Constructive Destruction

We have been busy little bees in the last two weeks, the house has transformed. We have reduced it to a shell and the start of rebuilding has begun. I stripped all the wallpaper and ceiling chipboard off the living room. My parents did the same to the hallway. Everything became covered in flakes of pine that had created the textured ceiling.  We've stripped the dining room ceiling which consisted of polystyrene tiles on top of patterned paper, on top of artex, covering a leak stain which hadn't been dealt with. Such madness.  We also took the dogs to the house one at a time so we could get them used to being there.

We have totally removed the kitchen, mallets and man power was used to rag the units from the walls. Horrific discoveries of more piles of greasy remnants where discovered underneath the units. A swarm of silverfish scuttled out with every movement, some ever lived underneath the wall tiles. We ended up greasy and dusty while dragging the kitchen into the utility room, and again when we transported the units into the car on our many trips to the recycling centre.

Once one side of the kitchen was out we set about removing the tiles, which where two layered thick of plain white modern tiles over brown 70's tiles. They where reluctant to leave the wall but once the hammers came out we had fun clattering them to the floor.

The plumbers came in this week and installed a new boiler and re-piped the entire house, which was a mismatch of various peoples DIY misadventures over the last fifty years leading to a dangerous array of    weak spots around the heating pipes. They also removed the bathroom so all that is left to do is remove the tiles and start the refit. Then they removed all the radiators so we could remove the wallpaper behind them and line the walls with backing paper, which revealed even more ugly patterned wallpaper.

Then Darren the kitchen man came and removed the kitchen sink so we could finish removing the units and tiles. We also arranged with him the units, handles and worktops that we are getting, we've already picked the tiles.  He then set about demolishing the wall, and moving electrical out lets. He finished off rounding the arch in the kitchen and prepped it to be plastered over this weekend. He also did a fabulous thing of removing the 70's gas fireplace and ripping off the pine casing around the chimney breast. He also happens to have a wood burner for sale, a lovely little one with a marble surround which suits us perfectly. We've also had a tree surgeon  out to survey the sycamore in the back garden, he agreed to remove it and trim the overhanging trees so the garden will get more light.

The further we take our archaeological dig into this house the more it feels as though the house is sighing with relief. Its not long now until we can start decorating and make the house ours. 

Yours

Belinda Stepford

xxx