Horse hair and plaster dust.

Good morning everyone.
It's been a busy old week at Allerton House. After what seems like an awful long time of nothing much seeming to change (other than removing wallpaper) everything has now started with a vengeance. Now I have to work out what to share with you first.
From my last post where I was removing skirting boards you will remember that I discovered what appeared to be an original lathe and plaster wall. After discussions with the builder we came to the conclusion that the side in the bedroom would  have to come down to allow for re-boarding as the doorway was butting right up to the wall.

 It was pretty slow going, because instead of just smashing everything with a hammer (tempting as that was!) I couldn't take the chance of  going through the other side.  I had to strip back the plaster first.

 It is pretty amazing to see how previous folks worked. building something that has held up pretty well all things considered. Pieces of all sorts of strips of wood, lime plaster and horse hair and it was still standing, well, sort of....if we didn't replace it half the plaster would probably have fallen down the first time I tried to hang a picture on it.

Naturally, I came across a fair bit of horse hair in the plaster too.

 It makes a bit of a mess and lots of dust. I think I have gone through around half a dozen masks this week alone!

 Then it was time to remove the lathes. This wall has provided my cousin with three bags of perfect kindling for this winter.....

 An "arty" pic of the mess, sort of .

This is why I had to remove the side wall. No, not my wife lol, the door. It's the only original door left in the house, we have been unable to date it as we can't find a similar looking door anywhere but it has definitely got some age on it. (Gone back as far as the Georgian Period) Even the joiner says he's never seen one like it.
All done and ready for the next stage which is to rebuild it. Now I am off to find something else to smash......
See you soon for the next installment.
Take care