Operation "Red Dwarf"

Yay... my first posting on the other modifications board.... I don't do much that isn't cars tbh, but it seems we have an exception going on. I assure you though, it is at least retro

Trouble really started last year, but I've been putting it off. Basically our fire went curse word, poor draught, smoke into rooms, smoke from behind wallpaper (!) the full whack. Had to stop using it, really... heat, or death...... not such an easy question when the weather does this to you

so, we removed the fireplace, and took a sledgehammer to the fireback and the plaster

OK. there is something there. Yopu can sort of see a fireplace, but its full of bricks. Really, really, full of bricks. (not properly mortared together or owt, just kinda thrown in the hole, then plastered over. So, we removed bricks, a bit at a time for a week until we had this...

and this

that hole is 4 ft 6 in square by 2 ft deep. thats a lot of bricks.....some of them had fallen in, and its been impossible to sweep the chimney properly for 30 years. THATS what the problem was...
The concrete floor wasn't there either... I had to add that last week

so, cos it looks like this outside

this week we got a mmmove on, and installed this "multi fuel" stove (multi fuel, cos it doesn't care if you are burning coal, wood, argos catalogues, bunny rabbits etc... it works anyway)

and the house is warm!

AND I haz food.........
yay for retro heating. It's free fuel at the moment, they are demoplishing a street in an adjacent village, I've been scrounging broken joists and beams
here's a vid to make all you centrally-heated types nostalgic.



right, off to fill the fire. Anyone wondering why operation "red dwarf"?// its cos ITS COLD OUTSIDE......