Joining the two halves together

The last major building task having formed all the rooms both upstairs and downstairs was to knock through the wall separating the two halves of the house. This was something of a concern as just to one side of where the opening would be formed is a very large beam supporting the roof above the hallway. The possibility existed that if we took out the wall the beam could slip into the gap and the roof collapse. Thus some very careful building engineering went into the work to ensure that it wouldn't happen during the actual work and that it would remain stable once the holes had been created.

In the early picture you can see both upstairs and downstairs that there are no holes in the walls. And you can also see that these areas had been plastered over. This was fortunate as we were able to take the wall down carefully leaving the plaster intact which meant that the inevitable dust that was produced by the demolition work did not get into the half of the house which we were living in. Of course it liberally coated every surface in the 'new' half and that took a mighty effort to get rid of.

We have plastered back round the exposed areas on the walls where the holes have been created. In the corridors proper as shown by the picture of the one leading to the kitchen we await the arrival of the plasterer who did the work in the hallway so that the finish will be the same thus making the junction between the two halves less obvious.