Internal doors

[JoceAndChris]

Bit puzzled why there are only 26, I've got 20-ish in just a cottage.

Are there other doors in place in Chateau Sonya or is it that the Georgians were a whole lot more in love with doors than their forebears?

 

[Sonyaclegg]

It all about give and take Joce. If my hubs is passionate about the issue then I will support him and we have new doors. I've been passionate about other issues and he's gone with the flow. I'm doing a quick count in my head and and we will be a few doors short at 26 but then in explanation, one room spans 66 feet and only has one entrance. A couple of entrances cannot have doors as building regs do not permit doors on stairs, allbeit, stairs that only have 4 treads. I'll have to post a photo to show you. I love the photos of your work. Spectacular from what it was

 

[Penners]

You have to chic chip chip away at these men, wear them down like a stone.

Excuse me, madam - some of us aren't just stone. We're granite! Far too durable and immutable to be worn down by mere chiccing or chipping.

We do, however, have our Achilles heels, as Lysistrata knew only too well.

 

[worms]

...one room spans 66 feet...

:shock: Our house is 54 feet on its longest side!

We do, however, have our Achilles heels, as Lysistrata knew only too well.

Kind of mixing our classics, there, Penners!

 

[JoceAndChris]

You have to chic chip chip away at these men, wear them down like a stone.

Excuse me, madam - some of us aren't just stone. We're granite! Far too durable and immutable to be worn down by mere chiccing or chipping.

We do, however, have our Achilles heels, as Lysistrata knew only too well.

Thanks for the tip, it worked for Anne Boleyn too, sort of.

It all about give and take Joce. If my hubs is passionate about the issue then I will support him and we have new doors. I've been passionate about other issues and he's gone with the flow.

Sounds like you have the perfect ingredients to be very happy in your new home. Despite my joking, teamwork is vital to hold it all together in what can be testing times. It really helps to share a vision of the project, and if he doesn't, well, Lysistrata and Anne Boleyn. :wink:

A couple of entrances cannot have doors as building regs do not permit doors on stairs, allbeit, stairs that only have 4 treads. I'll have to post a photo to show you. I love the photos of your work. Spectacular from what it was

Thanks for the explanation, and yes, would love to see more piccies. Thanks for the lovely compliment as well, if it hadn't been for PPUKe it would have been all duck egg blue Laura Ashley with all the exterior render picked off to reveal the rubble stone, that was never meant to be seen. The old lime plaster would be gone, as we'd have allowed the damp merchants to hack it off to inject their magic anti-damp chemicals. The old reed ceilings would have been pulled down and plaster board put in, with lots and lots of fancy Adam style mouldings. A few historic floors might have gone, and if I'd ever invited EH to come to list it , they'd have most likely laughed. So I feel the compliment should go to the collective kindness of the people on here really.

 

[Sonyaclegg]

Joce, does it ever get less stressful? I was elated when we managed to buy the building after a long slog with negotiations and surverys. That feeling has worn of a little. I'm hoping that my chat with the CO tomorrow will restore my spirits. That and the connection of the electricity to the meter! We will have light next week which will be a nice milestone to reach

 

[Schoolmarm]

It gets completely stress free the moment you realise that actually there is no rush. I would just get some of it warm and cosy then take your time and live in it for a bit before you make any decisions.

 

[JoceAndChris]

It gets completely stress free the moment you realise that actually there is no rush. I would just get some of it warm and cosy then take your time and live in it for a bit before you make any decisions.

Sound advice.

That and the connection of the electricity to the meter! We will have light next week which will be a nice milestone to reach

I think just to put the services into this house is a fabulous achievement, even if you do nothing more. You haven't said about water - does it have that at least?

You get completely attached to your environment, I find, warts and all. You open the gate and there's a warm rush of that being home feeling, never mind that the bath water is still full of beetles because it's the unfiltered rainwater and you have to wear three fleeces (add in your own specific house problem here). It's your home, everything you love is inside.

Your health, family, and ability to meet the mortgage repayments, if you have them, are continual potentially upsetting stresses. But whether you will or won't do this and that to the house become interesting intellectual and physical challenges, enjoyable rather than stressful I'd say. And very creative, absorbing, and rewarding.

But I can't comment on what it's like to live in a major building site for a long time. Chris and I both decided we couldn't cope with it so limit our DIY to little bite sized chunks, and will pay for professionals to do the bathroom and kitchen, render and roof so they're done quickly. I'll probably be very unhappy during those periods, especially if they start flicking dust on my nice FnB wallpaper and silk curtains!! I think people like Zebra on here have tremendous stoicism, stamina, patience and faith. But your previous owner rebuilt yours, and it looks like he did a very nice job.

 

[Sonyaclegg]

It's not knowing what the rules and regulations are about conservation that is causing me the stress. Once I get to grips with it all, I know I will feel better. We have a basic order of things such as decorate the children's bedrooms, install the kitchen and one bathroom and then we will move in and live in it. Only then can we determine how we are going to use the space as a family. I know we're are going to need a satellite brew station on the bedroom floor as otherwise is it is a a long way down and up again for a cup of tea

 

[JoceAndChris]

:lol:

You are in a really stressful position right now, not having met your CO yet, not knowing the full state of affairs about the previous owner's work and stripping out, not knowing the scale of priorities from the CO's point of view.

Each decision is a case by case basis; there aren't really hard and fast rules like "you can put on an extension for a kitchen in order to safeguard the interiors" or "you can put in central heating where you like in order to remove damp" - it all depends on the merit of the thing threatened by such changes. Gareth has often remarked he's been perfectly happy to see kitchens go into redundant game larders in order for the house to go forward into the 21st C, but I've also seen him extremely unhappy when things like old bread ovens are taken out without permission and with no good reason whatsoever, and in those sorts of cases the people are asked/ordered to put it back. The householder isn't always in the best position to be able to judge the merit of the feature under discussion, and with G2* it sounds like those decisions are made by a team of people who want your building to tell its story in the clearest way possible, to safeguard its most precious and rare characteristics and to best preserve it as a family home for the future. They can't make you suddenly come up with thousands to get the columns back on the front or install the perfect doors. But they might suggest alternatives if they think your placements of things like bathrooms aren't what's best for the building, and I hope they and we can guide and help you with things like that.

You'll feel so much better after your meeting with the CO tomorrow - do let us know how it goes!

Even Francis 1, at Chambord, had a very poky little kitchen right by his bedroom as the kitchen was far too far away! I saw it this summer and was shocked!

 

[Gareth Hughes]

There's some very sound advice here:
http://www.spab.org.uk/publications/look-before-you-leap/

 

[Sonyaclegg]

Thank you Gareth. That's kind of you. I've read up on the general advice on treatment of listed buildings but as every building is different, of course the advice and consents granted vary with every building. I love all the little quirks of the building. We have a bread oven and would not dream of taking it out. Part of the building has not been refurbished so the walls and floors are original. It's amazing to stand there and imagine all the others who have been in the same place. We won't take the floors up, they just need a good clean and some skimmed milk. Some of the flags are cracked and we may repair in time but I like the charm as they are.

The only thing we need to do is deal with the rainwater and fit a kitchen. The kitchen fireplace is such a wonderful feature so it will rightly be the focal point. We plan to place the range in the recess but we will need to batten the back of the fireplace to tile the back. As we are just covering up the back of the fireplace, is this likely to be an issue from a observation aspect?

 

[LadyArowana]

The only thing we need to do is deal with the rainwater and fit a kitchen. The kitchen fireplace is such a wonderful feature so it will rightly be the focal point. We plan to place the range in the recess but we will need to batten the back of the fireplace to tile the back. As we are just covering up the back of the fireplace, is this likely to be an issue from a observation aspect?

If you are fitting a solid fuel or gas fired range then there will be the issue of venting to consider. Presumably you will be able to use then chimney for this, but you will have to have a qualified person ( either gas safe or HETAS ? ) check it out for you.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Can we just go back a step? You have told us the house didn't have services and wasn't lived in. Did the previous owner build a kitchen? or have you put one in? You're honing in on little details like can you batten the back of the fireplace and put on tiles but is there permission to use this room as a kitchen? EH might say this room should never be a kitchen, it's features are far too important to cover up with units. (I don't think they will, but you have to be open..) Every little decision that affects the building has got to be talked through with the CO and EH, not just the mullions, the rainwater goods, the doors.

I apologise if I'm missing something here.

I'm crossing fingers for you this morning that you and the CO really hit it off.

 

[Moo]

Our last (only Grade2) house didn't have any bathrooms or loos. We were also at a loss as to where to store our rubbish between collection days.
So instead of putting a list of ideas to our CO, we asked her a lot of pathetic questions and she came up with solutions that we'd never have dreamed of. These included partitioning part of the larder to make a little shed opening into the garden, and doing some pretty radical rearrangements of walls on the top floor to create a couple of shower rooms.

 

[Sonyaclegg]

Joce,
The house was a mess and has not been lived for a very long time. It was put back together by the PO and he had PP for the re-roofing, erection of the tower to the rear of the house, to replaster, fit windows and provision for en-suite bathrooms. The house is a shell, with the services in place but not connected. We have had them connected and now in the process of getting them commissioned. A previous survey in 1953 reveals the room we call the kitchen was indeed the kitchen. Unlike yours, I only have to take into account the fireplace as there is nothing origional in it other than that. I've spoken to the CO in brief (y'day) and she advises they would just want to check where vents etc are going. The range is duel fuel and I have chose a self circulating extractor so I don't have to vent it. I will just have to change the charcoal inserts twice yearly.

Hope that makes matters clearer

Lady A, with a duel fuel range, we will be ok with no requirement for venting. Extraction covered with self circulating unit. I don't think a vent up the chimney would be effective as its too far for the warm air to travel before condencing and causing problems but we don't need one.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Thanks for your reply Sonya. I don't want pits to open up in front of you. If Planning Permission and Listed Building Consent for the kitchen work and other work was granted to the previous owner and your CO is happy with your kitchen plan and has seen the space with their own eyes then that's all perfect. It sounds like you're in the enviable position of having an unbelievably historic and lovely stone house that is also a blank canvas on the inside. If it was me though, I'd be pestering that CO like mad and check check and double check by firing off emails before going ahead with anything.

You've probably got loads of kitchen porn to look at but may not know how lovely Delft tiles look against stone, and they have a fine old history too.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delftware

http://www.marlboroughtiles.com/hand-painted-tiles/landscape-and-flowers-delft.html

http://www.douglaswatsonstudio.com/DELFT%20FOLDER/DWS%20DELFT%20Background.html

 

[Sonyaclegg]

Joce, I have a meeting in two weeks and have agreed that I will send all pictures and queries to her for her to digest before we meet. I feel much better now I have a line of communication open. As for pestering, I just need the one reply with confirmation!

I have house porn of all varieties standing about three feet high at the moment. I'm reducing it to mood boards so I can hand the the magazines and brochures to friends.

You may not like this, but I would like a large piece of granite to span the recess of the fireplace. Don't be too harsh......the kitchen design is classic, so don't think I'm having foil wrapped glossy cabinets and such like

 

[JoceAndChris]

That sounds excellent, love the granite idea and secretly relieved at the classic kitchen.

Thank goodness a line of communication is open.

 

[Sonyaclegg]

The CO has confirmed that he was aware of the style of the doors that were previously in the house and had no problem with them so at least we now know that if we do purchase the doors from the PO, they can go back into the house without any difficulty.