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Part 10 – Stripping To The Shell – Written by Gary King

As I mentioned in my previous post we’re in and we’ve started work. What I didn’t mention before that as soon as we started ripping everything out we had to make our first major decision. To strip or not to strip? That is the question.

Because the house has been empty for such a long time with al fresco ventilation and an assortment of holes in the roof it had become very damp. Wall paper hung (the wrong way), black mould gathered around crumbling plaster and ceilings sagged in the most precarious manner.

After much deliberation and sucking of teeth we decided we would take everything back to bare walls and joists. 100 year old plaster has been hacked away, door frames have been ripped out and window sills removed.

It took about a week and the result has been a combination of dizzy excitement combined with unfathomable alarm. How much plasterboard needs to go back on? What about the insulation? Is it normal to be able to see the inside of the apex of your roof from your hallway?

These and many more questions will be answered in the upcoming weeks of the project. Watch this space. All will be revealed. Or covered up as the case may be!

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