15 years ago ,never having picked up a hammer,move into delapidated 2 bed Vic terrace.Big ideas and not one iota of how to go about realising them.
The old boy who had just died there left a catalouge of sadness.His downstairs rooms were carpeted with a patchwork of 18"square carpet samples each carefully nailed down with around 100 iron tacks.The cellar light was supplied on a length of 12v bellwire.He had got an extra socket in the front bedroom but he'd run it as a spur from the downstairs kitchen.It was clipped up and along each riser and tread of the staircase up to the bedroom and then along the skirting,obviously following the layout of the wall.Succesfully negotiating the first corner it was onto the second ,but oh it looks like we might run out of cable.No problem-go diagonally accross the floor now and nail some carpet samples over it.
On the home straight now and ,oh no! we're out of cable!
Easy peasy-we just have to move the patress a bit closer.
Drat!
Move it a bit closer again.We wont worry too much about the extra few sets of holes.
There!
Oh no were out of wallplugs! Never mind-just hold it all in with two or three nails wedged into each hole.Weve cracked the patress now but they heal themselves.
Now wheres that bucket of tar -the shed needs doing again.
The place was in a bad way but it unearthed some history like gas lighting pipework and old coins down the floorboards.
Most of the plaster had blown or been taken off by the damp proofers so in our naievity we decided that drylining was the answer.
Bad move-drilling the plasterless walls had the bricks vibrating loose from the limey mortar(which wouldnt hold plugs itself)
Undeterred we soldiered on and finished the drylining which ,by the time the plasterboard had been nailed on (1-2 miss- the batten ratio) was loose on the wall.
We then skimmed it which was no mean feat in the 22 ft starwell using only a step ladder.
It looked so bad we went and bought a big bag of artex and made it even worse.
We got a plasterer in but he just laughed and siad he was too busy.Damn those diy fixit books with free binder with part one.
Learned a lot in that house so now I know never to buy a house from young couples with polyfiller in their hair.Or elderly gentlemen sporting electrical burns.
The old boy who had just died there left a catalouge of sadness.His downstairs rooms were carpeted with a patchwork of 18"square carpet samples each carefully nailed down with around 100 iron tacks.The cellar light was supplied on a length of 12v bellwire.He had got an extra socket in the front bedroom but he'd run it as a spur from the downstairs kitchen.It was clipped up and along each riser and tread of the staircase up to the bedroom and then along the skirting,obviously following the layout of the wall.Succesfully negotiating the first corner it was onto the second ,but oh it looks like we might run out of cable.No problem-go diagonally accross the floor now and nail some carpet samples over it.
On the home straight now and ,oh no! we're out of cable!
Easy peasy-we just have to move the patress a bit closer.
Drat!
Move it a bit closer again.We wont worry too much about the extra few sets of holes.
There!
Oh no were out of wallplugs! Never mind-just hold it all in with two or three nails wedged into each hole.Weve cracked the patress now but they heal themselves.
Now wheres that bucket of tar -the shed needs doing again.
The place was in a bad way but it unearthed some history like gas lighting pipework and old coins down the floorboards.
Most of the plaster had blown or been taken off by the damp proofers so in our naievity we decided that drylining was the answer.
Bad move-drilling the plasterless walls had the bricks vibrating loose from the limey mortar(which wouldnt hold plugs itself)
Undeterred we soldiered on and finished the drylining which ,by the time the plasterboard had been nailed on (1-2 miss- the batten ratio) was loose on the wall.
We then skimmed it which was no mean feat in the 22 ft starwell using only a step ladder.
It looked so bad we went and bought a big bag of artex and made it even worse.
We got a plasterer in but he just laughed and siad he was too busy.Damn those diy fixit books with free binder with part one.
Learned a lot in that house so now I know never to buy a house from young couples with polyfiller in their hair.Or elderly gentlemen sporting electrical burns.
