More pictures

[Penners]

What timber are your floors made from?

They look like softwood.

And how to get them looking lovely? Work. Hard work. Lots of hard work. :wink:

 

[MattW]

(Are those tiles or wallpaper on the walls of your main bathroom?)

They are porcelain tiles from Porcelenosa - they are incredible hard though, we went through two tile drill bits putting the shower and mirror up.

Simply stunning house- well done Matt!

Thanks - I really appreciate the kind comments - been a long journey, so its great to have actually moved in.

Is there any particular date when it would suit you for me to move in?

You'd be very welcome to come stay - the wine cellar is now a little less empty too ;-)

What timber are your floors made from? And how did you get them looking so lovely?

They are all pine - almost certainly pitch pine from the colour I would think (please correct me anyone if you disagree)- the ones in the studies & hallway are the original boards from through out the house (1830s). Unfortunately we only had enough for the one floor as the many of hte original boards had been very badly cut up or replaced with modern ones. So for the boards in the living room I bought some from a guy on salvoweb and are a little narrower at 8". They were all sanded, the gaps filled with slivers of wood, then sanded again. They were finished with two coats of Liberon floor sealer and then three coats of Liberon Floor Wax. They aren't super shiny but I prefer a more matt look.

 

[Penners]

I prefer a more matt look.

Understandable.

 

[Nigel Watts]

Matt

I need a builder to do a new bathroom for me, to mend two existing ones and to do some replastering and other repair tasks caused by some subsidence, which has now settled down.

Would you recommend the ones you used? If so, would you be happy to share their details.

Thanks

Nigel

 

[Matt Green]

They are all pine - almost certainly pitch pine from the colour I would think (please correct me anyone if you disagree)-

They are probably 'just' really good quality Scotts Pine. The colour difference between 100 year felled 19th century and 30 year felled 20th century pine is quite marked. Besides which, Pitch pine would be needlessly expensive for floorboards: you see it more in structural applications.

All of which is moot, the floors look wonderful. Excellent work.

 

[lou]

DRoooool. What a wonderful job. Better than anything I've seen in mags. I love your mix of old and good new design.

 

[MattW]

Thanks Lou - the mix of new design, but respecting what was original was a key part of the project, so glad you like it.

There were lots of balancing decisions:
- The kitchen in the basement is clearly the most contemporary but this was the floor in which there were the fewest original features remaining (floor was 1950s concrete, no fireplaces or ranges left, no cornice (obviously), doors were not originally & scullery long gone). With light at a premium I went for very modern white units, honed stone floor, well spaced ceiling lighting and white walls.
- Elsewhere we put in slimlite double glazing on new windows on the extension / below ground level with the consent of the CO. Otherwise on the above ground floors the windows were replaced like for like with 14mm glazing bars
- all originally wood work was rubbed down/stripped by hand where it existed, and shutters & skirting were remade as copies of those in my neigbours houses if they didn't. However the kitchen door is a modern fire door to satisfy the buildings surveyor as by this point I didn't have budget slack to have a traditional style door made to fit the narrower than usual doorway that met regulations.
- All the metal fittings (door handles, switches, catches, light fittins etc) are in Nickel or chrome rather than brass (none of the originals survived incredibly).
- All the cornices were cleaned and repaired from copies from the original (about 20% was missing), but equally the kitchen ceiling is modern fire resistant plasterboard covering over the plaster & lath to improve safety.

So my aim was to get to something that is respectful of its past but open & honest about is recent refurbishment. No doubt its not to the taste to the more traditional of those of us on here, but one can't please everyone!

 

[MattW]

Nigel - I have sent you a PM about my builders - in summary would recommend them definitely, but not sure whether they would take on a small project such as the one you describe - they tend to focus on whole property refurbishments.

 

[Nigel Watts]

Thanks Matt.

 

[JoceAndChris]

No doubt its not to the taste to the more traditional of those of us on here, but one can't please everyone!

I confess to always being drawn to more antique styles, but the blend does look lovely in your house. As you say, with the original fabric being lost, why not replace with clean, superbly functional and stylish modernity? I also think it's very fitting for the location of your house. I'm sure you aren't planning on selling anytime soon - but I can see the fashionable look you've created would really appeal.

It wouldn't work in this house, because you'd be constrained by all the historic fabric of the interior, but, just having finished scraping efflorescence off the pamments downstairs, and having spotted a shrew living under the oven, and the Spring hatching of centipedes in the cracks of the old stone, I have to admit to more than a smidgeon of jealousy when I see your beautiful sweep of clean surfaces.

 

[LadyArowana]

you should have taken picture 3 then had that on the screen and taken picture 3 again and one more time so we got the full picture in picture effect

Little girls who do things like that end up falling down rabbit holes.

Sometimes life is stranger than fiction, http://bodyodd.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2010/03/09/2222863.aspx?GT1=43001

 

[Toby Newell]

They may indeed be pitch pine, impossible to say without seeing them, very rare to find pitch pine that wide, but they are very nice boards. I can see from the pictures the wax needs a burnish!!! more hard work. Well done.

Toby