Justified & Ancient

(The KLF featuring Tammy Wynette, 1991)

Our quest continues to find more tiles to complete those we salvaged from the old kitchen.  Last week, we visited another salvage yard - Stefantiek, near Mechelen.  

Another impressive array of bits of old houses, including  

... hunks of pierre bleue

... entire staircases,

... lions (pre-wrapped, what indignity),

... but no joy in the tile department.  There was nothing to match ours, and nothing that we could imagine putting there instead.  The prices here were however much less unbalanced than the last place (which offered 5 eur/ square metre to buy, and 175 eur/metre square to sell).  Here, they would buy back ours for 20 eur/metre square and sell for 70 eur/metre square.  

 

The search continues...   all recommedations welcome!

Weapon of Mass Destruction

(Faithless, 2004)

With Europe gripped by sub-zero temperatures and snow, we were not surprised to be told that the workers had only managed three days of work at the house this week.  

They’ve probably managed to take off the roof, we speculated as we drove round on Saturday morning.  The first thing we saw was the tip in front of the house, looking ominously empty.  

This is what we saw as we opened the front door. 

Yes, what you see out the back is daylight.   That doorway used to lead to the kitchen and back door.  

The entrance will stay, but will lead to the new, bigger, kitchen.  You can see better from the back of the garden.  On the left is the entrance to the kitchen from the hallway, and on the right, the window will be opened up to connect the new kitchen and the living room.  

The new kitchen will fill the whole width on the upper ground, with a staircase on the right hand side leading down to the garden.  

Meanwhile below, on the lower ground/basement level (about a metre below ground level) you can see where the garden/laundry room will be. 




And here is the same from above.  You might just be able to make out the paw prints of the neighbourhood cats, having a nosey around.  There's still a bit more work to do in clearing this back to the foundations.  The slightly raised area on the left is where the rain water cistern is, which will make the next stage a little more complicated.

In terms of salvaging pieces of the old house, we were pleased to see that they have dutifully stacked up the Pierre Bleue steps… on the herbs.  



Oh well, it will be easy enough to replant them. The clematis and jasmine had a narrow escape with just a few old doors stacked on top of them, which might in fact give them some kind of protection from the frosts still to come.  




Because unfortunately, this frost looks set to last a while longer.

Waste Not, Want Not - Part 1

While the planets realign themselves into the right position for the works to start, we have been mulling over some of the smaller details of the renovation. You'll remember the basement room, which you access from the front entrance and down a few steps. This will be the bike/shoe/boot/coat room or more catchily the vélo-vestiaire.
The problem is, to get bikes through the front door and down those steps is a very tight corner, impossible to negotiate without a third arm and a bruised shin. Our original idea was to widen the little staircase and add a bike rail on it - you know, the kind you see in railway stations. But having got the quote back from the wood man, we decided a re-think was needed. Maybe we could use the large window onto the street. It opens from inside onto street level, and is easily tall enough to push a bike through (or a cart with the shopping). But how to manoeuvre the drop down on the floor?

The DIY Recycling Fairy had a great idea. We simply re-use the bottom three steps from the wooden staircase from the hallway down to the basement, which will be coming out anyway. We reinforce them with something solid underneath, and add on the bile rail down one side. And voila. It's all wood, so nothing a saw and a few nails can't sort out. Well, that's the theory. I'll keep you posted on how it turns out..