Got the keys to our little project three days ago. It's a detached house with the original centre section dating back to about 1790 and Victorian additions to both sides.
(This photo is five days in with the missing slates replaced, the guttering rehung and a lot of the forest removed from the front of the house)
Open up and go in the kitchen - A Rayburn sits cold in an alcove and we are pleasantly surprised by how clean the kitchen is in general.
On through the house. Dining room ok.
Hall ok.
Open door to living room - Very fausty and damp but bright. Nice big window and a single glazed door. Nice fireplace. Carpet on floor and some damp patches on walls, both high and low.
Move curtain to open the window.....ooops, black mold all over back of curtain. Go to open window but it's been siliconed shut. Pull down all curtains and eject through door to garden as this hasn't been glued up. A quick look outside and you can see that parts of the garden are six or eight inches higher than they should be and that the downpipe is missing from the guttering which is now directing its flow against the wall.
In we go again.
Stairs nice and wide and in good condition.
Upstairs hall is great - about five feet wide and thirty feet long. Two big windows letting in plenty of light. old carpet is giving it a bouquet but nothing horrid.
Open bathroom door and we are pleasantly surprised - it's clean and functional. Another bonus!
The bedrooms. Well, I wouldn't want to have slept in the best of them. The worst looked and smelt like it could seriously damage your health. Mucho black mold on walls, ceilings, windows and curtains. Fireplaces sealed.
We moved in fairly late in the day and spent the first night on a mattress on the landing after a bottle or two of Vino Collapso
Day two. All carpets and curtains (and any other soft furnishings) ejected. We did quick checks on the open fireplaces and got them lit. Dehumidifier gently chugging away in one of the bedrooms while another got bleached and demolded.
The third bedroom (above lounge) has suffered the worst, mostly due to the gutter waterfall and some gable end and chimney pointing issues.
Plaster off jobbie in the near future so thankfully there is little point in trying to clean the walls 
It does however have some lovely foot or more wide floor boards that were hidden under the old carpet 8)
The lounge carpet came out last to reveal a nice parquet floor After pulling this out we lit the fire and sat back with a glass of plonk (there's a pattern emerging here :lol: ) What we didn't expect was the parquet to start rising like a volcanic island :shock: It came up in a rather pleasant looking six foot diameter dome and within about half an hour it was about eight or ten inches high :lol:
Open up and go in the kitchen - A Rayburn sits cold in an alcove and we are pleasantly surprised by how clean the kitchen is in general.
On through the house. Dining room ok.
Hall ok.
Open door to living room - Very fausty and damp but bright. Nice big window and a single glazed door. Nice fireplace. Carpet on floor and some damp patches on walls, both high and low.
Move curtain to open the window.....ooops, black mold all over back of curtain. Go to open window but it's been siliconed shut. Pull down all curtains and eject through door to garden as this hasn't been glued up. A quick look outside and you can see that parts of the garden are six or eight inches higher than they should be and that the downpipe is missing from the guttering which is now directing its flow against the wall.
In we go again.
Stairs nice and wide and in good condition.
Upstairs hall is great - about five feet wide and thirty feet long. Two big windows letting in plenty of light. old carpet is giving it a bouquet but nothing horrid.
Open bathroom door and we are pleasantly surprised - it's clean and functional. Another bonus!
The bedrooms. Well, I wouldn't want to have slept in the best of them. The worst looked and smelt like it could seriously damage your health. Mucho black mold on walls, ceilings, windows and curtains. Fireplaces sealed.
We moved in fairly late in the day and spent the first night on a mattress on the landing after a bottle or two of Vino Collapso
Day two. All carpets and curtains (and any other soft furnishings) ejected. We did quick checks on the open fireplaces and got them lit. Dehumidifier gently chugging away in one of the bedrooms while another got bleached and demolded.
The third bedroom (above lounge) has suffered the worst, mostly due to the gutter waterfall and some gable end and chimney pointing issues.
It does however have some lovely foot or more wide floor boards that were hidden under the old carpet 8)The lounge carpet came out last to reveal a nice parquet floor
After pulling this out we lit the fire and sat back with a glass of plonk (there's a pattern emerging here :lol: ) What we didn't expect was the parquet to start rising like a volcanic island :shock: It came up in a rather pleasant looking six foot diameter dome and within about half an hour it was about eight or ten inches high :lol:
