Although the garden steps were finished some time ago, they needed to be cleaned up. The ‘bricky’ had told me about brick acid, which I had never heard of before, so some was bought. Some experimenting was done and then all the brick work was cleaned up.
Some parts will need another going over but it is all looking much better. There are also some parts of the stable wall, which was repointed the other year(over 3 years ago actually), that need cleaning up but that can wait until later in the year.
Water leak
A pool of water was noticed at the back of the washing machine and at first it was thought that one of its pipes were leaking….but no.. it was the mains water stop cock. This could turn into a big job as it is in a very awkward position. Proper planning was needed for this, as the main water input in the street needed to be turned off. It is strange that there are four main taps coming out of the ground and connected to the mains in the road – garage, stable, kitchen and utility where the washing mc is. Would it be possible to disconnect the stop cock without having to move large amounts of water pipe? This was one of the questions running through my head. Would it be possible to seal the leak without taking the tap off? Are the right size spanners(wrench, US spelling!) available? On testing a spanner for size the gland packing nut moved! “That should not be loose” and on tightening it up the leak stopped…. Well! We live and learn. The area is now drying out nicely.
Wiring
The main upstairs wiring loom that is next to my bedroom door has needed attention for a while. The wires have been held together with tape and the switches screwed to the door frame. The ‘new’ wiring runs inside the original wiring channel but the wires are now a bit thicker. A channel should be cut out of the plaster but I am scared about what may happen to it, if it is hammered! A ten foot length of door moulding has been found and this will be sufficient to go from floor to ceiling. I was thinking of plastering the wire into the channel but access may be needed in the future. The wires were sorted out and the moulding nailed to the channel. A lot of time was spent sorting out the switch housing as it would not be suitable to inset it in the moulding. One of the switches has three separate lights on it and one of these is a double gang! ie another switch attached. After carefully noting where all the wires were a ‘cock up’ was done, mainly caused by the fact that when they were disconnected an extra wire was found! This was the double gang bit and it took more than a day to sort out the proper connections. It is keeping me fit though as every time the power was switched on or off two flights of stairs had to be travelled. Eventually the moulding will be stained the same as the bedroom door frame. The upper half is going to be awkward as there are an extra seven wires to be enclosed!
Bedroom
Work has started on my bedroom and the plastering is completed. What I thought was a complete roll of the original wallpaper was found and this would be used on either side of the window. Unfortunately the roll was one length short, it was an old anaglypta and everyone I spoke to laughed when asked if they had any. One lady recognised the design and suggested to use a paper with similar contours but different pattern, which would not be noticed with a quick glimpse. A roll of this was found and one length put up with the old. It works! From a distance! Work on this bedroom will halt for a while as the ceiling and cornice has more water damage than first thought and all the paint and paper is just flaking off to the touch. Leave it till the weather is warmer and I will move bedroom to upstairs for a while. It is too cold up there in the attic right now!
One of the other bedrooms is having more than a facelift. It must be the coldest room being used at the moment. Two sides are outside walls with the garage and side entrance underneath and an empty attic room above. It only has a partly fitted thin carpet with no underlay on the floor. To warm this room up – Polystyrene wallpaper is being put on first and this covered by 1700 lining paper. The floor will have full underfelt covered by a fitted carpet. The previous woodchip paper has been taken off, some plastering was needed also, and while doing this stencilling was found on the walls. Some similar to the front room and it has been decided to put it back up again. The same stencil can be used as from the front room but a new one has to be made for the small one. It took a while to work out the repeat pattern and a new stencil is being cut on a sheet of ohp acetate.
The stencil sheet above is wrong as it does not have the full repeat pattern!
To be continued….
That's a very nice looking pattern on the wall. Are you going to replace the picture molding too?
ReplyDeleteWhen they wired your house why didn't they fish the wires through the walls? Solid walls? I am used to US balloon construction, and have no idea what other countries used.
No sign of picture molding but intend to put one up in my bedroom. All walls in the house are solid brick except in the attic where some are lathe and plaster. Have only recently come across balloon construction but it looks good and is quick and simple. More recent houses in the UK are built with a cavity in between brick courses, which can be insulated. This is not the same with Victorian which often did not even have useful damp courses. The original tiled floor in the hallway and kitchen had to be taken up to put in a damp proof membrane hence the maple flooring (demolished squash court).
ReplyDeleteI see signs of picture molding right above the red stencil design in the top left picture and the pic to the left of it. Inside the white lines did you see signs of filled-in nail holes? Typically your picture molding went under your frieze.
ReplyDeleteWow! Solid walls. No wonder you have so many wires to cover up. You probably don't even have room behind your baseboards.
Have looked carefully but there are no signs of picture rails in any of the bedrooms. In the room of the photo a copper wire was found under the wallpaper that ran all around the room at the height of the stencil. My guess is for a radio. All electrical wires run under the floor boards and usually a channel is cut out of the plaster for the walls. Most wiring in the walls is run through metal pipes that are embedded in the plaster. When replacing wiring for light switches the new wiring had to be pulled through these pipes or new channels cut. The wires in the photo are for all lighting on the first floor and attic along with the attic main power socket wires. These join up with the ground floor lighting circuit to eventually end up in the basement via the floor of my dressing room (which is a small room adjoining the bedroom)!
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