New Dad @ 48 Edwardian house restoration

The best way to DIY is to hire a professional and study how they do the simple things. I have one rule; I don’t do electrics, plumbing or ANY jobs I would have a go at, but would look like shite! Ok, I have a few rules.

So here’s the latest, I’ll let the pictures tell the story . I borrowed my father-in-laws Kango and dug out the downstairs hearth. I then practiced filling holes with concrete in the back yard. Once confident, and ensuring I had more concrete than I probably needed, I mixed and filled the hearth.

We took a break on Sunday and went to the BrickCon lego show in Limerick. Dropping in on the lovely people in Browsers who sold us our Everhot Range to swap some wine glasses and have a nosey. The Lego Show was whelming, but the kids loved it which is all that matters.So we got our final two doors back from their dipping and the carpenter made up two saddles for the floor. Handles are in and,just in time for the hot weather , we can close all our doors to keep the heat in!

Finally, the shelves I rescued from the side of the road. Nice!

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James came, James told endless stories, Gerry took the fireplace apart, James supervised, James told more stories, four days later Gerry returned with our restored fire. It was the hottest day of the year so far, we still lit a fire. Very happy, if a bit sweaty, campers.

It was fixed when we had scaffolding up, the snow broke it, it was fixed again by a man with a triple ladder. “I Tec sevened the life our of it” he said. “ It won’t move in an earthquake” he said.

It lasted two weeks before the gutter at the front of the house was yet again dumping it’s load onto our neighbours door way. The Tec 7 did not last, the hot weather put paid to that. It popped and fell.

”€300”

”really,  could you break that down for me”

“two men, two hours, the cost of materials, vat…..it all adds up”

” eh!, I want you to climb a ladder, and glue a gutter not paint the front of my house, tell you what I’ll buy me own ladder, a tube of adhesive, and my wife will hold the ladder, feck off now back to ripping off old people”

So the 30 foot ladder was delivered, the front of the house is 7 and a half meters to the gutter. I tied off the ladder to the bannisters of the stairs through the second floor window and made my assent. Twice.

The first fix was with drain pipe adhesive, it lasted for a couple of hours. Today I re climbed Tec 7ened the feck out of it. Plus a new bracket. I am not the best with heights, but my fear of giving bandits €300 overcame my vertigo. And I am now the proud owner of a ridiculously tall double ladder.

“Do you think it’s being thrown out”

“I’m having it”

Not quite skip diving, but one of our neighbours had left a sad looking pine wall shelving unit on the side of the road. The ancient old school nails I removed from it give me an idea of its age, the same handmade iron  nails are in our 1906 flooring. So the unit was not from ikea.

A lot of sanding, a serious dousing of woodworm killer and a waxing, to be done tomorrow and we have a scullery wall shelf.

The fire is on again, and antique road show is on. Nice.

The Rosewood Beehive for the main doors and the smaller brass rim lock for the scullery, utility and bathroom doors. I got them on t’internet from two separate places in England. Way, way cheaper than any repro stuff in the shops here, let alone buying originals.

Next up is the dining room fireplace. We saved some of the quarry tiles from the floor of the original kitchen, most of them were unusable. Then by a happy happenstance I found this red and black wood burning stove. The above tile placement is only to see what it will look like, I have to kango out the concrete base and lay some self leveling compound yet.

We took out the original upstairs fireplace yesterday. It’s being fully restored and made ready for a real fire in the living room. We are keeping the original tiles, not my favourite but they have been there since 1906 or thereabouts so who am I to change them.

This dining room table was in my fathers bachelor flat at 69 Fiztwilliam Square in Dublin.

It followed him into marriage, and was our family dining table in Coliemore Road. It doubled up as a table tennis table, a slide, a subbuteo stadium and a vast hinterland for our triang / hornby electric train sets. My mother spent her life trying to protect it from stains and scratches, with moderate success. So I had it sanded by the carpenter when he was here fixing our floor. After a final fine sanding we coated it with Osmo oil for worktops. It came up lovely.

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So a quick update on slow progress. We have knocked through the original doorway from the first-floor bedroom to the landing. We are having two doors being dipped, sanded and waxed for here and the living room.

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The old flooring from the ground floor is now laid out in the attic to ensure dryness. I have insulation to put down but we are awaiting an electrician to rewire first. Some of this flooring will be used to replace damaged  boards on the first and second floor prior to sanding.

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Here we can see the doors that have been dipped, sanded and waxed. All these doors are original to the house.

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The back utility room is nearly complete, we went for a free-standing seat and coat hanger rather than built in, so i continued the wainscoting around the rest of the wall. I have salvaged a door architrave from upstairs for here. The only thing left to do here is erect a sliding double door to cover in the boilers.

We are actively searching for Victorian/Edwardian handles and mounted locks for all our doors. We may have to go for online reproduction stuff. Still feckin’ expensive! We especially would like wooden and brass beehive ones similar to this, so if anyone has some ……..:)

The little jobs are never ending, for example sealing all the counters with silicon, learning how to ‘lay a bead’ (oooh missus);  without destroying everything. Measuring a doorway then ordering the correct size, depth and amount of plaster boards needed to fill it in. Getting hold of ESB Networks to come and move our meter. Then getting an electrician to co-ordinate with Networks in order for them to proceed. Ringing the electrician who had agreed to do the job and him not remembering my name let alone the job. The recession is definitely over.

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Today we have carpenters in doing remedial work on the floor. It should have sat in the house acclimatising for three to four weeks before it was put down. Our fantastic carpenter Bruce is beavering  away downstairs as I type, filling in the gaps with trimmed slivers of the leftover original boards. He will leave them proud and is coming to sand them flat tomorrow. Then it’s out with the Osmo oil again.

Before

After

The scaffolding is finally down, the ESB still have to remove their yellow condom, even though it delightfully matches our door and fence. So here’s the question, is the new paint blue or green? I know what it said on the tin, yet it is still debatable.

The Scullery.

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Things I have learned when constructing an IKEA kitchen:

Do not use a jigsaw to cut a counter top, it is impossible to keep the blade from wobbling. I used a fine tooth hand saw and clamped a piece of wood along the cutting line to keep straight.

Get a couple of clamps, vital to keep your cupboards aligned when joining together, also for hold things in place when sawing.

Get someone else to fit the integrated dishwasher who has done it before. Very fiddilly, it took me ages and several re-dos.

Make a jig thingy to line up the handle holes perfectly every time.

We are now reaping the rewards of insulating the floors, and having the everhot which lives up to it’s name. It is living in a totally different house, no draughts, no gale coming through the floorboards, and thanks to a wonderful plumber and a few new rads we now are beginning to have a home.