Archive - Thisoldhouse

I thought you were dead!

by oldhouseblog @ 2007-04-15 – 10:56:53

After 4 days in bed, I am starting to feel better and have managed to venture out of the front door, bumped into my neighbours who commented that the house had been so quiet that they thought that (1) something horrible had happened and that (2) I may even be dead!

Well not quite but I have felt pretty rough, all you can do is watch questionable TV programmes ... I have a ratio -- the rougher you feel the happier you are to watch programmes which are well, total ****

I could not bring myself to watch McCloud, Cannon or Diagnosis Murder so I knew the illness was not life threatening, but did find myself succumbing to Jeremy Kyle and Good Morning (not as bad but close)

Anyway, the neighbours have both been in touch, the party wall agreements are progressing at the speed the law allows, the windows for three rooms have been made and are in the process of being glazed, and I have collected the newly glazed skylight...

Marcelo (the Brazilian plasterer) is currently away working on another house but I have many projects to catch up on...

More news and pictures later ...

Easter break!

by oldhouseblog @ 2007-04-07 – 14:34:09

So there we were stripping another room, removing all the plaster, pipework nails and rotten wood, all the old plaster dust filling the air, with more dust than air, I then decided in order to breath I must put on a dust mask and to see some goggles, I then realise after 5 mins why I do not wear dust masks and full wrap around goggles because I have previously broken my nose (twice) and have been told to be careful when wearing anything on my face ... too late ... later my nose and face felt sore and swollen and I realised (confirmed by Louise) that I have cracked or broken my nose again ... aaaaarrrhhhh which is unconfortable but equally very frustrating as this will slow the progress of the house project, but hopfully by not very much.

The house accident book which did have a 100% clean record must now read 1 broken nose!

On the bright side, in stripping this room we did not find anything that was not unexpected, a little wet rot here and there but that was it

I think if we had much more old plaster stripping to do I would recommend hiring or buying a dust extractor...

When 1/2 a day becomes 2!

by oldhouseblog @ 2007-04-03 – 21:27:13

Learnt something today which I had not really appreciated until now, Ok so not the most facinating fact in the world but if you are working in a confined space, times by 4 how long any task is going to take, so a simple job of bracing the skylight has taken 2 days! and the upper beading is still not yet completed!

Its important to strengthen larger sections of in this case MDF as you want to reduce greatly any movement in this structure so that any finish, over time does not crack / split.

Found my one of my CD books today under some building material, so managed to listen to some music; on todays playlist -- Dido, Beatles, Bach, Steele Dan, Robbie Williams and towards the end of the day as the sky looked dark grey and rain spluttered on the temporary (plastic) skylight Radio Head just to cheer myself up... :-/

A little visitor :-)

by oldhouseblog @ 2007-04-02 – 22:04:08

We (louise and I) are both a bit worst for wear today, not from some alcohol infused evening but thanks to a little vistor who, on Saturday, crept into the house through the backdoor which had blown open in the wind.

We suspected something was up as tiny paw prints had appeared all over the kitchen worksurface and this was confirmed when, at one o'clock this morning, the bedroom door swung open and a little pair of ears could be seen in the moonlight, switching on the light revealed nothing and it was only when we searched the front room downstairs that our little visitor could be seen...a tiny cat, with no tail and a flashing green collar!!! Earlier that evening all the houses in our street had been leafleted by a couple desperately looking for their lost kitten - so we called them and together the 4 of us spent a happy 20 minutes trying to coax the kitten out from the builders yard (aka the front room)

However, the Kitten found and returned to its happy owners (servants) :-)...

So just a couple of jobs completed today ...

Prepared the fire place hearth ready for slate

Skylight and skylight window second coat of paint -- beading completed on the ceiling bead and started on the skylight bead ... while some framing board insulation turned up ready for another project.

More updates later...

Overnight we have finished ;-)

by oldhouseblog @ 2007-04-01 – 15:03:45

Well I cannot really believe it! we have completed the whole house, it looks very different too...

I can go back to programming / IT projects, if the world of work is ready for me, in fact Bill Gates has just called and asked (now I am free) if I could possibly fly out and spend some time at his home re-wiring his sound system, and Louise my long suffering girlfriend can now spend all our money on spa days and dancing gigolos, although I cannot say I am entirly pleased about the latter...

Well we have to pack as we have this morning won a ski holiday to Great Yarmouth...and Marcelo has retired enjoying his solid gold collection of custom made mountain bikes :-)

And now our friends at Google are offering FREE broadband brilliant end to a perfect day...

New! Get FREE breakthrough broadband with Google TiSP (BETA).

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