The Living Room - Part 1 - Squaring Up

The living room isn't our first project, but it is the one we are currently working on.

Above is a picture of the living room when we first moved on. A few points to note:

• Horrendous fireplace - we hid it behind the TV for the first year. 
• Lovely looking gas meter. 
• Delightful pipework. 
• Free rocking chair! 

First thing first - we had to do something about that fireplace. And underneath that hearth we found a real treat - the original Victorian hearth tiles! Such a shame they were ruined.

Next job was removing all of the plaster. Not an easy job, especially since the bottom half of most of the walls was rendered with cement - some early form of damp-proofing - and a bugger to get off.

We decided not to bother removing the plaster on the window wall, as the plasterboard could go over the top of what was already there, the only difference being that the window would be set a bit deeper. Fine by us, beats having to chip off cement from the entire wall!

Eventually, with countless trips to the dump with bags of rubble, and with a lot of help from a couple of friends, we got all the plaster off. With only one weekend before the plasterer was booked, we had to:

• Brick up the fireplace. Sorted! We even had some mortar left over to patch up some potholes in the entrance passageway;
• Re-route two plug sockets. I will write another entry on "fun with electricity" at a later date;
• Sort out those awful pipes - a plumber came to cap them off today with a view to re-install the radiator in a more sensible manner after plastering; and
• Re-route the internet cable - currently comes out bottom right of the window, wheras the plan is to keep the router in a built in cupboard with all the other electrical gubbins.

Its all been done, the plasterers will be here tomorrow to begin making it look like a living room again. They will be putting thermal board on 3 walls, so I'm looking forward to being very toasty.

Stay tuned for Living Room - Part 2 - Decorating.