Chris1roll
Member
- Messages
- 20
- Location
- Somerset levels
Hi everyone, I've been lurking around here for a few months, and finally decided to post. I thought you might be interested in what we've been up to.
My fiance and I are going to be living in half of my parents farmhouse.
The living room we are renovating at the moment, has proven rather intersesting, to me.
so, heres what it looked like before we started:
(I think the pics might be rather large, so have linked them rather than posting directly, whats the etiquette here?)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v477/chris1roll/house/P5170022.jpg
And once we had removed all the wallpaper/carpet/linoleum/plastic sheeting/gooey stuff/concrete(!) and the boarding over the alcove to the right hand fireplace, we found this:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v477/chris1roll/house/live12.jpg
Those flagstones have been a labour of love, my grandparents lived in there for 20 years, and when we all moved in 24 years ago, (I was 13 months at the time) they just put a carpet down on top the lino that was in there, with a plastic sheet under it. Naturally it got damp, and the plastic kept it damp, so all the linoleum was literally welded to the flags. in some places someone had also screeded over the top of them to presumably level up for the lino. in one corner we found newspapers from December 1971. It took us a fortnight of evenings with a wire brush, a wallpaper scraper, and a chisel to clean them up, whilst still retaining a patina. one of them took me 4 hours alone.......
Naturally, we are keeping the (18th C?) cupboard, (amazing how many perople asked if we were going to remove it!) we will have to replace the hinges on one door. There was evidently another one on the other side of the fireplace too.
The finish on the doors, and under teh dado rail is that "combed" effect.
Yes, that paint is green, and yes it is probably pre 1900. I don't want to think about it! (incidentally in the other corner it is painted a teal blue, and the main hallway was painted a vermillion red colour (so, arsenic, cadmium and mercury all in the same house! 25years on we're all still here-mad as hatters, but....)
The window:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v477/chris1roll/house/window.jpg
The insides of the shutters, which were nailed shut, are unpainted, presumably as they should be. Unfortunately they don't open across the window as there has evidently been a little "settlement" in the past. It hasn't gone anywhere recently though. we will have to remedy that. If possible we are going to use them rather than have curtains. (theres also some very deep blue paint under that yellowy gloss....)
The ceiling, it has turned out, is actually reed and plaster, my mother has been filling in the cracks with lime, and then we are going to limewash it (goggles and waterproofs at the ready, I'm told its rather messy??)
The walls, given the possible paint contents, are going to be sized, then lining papered and painted on that. theres no way I'm scraping the stuff off!
We will look to se if father can find some router bits to finish the dado round that corner too...
We have rebedded a few of the flags that had susided on limecrete.
In the corner that the cupboard is missing we removed the blown render (and concrete someone had patched up with!) and re rendered wih lime.
the other walls have proven rather interesting, an insight into early dampproofing - the skirting boards ( what was left of them) were coated on the back with a bitumen stuff, and fixed to the wall with wedges hammered into the stonework, to leave a 2 inch gap.
Halfway up the wall the dado rail is fixed directly to the stone/brick.
Then above the skirting, but below the dado, a lattice of lathe and reed was fixed, slightly away from the wall, and lime plastered.
Above the dado rail, the wall was lime rendered to a depth of about two inches to bring it level with the rest.
It evidently worked, as the only places the lime had blown was in the aforementioned corner where it was direct to stone, and in one area where the skirting had rotted away so somebody filled the hole with cement render and bridged the gap :roll:
We have removed all traces of render, and fixed the new solid wood skirting in the same manner. I'm sure the mice will love having a walkway the whole way around the room!
Comments welcomed!
Chris
My fiance and I are going to be living in half of my parents farmhouse.
The living room we are renovating at the moment, has proven rather intersesting, to me.
so, heres what it looked like before we started:
(I think the pics might be rather large, so have linked them rather than posting directly, whats the etiquette here?)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v477/chris1roll/house/P5170022.jpg
And once we had removed all the wallpaper/carpet/linoleum/plastic sheeting/gooey stuff/concrete(!) and the boarding over the alcove to the right hand fireplace, we found this:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v477/chris1roll/house/live12.jpg
Those flagstones have been a labour of love, my grandparents lived in there for 20 years, and when we all moved in 24 years ago, (I was 13 months at the time) they just put a carpet down on top the lino that was in there, with a plastic sheet under it. Naturally it got damp, and the plastic kept it damp, so all the linoleum was literally welded to the flags. in some places someone had also screeded over the top of them to presumably level up for the lino. in one corner we found newspapers from December 1971. It took us a fortnight of evenings with a wire brush, a wallpaper scraper, and a chisel to clean them up, whilst still retaining a patina. one of them took me 4 hours alone.......
Naturally, we are keeping the (18th C?) cupboard, (amazing how many perople asked if we were going to remove it!) we will have to replace the hinges on one door. There was evidently another one on the other side of the fireplace too.
The finish on the doors, and under teh dado rail is that "combed" effect.
Yes, that paint is green, and yes it is probably pre 1900. I don't want to think about it! (incidentally in the other corner it is painted a teal blue, and the main hallway was painted a vermillion red colour (so, arsenic, cadmium and mercury all in the same house! 25years on we're all still here-mad as hatters, but....)
The window:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v477/chris1roll/house/window.jpg
The insides of the shutters, which were nailed shut, are unpainted, presumably as they should be. Unfortunately they don't open across the window as there has evidently been a little "settlement" in the past. It hasn't gone anywhere recently though. we will have to remedy that. If possible we are going to use them rather than have curtains. (theres also some very deep blue paint under that yellowy gloss....)
The ceiling, it has turned out, is actually reed and plaster, my mother has been filling in the cracks with lime, and then we are going to limewash it (goggles and waterproofs at the ready, I'm told its rather messy??)
The walls, given the possible paint contents, are going to be sized, then lining papered and painted on that. theres no way I'm scraping the stuff off!
We will look to se if father can find some router bits to finish the dado round that corner too...
We have rebedded a few of the flags that had susided on limecrete.
In the corner that the cupboard is missing we removed the blown render (and concrete someone had patched up with!) and re rendered wih lime.
the other walls have proven rather interesting, an insight into early dampproofing - the skirting boards ( what was left of them) were coated on the back with a bitumen stuff, and fixed to the wall with wedges hammered into the stonework, to leave a 2 inch gap.
Halfway up the wall the dado rail is fixed directly to the stone/brick.
Then above the skirting, but below the dado, a lattice of lathe and reed was fixed, slightly away from the wall, and lime plastered.
Above the dado rail, the wall was lime rendered to a depth of about two inches to bring it level with the rest.
It evidently worked, as the only places the lime had blown was in the aforementioned corner where it was direct to stone, and in one area where the skirting had rotted away so somebody filled the hole with cement render and bridged the gap :roll:
We have removed all traces of render, and fixed the new solid wood skirting in the same manner. I'm sure the mice will love having a walkway the whole way around the room!
Comments welcomed!
Chris
