Chapter 10: 1991: The Crucial Year

The move to Hastings
Leafletting
Planning application
Initial work on the house
The rear extension
The roof

The rear extension

We now come to the structural work at the back of the house. First, the laundry room, which had to have so much work done on it that I remember Kevin commenting that it would have been cheaper to demolish it and rebuild it. The room had been damaged by fire at some point and it had a decrepit low ceiling which we removed completely, opening up the roof space which we simply boarded out. Then, the whole room had to be replastered and two new windows inserted, along with a wholly new floor, and the opportunity was also taken to install a separate toilet. In the course of the work an old grate came to light in the chimney breast, which we retained (the surround was made later, by Woodbase in 2008, when cupboard doors were installed in front of the central heating controls and the boiler; these were based on and duplicated a pair of doors that (I think) originally came from that room).


18

Laundry room grate


Turning to the kitchen area which occupied the remainder of the rear of the house, this of course started as two rooms, the easterly of which had been converted into the dark and damp bathroom which had to be dismantled once the new bathroom was installed upstairs. Then, an opening had to be knocked through between this room and the one adjacent to it; the remnants of the old staircase against the back wall between the two rooms had to be removed and the area secured; and the cement screed with which the entire floor had been covered had to be broken up, revealing attractive brick paving beneath -- though unfortunately cement had been mixed on it prior to the screed being put down, the traces of which took a while to eradicate. In addition, the walls and ceiling of the whole room had to be plastered, while Kevin’s account of the works done specifies that a chimney breast also had to be removed (I’m not quite sure where), and a plinth built for the Aga: this, incidentally, was delivered on 31 July. View image. At the rear, new windows were installed as specified in the planning application and, once the old fire escape was demolished, work was put in hand on rebuilding the wall around the doorway to the kitchen and the French windows above. This proved to be quite a complicated operation, due not least to the need to get the Borough Engineers’ approval for the balconette onto which the French windows opened, which is described above in connection with the planning application.


15

Rear balcony and reinstated kitchen door