Retrospective: The transformation of the living room

Given that our house renovation was such a long term, if not "life" project, this blog has been necessarily well spread out over the past few years, so I thought it would be worth doing a few recap posts to show how we progressed through each room. For new visitors, I hope it gives a flavour of what had to be done, and the effort we put into transforming this old house into our home.

We signed for the house in late 2010, but our own works didn't commence till April 2011, and planning permission didn't come through till May that year, as we wanted to make some changes to the structure, as well as change of use of some of the spaces.

The room that we started on was the living room, made up of a living room and a tiny dining room at the back. Here's how it was when we first viewed the house in Summer 2010.

The living room prior to purchase, Summer 2010.

After we signed, the previous owners cleared the place out, which included having to chainsaw the sofa to get it down the stairs, as it's pretty tight! So we were left with the four walls.

The first job was to start ripping stuff out. This was quite a bit more work than one might think, taking out the partition wall, ripping off the insulated plasterboard that covered some of the walls, knocking off the layers of old paint and original plaster on the others.

Some of the original stenciled patterns on the old plaster

The ceiling was completely plastered and the big oak beam crossing the room was sheathed in layers of white paint. Our first unhappy surprise was that one of the cross beam hidden by the partition wall was broken, held up by a post that formed part of the wall.

We had some nice surprises, though, discovering that two walls were made of limestone blocks, which we thought we could leave exposed as a feature wall. It needed a little imagination, though, as they were pretty grubby-looking when they were uncovered.

The whole house needed new windows, lots of them, and they had to be wooden framed, as the house is a protected structure. There were looooong delays with the window company, but finally, just before Christmas 2011, our lovely new windows were installed.

We swapped out the broken beam and took down the old plaster ceiling, exposing the 9 metre long oak beams that were hidden for probably a couple of centuries.

The old clay plaster ceiling, held together with paint

And then we sandblasted the limestone wall that would remain exposed, as well as the ceiling beams and repointed the limestone wall, a task I would be doomed to repeat in other locations over the next few years.

All the other external walls of the living were to be insulated from the inside, as the original architectural features like the half timbered wall to the south and the sandstone window frames of the gable wall, had to remain visible on the outside. The inside faces of these walls were, however, pretty uneven, not to mention far from vertical, so some evening out had to happen to give a good surface for insulating, with no air gaps. This was to be my first time plastering. I cheated somewhat by using a beading system, securing plastering beading to the wall, then flinging mud at the walls to build up layers as a keyed surface.

Then using a long float, it was easy to get a good, even final surface. Of course, this was just a base coat that would be later covered by insulation, so I wasn't worrying too much about a perfect finish, which was just as well.

On the brickwork, gable wall, we used 10cm styrofoam stuck to the wall as insulation, while on the half-timbered wall we used wood fibre insulation board, to the same insulation rating. More expensive, but breathable, so better for the timber.

October 2012. Getting the insulation up.

The it was time to start on the floor. we lifted the old, warped floorboards, discovering plenty of mice skeletons in the process, but no gold. Once the heating pipes were laid by Firma Bakan, I made a start on the floor under-construction. As the original beams were so uneven, it was quite a lot of work to set this up, with wedges, shims and anything to hand to build up an even, level framework.

In the meantime, the wall heating was also getting installed. Led by Sace Bakan, I was taught how to install the heating, from sticking the sheets to the insulation, to installing the loops of pipes that would carry the warm water through the walls, and finally anchoring the everything to the underlying solid wall with dowels, so the whole lot would stay there.

We had one last surprise in the living room, when we realised the solid oak base plate beams under the wall separating it from the stairwell was completely rotten. Again with the help of Sace and family (this time as a friend and not a contractor), within a week we had the wall out, a new poured concrete lintel on top of the cellar wall underneath, a new baseplate, and the beams re-supported by new posts.

Wall removed, and the big beam supported.

A short cut to the cellar.

New base plate and post in place.

The rotten beam.

After that, it just remained to build up the wall framework, with the door moved slightly to the left, so we could make it higher, and closer to the kitchen.

Attention had to be turned to the ceilings at this stage. We wanted to reinstate a clay plaster ceiling, but leave the beams - over which I had spent many, many hours cleaning - exposed. To provide a good foundation, we used a galvanised metal mesh nailed and screwed to the beams and underlying batons. The beams were wrapped in plastic, and the clay plaster applied. The plaster used was actually course-grained, normally used for base coats, but we liked the slightly more textured finis it gave once rubbed down with a sponge float. At the same time, the walls with the eating elements got plastered over using a standard lime-cement plaster.

With that done, and OSB sheets down as an underfloor, this really made the room feel like a proper room, and not just a building site!

Underfloor down and clay plaster ceiling finished

With the self-made windowsills fitted and the walls treated to a coat of fine plaster (later sanded), it was definitely looking homely.

A coat of paint on the walls, special old-white silicate paint on the clay ceiling, and a dose of oil to refresh the beams, all that was left was the flooring. We got a great price on solid oak boards, tongued and grooved, which we secured to the underfloor with thousands of screws (did not improve my tennis elbow), and we had a finished room!

December 2014. Not long now!

And so we finally moved in mid-February 2015. More or less 4 years after first taking a crowbar to the living room walls. It has finally become a home, though we're still growing into the space and "personalising" with decoration, pictures on the wall and furniture (so we can unpack the remaining boxes!). Not to mention the fact we still don't have internal doors yet, but all in its own good time.

Of course, all of the tasks described above were not done one after another. There was plenty of the same thing going on in all the other rooms, hence how long the project took over all. But more of that in the next retrospective post.

The Bierkeller, Part 4

I uploaded this video over a week ago, before going away on business (and beer) for the week, but forgot to post it here. But that's ok, as nothing much has changed in the few days I've been back, except the floor is now cleared and I've primed the plastered parts with potassium silicate. Potassium silicate (Kaliwasserglas) is what we used to prime and fix the clay ceilings before painting with a silicate-based paint, so I thought it would make sense to do the same here. The idea is that the plaster should remain completely breathable.

So, now I can delete the video I made today...

The Bierkeller, Part 3

It's been slow and steady over the past couple of weeks, working in the cool of the cellar while it's been sweltering outside. The stone wall on the right has been fully repointed following the sandblasting.

Beginning repointing

Almost done!

On the left , we've decided to partially plaster the wall, as it's just too much work to chip out and repoint. We'll use a lime plaster, so it is breathable, and will leave the bottom part exposed, with some wavy edges to make it a bit fancy-looking, much like I did in cellar 4.

Partially repointed bottom half.

 But the biggest fun was the floor. After we removed the concrete floor a couple of years ago, we thought it was just stone scree and clay underneath. A few weeks ago, we found a couple of big sandstone slabs, and this past week, we found more, suggesting that the original floor was still intact. Well, only one way to find out: do an excavation. Actually, more like just cleaning back.

The original floor was indeed still there, but it was very uneven, made of several large (the biggest 1.2 x 0.9 metres) sandstone slabs to the left and right, limestone blocks in the middle, and lots of clay in between. At some stage, this was covered with a stamped clay floor, perhaps because the stones were settling and becoming uneven, and later still, the concrete floor.

Patches of sand represent stones that were shattered.

 One curious feature was what looked liek a pit with a wooden lid, but in fact, it was just a layer of broken tiles, not very deep, with a thin layer of wood on top. Perhaps it was a drain at some stage, bu as said, it was no deeper than the subsoil under the large slabs.

Right now, the slabs have all been lifted, though moving the large ones is a bit difficult. The repointing is complete, as far as I want to go at least, so it's ready for plastering. Once that's done, the floor can be prepared, but I'll return to that in a later blog post.

As it looks today.

Meanwhile, here's a video update.

The Bierkeller, Part 2

Last Saturday I got up bright and early to collect a compressor from our friend, Sace, and get started with a small sandblasting pistol I bought online for €22. 3 hours, and several coffees later, I managed to prep, suit up and make a start.

My experience with the big blaster we used elsewhere in the house was excellent, but full protection is an absolute must, so it was back to doing Breaking Bad impressions again.

The thing about htis blaster is that it's relatively low pressure, and more geared towards precise work, like taking paint of bits of furniture, or rust removal. It's not quite cut out for cleaning clay and plaster off large stone wall surface. But, I persevered, and got three of the four walls done. Here's a before and after shot.

Believe it or not, there is a difference! Look down the bottom right for the biggest differences! Anyway, it's ok, and we can move on to repointing these parts soon.

Meanwhile, here's a before and after video.

The Bierkeller, Part 1

Just a video for now, to document how the future beer cellar started out. If I'm lucky, we may even finish it sometime this year!

The workshop, mid-June update

I had to stop working on the workshop a week ago, due to a problem with my back, but with a little help from a friend, and a little more work myself yesterday evening, the old feeding troughs are completely removed. Must be several tonnes of material!

Still, it's progress!

Kicking off the workshop/brewery and a nano-project

First, the nano-project. We've a stream running by the house, partially culverted, but it's really shallow. When there's melt-water, it's a raging torrent, but in summer, it reduces a lot. But there are these metal rails on the side, just before it goes underground, for sliding in boards to act as a small dam. I thought it'd be nice to deepen the water just a little, for the benefit of the local wildlife, in particular the ducks who had nested upstream a bit.

The rails

I had a few heavy boards (turns out they're oak) from the old cow stalls, so cut one to length (exactly 2 metres), slid it down the rails and,  and hey presto, job was done.

Before

After

It's not perfectly sealed, but it slowed the flow down enough to back up the water a bit, and after an hour, was 10 cm deeper.

An hour later

The next morning, it was a full 20cm deep, although given the slope, it only goes back 5 metres or so. So lets see if it makes any difference. We've a nice little biotope alongside the stream, with the remains of a large pear tree stacked up alongside the cow stall wall. It's home to all sorts of burrowing bees and wasps, slow worms, and, my favourite, a little green lizard.

At least hauling water from the stream is easier now!

And to the mini-project, which is not mini at all, I started hacking out the feeding troughs in the cow stall on Tuesday, after work, and did 2 or 3 hours each evening, and a couple more on Saturday. In fairness, it's going a bit quicker than I expected, but it's quite well built, so not a quick job. Here's a quick vid taken on Sunday.

Tomorrow, we'll get a container to load the rubble into, and once that's done, I may take part of the floor up. Very tempted to take it all up, so I can get a floor with a gentler gradient and proper drains, but let's see.