Chiselling away

The first of the facelift work was always going to be on the front lounge. The two corners that were bricked up - 1 for no reason - needed to go as well as the bulky bricks covering the original fireplace.

So the dusty work commenced on Sat 25th Feb to strip back the fireplace to its former glory and add much needed space to the room...

I never thought chiselling away bricks could be so much fun, but then I would never do it for a job, it's very dusty work! Note the state of the electrics in the corner too, which the purpose of the lovely brickwork was to cover it all up. Such a mess!

Almost finished on the sides here and about to commence the work on the main fireplace...

We're not sure who thought that this look was attractive, I guess it might have been to some, but we couldn't wait to get rid of it! Mani also stripped back the 5 layers of paint, wallpaper and polystyrene from the walls so we could assess the damage.

We were both covered in dust by the end of all the work but are pretty happy with the result.

The final result minus the dust. Impressive teamwork! Next was to tidy up the electrics & cabling in the corner so we had an electrician come in to sort it all out. He also tested all the plug sockets in the house to ensure they were in working order - thank goodness they were...

Next update: the outcome of chatting to the neighbours about planning permission for the extension. Keep your fingers crossed for us!