Renovation Project – Part 2

It was a long summer in Paris for the Olympics and the Paralympics. As much as I was enjoying myself, part of me couldn’t wait to get home and get started on the new house. First things first, rip out the old carpet!

Before I could start any work, I had the plumber turn off the water and take out the radiators, upstairs toilet, sink and bath. I also had an electrician disconnect the electrics that were connected to the boiler, water tank and shower, to enable these things to be taken out safely.

In the front bedroom, there was a weird frame in the wall that appeared to have no real purpose. I wanted to know what it was covering up and what was behind all the plaster board walls. So this was my first job. I thought I had a better photo of it but this is all I can find. It is to the left of this picture. The weirdest thing I’ve seen in a bedroom wall haha.

The front bedroom before

I started by removing the plasterboard under the wooden frame and there was nothing behind it. Just an empty space . By doing this, the wallpaper started coming off the front wall, so I decided to pull it all off. On doing so, the plaster above the window crumbled away, revealing old wooden lintels. I then removed all the plaster board from the side wall, which underneath was the chimney breast. The plasterboard was hiding very old and crumbling plaster/mortar, whatever it’s called, and I soon realised that this was becoming a bigger job than expected. All of this needed to be hacked off. As did the front wall.

Bottom left I’ve removed the plasterboard at the base of this square frame and started to take off wallpaper

The wallpaper just came off so easy

Armed and dangerous

The box is out and reveals an alcove

Crumbling mortar hidden under the plaster board

The wall came away with the wallpaper

A mess

Brick chimney breast revealed

Just the top bit to go, I need a ladder

Having fun with a power tool

I found a ladder

Finally all hacked off

Having made a mess and bored with hacking off, I decided to make a start on the bathroom. All the fixtures and fittings had already been removed, we just needed to hack off all the tiles. Easier said than done. There were tiles on top of tiles. Also, on the front wall there was a little storage cupboard built in. This proved very stubborn to take out as the plaster board wall had been put up after this and it was rooted in place. Beyond the cupboard we discovered the wall was made of ply wood and nailed into the stone. How we got it out I’m not sure, but it certainly took some brute force from myself and Leanne.

When we removed the tiles from the wall above the window, all the mortar came away at the same time and exposed the stone. We had no choice but to strip all the walls right back. There was another old wooden lintel above the bathroom window.