Neph’s new house…
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Wow, @neph93 this is so GREAT - it's wonderful that you've got the keys and work has started, and watching this being documented is already fascinating. As if you didn't have enough on your plate, but lots of us are clearly gonna love this thread. Good luck to you and darling Hottie
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@Madame Buttonfly glad your enjoying it. The work is going well and is a welcome distraction from other matters. You’ll notice Noah isn’t paernif the wrecking crew and that is because he is in quarantine because he attended a party where it turned out one of the guests was positive for COVID-19. As if I didn’t have enough in my plate [emoji23]
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The wrecking crew that are available did a grand job pulling up floors today.
These houses have a reputation for being the best built houses in Bodø and everything I have seen supports that. It does make this phase of the renovation less about demolition and more about reverse engineering. I ripped out a closet today and even with a top notch tiger saw, a 100 dollar crowbar and not a little elbow grease it took me four hours. The material specs were superior to what they use on supporting structures these days.
On the other hand, not everything was better before. This is what passed for insulation in 1941…
In walls:
And in floor dividers:
Those last two are the contents of the floor divider between the upper and lower storey ???
We made an interesting find in that space. A very well preserved 80 year old cigarette packet:
The sun even came out as we were wrapping up for the day
And the Shinayaka are getting a kicking:
As is the IHV-16
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@neph93 you are the only one I know that I can say for 100% certainty that in a day where you are getting filthy demolishing a home in hard wearing denim, a hunting vest, work gloves and a crow bar, you will still find room in the kit for a $1000 bracelet.
It doesn't go unnoticed.
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I love everything about that last photo drop!!!
[emoji817]Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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It doesn't go unnoticed.
Ha! I didn’t notice it. Tbh I didn’t even think about it.
I started wearing jewellery as a teenager and didn’t take it off ever. That habit has stuck, with the exception of removing my rings when I bake bread. Even then they go on the minute I have the bread in the oven. I love that bracelet but it stays on whatever I’m doing.
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Its like you are opening up a time capsule:)
Always cool when you find old stuff like that. Ive seen newspapers–coins even, never a cigarette pack. -
Loving this thread and seeing how the reno is going. Also nice to see the family giving a helping hand whether it’s due to threats from good ol’ dad or an actual interest in tearing stuff up
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@neph93 - oh dear, poor Noah - and yes as if you didn't have enough to worry about… ::) In the most recent photos Jesper looks so much like Hot Ingrid, it's quite spooky. Love that you found a vintage Norwegian/English collaboration ciggie packet. Keep up the good, hard work!
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The construction of the place is insane. I didn’t realise the walls wouldn’t be framework. Instead they are solid, and made of beefy layers of 5x2 with some insulating and damp-proofing layers squeezed in between. We’ll be adding 5cm of insulation (Rockwool or the like) to each side of the wall. Here’s a cross section:
They have done a massive construction work 60 years ago!
Let me know if you ever need something from continental Europe.
Tools, sanitary or interior. We’ll work it out! -
@Giles You might be able to retro fit AFDDs into your existing consumer unit, it would depend on the manufacturer and how old it is.
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The struggle continued over the weekend. We have had a three day holiday here so that combined with the weekend meant getting a valuable head start. Combining gutting the house with work, family, school etc will be tricky the next few weeks. However the top floor is nearly done. All walls, floors and ceilings are ripped out, with the exception of the bathroom… I’m working on that.
Hot Ingrid made a start on the ground floor…
And this is what Selvedge Sunday looks like on a working weekend:
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@GC:
So, @neph93 you were clearly not pissing about when you said you were going to gut the place… I thought the timber floor looked good in the before shots? Did you salvage or savage?
No sir, this is balls to the wall stuff. Although if you hit your balls on these walls you'd know about it…
To be clear, the hardwood floor in one of the first pics is modern (albeit high quality) parkett. We worked out that it was put down within the last five years. We could have taken care of it and reused it, but it is fairly standard stuff and not an original feature. So its gone
What is special about the house and what needs to be cared for, is the consrutuction methods and materials. So by stripping everything back to the timbers we are doing two things:
1. Getting rid of multiple layers of decorating and renovating that have accumulated over the last 80 years,
2. Giving our builders access to the central construction so they can straighten, level, and where needed strengthen it.All this will mean the house will be a clean slate, resembling what it was when the build was finished, but before it was decorated.
An example of the layers I mention is that living room floor. There is a +/- 4cm height variation over a 8m span of floor in that living room. The top layer of newish hard wood parkett, was placed upon 60's or 70's linoleum, that was glued onto 120x240 chipboard, that was nailed through an orginal floor covering that was stuck onto the original pine boarding that you can see in the bedrooms. All of that has to be removed to get the clay out from between the load bearing beams so the can be jacked, levelled and strengthened. Then we start from scratch.
So the majority of the original features are hidden under layer upon layer of paint, wallpaper, or some kind of boarding. The exception is the ceiling boards upstairs and the stairs and related handrails. We've been advised that there is so much paint on the ceilings that we will never manage to get them nice again, but we're going to have a go. The stairs and handrails stand a good change of surviving however. They are easier to restore and renovate.
