Gone

The old kitchen is no more. It has ceased to be. It is an ex-kitchen. There's only the wall that butts onto next door with a narrow cavity between, and the concrete foundations which will be lifted today. We don't know if Brewie plans to keep and re-use the side wall or not. I don't think he can, as it needs to come out to enable him to dig down the correct depth of foundations. Hmm. Intriguing. I've just noticed that the wood shed on the left has gone too.

I can only take photos from the upstairs windows and can't get into the yard because by the time I get round after the school run they've finished for the day and screwed on the panel over the kitchen/hall doorway, stopping hoodilums from getting in.


all gone

While Becca was at a campfire party at West Boldon Lodge, eating marshmallows and chasing toads, I spent two hours stripping. I'm getting good at it, and I hardly made any gouge marks at all. I think I have developed a relationship with the green-handled paint scraper. We've been through a lot together and we have more work to do, but I don't think it will let me down.

I daresn't count them

isn't it beautiful

The bannister is very handsome under that nasty paint; bronzed and glowing. Tony's buying me 10 gallons of Nitromors and some think gloves today. I also have a tentative go at the newel post. Only the flat bits, and it's rougher underneath than I'd have guessed, so that will need some work.



that acorn needs to go

While I was working away I was thinking about the stairs. The last three houses I've lived in didn't have stairs, but our family home in Liverpool did. These will be the stairs that the kids storm up and down, the stairs I'll send them up when I'm annoyed with them, the stairs we'll run down on Christmas morning. Where TJ will sit on and cry when he splits up with his first love. The stairs Rebecca will come down wearing her prom dress, or suit. Stairs mean a lot to me.



Demolition Man

Tuesday they started to pull down the old kitchen. And they were very tidy about it too. If you look at the big picture here the new kitchen will go past that yellow wallpaper and half way down the white wall. Then, the new utility room will continue to just past the start off the khazi, and the outside shed will run where the khazi is to the far wall.



stage 1 of the demolition

'before'





they left it very tidy

I managed to strip the stair rods down to the landing, and my left hand was only a little numb afterwards form the vibration of the gun's fan. On the landing there's an extra stair rod nailed next to the one on the next step up, and it doesn't match. The rod on the stair rail turn is also new. However, we have five of the original posts left over from the section they removed for the attic stairs.




The ornamental woodwork stripped easily, but the sawn-off ends of the  stair treads wouldn't strip as the paint has soaked right into the grain. Tony agrees that we'll add bull nosed trim and file it to shape before we re-paint so that the original shape is restored.


odd stair rods



smart stripes



Here's some images of what I have in mind; varnished stair rail, painted rods, skirting and steps, a smart runner (possibly striped) and a contrasting wall colour to show off the fresh white. I'm not sure how I'll pick out the curved wood trim, that needs more thinking about.  But I want to get it all stripped by the end of the week.

neutral



Wood glorious wood

 Imagine my delight as we lifted the carpets in the study. Wood. Real wood. And good, real wood at that. The master bedroom floor is just as good. I want carpets mostly, but in the study I'd love a restored wood floor with a HUGE rug, amongst walls of bookcases. Some of the floorboards in the study have been sawn into sections to access the central heating pipes below, but there's plenty of full ones we can pinch from elsewhere in the house. I don't want them sanded pristine, though. I want to keep the texture, and just clean off the muck before I varnish them.

There's a concrete (?) hearth in the study that is cracked in places and is proud of the floor. There won't be a fire in the study so I'd like this dug out so I can run the floorboards all the way to the wall.
Do any of you have experience in stripping and sanding floors? You can comment on the blog without signing in.

Wood is good

Using a blunt chisel I've attacked a door frame, window frame and window panel, chipping away decades of paint and varnish to see what's underneath.

Cupboard door frame in study

Under the layers of rubbery gloss I unearthed a wood-effect painted layer. This was as far as the chisel could strip away, and I don't want to damage the wood underneath, so I'm going to experiment with paint stripper gunk, and a hot air gun to see what effects I get. I'd love a mix of old and new in the house; I'm not after re-creating period interiors.

Panel under the landing window

If we do build an upstairs bathroom above the kitchen then this window will be removed but we'll keep the frame which runs from the floor, up, and use that as a framed entranceway to that part of the house. In that case these panels would be removed, but I'll keep them in case they can be used elsewhere.

Window in the study