Laid bare

I know this is very similar to yesterday's blip, but in the interests of remembering what lies behind our new wall I want to look at what was revealed after this morning's work. All the old plaster and the hundreds of lathes behind it have been stripped away, showing the different periods of building focussed on the fireplace. 

I imagine the first fire would be the kitchen range - the tall arch of yellowed sandstone, rather narrower than the range of my childhood flat in Glasgow - which was then filled in with brick to create a conventional fireplace, perhaps at the time when the small kitchen extension was added to the rear of the house, with the bathroom above it. I certainly remember the rather hideous fireplace we inherited 40 years ago - terrible yellow/brown marbled tiles in a hotchpotch of shelves and fenders - into which we plumbed the kind of fire that would burn all night if banked up with dross. This was a spectacularly dirty thing to do, but necessary - when it rained heavily the rain soaked through the chimney head and dripped into the hearth unless there was a fire lit.

We later installed a neat little fireplace with a gas fire, and that will be restored when the work is done. Tonight, the wall is half covered in new insulated plasterboard; by tomorrow I hope all signs of stonework will be hidden. 

Watch this space ...