Bedroom One
1. Schoolhouse Floor Plan
Table of Contents
This room was originally the parlour. The original main entrance to the residential section of the building led directly into this room and the external door, limestone quoins, sill and lintel are all still intact but internally now hidden behind a plasterboard wall. It also included a significant fireplace that is currently also hidden behind the interior wall lining. The chimney for this fireplace is a significant feature in the exterior view of the building, so I feel it is somewhat incongruous that there is no fireplace visible on the inside.
Past renovations
the lining of walls and the ceiling with sheet plaster (1983).
the laying of wall-to-wall carpet
the closure of the external doorway (1983) and the internal doorway leading to bedroom 2 (1981)
chimney capped and bricked up (prior to 1983)
ducted oil heating installed (assuming circa 1981)
Renovation Plan
Replace ducted oil heating with ground-sourced HVAC ducted and hydronic heating/cooling system
Remove carpet
Expose the original fireplace hidden behind plasterboard lining as a décor (non-operational) feature. Install a new mantle
Expose the original external door hidden behind plasterboard lining. Install new narrow french doors opening outward
Restore the original ceiling and walls, i.e. remove the 1983 ceiling and the wall sheeting
Replace floor with new including underfloor insulation
Replace oil heating duct with HVAC ducting and relocate vent
Repair and repaint walls and ceiling (either lining or original)
Install new skirting boards
Update light fittings
Update décor
Old wall-to-wall carpet and floorboards
The wall-to-wall carpet and foam underlay was well past it's prime and was removed to expose the original floorboards underneath.
Most of the flooring, while solid, has gaps, paint drips, fillers and crudely cut boards from the oil heating duct installation, and needs to be replaced.
2. Reopened fireplace
Complete rebuild of the floor plus new framing and architraves for the reopened parlour to bedroom doorway.
3. Floor rebuild
It looked ok from the roofspace examination, and looking through a cutout in the 1983 ceiling confirmed it. There was no major damage and only a little minor damage to repair.
4. The ceiling that hadn't seen daylight for fourty years.
It looks pretty ugly now but will be much better when finished with the original proportions restored.
5. Stitched panoramic view of the room stripped back to the original plaster walls and ceiling.
Lots of filled holes in the original render all done with lime (no gypsum plaster).
6. Patched walls
7. Pelmet with crown cornice - a bump in the ceiling needed to be ground off to get a flat run
Ceiling painting
After masking the walls with plastic sheet, a primer/blocker/undercoat was sprayed to the crown and the ceiling. This took over 24 hours to dry during which time stain spots that had become more obvious in the existing white paint re-emerged through the new layer. Whatever is causing these stains is not contained by the blocking properties of the new paint layer. This was a setback. At least there was no bubbling, so I chose to not strip it all back as done in bedroom 2, but I did apply an all over coat of the same shellac based primer.
At the same time, some rough areas of the ceiling were skimmed in an attempt to hide them better. This included feathering in the outermost flange of the pressed metal ceiling rose.
Then it was time to spray my chosen top coat colour (Dulux Stowe White matt). This is the colour used in the annex loft but was darker than expected in these south-facing rooms that get only ambient light. However, I like the colour more than stark untinted ceiling white so I've gone halfway between with Taubmans Tradex Ceiling white tinted Taubmans Inner Circle.
8. After.
Top coat sprayed to crown and ceiling.
Plastic masking sheet is still on the walls.
After resolving an issue with bleed-through of the wallpaper pattern, the walls are finally prepped for lime wash.
9. Walls ready to be lime washed
The window frame, sash (plural) and stool - restored back to their original full working order, with new architraves waiting on a finishing coat of paint.
To the left above the unfinished fireplace is a trial of a commercial picture hanging cord suspended from the bespoke hanging track system.
10. Reassembled window
Narrow french double-glazed out-swing doors have replaced the original solid door.
New jambs were made to accommodate the out-swing doors and also the new interior architrave that is needed after the original architrave was discarded when the room was lined and the doorway was concealed in 1983.
The new doors won't take up any floor or wall space, nor will they protrude into the verandah space. When open they fit within the thickness of the wall.
A bonus that was under-appreciated in the initial vision of the new doors is the view through to the greenery of the verandah side garden all the way from the current kitchen, even when the new hall doors are closed.
11. Original door had been nailed shut and concealed
12. New narrow french doors
13. Thru vista