Yzzy

OMG if that was someone I didn't know I'd be LIVID!!!! It's upsetting but I am trying to block it out and just knuckle down and do....

This is what the kitchen looked like when I first entered.. Then I saw light!!!!

The rest of the day (9am-2) I emptied very very full kitchen cupboards on the south end of the kicthen and ripped them out.... SO much fun waving an axe about. At one point a wall unit crashed to the ground and I shouted out.. "Mum! Dad! I think I broke the kitchen!!" hahahahaha.... yes! Tomorrow I smashe the bejoobas out of what you can see that's left......

oops... no, we don't do Valentines as it's our wedding anniversary on St Patricks day and we go mad then... ok so here is a short video of the skirting board crumble..... pleassseeeeeeeeee let it not be bad. The rest of the skirting is good and solid.... that part was behind a large wall unit since about 1980 so it may just be sweaty room syndrome lol oh no! Can't add video.... do I need special permission? Can add a photo though....

Excellent tips thank you all. I think I'll take photos of everything I am unsure about first and post it here for the expert eye before I wade in with my DM's!

Today I ave been learning about our two huge 1860/70 fireplaces and I am in SO MUCH LOVE...... One is Italian white statuary Marble the other is Irish Black Killkenny Fossil marble and one has Minton / Moyr Smith Shakespeare painted tiles in it and I am in love... oops did I already say that.. Tomorrow I am going to spend Valentines with my new loves....

I'm getting paid by the hour and older by the minuteMy boss just pushed me over the limitI'd love to call him something, but I think I'll just call it a day!!!!

oh wow that is beautiful!!!!!! Look at those views!

Love this...

Wait... there's a 'time' for this?

I didn't even know it was an option! I thought all water 'containers' in the house had an overflow... I think I would have them 'just in case'... YOU may not leave a tap on with a flannel blocking the plug hole but......

Excellent advice here thank you all so much.... I'm so cross at the mess but that's life... she initially planted 7 tiny saplings... these are now HUGE and little 'babies' are popping up all over the lawn and on the other side of the bloody garden near the south wall... I'm surprised there aren't any in the actual house... I'll inquire into getting a professional in but I know it will be too pricey for us... so I will do what I can from the suggestions above for now.

No... the 'lass' wants the tree dead, like dead dead... I couldn't give a fig () how brutal it is or not BUT as Nick says, if you leave anything vaguely alive from the fig then it will pop up somewhere and haunt you for years... ergo... I want to kill it dead and then dig it all up. What the 'lass' doesn't want is poisoned ground stopping her from growing anything else there or stopping her from having that fish pond and stream she dreams of.

Awesome, thank you. Sorry for late reply, I dont seem to get notifications of replies unless I remain logged in....

Can you not just send a letter to all neighbours saying you are working on the house, there will be occasions when temporary blockage of the road will occur and if they would like to be notified of the days this may happen then they can send their details to you at.... and then list contact details for yourself. Tell them this is to save paper and time spent posting individual letters. I did this just before Christmas, I wrote to all the neighbours within complaining distance and said we would be working on renovating the house, that there will be noise and mess on occasions and that we would do our best to minimise this, if they wanted to ask any questions or be told when anything disturbing is going to happen (scaffolding, roofing, tree cutting, cement mixers whirring outside etc) then to send their details to me... Not one person has! Although one called me to tell me I'd left a light on and another keeps stopping when she sees me outside to ask if I ave fixed the observatory yet as she can see pigeons... I always smile and say I haven't made it to the top floors yet and run off inside but I feel like saying "Can you see pigeons in the observatory??? yes??? well then there's your answer !!"

yes that's our ivy, I've cut that cow down about 7 times over the years!! That's another job for this month, before it REALLY starts growing! The other side of that garage there is a climbing rose that is just as big and also in need of taming and training along the wall rather than all over the garage. The garage on the other side of the house is clear of growing monsters but both garages have leaks... grrrrr.... flat roofs SUCK.

Someone said it was better / cheaper to dump everything outside and get a grabber in.... I have several issues with this: 1) All my crap on display for x days 2) All my crap blowing about 3) Do they clean up after? Once the skip has gone it's gone but I can't imagine a grabber cleaning up the drive? But yes, after we discovered how fast we can fill an 8yd skip we both agreed a bigger skip was needed.... still have 1 and a half rooms to empty downstairs!

Interesting read! I've been looking in to this too lately as my old childhood home has a name nobody can fathom a reason for, named after Anne of Cleves but she died way way before any house was at the location or any of the land was even used... So we have decided to re-name the house and as far as I could see, unless you wanted it to be ONLY known by the name and not a number then you could do as you please. So for example "Smelly House, 52 Stinky Street" would be ok... but calling it just Smelly House would need registering? OK I'm an idiot... just re-read and you have no street or numbers placed yet.

Oh my Goodness Steamy I just emptied our old music room and found hundreds of records, I've no idea if I should dump them, donate them or treasure them!!

Ahhh this is good news!!! So the cracking could just be the lath coming away from the plaster? That can be fixed yes? Should I rip the wallpapery stuff off the ceiling or will that just feck the whole thing up?

oh and I got a wheelbarrow! B&Q £32... her name is Wheeelma! As for rawlplugs, the only things planned for those walls are (apparently according to my american hubby).... "A god-damn HUGE tv screen for movies!!"... well good luck with that then... may have to utilise the Italian Marble Fireplace and just have it sat on that!

When I ripped the (rather droll velevet) wallpaper down I could see evidence of someone at some point having tried to hammer a nail in to the wall... they didn't get very far and all I could see was a grey cementy dent!! lol

We also cleared what will be (one day) our main lounge at the front... it was our Music Room growing up and as such we still have a couple of pianos in there, one I am keeping and one I am going to offer to a music shop or trash as it has pigeon poopies in it and well I prefer the Evestaff anyway! Photos!!! Hmm didn't take any of the window end or door wall corner.... Tell you what though, now it's empty it's a BIG ROOM!!!! Sheesh.... Everything (cross fingers) looks sound in there, the walls aren't plasterboard but some kind of cement?? The ceiling looks cracked but I am hoping that is just damp in the many layers of paper no doubt up there... will be ripping that down to have a look this week. Oh yes,,, edited to add... the kickboards / skirting...... when I grab hold of the bits that are falling off they crumble and look almost like cork, is it woodworm? I cant see any holes in them but they are either made of some kind of really light wood or have dry rot perhaps? Floor boards are covered by MDF so cant see them.... yet... another job for this week.

Doesn't take much to fill an 8y skip does it!!!! OMG We did the breakfast room today, it's been leaking water for at least a year if not more and everything was saturated and stunk like Shreks ass..... After a liberal spraying of Jeyes it was tolerable and we gutted the room! This room was jammed packed full of crap about 5 foot high and in every nook and cranny, even had an M&S shopping Trolley in there! I say we need to rip everything out up to wall level and cover from elements..... Hubby says cover the roof with tarp until we have £ to re-build..... trouble is the flat roof has a rather charming swimming pool developed on top and the ceiling dips in a wee bit.... I'd rather demolish and skip it all while we have the skip and skip £ than it all collapse in a months time and we can but stare at it all..... I'm no expert and have never done this before so any input would be fabulous you amazing people!! xxxx Some photos... I tend to write inspirational rubbish on the walls... it really helps me wen I feel overwhelmed by the devastation of it all.... I walk in to a cleared room and see the self-pep-talk and think YES!!!!! come on bitch lets get working!!!!! LMAO at my cheeky hubby in one photo... I said "give us a cheeky grin!" and he did... didn't notice until now... So this room is the corner room between the small lounge and kitchen, it was added on after the main build we think and i would like the wall where hubby is standing in the kitchen down to make that one big room....The wall where it has my pep-talk leads to the small lounge.. it always had a wall opening there but Mother boarded it up for heating reasons.... The door on the back covered in celophane is one we put up last year as robbers had smashed the original one... no it doesn't fit properly...