Wing Commander HQ

Some history on the house to begin with, or what we know of it so far.

It was built in the 19th century at some point (pre-1888 at least since that's the oldest map I can confidently find with it on there) as a row of four/five cottages. Apparently in 1957, one/two of the middle cottages were demolished, and the two left on the end were combined into one. At some point since 1957 (unknown when) the single end cottage backing on to the road was converted into a garage, and in 1973 an extention was added to the main house. There's another single-story brick build outbuilding that appears to have been called Rose Cottage at one point, but it's tiny, the estate agent called it the 'pig-sty', and it's currently filled with dumped asbestos, so who knows what that was / has been in the past!

Since 1973, maybe even 1957 in some places, very little has been done in terms of preventative or even reactive maintenance. I'm sure the boiler & electrical distribution boards belong in a museum somewhere








A porch was rebuilt following subsidence in 1990ish apparently and the chimney stacks were removed in the last decade or so but that's about it

The property was last lived in in early 2021, but sadly it's quite clear that only one downstairs room was occupied along with a simple shower room. The plan is to make that room good and live in it initially, then make that half of the house "good" (since it includes the kitchen and bathroom) and then work from there. The definition of "good" will be a balance of right-first-time and affordable, though I suspect the exact definition will fluctuate between the two somewhat

Thanks raumer, it'll certainly keep me busy if nought else. Suffice to say the listing description was optimistic at best and the photos well taken.. I'll post up more of what it's actually like as we go of course. I think the EA was just hoping for a developer to pick it up

It sure has a history, hoping to uncover more as we work through the renovation. At the moment it's a bit like buying a barn find with zero history!

Sounds quite the experience! My plan is deffo for a 'less is more' mentality, but I'm not sure the missus will let me get away with sellotaping windows!

I am not sure, but ask Google or just open and establish by finger tip to tongue testing.

Unless it’s serious chemical, smell, taste, enjoy or dump.

The integrity seems good, except for no1 Red on the left, cork may have let air in over time.

Thanks grizz, I think that's what I'll do when the time is right. Was sure I'd seen a similar tester that's used for drinking water, but some searching turns up nada

Cheers daver555, I suspect an element of luck will be required! Will try to keep the updates coming in a relatively timely manner

I've tried to write this update about four times, but have only just quite got round to coming up to speed! What day is it?! After another busy couple of days, we are extremely close to being "in"







A couple of sockets, and a cold water supply. Ha, psych, lots of bottled water. I'll come back to that shortly


First and foremost must be...





I reckon the 10mi from my parents to ours must be the longest single journey the Golf done since I got it through its MOT in May, having been off the road since 2017 (I think?). Ironically, it was at my parents where it was decommissioned before travelling several hundred miles on several occasions between storage/workshop locations

Even better news is it started up a couple of days later with no bonnet-up action, to move it across the yard. By no means perfect (it needs a proper tune up) but it's where it needs to be now and is in a much better state than it has been for a long time

The Audi is still playing up on the LCD screen which keeps cutting in and out, but doesn't affect reliability so not a problem for it's current daily duties


Back to the house, and things are progressing nicely on the whole. Was what one of my previous drafts said. As of today (in a rough order)

1. House fully stripped to remove the smell, dust, and general unpleasantness

2. Asbestos gone. 1-2 days quoted, but they didn't hang about and it was out in 1.5hr max. No complaints from me. New guttering arrived today so that's the priority for when I have a pair of helping hands

3. Main bathroom stripped, including the solid steel bath.

4. Waste drains cleared, all now flowing smoothly. We've tested the surface water drains, although they appear to flow into soakaways, which gives me a headache with new guttering plans whilst simultaneously possibly explaining some of the structural movement. More investigation required at a later date once my cheapo drainage endoscope arrives

5. Couple of electricians round, one of who is on-board with my logic and happy to test and certify my somewhat unique approach to rewiring - if I do it correctly of course. I'll share my plans once properly sketched out but in effect I'll be treating each room/space as a module, with future-proofing in mind

6. "Studio flat" locked off internally also to avoid the trades bouncing through when the missus needs rest etc















And lastly the water... Oh the water. This morning all seemed good. A couple of days ago we turned on the supply from the street for what must be the first time in a couple of years, and bar a couple of drips all was good. No hot water, as the boiler had gone with the asbestos, but everything else as expected. A notable oil leak when the boiler came out, but as we're going electric that's neither here nor there. Then the bathroom came out, and again all was tickety-boo. With no hot water, we plan on (and still will) pinch the upstairs electric shower for the "Studio flat", to replace the existing mixer shower

Yesterday's job was to simply bypass all the "mess" with the redundant hot water tank, the contaminated cold water tanks, and all the other stuff which appears to have been bolted onto over time (I'll try to get a pic tomorrow). The short-term plan was to run everything off the mains up, as I call it, to allow us to build the rest of it 'offline'. There should be no risk of pressure issues etc as there is temporarily one less sink, shower and bath. The view was then to in the mid-term keep all the downstairs water on the up, with all the upstairs on the down - in effect reversing how it is currently setup and thus retaining system balance etc





However, no such luck. The upstairs bathroom outlets still work (on isolator valves for now so we can still test them) but nothing else does. Bizarrely, the kitchen sink (downstairs) which was always on the mains up no longer works either, while the downstairs loo - running from the same spur as the kitchen sink - does still work. There is no logic as to why the downstairs (in the main) no longer works, and thus is the source of much frustration at present. A triple-check facetime to our plumber also suggests everything we've done is as it should be?

Enough ranting, have a couple of pics of a seemingly original piece that's survived in the garage







Cheers

Rob

The kitchen tap may just be the washer stuck in its seat, if you can get the top off you should be able to free it.

To be honest though I'd be inclined to buy a roll of platic pipe and push fit fittings and run in a temporary supply to the couple of taps you need then just rip the lot out.

Thank you kevins 🙌🏼

I'm not sure SWMBO is impressed this end either forkliftfred , now that she's in and has realised how much there is to be done 😅

I don't think I'll ever be bored living here - always something to find, learn, or do


Well, where to start? The longer I've left this update, the more I've had to catch up on! Apologies in advance as this may follow no logical (let alone chronological) order... I'll try to use my phone album as a bit of a guide

That said, I'll start with where we left off last time, and what was fixed last night. Having disconnected and removed the kitchen sink, all water outlets downstairs now work again. Why, I'm not sure, but equally I'm not complaining. The MDPE has gone in the garage to be used at a later date, and finally the bathroom window can be closed. I've also re-run and extended the upstairs electric shower circuit into the studio flat, so not only do we have water but some of it is warm too!

Back to last week, and I started off by continuing to rip out all the old water tanks etc. There is a cold water tank in the loft, which I'll recover at a later date (I don't think there's a hatch big enough at present) but all the pipework to it along with everything else in the utility cupboard is now gone. Not without drama, I did of course forget to drain the hot water tank first and instead went straight though the inlet pipe at bottom with an angle grinder. Due to the awkward position of the cut, cue a long time spent with a margarine tub and several buckets





No less than 114 litres later, plus a bit more chopping, and we have an empty cupboard ready for all the new bits to go back in





Next up was to expose as much of the structural cracking as possible ahead of our structural engineer coming back round to take some measurements. Whilst I started with the chisel and lump hammer, my Dad got on with a diamond cutting blade followed by an SDS with a chisel bit, and absolutely blitzed it. Good news also for the chasing in of cables yet to come. A quick pic of the approach he took below, and then some of the output. All things considered, by no means as bad as I'd feared...

















With plenty of hardcore now to shift out the house I decided that, since we'll likely be needing it in future for the driveway or some form of base, that we'd be best to get a little more organised. The old loo block (current working assumption, thoughts welcomed) seemed prime for this as the garage was filled with carpet, and will hopefully be back in use much sooner, so I got at the ivy which had long overruled the structure. To be honest, it'd have been quicker to run into it, taking out the wall and thus the ivy, but I took a slightly more delicate approach. I am worried a strong wind will finish it off now though that the ivy isn't there to hold it up! You can just about see from one of the photos below how the ivy had literally grown in the crack in the wall. Sadly however no "before" photos











Interestingly, the space in which the hardcore now resides appears to have a dpm about an inch into the concrete base. Completely useless at this point, but perhaps another clue as to a part of it's history?

They'll be so much random stuff in there, I just can't wait to clear it out properly one day. In the meantime I uncovered this, anyone know what it is? I'm assuming either a road or rail works beacon of some sort





Next up (not the same day!) was to tackle the guttering once and for all. Back to plan B, as using a ladder was plan C, and I managed to find a cheap scaffold tower which looked to do the job. Although much more comfortable, turns out I dislike "heights" more than I dislike rats. It's embarrassing, and I know I could do it if I had no other choice, but fortunately Dad offered that alternative, and went up whilst I did the running about passing bits up. Once in a flow, we got the whole lot done pretty pronto, although there was one particularly difficult to access section leaving me straddling the porch









Indeed the right hand one is wonky, but it's only temporary until the structural work commences

My good lady has struggled a bit with the state of the house, especially as her body is now telling her to start "nesting" so I got some twinkly lights and a soundbar set up on the newly cleared patio, only to realise there was no charcoal in the BBQ. Still, a relaxed evening was had





(have just clocked I have no pics of said setup, but you get the idea)

On the topic of the garden, we also appear to have a resident cat and pheasant, who enjoy walks together at sunset. Apologies for the poor photos, only had phone to hand on this occasion from upstairs window





Back inside and wood treatment is planned for pretty much everything, though it appears all woodworm is 'inactive' as they say. Started lifting floorboards to confirm that statement, which I think still just about holds true









At this point I was also treated to some delightful wiring, simply affirming my belief that it'll be easier if not cheaper to just start again rather than work out and fix what's already here





Kitchen + Diner - Wall = Kitchen/Diner. A late night followed by an early start around family commitments saw this happen





















The next day (Easter Monday I think?) saw our guttering put to the test for the first time and, on the whole, was successful. Apart from the existing porch downpipe outlet. Remember I said they appeared to flow into soakaways? About 3ft from the house, this happens.





As I was back to work yesterday however, Monday was instead spent setting up a working space so a tidy up of the lounge/kitchen/shed/office commenced, and I must say it looks much better now









There was also this surface drain which looked like it might be connected in but, having dug it out, is not!





Scrap metal has now gone, giving me more space in the loo block lean to, and the garage has been cleared of carpets meaning our trailer full of furniture and the old kitchen set can now reside in there too







I also have cameras set up now, most likely never needed, but peace of mind given it's effectively a building site at present





Next up, in some rough resemblance of order, is to
- Dig channel from porch downpipes into the waste water outlet
- Wood treatment upstairs on all floors, after sanding down the master bedroom so it penetrates the wood
- Final first fit of all plumbing
- Start chasing in for sockets and lights

I would say that now I'm back to work things will start to slow up, but my Dad is uber-keen to help out and my biggest problem is slowing him down so a) he doesn't do himself damage and b) I can do a bit myself and learn off him in the process! There are however far worse problems to have, such as finding builders... 😖

I think that brings us about up to speed

Cheers,Rob