A feat of ingenuity - removing the old Stanley range
I seem to spend my spare time filling holes... and we have lots of them. Everywhere! When we stripped off the wall paper, underneath the walls were quite bare, some not even painted, just the old rough plaster showing. and pock marked everywhere. As Stevie said, just like a teenagers face!
(how cruel) But its true ! Every wall surface looks like its been machine gunned..and where there isn't pits in the plaster there are cuts, as if some one has been sword fighting and slicing the walls with the tip of their sword blade. So you can imagine painting is not a simple feat at all. I have base coated with 50/50 white wash, then rubbed down, then filled, then rubbed down, then painted, then painted again then rubbed down..etc etc... trying to get a smoother more even finish before we can apply the coloured top coat.
The electricians came..and chainsawed my drawing room walls. Huge tram lines were cut in the plaster from the ceiling vertically all the way down the walls to the skirting's. The new cabling was then inserted through and now I am filling big trench like holes again. 12ft long by 2 inch wide trenches up my walls. My lovely drawing room looked a proper mess. Also, some ingenious soul, decided back in the 70s to put some weird type of bitumen lined silver backed damp proof type lining paper an the back wall and the chimney breast.. Now that is a real night mare to try to get off. We cant use a steamer type of wallpaper stripper as the old lime plaster disintegrates, so its a matter of damp cloth and scraper, and keep tackling it a little at a time.
Some of the very old wall sockets that were here were made of brown Bakelite, Joan said her dad fitted the electrics back in the 40s. Our electrician confirmed this as the cabling was pre 1953.. it certainly didn't meet any modern day safety or compliance regulations ! The younger electrician had never seen this type of wiring before. So the wall sockets have now been replaced, and for each socket a 6inch hole has cut into the lathe and plaster walls to secure the fitting...More big holes for me to fill up. first with offcuts of plasterboard and then filled with new plaster then rubbed down and finishing plaster is applied to create an even surface with minimal scarring.
The plumbers have been burrowing under the floorboards and drilling through 2ft thick solid stone walls. Their drill bits are 3ft long! All the old radiators have been removed and replace with eco rated new ones. The rusting hulks of the old ones are waiting outside for the scrap man to call. One of the radiators from the drawing room is about 10ft long..flipping massive and is very heavy !
Stanley ( the range ) has gone......
I advertised it last weekend FREE on Farmers Free ads, and immediately was inundated with emails that evening with people asking if they could have it...I was glad to get rid of it as my builders were working their way through the kitchen and he was in their way, so if someone wanted to come and take him away i was happy with that. One lady emailed me and asked for the measurements and if it would fit in her Berlingo car... lol...how i laughed...He weighs 880lbs !! Hes made of solid cast iron .. Eventually I arranged with someone to come and collect it. Come first and view it I suggested. Its disconnected but you will have to bring tools to remove it, some device to lift it, some strong men and a suitable vehicle. Again I reiterated it weighs nearly half a ton!
The person who turned up, was a youngish man in overalls with his grossly overweight buddy, who was dressed in shorts that showed his arse crack and was wearing flip flops on his feet.. Hummm I mused...these boys have got no idea..... They stood there looking at Stanley, scratching their heads. ' I did tell you it was big and heavy' i said to them..hummm... it was just like dumb and dumber I thought. But there was no way they were leaving empty handed.. They were having stanley. They had driven an hour and a half to get here to collect it so didn't want to go home without it.
Fortunately my builders are wonderful. they stayed on late and took control. Firstly the angle grinder came out and soon sparks were flying across the flagstone floor as the copper pipes securing him to the ingle nook were sliced away. Then 4 of them 'walked it' forwards until it was extruded from his hole in the wall. The next assignment was to get him out of the kitchen , through the door, along the boot room and into the Yard at the back. Scaffold boards were put on the floor and they tried walking the Stanley along the planks of wood. But his sharp metal corners were becoming wedged in the wood.
There was an interlude of head scratching for a few moments until i spotted my friendly farmer neighbour walking up the lane. I called him over and he stood there having a look trying to work out how we were going to get this thing out of the house. He suggested we rolled it out. Put something under the base to act as big rollers and slide the Stanley along the rollers. But we diddnt have anything suitable. ahh ha. Then he had a superb idea. He took an old scaffold tube across the lane up to his work shop and cut it up into 4 smaller bars. The the scaffold planks were laid along along the yard floor , along the pathway at the side of the wall and around into the garden. The boys reversed their transit van along the driveway and parked as close as they could to where we were all standing in the garden. The the scaffold boards were moved until a 'bridge' was made from the patio area by the shed crossing the ravine of the steeply sloping garden and into the back of their van. The Stanley was then precariously moved inch by inch, by using the rollers across the 'bridge' until after one last heave it rolled right up , through the rear door and was sat inside their van. A massive effort from everyone concerend...apart from the big lad, whose shorts kept riding down his backside and revealing hairy arse crevice!!
xxx
Jo
(how cruel) But its true ! Every wall surface looks like its been machine gunned..and where there isn't pits in the plaster there are cuts, as if some one has been sword fighting and slicing the walls with the tip of their sword blade. So you can imagine painting is not a simple feat at all. I have base coated with 50/50 white wash, then rubbed down, then filled, then rubbed down, then painted, then painted again then rubbed down..etc etc... trying to get a smoother more even finish before we can apply the coloured top coat.
The electricians came..and chainsawed my drawing room walls. Huge tram lines were cut in the plaster from the ceiling vertically all the way down the walls to the skirting's. The new cabling was then inserted through and now I am filling big trench like holes again. 12ft long by 2 inch wide trenches up my walls. My lovely drawing room looked a proper mess. Also, some ingenious soul, decided back in the 70s to put some weird type of bitumen lined silver backed damp proof type lining paper an the back wall and the chimney breast.. Now that is a real night mare to try to get off. We cant use a steamer type of wallpaper stripper as the old lime plaster disintegrates, so its a matter of damp cloth and scraper, and keep tackling it a little at a time.
Some of the very old wall sockets that were here were made of brown Bakelite, Joan said her dad fitted the electrics back in the 40s. Our electrician confirmed this as the cabling was pre 1953.. it certainly didn't meet any modern day safety or compliance regulations ! The younger electrician had never seen this type of wiring before. So the wall sockets have now been replaced, and for each socket a 6inch hole has cut into the lathe and plaster walls to secure the fitting...More big holes for me to fill up. first with offcuts of plasterboard and then filled with new plaster then rubbed down and finishing plaster is applied to create an even surface with minimal scarring.
The plumbers have been burrowing under the floorboards and drilling through 2ft thick solid stone walls. Their drill bits are 3ft long! All the old radiators have been removed and replace with eco rated new ones. The rusting hulks of the old ones are waiting outside for the scrap man to call. One of the radiators from the drawing room is about 10ft long..flipping massive and is very heavy !
Stanley ( the range ) has gone......
I advertised it last weekend FREE on Farmers Free ads, and immediately was inundated with emails that evening with people asking if they could have it...I was glad to get rid of it as my builders were working their way through the kitchen and he was in their way, so if someone wanted to come and take him away i was happy with that. One lady emailed me and asked for the measurements and if it would fit in her Berlingo car... lol...how i laughed...He weighs 880lbs !! Hes made of solid cast iron .. Eventually I arranged with someone to come and collect it. Come first and view it I suggested. Its disconnected but you will have to bring tools to remove it, some device to lift it, some strong men and a suitable vehicle. Again I reiterated it weighs nearly half a ton!
The person who turned up, was a youngish man in overalls with his grossly overweight buddy, who was dressed in shorts that showed his arse crack and was wearing flip flops on his feet.. Hummm I mused...these boys have got no idea..... They stood there looking at Stanley, scratching their heads. ' I did tell you it was big and heavy' i said to them..hummm... it was just like dumb and dumber I thought. But there was no way they were leaving empty handed.. They were having stanley. They had driven an hour and a half to get here to collect it so didn't want to go home without it.
Fortunately my builders are wonderful. they stayed on late and took control. Firstly the angle grinder came out and soon sparks were flying across the flagstone floor as the copper pipes securing him to the ingle nook were sliced away. Then 4 of them 'walked it' forwards until it was extruded from his hole in the wall. The next assignment was to get him out of the kitchen , through the door, along the boot room and into the Yard at the back. Scaffold boards were put on the floor and they tried walking the Stanley along the planks of wood. But his sharp metal corners were becoming wedged in the wood.
There was an interlude of head scratching for a few moments until i spotted my friendly farmer neighbour walking up the lane. I called him over and he stood there having a look trying to work out how we were going to get this thing out of the house. He suggested we rolled it out. Put something under the base to act as big rollers and slide the Stanley along the rollers. But we diddnt have anything suitable. ahh ha. Then he had a superb idea. He took an old scaffold tube across the lane up to his work shop and cut it up into 4 smaller bars. The the scaffold planks were laid along along the yard floor , along the pathway at the side of the wall and around into the garden. The boys reversed their transit van along the driveway and parked as close as they could to where we were all standing in the garden. The the scaffold boards were moved until a 'bridge' was made from the patio area by the shed crossing the ravine of the steeply sloping garden and into the back of their van. The Stanley was then precariously moved inch by inch, by using the rollers across the 'bridge' until after one last heave it rolled right up , through the rear door and was sat inside their van. A massive effort from everyone concerend...apart from the big lad, whose shorts kept riding down his backside and revealing hairy arse crevice!!
xxx
Jo
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