts and apparantly we have a female member of the Molyneux family visiting us on a regular basis (our house was owned and built by the Molyneux family of Croxteth Hall before being passed down.)
Lots of interesting little titbits we have found out today including that the sandstone for the house came from a nearby quarry at melling and the brook that runs through simonswood is the only brick lined one in the country ! so i guess when i get a moment i will be doing some research... we already have the family history society helping us out over in Ormskirk so i guess its all about the research now!!!

But the biggest question of course is do we consider locating the said cellar and excavating it and try to reinstate it as we had no idea it existed....and our neighbour knows exactly where the entry point is and has assured us the steps etc were not removed .... I guess its a matter of how much its all going to cost and if it will damage the house in any way if we do...
Gosh just when you think your house is pretty plain sailing you find something out that changes everything!!

 

[JoceAndChris]

Ooh your cellar - I wouldn't be able to rest until all the rubble was gone and I'd seen the shackles with my own eyes!

Presumably, if it hasn't had a few tons of concrete poured in, and it is just rubble - there's no danger to the house to re-open the entrance and begin clearing? You have quite a workforce under your roof, if everyone removes 10 pieces per week in a year you'll have your very own dungeon!

How wonderful to get a bit more of the house's history too. Have you seen Ms Molyneux yet?

 

[ilona73]

Ooh your cellar - I wouldn't be able to rest until all the rubble was gone and I'd seen the shackles with my own eyes!

Presumably, if it hasn't had a few tons of concrete poured in, and it is just rubble - there's no danger to the house to re-open the entrance and begin clearing? You have quite a workforce under your roof, if everyone removes 10 pieces per week in a year you'll have your very own dungeon!

How wonderful to get a bit more of the house's history too. Have you seen Ms Molyneux yet?

Hhahaha now you got my mind working... i could set all the kids to work and threaten them with putting them in the shackles couldn't i? hehe then again they know childline number!! so maybe not hah

As for excavating the cellar.. that will be one of the last things on the list as paul has said if possible he is going to earmark it for a boys den... so definately last if we bother... need to do a bit more digging about (pardon the pun) before i even think about it yet.... Our neighbour who has lived round here for 7 0 years is going to come round and show us all his history on the place he apparantly has photos etc he said we can have so he is going to dig it all out as he traced the area back to the 1200s which was before this house was built...
As for mrs Molyneux no i haven't seen her but we have had a few strange goings on like a chair being placed directly in the centre of our dressing area to our en suite! thats happened a few times.... quite often we get a smell of lavender and pipe smoke even though none of us smoke... and noises like someone is walking around upstairs when you are sat in the lounge ad you know no one is up..... but thats nothing in comparison to one house we lived in... When we lived in Herefordshire we lived in a converted coach house... one of the stable hands had apparantly hung himself in there. My son ozzy refused to sleep in his bedroom because a man kept coming in and saying to him " you working hard my boy" at the time ozzy was 3 so for him to repeat that sentence at the time was extraordinary. We also had very heavy crystal candle holders on the fireplace ... when you weren't expecting it it was almost like a hand came through the wall from the back of the fireplace and swiped the candles off the candle sticks... The candles were thick church pillar candles and at one pint i even blue tacked them into the base of the candlestick but they still swiped them off !! It had to be seen to believed because sometimes they literally flew across the room. My dad was scared stiff .. he thought i was jesting till one sunday he and mum were sat there and they just flew off the mantlepiece and one lamped the dog straight on top of his head. Needless to say we only lived in the house for 3 years despite having it blessed etc... the children just wouldn't settle .. ironic really they had everything there a large swimming pool, tennis courts, adventure play area and 5 acres to get lost in! but they all hated it.
Thank goodness everyone seems to like it here or i would be doomed !

 

[Flyfisher]

We also had very heavy crystal candle holders on the fireplace ... when you weren't expecting it it was almost like a hand came through the wall from the back of the fireplace and swiped the candles off the candle sticks... The candles were thick church pillar candles and at one pint i even blue tacked them into the base of the candlestick but they still swiped them off !! It had to be seen to believed because sometimes they literally flew across the room.

Are you sure it was only "one pint"? :wink:

 

[ilona73]

We also had very heavy crystal candle holders on the fireplace ... when you weren't expecting it it was almost like a hand came through the wall from the back of the fireplace and swiped the candles off the candle sticks... The candles were thick church pillar candles and at one pint i even blue tacked them into the base of the candlestick but they still swiped them off !! It had to be seen to believed because sometimes they literally flew across the room.

Are you sure it was only "one pint"? :wink:

ohhhh gawd.. typo !!! meant to say point!! I haven't woken up yet can you tell?? hahaha i am not drunk nor was i at the time... honest guv'nor!

besides Ladies don't drink pints! :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[JoceAndChris]

Good heavens, you see how can I tear myself away from this forum when stories like this are popping out?

Now, I have always sworn that ghosts etc are a load of rubbish and figments of a fevered imagination but the more I read on here, and elsewhere, from sane, sensible people, the more I think there are things in this world that cannot be accounted for by logic or science. My chicken supplier has also had to have her ancient barn in Norfolk exorcised. You weren't writing here at the time this was posted ilona, did you see this thread? http://www.periodproperty.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=10713&hilit=halloween

There has been not a single smidge of ghostly supernatural events here, which I put down to me being a hard-boiled old cynic with no sensibility for the spirit world.

Your last house sounds like it was full of terrifying energy from the past so I'm glad this one seems calm and happy so far. Pipe smoke and lavender sounds most serene. Let's face it S.H.'s ghosts would need a pretty good sense of humour to put up with all that's been done to the house, so they're obviously a chilled out bunch! I have to say if I'd been a-haunting there I'd have flung that stone-cladding stuff in the kitchen off long ago, for starters!

 

[Flyfisher]

There has been not a single smidge of ghostly supernatural events here, which I put down to me being a hard-boiled old cynic with no sensibility for the spirit world.

Ditto, on both counts.

I reckon such things are all in the mind. That's not to say they're not 'real' though - after all, 'reality' is all in the mind as well.

 

[headgear]

"In the province of the mind what you believe to be true is true; or becomes so within testable limits"

John C. Lilly Programming and Meta-programming the Human Biocomputer

 

[ilona73]

To see it is to believe ....like anything as humans unless we can se it touch it or feel it... we are naturally sceptical of anything that can't be explained.People may think they can explain every phenomena.... but as always what they say is always subjective no matter what contraption they bring out to measure this that or the other. I know personally i ahve had too many things happen to me in different houses that there really is no explanation for. and i know i am not mad.... well not that bad anyway.

 

[Flyfisher]

I know personally i ahve had too many things happen to me in different houses that there really is no explanation for. and i know i am not mad.... well not that bad anyway.

I don't doubt your experiences. You may be more 'sensitive' to such things than others. The big question is whether you're 'sensitive' to real external phenomena or whether these experiences were generated within your 'sensitive' mind.

I'm sure we've all had dreams that seemed entirely real at the time . . . .

 

[ilona73]

I know personally i ahve had too many things happen to me in different houses that there really is no explanation for. and i know i am not mad.... well not that bad anyway.

I don't doubt your experiences. You may be more 'sensitive' to such things than others. The big question is whether you're 'sensitive' to real external phenomena or whether these experiences were generated within your 'sensitive' mind.

I'm sure we've all had dreams that seemed entirely real at the time . . . .

All i can say is what i have experienced others have too and witnessed it at the same time. What happened freaked my parents out so much they only visited 3 times in 3 years mainly because my dad was too scared ! hahaha x

 

[Schoolmarm]

I did a site search for lime pointing and this thread came up. You were quoted 15 to 20 k for repointing, can you tell me how many square meters this was for and who quoted you?

Did you have it done?