Hall in a weeks' work
The most dangerous words in the English language? "Stick it down there, we'll use it one day." That, ladies and gentlemen, is how you end up with this.
The story of the week has been getting to this fabulous moment of moving all our flaming worldly possessions (minus the many bags which accidentally found there way to the rubbish - yes it was worse) into the house. As you see above.
But getting to that stage was not so easy. Why? Cos of hall.
At the end of the last post there was a teaser photo with a caption asking you to guess what was going on. So, the answer is a re-tiling of the entrance hall. But like many things, this is not so straightforward in an old house.
The cement we know and happily stick everywhere now - portland cement - only emerged in the mid 1800s, and took a while to gain traction. During this long transition, mixes of sand and lime (no not the green fruit, but the calcium based construction mineral) were commonly used. Why am I boring you with the history of cement? Because our house falls into this "sand and lime" category.
This means that our entry hall lies on top of a slab of lime and sand. It's less "concrete" than modern slabs and subsequently tends to crumble as soon as you remove old tiles from it. As our ex owner, probably found out when he tried to retile the hall - and if he didn't, we certainly did as half the tiles were loose and wobbly by the time we got the place.
Practical implication- we had to remove all the old tiles, then the dodgy slab and put another one. What you saw in the picture in the last blog was our naked floor, old slab removed. Yes, its brick vaulting construction. One day we'll show you what that looks like from the other side..
So, in short we had to have all the old slab dug up and redone. Then we could go to tiling. All in the space of a week so we could actually carry all that rubbish through the hall on Sunday and move in this week (even though we didn't have hot water).
In case you're curious, our new tiling by the way looks like this.
Yes, you guessed it, cement tiles. From Impermo, because everywhere else is at least twice as expensive... even before getting the extra 25% off during the sale.
Right, tiles in, so stuff can come in so we can move in. What's left to do then?
You sure you want to know?
SURE?
OK. Here's the none exhaustive list:
What do you reckon, next week, next year or next decade to do that lot?!
----------------------------------
So we're in. And things are likely to slow down a bit, so maybe a blog post every couple of weeks, rather than every week. Let's see!
* That's outside walls, i.e. repairing and rendering. Sorry, construction vocab entirely franciphied by this point.
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| Once upon a time in a land not so far away, a boy and a girl shared a 9m2 room in gare du midi with just a suitcase and a half each and a mattress on the floor. 10 years later, we are here. |
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| Actually there is more, and more, and more. We 5 rooms like this full of boxes. But enough of that... |
The story of the week has been getting to this fabulous moment of moving all our flaming worldly possessions (minus the many bags which accidentally found there way to the rubbish - yes it was worse) into the house. As you see above.
But getting to that stage was not so easy. Why? Cos of hall.
At the end of the last post there was a teaser photo with a caption asking you to guess what was going on. So, the answer is a re-tiling of the entrance hall. But like many things, this is not so straightforward in an old house.
The cement we know and happily stick everywhere now - portland cement - only emerged in the mid 1800s, and took a while to gain traction. During this long transition, mixes of sand and lime (no not the green fruit, but the calcium based construction mineral) were commonly used. Why am I boring you with the history of cement? Because our house falls into this "sand and lime" category.
This means that our entry hall lies on top of a slab of lime and sand. It's less "concrete" than modern slabs and subsequently tends to crumble as soon as you remove old tiles from it. As our ex owner, probably found out when he tried to retile the hall - and if he didn't, we certainly did as half the tiles were loose and wobbly by the time we got the place.
 |
| The original hall halfway through works with it's wonky, loose tiles. What a thing of beauty! |
Practical implication- we had to remove all the old tiles, then the dodgy slab and put another one. What you saw in the picture in the last blog was our naked floor, old slab removed. Yes, its brick vaulting construction. One day we'll show you what that looks like from the other side..
 |
| Remove the tile and bags of sand and we come to this. Brick vaulting construction. |
So, in short we had to have all the old slab dug up and redone. Then we could go to tiling. All in the space of a week so we could actually carry all that rubbish through the hall on Sunday and move in this week (even though we didn't have hot water).
 |
| Last Friday - slab down and ready for tiling. |
In case you're curious, our new tiling by the way looks like this.
 |
| How we love the smell of on sale Impermo tiles in the morning. |
 |
| Up close and personal mid-laying. It's like a massive puzzle. We didn't do the laying, but we did have to measure and set out everything. Which is already mission enough. |
Yes, you guessed it, cement tiles. From Impermo, because everywhere else is at least twice as expensive... even before getting the extra 25% off during the sale.
Right, tiles in, so stuff can come in so we can move in. What's left to do then?
You sure you want to know?
SURE?
OK. Here's the none exhaustive list:
- Connect boiler, test all radiators and pray (more on that later)
- Fix / replace door frames
- Fix all (10) internal doors in place and varnish or paint them
- Finish tiling in kitchen, toilet, laundry
- Hook up under cabinet lights in kitchen and fix remaining doors, finishing panels
- Paint hall, laundry, kitchen
- Redo facades*
- Replace the drain pipe so it doesn't run through the middle of the house
- Replace skylights
- Redo flat roof
- Repair stairs
- Finish stripping paint off stairs and bannisters
- Varnish or paint stairs
- Plaster 2nd floor
- Redo flooring on the second floor
- Load another skip
- Dispose of the asbestos sitting in the garden (you know you can't stick it in a skip)
- Fix all skirting boards
- Tile the patio
- And one day... a huuuuuge clean up.
- Then breathe.
What do you reckon, next week, next year or next decade to do that lot?!
----------------------------------
So we're in. And things are likely to slow down a bit, so maybe a blog post every couple of weeks, rather than every week. Let's see!
* That's outside walls, i.e. repairing and rendering. Sorry, construction vocab entirely franciphied by this point.
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