What I've been up to

I did warn that posting might be sporadic, and certainly very dull. Mostly this last week I have been breaking things, including a lot of the skin on my hands.

First of all I lifted all the old and manky carpets, rolled them up into handy tubes for the disposal of dead bodies and took them to the tip. Luckily nobody noticed the suspicious-looking bloodstain on the underlay from the back bedroom.

Not enough for a person, methinks.
But some small animal met its maker there.

Having removed the carpets, and along with them a lot of the musty smell that was permeating the place, I next turned my attention to the kitchen. Here the plan is to knock through into the dining room beyond and make a large, airy kitchen diner. You've seen the earlier picture; this is how far I've progressed.

I will get rid of that light fitting, I promise.

Lath and plaster is officially my least favourite thing now. It's filthy, dusty work getting it down. This wall is perhaps two and a half metres long, by about the same high, with a door-sized opening in it. From such a small space I have created twenty-six rubble bags full of plaster and cement - the stuff is nearly two inches thick in places - and three bags full of useful kindling. There's another wall upstairs that I've still to finish taking down, and it's even bigger.

Unfortunately I ran out of rubble bags, and the nearest supplier being an hour's round trip away, I had to resort to phoning the Horse Doctor to get more, whilst concentrating instead on something else destructive. This meant only one thing - time to remove the hideous 1980's stone fireplace:

Not the best photo, but it's lurking there in the background

I bought myself an SDS+ hammer drill and power chisel for this job - a snip at £30 - and it's by far the best house-related purchase I've made so far. A couple of hours noisy work and the fireplace was back, almost, to its original glory.

soon we will have heat!

That mess piled up in the opening is a very light weight concrete that has been poured to insulate the flue, probably at the same time as they put in that horrid, horrid faux stonework. I'm hoping that this will be sufficient lining that I don't need to add a stainless steel pipe when I put in the wood-burning stove - meaning a saving of £300. Knowing my luck it will mean the complete opposite, and cost twice as much.

Tomorrow should be the last day of dust and grime - at least I'm telling myself that. I've hired a tool to cut chases in the walls for wiring, and I've got plenty of rubble bags to cart out everything from the back bedroom. Once that's done, I can turn my attention to the wiring. Here's a taster of what I've got to contend with.

Illegal in oh so many ways

Wish me luck!