Monday 18 November 2013

The Entry Hall

Simon has been hard at work on our entry hall the past 10 days or so. It seemed like it only needed a few finishing touches after we cleared it of the junk that testified to where we stopped work two years ago (!!). But it's amazing how long these little jobs can take. And how well I remember how much I hate stone and plaster dust.

Simon sanding the graineterie (granary) steps.
The entry hall provides internal access to both the house and the graineterie, and these removeable steps take you up from ground level to the granary's floor level. In the fullness of time these will be replaced with new, less rickety steps and become a display stage.
 Simon plastering.
He neatened and insulated the recess made for the graineterie steps. We altered the original arrangement in March 2010 to make it more practical. All this work commenced so unexpectedly that he had forgotten he had never done plastering before...

Simon sanding the stone doorway between the kitchen and the entry hall.
You can see how thick the wall is and how dirty (note the gunge coloured patch underneath where he is working). Also note his ingenious coupling of the sander to the Dyson vacuum cleaner, which has had its filters removed to stop them clogging instantaneously with near talc quality limestone dust. This photo is posed - even with the Dyson attached you wouldn't be able to see Simon for the cloud of dust.

Simon preps the pantry door for painting.
When this was a working grain merchant's this was the office door, which comes off the end of the entry hall opposite the front door. It's shiny because it's wet - the true colour of the woodwork was the bottom panel of the door: mission brown!

 The finished room.
Well almost. Still no skirting board or mouldings, but the lights are done and everything is clean. The freshly painted pantry door looks so much nicer. We were greatly amused to see how well the new paint goes with the scuzzy opaque film on the glass.
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A la cuisine hier: Vegetarian Samosa Pie, served with lime pickle and a dollop of yoghurt. The pie is a potato based samosa filling put into a pie dish, covered in pastry and baked, rather doing the traditional triangular deep fried samosas.

16 comments:

Tim said...

Looks great, worth the effort defi-bricoly....
looks like one of those designer magazine pix!!




(That flex looks a bit of a trip hazard tho')

Susan said...

Tim: until the garage gets wired up permanently the flex has to stay. It's running power out to the garage. In practice it is rare that anyone walks the length of the room, the main traffic is between the steps.

Colin and Elizabeth said...

Looks great, good job done. You've started so now you will have to finish.

Which one of you plays the blowy instrument under the plant stand?

Simon said...

C&E I bought it off ebay for a fiver with the plan that somewhere down the track I might learn to play it. With some fettling it might work but for the moment it's house fettling has precedent.

Jean said...

That's a huge improvement, well worth the effort!

Pollygarter said...

Sanding that stonework looks like instant backache - well done Simon. I love the rickety steps!

ladybird said...

Congratulations. The result is amazing. I hardly - actually don't - recognize the place. Well done! Martine

Susan said...

Martine: you might be interested to know that one of the knock on effects of finishing this room is that the walnut dining table that you and C ate at in the 'dining tent' the first time you visited is now in the house and we had friends to lunch on Saturday to celebrate its installation.

GaynorB said...

Bravo! It looks fantastic and very welcoming. Good choice of colours.

Stuart said...

Well done ! Bravo !

Aussie in France said...

And it looks great in the real too. I didn't notice the missing skirting you'll be pleased to hear!

Tim said...

Just a thought, you could use an Indian runner to lay across the flex...
and I don't mean the duck!!

Or a nice prayer mat...

Your "scuzzy" window plastic really works with the rest of the scheme!!
Think thrice before removing it...
personally, i.m.h.o., only my thoughts, if it was down to me....
I'd leave it there until I could afford some stained glass in a similar theme.

Susan said...

Tim: a rug will have to wait until we can afford one too. At the moment the flex really isn't a problem, but we do have some of that rubber sheathing somewhere, that you use to put electrical cabling in so you can run trolleys over it or walk on it etc, if we feel life and limb is endangered.

the fly in the web said...

Simon must have a steady hand with that sander! I was always too worried about gouging the stone so used sandpaper...still had clouds of stone dust though.

It looks lovely...well worth the work.

Susan said...

Fly: yes, Simon has a remarkably steady hand and a good eye, which is just as well, as he might not have the patience to do it by hand with sandpaper.

RestlessinFrance said...

really splendid !!! .

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