Peacocks...

... really are the most extraordinary looking birds.  Strolled around our local animal centre, Brent Lodge Park aka the Bunny Park, and one of them decided to follow me. I was there to take some pictures of one of several wonderful new social enterprise projects that are starting up locally, this one involving adult artists with learning difficulties, it was moving and inspiring.

The Wonders of Shiply

Shiply Courier Services - Matches you with rated delivery firms going there anyway.

After the Luton ebay chaos I realised that I had to find a better way to actually get the things  I was stockpiling from Ebay. Someone suggested Shiply - what a brilliant idea. You tell them your postcode and the postcode of the item and then people start to send you quotes to deliver it, simple and brilliant. You can even put in an Ebay code for something you're thinking about bidding on and get back quotes for possible delivery if you decide to buy it - a world of new Ebay items suddenly possible to me...

The Middle Bedroom - Before

More shiny wood, more pine cladding, another green carpet. One wall completely full of fitted cupboards created a sense of excitement as I thought the original fireplace might be hidden behind. But no, gone, destroyed, vanished. The only thrill came from buying another Ebay fireplace - from Luton £135 and 20+ times around a one way system to find it- and then finding, after ripping up the carpets, that not only did the hearth tiles remain but that they exactly matched the tiles on the fireplace - little pleasures

Is it Spring?

It's not warm, it's not sunny but nevertheless there's something Springlike in the air.
Planted out my Columbia Rd primula instead of adopting my usual strategy of letting them dry     up and die in the plastic pots I bought them in.
The antique pots are ones I rescued when the factory they were made in was demolished in the 90s to build flats. It was on Grosvenor Rd in Hanwell.

The new room

Not finished but starting to come together

And it starts to come together

Lots of filler, lots of plaster, used modelling clay to make a mould of the cornice and ceiling rose and set plaster in it to fill in the missing places.

And finally, a beautiful ceiling.

Couldn't decide what ceiling light would be perfect so used matt white spray paint to cover the plastic, brass effect chandelier and felt vaguely pleased with the result.

That ceiling

Time for the ceiling decision, and the need to shake off the vague anxiety that the massive wooden beam was somehow holding the house up. We made four more holes to look at it from all angles, jumped a lot on the ceiling above and then just went for it and pulled the whole lot down. The wooden beam had been well cemented into the wall but 8 hours later it was all gone.
And the house was still standing.

Black lead

I used paint stripper to remove the old black paint from the fireplaces then rubbed them down well with a wire brush. After this I covered them with black grate polish for a matt finish.

Loving Ebay

Time to buy. Visited the local salvage yard, took one look at the crazy prices and walked straight out again. I love the gambling buzz of ebay anyway so the search for the fireplaces began-


1. The front room, easy peasy, managed to buy a complete Edwardian fireplace with lovely original green tiles for £130. It came from a house renovation in Bethnal Green, I'm trying to put them in while someone else is still taking them out.
A bit rusty in parts but nothing that couldn't easily be sorted out.

2. The surround. Bid for a 'marble' surround but lost out. Was then contacted by the seller who had discovered it was really slate and the buyer had pulled out. Went to view it in Croydon and as it was a bit dirty and pitted in places eventually paid £20 for it. It came from the renovation of an Edwardian mansion block in Reading and was certainly the bargain of the day.

3. The dining room. Another ebay success, £150 complete for a fireplace and black slate surround. Unfortunately the original tiles were too fire damaged to keep despite every effort to clean them so bought a replacement set on ebay again for £25.

4. Hearth tiles. Bought a box of mixed Victorian floor tiles from Stoke on Trent for £35, would decide exactly what to do with them later!

Let the destruction begin...

So the carpets came up, the wallpaper came down and the fireplaces came out

Floorboards covered with bitumen

Original hearth tiles, too damaged to preserve

The only piece of original picture rail in the whole house!

The fireplaces

Both fireplaces downstairs had been removed and replaced by quite unusual modern additions. Shiny pine panelling was a bit of a feature in several rooms too. I know it was highly unlikely anything original and lovely was hiding behind but I held a tiny bit of hope in my heart.

The suspended ceiling

Started asking the neighbours if I could see any original features left in their houses to get some idea of where to start and was slightly disheartened to find out that the original living room ceilings had lovely cornices and mouldings.

Sitting on the sofa one night gazing at the woodchip wallpaper I suddenly realised that the dimensions of the room didn't feel quite right, I measured up and yes, clearly the ceiling was too low. Half an hour of careful tapping and then banging confirmed that the ceiling appeared to be hollow, another 10 minutes, a screwdriver and a handsaw and we had a ceiling with a hole in it.

The hole was head sized so we took it in turns to climb the ladder and take a look. And bingo, there they were, the original cornices and mouldings, hidden by the 70s. However the initial euphoria wore off a little when we discovered that the structure of the suspended ceiling included an enormous wooden beam across the middle of the room cemented into the chimney breast and the opposite wall.

Decided to leave further exploration for another day.

But always check the height of the ceilings in an old house just in case.

The Living Room- before

The large living dining room contained the challenges of two extraordinary fireplaces, pink and green patterned carpets and a combination of vinyl and wood chip wallpaper. 
But two large rooms, stripped of original features but with the benefit of space.

This old house...

1904, four bed suburban semi, an intriguing blend of 70s and 80s interior styles served up with replacement windows and wall to wall green carpets.


Let's get started with the living room