The Bannisters

A lot of the house has been boarded over. It appears that there was some renovation taking place in the 70's.  Lots of chip board covering doors, and lots of flowery carpets and wallpaper.

Today we made an exciting discovery!  The original Victorian spindles have been hiding behind the boarded over bannisters for all this time.  It took a while to expose them but here they are.  They are not perfect but they are original so now after some sanding and vanish they could look perfect.  A little bit of love and care and the staircase may be the first part of the house to be restored.  It's also opened up the space and let in more light.  What a discovery!!  What's next?

The discovery - view from bedroom

The boarded bannister

Revealing the original spindles

The Kitchen

All I can show are the pictures here.  This is turning into a very large project and we're not quite sure where to begin.

The first pictures show the kitchen when we first viewed the house.  The latter pictures are where we are today.... So far we have bricked up a side door, discovered two original doors - one at the back corner of the house and one on the opposite side where the window is.  


To start with, we will restore the original door frame - for two reasons: 1. It's a good position to enter the garden. 2. The brick work from the outside is so poor, it's going to be more cost effective to replace the brickwork with a door than replace the brickwork, full stop.


The next stages could include anything.... anything from bricking up the windows, opening the windows up, taking the partitioning walls down, raising the ceilings, lowering the floors, taking down the tiles.  Electrics, re-wiring, plumbing, removing old pipes and the list goes on.

The kitchen when we first viewed the house

The kitchen as work in progress

The original door frame found behind the units on the left hand side - see the red frame? This window may need to go!

The side door on the right hand side, all bricked up, ready for making good and eventually some plastering.

The little utility/bathroom at the back of the kitchen - these walls have got to go and this window will need to be opened up into a gorgeous garden facing window and some fresh, bright blinds to allow lots of light in.

This is the little toilet room to the right of the utility area pictured above.  As you can see, this is where the door way was bricked up.  We've found out that this was probably the outside WC, brought inside only 40/50 years ago.

Watch this space!

The Bulging Repair

Structural engineer was next on the shopping list.  He advised very calmly that a bulge in the side flank is nothing unusual on a house this old.  We'd need a builder to strap the property with lateral restraints.  In everyday terms, it's like stitching up the side of the house.

Nowadays, houses are naturally built with this type of support but over 100 years ago, this wasn't the case.  The work has been taking place for the last few weeks and here is the work in progress.....The overall strapping and the restraints up close...

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A long time since the offer was accepted

From May until October - this is how long it has taken to move forward with the house purchase. 

It's now October and a lot has happened during this time.  After the survey highlighted that the flank wall needed to be strapped due to the bulging we managed to encourage the vendor to pay for the repair.  This type of repair is very common in a house of this age and easy to do yet due to the scaffolding it can cost in the realms of tens of thousands.

Luckily the vendor agreed to this and since I last wrote, this is what's been taking place.