Window Sill & Architrave Plinths

Work has been slow due to little time off on my part and a 3 week break with the builders. Some progress has been made though and the top two floors are nearly completed.

I started work on the bathroom window sill, packing the space underneath with fibreglass wool:

I then had some 35mm sill cut to the size of the opening, which fits nicely. It was then glued and pinned in place:

Filler sanded:

I also had some architrave plinth blocks made up. Just a very simple square shape to clean up where the window architraves meet the skirting in both the bathroom and bedroom. The bottom of all the architraves was also damaged so this was a decent solution. Some of the damage:

A block temporarily in place:

Thinner blocks for the bedroom:

I also started work on stripping the paint from the doors. Extremely labour intensive, this took about an hour:

I hope to start painting in the next week.

Tiling & Shower Installation

Tiling behind the shower unit was completed last week, it came out extremely well:

The small inset shelves are just the right size for general toiletries: 

Once the tiling was complete, the shower enclosure and shower itself could be installed. I'm extremely pleased with how it turned out:

All fittings are very high quality. The shower has a rainfall type head.

Some Skirting & Bathroom Work

Work has slowed in the last month, however is due to pick up again next week. In the mean time, I had some skirting made up, matching the profile of the ground floor front room skirting exactly, which is the only original surviving skirting in the house.

I had the profile bit made for €50, which allows the wood shop to cut lengths of poplar identical to the original skirting. Poplar was used as it has virtually no knots, perfect for painting. I had it made to a height of four inches for the top floor rooms, as the original skirting would not have been full sized. Something to note is that the top floors never had decorative skirting like downstairs, just simple shaped lengths surrounding the room. Most of it had been lost/damaged so I made the decision to get the new skirting made up to the original downstairs profile.

Some skirting installed in the bathroom:

Tanking also began today behind the shower. The box sections were also cut out, which will serve as two shelves:

The bath has also temporarily been positioned with the feet, taps, waste and downpipes fitted. It just needs to be plumbed from the floor below:

The decorative waste pipe:

Plastering Window Reveals

So just a small update this week. The top floor front window reveals and the area below each window was annoying me, in that it was all covered up with cheap pieces of 5mm board, as seen below:

The idea the whole time was to replace the pieces of board with larger, newer, cleaner cut board. But on removal of these panels, it became clear that the reveals were originally plastered, set back behind the architrave. This plaster was in very poor condition, so I set about removing it and exposing the red brick behind. It also exposed the window head, comprised of what can only be described as a giant piece of tree:

The window head appears to be a very crudely cut tree trunk, which is set rock solid in the wall. It's un-planed and rough to the touch.

The right hand window below. After the amount of effort removing the cracked wooden panel that covered the left window head, I decided to leave this one in place as it's undamaged and should sand nicely:

Once the wood and plaster had been removed from the windows, the reveals and under the windows was all plastered (the poor lighting makes it look rough, when in fact it's perfectly smooth):

Under the right hand window needed to be filled as so much lime mortar and small bits of rubble fell out when the plaster came off, it has yet to be plastered:

The bathroom reveals were also attended to, as the area where the reveals meet the window sides was cracked and disjointed due to the install. They are now perfectly smooth with a straight edge:

Bathroom Updates

So the custom made counter for the basins was brought in today, the first real piece of furniture in the house. It's been plumbed and roughly positioned:

Both the sinks and the taps came from Bathstore.co.uk.

The plumbing from underneath which can't be seen from the door, yet is still to be tidied up a little:

Toilet in position (waste to be repositioned lower and boards stripped back):

The shower has been plumbed also:

The shower tray in position:

The plumbing underneath the floor of the bathroom, including hot and cold water, radiator and waste pipework:

The waste lines leaving the house, still to be connected:

A small update on the staircase walls, most of the plaster has now been removed, exposing the only original ceiling in the house. It's in really poor condition due to water ingress.:

All plaster removed from the outside wall:

And finally, the bath arrived on the top floor today! Using a rented ginny wheel, 20 metres of rope and the hard work of six men, all 170kg of it was dragged, lifted and hoisted onto the top floor.

The ginny wheel was hung from one of the two purlin beams in the attic, where a hole was punched through the attic staircase ceiling and the rope passed down to the ground floor, down the centre of the stairs. Here it was looped through the plughole and tied around the end of the bath.

Throughout the process, varying numbers of men on the top floor pulled on the rope to take some of the weight of the bath, whilst everyone else lifted and pushed the bath up the stairs. Cardboard and ratchet straps were wrapped around it to protect it and to give somewhere to grab onto. Overall it was a great success and only took about 40 minutes once we started. No damage to the bath, people, walls or stairs.

The ginny wheel chained to the purlin beam:

Getting the bath up the first flight of stairs was the most difficult as the rope was at a poor angle to offer any addition lifting force. It slid up though relatively easily on it's cardboard covered side:

The rope attached to the bath:

The various ratchet straps and cardboard protection which worked extremely well:

The feet are still to be installed which will of course raise the bath up.

Thanks to all involved in the lift, including neighbours!