Sarah and I have taken the plunge and have got started on the next stage of dragging our lovely, but dated and tired bungalow into modernity. We’re having the ceilings replaced in the living room, hall way and sun room, and the walls re-plastered and made good, as well as moving some radiators and other repairs and enhancements. Day one was tear-down day – lots of noise and dust as polystyrene tiles were removed from the ceilings and the ceilings themselves were brought down. The ceiling boards were made of a material called celotex, which was used in the 60’s and has sagged and cracked. At some point someone has ‘fixed’ that by covering them in polystyrene tiles.

The living room had the additional ‘feature’ of recessed strip lights, which meant that the tiles were suspended from a baton frame. This means that we will gain about 3″ in height in the room.

So far, we’ve discovered two layers of coving in the living room, 3 different wallpapers on the walls, lime green paper with stars on the ceiling and climbing plants that had got into the loft from the garden. Oh, and a couple of pieces of lead pipe.