Kitchen Work Begins & More Lime Plastering

Apologies to all for the lack of updates for the last 7-8 weeks; work has only recently started up again and all I've been doing myself is stripping paint, day after day.

Work began last week on opening up the chimney breast in the kitchen to give a bit more depth for the insertion of an oven/hob. However a major stumbling block came in the form of an unstable flue wall which is potentially making the whole plan impossible. The flue from this fireplace extends over to the left of the chimney breast, resulting in the left wall of the breast comprising of a single course of red brick:

The view up the flue:

The idea was to insert a concrete head straight into the breast from the floor above, right into the dividing wall. However this wall has perished over time and cannot take any further weight or disruption:

Through this fireplace above the kitchen, it's possible to see straight through into the neighbour's adjacent chimney flue:

The kitchen opening has since been blocked up again to add strength to the structure and I may only be able to achieve approx 110mm of additional depth. More on this later.

INSERT BLOCKED UP PIC

In the first floor front room, wiring has been completed for TV/inputs/speakers:

All wires culminate in the corner where a small cabinet will be placed to house an amplifier/Blu ray player et:.

The chimney breast was studded-out to accommodate the boiler stove pipework and has since been plastered:

Final rear speaker locations:

Staying with the same room, the window shutterboxes have finally been completely stripped back:

Approx 20kg of lead paint from the windows, skirting and door frame:

Further stripping of paint on the landing outside this room:

I made the decision to completely remove this terrible section of plaster; it was cracked and brittle and horribly patched with gypsum plaster so it had to go. It was of course replaced with lime plaster, you can see the various coats below:

Float coat ready to accept final skim coat:

The left side of the hallway as you enter the house had another course of cement render on the lower section of the wall, covered by a layer of gypsum plaster. This has been removed and will once again be replaced with lime, blended in with the existing plaster:

Several more patch repairs will be performed higher up the wall. The original cornicing in the hall was damaged when the previous owner installed a second internal door; this will be repaired in time:

This corner in the hall had the same cement render as by the front door, so this was also removed:

The section of hall wall plaster below was also replaced entirely due to the extremely poor condition of the plaster, as well as improper materials used once again, cement render, gypsum etc:

Back in the kitchen, more plastering has also begun:

Great to see this building at the rear of Wellington Hall finally getting some much needed attention, with a new external render and re-pointing of the chimney: