Diary catch up #10: Not enough DEMOLITION for you? There's more...

It was a bit like waiting for the Number 42 bus round here in January.  You stand patiently in the queue for 6 months, and then WHAM! Two large, dusty, disruptive demolition projects come along at once.

With the floorboards still up in the Snug Room, the carpet and other random bits and bobs dumped across the (already fairly chaotic) floor in the 'spare' bedroom, we got the call from the Chimney Man to say he was ready to come to us now.  Not for the chimney we had just opened up in the Snug, you'll understand - oh no, that would be far too organised - but for the fireplace in the Hall/Dining Room.  Of course, silly me. Having planned this work since July, it all happens in probably the coldest week of the year...

Before - not too bad, I suppose, but very 70's and more importantly the stove is tiny for this huge space with its open staircase, and has to be watched and fed with small logs constantly to keep the fire going.

So here we are, as much furniture out as could be moved, plastic sheet up to try and contain the inevitable dust and soot.  Don't worry - I remembered to take the curtains down!

The calm before the storm

Isn't it incredible how quickly a man and a lump hammer can destroy something once they get started? Barely 10 minutes in, and the copper hood is off along with most of the white plastered chimney breast.

It was at this point that they discovered 'more than they bargained for': a wall of old bricks going up inside the inglenook flue, built there at some point in order to reduce the width of the flue to improve the draw of the chimney when the smaller inner chimney breast was put in to create a smaller fireplace.

This could have been catastrophic for us (due to the cost) - it looked at first as if this 'inner wall' went all the way up the chimney.  But our intrepid chimney men clambered up as far as they could inside the flue and found it only went up another 6-7 feet, and then the bend of the original flue curved in and the bricks stopped - whew!

Even so, removing all those extra bricks with hammer and chisel took an extra hour or so.

The haul of bricks from the inglenook 'secret wall' - a new greenhouse base perhaps?

Once they were all gone, you could stand in the inglenook and look up the chimney to the (icy blue and freezing cold) winter sky.  And you could also stand in the room, with the icy chill of this massive new opening from the house to the outside world - and realise just why people had been so keen to block up these enormous open chimneys.

That done, the chaps could press on with removing the rest of the 'ornamental' stonework - the aim was to take the inglenook back to it's original form.

We were hoping that the herringbone brick hearth went all the way underneath, that they had built the ornamental stuff over the top.  They removed the side walls - the herringbone went underneath! Hurray!

They looked at me.  Should they remove the brick hearth that had been built on top of the herringbones, or leave it in place? We decided to take away the corner bricks and see if the pattern carried on under...It did! So wallop! went the sledgehammer to lift the whole lot.  You've guessed it - the herringbone bricks promptly disappeared into a mess of infilled cement.

Drat and botheration.

Looks like the herringbone hearth had been damaged over the years by the old fire grate which would have sat directly on top of it, when the inglenook was an true open inglenook.  So when it was 'improved' in later years, they simply blobbed a load of cement in and built a new brick hearth on the top.  Typical.  So we had just removed a hearth that we would now have to rebuild.

The herringbone brick hearth - you can see the paler areas (before I had scrubbed it all clean) where the ornamental walls used to stand on top.  And you can see where they peter out about 6 inches under where the newer hearth used to be

It could have been worse.  The herringbones might have stopped at the ornamental walls, and then we would have had to have a whole new hearth built on top to make it all level.

The rest of the old bread oven opening was also revealed! It must have been bricked up when the two cottages were knocked into one, and the space where the bread oven cavity was, is now our little hallway through from this room into the lounge and kitchen.

The other half of the bread oven opening

At the end of Inglenook Renovation Day 1 - but we have the delights of the fully open inglenook flue for 24 hours with the sub-zero late January temperatures to make the experience even more authentic!

Day 2 of the works involved lots of tweaking and colourful language as the new steel register plate was fitted to seal off the cavernous flue from the room - quite a feat of engineering, given the size - and naturally, nothing is square.  Then came even more colourful language as the mammoth operation to cut a core through the 2 foot + thick wall was done with the core drill.  Don't we just love the Buildings Regulations? As if a house like this needs even more ventilation??? But thems the rules...

New brick hearth on to cover the mess below, and some render applied to the middle rear section of the wall which had similarly been damaged by the hundreds of years of smoke and heat, and had also been 'repaired' in the past by bodging with dodgy ugly brickwork.  My intention is to rake out and refresh the pointing on the remaining stone before the whole is probably painted up, as the rest is already painted and then the new patch of render will be covered at the same time.  But that's a job for the warmer weather when we don't need to use the woodburner.

At last the new woodburner and stovepipe went in, and finally it started to look slightly less like a disaster film and become more promising.  There is always that moment, isn't there, when a big job is fully underway - beyond the point of no return - even when you have planned, and thought and wished and waited for it, that you stand back and get that awful lump rising in your throat.  The one that screams 'What on earth have we done?' Panic sets in as it all looks so dreadful and problems are rising faster than your brain can deal with them. You forget the end vision you had when you started.  You can do nothing but flail about in the enormity of the mess.

At the end of Inglenook Renovation Day 2 - Workmen gone, mess gone - but the cleaning of the walls and carpet begin.  Thank heavens for the steam cleaner and the knowledge that this carpet is 'just for now'...

A wider angle shot of the same - to try to help me get some perspective back! With the curtains back up and the piano back into use, it reminds me that this IS Better, WILL BE much better, and a more comfortable and welcoming room with a much more effective heat source, along with a simpler, more rustic look that I can feel is mine. (It is also a good shot to show the little hallway through what used to be the solid back wall of this first cottage, where the bread oven cavity used to be, as I described earlier)

As is always the way, once the furniture is back, the children and animals are the ones who show you how much better it actually is:

I still can't get some of the marks out of the carpet (even though the chimney men brought their own thick sheets and were very good at tidying up as they went along).  It has more builders' boots to put up with in the coming year, so I'm not being too precious about it.  Once all the work is done, this old carpet will go and we will have a nice new one.

But it is soooooo nice to have this fire on all day, keeping the core circulation areas of the house warm and aired, and the children immediately settle here when they come in from school for a hour of jigsaw, knitting, guitar strumming or reading in front of the fire.  If they can get on the chair, that is.  The warmth even makes coercion to piano practice slightly less painful...but only slightly!

To finish, I couldn't resist sharing this photo of my birthday morning, when I was presented with this intriguingly shaped parcel as my main present:

Is it..? Could it really be...? At last, my own Nimbus 2000...????!!!

There was a moment of concern that it might possibly be a new hoover.  Surely not? He wouldn't be that cruel? (After the 'new fridge' anniversary present, you'll forgive me for a moment's hesitation).

Happily not.

No Nimbus 2000 either, though - much to the children's disappointment.

But instead - oh joy - a Brassica Cage!!!

We gardeners are so easy when it comes to ideas for presents. He doesn't realise how lucky he is.  There is at least one other lady of my acquaintance who would expect no less than a nice new expensive handbag and a weekend in Paris for her birthday.... xxx