Preparation of the windows for painting began on Monday, with Pat Lynch's painter Philip. All windows take two layers of undercoat and he also caulks around the frames and window detailing to seal any gaps, sealing the windows completely.
The windows are under-coated in white on both the inside and outside:
Work also began on the plumbing of the radiators on the top floor, the below pictures are the underside of the top floor.
Below the bathroom:
Below the bedroom:
The underside of the bathroom floor is also being reinforced. These new joists have already eliminated virtually all bounce in the floor and they still have to be tied together with two layers of plywood for additional strength.:
...was a complete failure. On Sunday, six of us attempted to get the bath to the top floor, up the four flights of stairs. It was just impossible to manoeuvre. The bath is wider than the stairs, so it needs to be lifted up the stairs sideways. Lifting the bath in this position gives the lifters no where to grab on to the bath and virtually no grip. We estimate it weighs in the region of 160-180kg.
So the bath remains at the bottom of the stairs for now:
Turning the bath:
Once we realised it was going nowhere for the day:
On a more positive note, the custom ash sink counter-top is nearly complete, built here in Dundalk:
It will be stained a little darker than this when complete:
Radiator placement is being organised this week, as well as plumbing them through the floors and up into the attic. Here are the radiators in the top floor bedroom before installation:
A 600x500mm radiator on the opposite wall:
Holes for pipework:
The radiator for the bathroom is the same size as the two below the windows in the bedroom, 1010x300mm. Batons for the tongue and groove also continues to be anchored to the walls:
The tongue and groove continues being pinned to the wall batons. A very laborious task as each length needs to be cut to length, stripped of paint, filled and then sanded.
My first error!
And the rough position of the heated towel rail:
Finally, just an interesting shot up the chimney flue from the ground floor front room. It diverts off to the left, coming up the left side of the chimney breast on the first and second floors.
Finally, work has begun on the refurbishment of all the windows in the house. This involves the reinstatement of all glazing bars that were removed, making the large windows six over six and the smaller windows three over three.
All the windows on the front of the house are original and refurbishment has begun (they have yet to be sanded and painted):
First floor sashes:
All of the windows in the rear of the house required full replacement. The frames and sashes were rotted through. However the brand new windows are exact copies of the front windows, with wooden frames, sashes and original weights and ropes where they survived. New pulleys allow the windows to operate incredibly smoothly; all the windows in the house can be opened and closed with a single finger.
This is the new bathroom window, top floor rear:
New pulleys and ropes:
The new stair window is spectacular, a very large imposing window which allows in a huge amount of light during the day. These are the old sashes (note the frosted glass that restricted light):
And the new window installed:
The new first floor rear window, temporarily held in place:
The rotted and decayed windows removed from the first floor stair landing and from upstairs in the return:
And the new window upstairs in the return, temporarily held in place:
Some of the original sash weights that are being reused:
The video below shows how easy it is to open even the largest windows in the house:
I've also decided to tongue and groove the new bathroom to waist height, using the board removed from the old bathroom. Most of the boards are in decent condition and should only need some light filling and sanding. The tongue and groove will be applied to the wall using 19x38mm batons, which are being treated below:
They've been secured to the wall with 65mm scews and 45mm masonry plugs, drilled into the brick/stone walls:
