The girl who cried 'asbestos!'

Because I clearly don't have enough things to worry about, I've become convinced that something in the house was made out of asbestos. So, when we first were trying to figure out what was on the walls in the first bedroom, the obvious answer was, 'Asbestos!' When we discovered the linoleum flooring under the carpet in the little bedroom: 'Asbestos!' When L. came down coughing from the loft...Well, you get the picture.

But last night we may have well and truly stumbled upon the lurking asbestos. We were happily pulling tiles off of the fireplace (talk about satisfying), when the conversation took a turn for the worst...

L: 'What's this? Cardboard underneath the fireplace? Those people were crazy.'

Me: 'Cardboard?! But wait, it has shiny flecks...'

Together: 'Asbestos?!'

Pictures to be uploaded later.

All about the upstairs

A majority of this weekend was spent upstairs. Sean the plasterer must have sensed our desperation to get things moving more quickly and lent us his steamer (Yes, Lukas, I realise this makes him a good person and a good choice. I take back not wanting to hire him).

We have made great progress in the office and (today) in the little room. Unfortunately, that poor-choice-of-a-textured paint in the first bedroom doesn't even succumb to steam! Lukas has resorted to the desperate measure of taking off the first layer of plaster. You can hear me screaming in the background: 'No more! Don't take off any more plaster! Please! The dust!'

Tomorrow the gas central heating installation begins. It is officially cold and dark and thus I'm really looking forward to it!

Office before:

From Briar Crescent

Office after (love the green! Still trying to convince L. that we should keep it)

From Briar Crescent

From Briar Crescent

The wall of nearly still perfect plaster, it was a beautiful thing to uncover

From Briar Crescent

Lukas's hard work in Bedroom 1

From Briar Crescent

But the stupid paint has maintained its dominion over this wall

From Briar Crescent

And to end on a happy note, we can watch cows from the comfort of our bedroom!

From Briar Crescent

Electricfied

We have power! The electricians finished everything on Friday and it is so very nice to walk into a room and have instant light. Glorious. They were supposed to be done on Thursday, but we were very thankful that they weren't. We've been trying to get a reduced rate on council tax based on 'major reconstructive work rendering the property uninhabitable'. So, when I went to the house on Thursday morning and saw multiple floorboards lifted, piles of wires, and great gaping holes in the ceilings, I thought, 'Aha! It is time!' The nice man from the city council stopped by half an hour later. His stay was incredibly brief. He took a few photos and reassured me, 'Oh, this is definitely uninhabitable. Not a problem here.' ....Ah, excellent?

Posh spotlights in the living room:

From Briar Crescent

New safe-and-legal fuse box:

From Briar Crescent

Sean The Electrician finishes up:

From Briar Crescent

A hard weekend

What's better than opening the front door into your new house? Opening the front door into your new house that some one else has cleaned up!

This past weekend was absolutely exhausting. My poor thighs feel like I've gone to construction workers' boot camp. We managed to clear out most of the rubble in the living room (all 14+ rubble bags of it) just in time for the electricians who started today.

Well, you can imagine my pleasure when we walked into the house tonight and the electricians had a) made great progress and b) cleaned up after themselves and then some. I used to wonder why people would pay someone to do the menial jobs they could do themselves and save the money for something nice. Now, I understand.

It's really exciting to see things come together and to be deciding where to put light switches and pendant lights (much better than 'what amount of this plaster is salvageable').

Kitchen, sans cabinets:

From Briar Crescent

Current state of the living room (with kitchen cabinets)

From Briar Crescent

Hallway floorboards, ready to be sanded, stained and sealed

From Briar Crescent

State of the little bedroom (note linoleum that was under the carpet)

From Briar Crescent

The office

From Briar Crescent

From Briar Crescent

Contextualising 'so sorry, my house is a mess'

The living room is progressing, thanks largely to Lubo's kind lending of an electric de-plasterer.

From Briar Crescent

From Briar Crescent

In other news, both fish in the back garden pond seem to be alive, which is a huge relief to me. Another big bonus is that we seem to have a frog as well! How cool is that? Although, I'm only reporting this news second hand--K. visited and poor girl had to earn her room and board by clearing out the pond. One can imagine her shock/surprise when some of the supposed decomposed pond plant jumped back into the pond.

From Briar Crescent

Stripping and scandalous materials

Yesterday, we took a break from the living room. Lukas went off for an evening of cricket, and I buckled down with a bucket of water and my favourite scraper. The hallway is now mostly paper free and is begging to be painted.

Upon L.'s return, we decided to explore the loft. Besides an old water tank and a thin layer of insulation, the loft contained:

1. Books of various literary merit;
2. A petition to legalise pornography ('We all know what obscenity is....Don't we?');
   
3. And, as would be expected from the second find, a few pages of early 1970s, um, obscenity.

More demolition work

The past few days we've been slowly putting in an hour here and an hour there to completely demolish the living room. It looks quite sad. I would post a photo here to show the extent of the sadness, but said room is currently so dusty, we don't really want to take the camera in.

On the plus side, L.'s and my combined vague knowledge of proper construction techniques seem to result in at least a basic understanding of what we need for the job. Various demolition tools (check--me and L.), dust mask (check--my idea), goggles (check--L.) and dust sheets over both doors (check--L.). Speaking of the dust sheets, they completely creep me out. Our living room now looks like that scene from Snatch. I would abandon L. to the living room jobs and happily peel wallpaper upstairs, but it seems a bit too cruel.

Then and now

Then:

From Briar Crescent

Now:

From Briar Crescent

From Briar Crescent

Then:

From Briar Crescent

From Briar Crescent

Now:

From Briar Crescent

From Briar Crescent

From Briar Crescent

(Isn't the wallpaper amazing? Such a shame it's in terrible condition)

Oh so sleepy

Today was the first Sunday I've owned a house. Well, sort of owned a house. Owed a bank a sum that could buy a house.

Good day, but utterly exhausting. Lubo came over and gave us advice on what he would recommend we should do. Several times, I believe the words 'Wow, this is a big project!' were uttered. However, he also admitted we had enthusiasm and the house has potential. And does it ever (I love you, house!). Anyway, he confirmed Lukas's suspicion that the plastering in the living room seemed fundamentally unsound (yikes!). On the positive side of things, he convinced us that exposed floor boards, when done correctly, are not necessarily drafty (fill the gaps!). So, perhaps we've found an avenue to save money.

Big pluses today were:
1. Major demolition of unsound plaster in living room; and
2. Peeling of wallpaper in hallway that was both satisfying and revealed that the plaster underneath is fundamentally sound. Huray!

I'm absolutely starving, by the way, even after having eaten a whole pizza.

Check lists and plaster

Yesterday was the first Saturday of many spent at the house. It was glorious, but also a bit frightening as 'We have a HOUSE' went more towards 'What have we DONE?'

Highlights:
1. The shed was full of useful things (the ladder was a definite bonus)
2. We managed to get the awful 'stained glass' sticker off the window in the lean-to

From Briar Crescent

3. I found treasure under the carpet--I'm deluding myself that it's a diamond and we'll be able to use it to pay for gas central heating, but evidence suggests it's just pretty glass

From Briar Crescent

4. We met another pair of neighbours who seemed very nice
5. Lukas trimmed some of the bushes in the yard and they look fantastic
6. We got a kettle (our first kettle!) and had our first cuppa in the lovely kitchen.

Lowlights:
1. Shed leaks and thus some of the useful things were prohibitively rusty
2. Tearing down the wood paneling seems to result in the tearing down of plaster as well (yikes!)

So, highlights: 6, lowlights: 2. We're still doing ok....

We have the keys

After 12 months of plotting, planning and daily (sometimes thrice daily) visits to rightmove.co.uk, 9 months of wrestling with lawyers and paperwork, and 1 month of waiting for a Probate, we have ourselves a house!

It is beautiful. In my imagination. And so begins our major reconstruction project.