New House ...

[R King]

I have been reading recent posts with much interest.

We are not sure what we should do with a room in our 16th c. Farm House as the house was 'modernised' extesively in the Victorian era. We some lovely Victorian features internally which we have no intention of removing.

This is the link to some pictures of my house:

http://s1093.photobucket.com/albums/i424/rking99/

The room in question is the downstairs room with the stone mullion window. What should we do with the fireplace? The stone work is dressed so would it have been exposed originally? The lintel is Victorian brick (we think) and could there be another early one higher up? The Victorian door frame also obscures the edge of the fireplace so should this be removed??

The mullions look odd internally (I'm not sure this is particularly visible in the pictures) as the lintel has been boxed in badly, covering up some of the stonework. The ceiling also is very flat modern plasterboard. Should we remove this to expose the beams and lintel, as again, this just doesn't sit well in the room. Or should we leave well alone?

The wall painted with the owls is also plasterboard and we wil be removing that as the room is damp (we are waiting for our builder to dig french drains).

We will also be removing the laminate floor to expose the Victorian wooden floor....

We would be really grateful for your comments. Our last 17c house was so much easier to deal with as it was mainly just that, so we left it as is. As I have said previously we are happy to do the same here, except in this room as it just does not feel right.

I will post some more pictures of the outside of the house as I could only take one image before it started chucking down, there are newer parts too - Victorian and 2006 extension!

R King

 

[citizensmith]

The brick arch looks like quite "modern" brick in the photo shown. Have you been inside the fireplace and looked at the brickwork from the other side. If there is a lintel or older arch it may be visible without needing to poke around at all other than maybe getting a bit sooty!

 

[Tom]

I'm going to be interested in what people think to your house having no render on it.

 

[R King]

We assumed the brick arch was Victorian because of the other alterations made at this time. The chimney has been blocked off, but will remove this to have a look when we rip up the laminate. Does anybody know what the fireplace would have looked like, given the age of the house? This fireplace backs onto an 'inglenook' (sorry I know this is not the correct term) and there is no room for an earlier fireplace behind it which is why assumed the stonework to be 16th c.

With regards to render, the front of the house is ashlar. Our old house was also stone, but rubblestone. We found traces of remaining lime render and used this as an argument to have the house re-rendered in lime, as the CO wasn't convinced at first. The funny thing was that the remaining patch of render had been scored very badly to make it look like ashlar and so would have looked really rubbish in its day!

 

[Gareth Hughes]

In its present form, the fireplace appears to be a modern creation, made by exposing various bits of more than one period - the stonework (which may have been exposed originally - ie in 15whatever, but paerhaps not for the last 200 years) and the brick arch (which wouldn't have been, and isn't particularly interesting). Perhaps done after removing a 1930s tiled fireplace which in turn had replaced a Victorian one. As such it doesn't represent anything that would have existed at any former period.

If it were mine, I'd put in a decent grate and fire surround / mantel, rather than trying to excavate the "original" fireplace - it's likely that later alterations will have wrecked it and you'll be left having to make something up.

Quite acceptable for the house not to be rendered, it doesn't seem to have had the window openings changed and other alterations made in non-matching materials (even differently-cut stone is a non-matching material), leading to a desire to give the facade some unity under a coat of render, and it may well never have been rendered at any time in its life.

 

[R King]

Thanks, Gareth.

We were thinking along similar lines and want to put in a surround such as the ones from this website: http://www.manorhousestone.co.uk/

We have something similar, on a large scale, in another room.

With regards to the plasterboard ceiling and boxed in window lintel, do you think we should remove them? Or will this open a can of worms...it's just that the room feels wrong, almost as if we have put in ancient mullions and a beam into a new house, if you know what I mean.

Thanks

 

[Tom]

...and want to put in a surround such as the ones from this website: http://www.manorhousestone.co.uk/

We have something similar, on a large scale, in another room.

Were you thinking of buying from Manor House Stone or just copying their pattern. Their website says "We import French stone...". Would it be possible for you to buy the same stone as your other fireplace is made from rather than having imported stone?

 

[R King]

I posted this website just as an example of what style of fireplace we were looking at.

We live to the North of the county, our lovely local town being fairly close to Lincs/Cambs border. I know of at least one place to source locally quarried stone from, so will enquire further down the line.

We are at the slightly more boring stage of sorting out the basics, plus tidying the messy acre that came with the house.

 

[Gareth Hughes]

Whisper it quietly, but a well-known manufacturer of cast stone in the East Haddon area of Northants also produce very acceptable fireplaces - the simplest version of their "Vanbrugh" model (not unlike the "Bolection" design on the Manor House site) would look fine.

 

[R King]

Thanks, will google.

 

[JoceAndChris]

http://www.haddonstone.com/PGroup.aspx?ID=48

Fab!

(A beautiful house, R King. I wish you all the best there)

 

[Gareth Hughes]

Thanks, Gareth.

We were thinking along similar lines and want to put in a surround such as the ones from this website: http://www.manorhousestone.co.uk/

We have something similar, on a large scale, in another room.

With regards to the plasterboard ceiling and boxed in window lintel, do you think we should remove them? Or will this open a can of worms...it's just that the room feels wrong, almost as if we have put in ancient mullions and a beam into a new house, if you know what I mean.

Thanks

If it's recent plasterboard and boxing, I'd do a little exploration to see what's behind - if the ceiling joists are covered with nail holes where a lath and plaster ceiling has been taken down, I wouldn't expect to leave them permanently exposed, even if you end up putting in a new lath and plaster ceiling.

 

[robgil]

irstWith regards to the plasterboard ceiling and boxed in window lintel, do you think we should remove them? Or will this open a can of worms...it's just that the room feels wrong, almost as if we have put in ancient mullions and a beam into a new house, if you know what I mean.

Thanks

its sometimes common practice among plasterers to board over an old ceiling rather than repair it , especially if the old plaster wont accept a skim , perhaps its too crumbly or coated in layers of lime wash. so there is a chance that you may find the old plaster underneath it , what condition its in if it is there is anybodys guess.
also you cannot be sure of the condition of the joists , so a can of worms it could very well be.
are you sure its plasterboard? sometimes they used fiberboard.
if it was my house id check the floor above , if this was sound enough id tackle the more important jobs first and perhaps consider putting in a lath and plaster ceiling at a later date, depending on what i found underneath the plaster board and with guidance from the CO.

edit - what Gareth said.

 

[R King]

Thank you all

The fireplaces are gorgeous - thanks for the link Joce/ Gareth. Will look lovely in the room.

Rob - We won't be pulling anything down in the room yet, but I might see if we can peek through the boards in the room above, when we get round to exposing the boards (victorian) in that room. I suspect the joists were replaced along with the floor as everything is so much flatter than in our old house. We are sorting out the damp and getting windows repaired. Then we need to save to re thatch...so things will be left as is for a while. I will chucking out the carpets and cleaning up the boards though.

Thanks for the kind words Joce. We found it so hard to leave our last house (we had to move as I was doing a 25 mile school run) but I think we can make this house just as special.

Raf

 

[robgil]

. I suspect the joists were replaced along with the floor as everything is so much flatter than in our old house.

Raf

that would be very unlucky. we are also playing the waiting game to have our roof done. have you had quotes yet? the guy doing our roof has a waiting list of over a year so its best to book in advance, he has also said if the roof leaks between now and then he will send the lads around to patch it up free of charge. hopefully we will be going for a nice plain or even flush ridge to keep the appearance cottage nice and plain , not sure how historically accurate this will be but i suspect a lot more accurate than the fancy ridges you see today , some of which can look a tad too decorative in my view, like someone put a doily ontop of the house.

 

[R King]

These are pictures of what was the old kitchen before the extension, and is now the hall/ dining room.

What do you think of our exposed stone work?
The pointing?
The painting of the stone fireplace?
The ceramic floor which replaced the original flags? :evil:

http://s1093.photobucket.com/albums/i424/rking99/more%20house/

 

[R King]

We have had a quote of £20k for re thatching the lot, although there should be around 5 years left in the current roof, fingers crossed.

All the cottages in our village, including ours, are thatched in long straw and are very plain so that is what we will go with. I have never been too sure about the twee thatching that can be seen on some houses, but i guess this again is subjective.

 

[robgil]

surely you mean a new weathering coat and ridge? i always thought a rethatch would mean stripping everything off and starting new. your thatch doesnt look at all bad , the ridge is worn and the rest is tired but a complete re-thatch might be over doing it a little?

 

[R King]

Oops yes I guess that's what I meant. I don't know that much about thatch yet, although I am doing my homework. Do you think that quote was expensive as I have no idea.

 

[JoceAndChris]

I don't like any of the things in your list above and think you can make that room a lot nicer than that.

I'd lime plaster the walls, and limewash. Contact Strippers of Sudbury about how to get paint off a stone fireplace. And, if I couldn't afford to replace the ceramic tiles with nice flagstones, I'd have some lovely rush matting made to fit.