Rob was planning to knock down a wall, and I was detailed to sweep up after him.
The wall in question needs to come down because we've realised that it is concealing banisters at the top of the stairs - and otherwise we'll have to pay to get them replaced. So down it was coming.
Here is a close up - so it's a many layered affair:
Step one was easy - and there are the banisters! Hurrah!
But wait - what's that? MORE SHINY WALLPAPER! Nooooooo.....
Rob then reminded me that this was the only bit of wallpaper in the house that it wasn't necessary to remove because we were taking the wall down anyway. So I stopped sobbing.
It also turned out to be the only bit of wallpaper in the house that was actually easy to remove, of course.
The next steps were trickier, mostly because there is an electrical wire running up one side of the wall, and Rob had his sensible hat on and didn't want to split it accidentally. So he spent a considerable amount of time staring the wall out, like this:
Unfortunately he proved unable to topple the wall using only the power of his mind, so he used the claw hammer instead.
Now we started to wonder at this point whether those grey stone tiles (why would you use what are apparently floor tiles to create a wall?) were asbestos. After establishing that we couldn't tell (asbestos doesn't smell of anything) and that although we did commission an asbestos survey they wouldn't have been able to tell either (this wall was hidden when they did the survey) we took a deep breath and carried on anyway. Then we realised deep breathing might be a mistake.
Anyway, it's gone now, leaving this:
Whilst taking the photo above, I noticed this hole in the ceiling which wasn't there before Rob starting messing around with that claw hammer:
He assures me that it's fine, because that's going to be a sky light anyway. Or at least it is now.
The last bit of this quadruple-layered wall was dispatched with brute force:
And now we have light upstairs!
Whilst Rob was throwing himself at the wall, I continued sweeping. And discovered more newspaper, this time stuck to the walls inside the eaves cupboard in one of the bedrooms:
Yes, that's Friday 2nd September, 1932.
Goring and Hindenberg were in charge in Germany, and whilst we (and the French) seemed worried about it, the Yanks apparently weren't bothered:
Going further back in time, the other walls of this cupboard seem to have been created from wattle and daub:
According to Wikipedia, this either means that our cupboard was built in the neolithic times, or is very forward thinking and eco friendly.
Having swept the room out, I then noticed another section of wallpaper we'd missed. So I pulled at it. And the wall came off in my hands.
Oh dear. That's another fire place. And it's full of dirt/soot/mud/bricks. And, I could see daylight coming through...
I was a bit concerned that I might have discovered the hiding place of the body that belongs to the concrete-shoe we found, but fortunately not.
I began to wonder if we'd missed anything else - surely not? But we had. We'd forgotten all about one of the cupboards in the green bedroom, because we'd piled a whole load of wood outside it. And guess what was inside?
The rest of that body!
No, just joking.
A whole load of mid-90's children's toys. Such a haul would not be complete without a Mr Frosty:
And I was very pleased to see this, as I could do with a new laptop:
Who needs a Mac Book Air when you could have a pre-computer 2000?! All you people with just 'computers' are so out of date. I now have a precomputer.
We also found this philosophical essay:
Deep. I would have asked my pre-computer for the answers but its batteries weren't included.
Thankfully the answers were provided inside the booklet.
What am I? = Father Christmas.
The child who wrote this was clearly clever enough to understand that Santa is not a real person, but a myth and therefore 'what' not 'who'.
Who am I? = signs.
This confused us, but perhaps we are just not on the same intellectual level as the author. Clarification was given - this is apparently signs such as road signs and 'supermarket' signs. We are none the wiser. Perhaps helpful notices that guide you in life should be viewed as a benevolent presence, and so a 'who'.
What are they?
No answer was given to this one... spooky. Where has that cat-mask got to?!
All that philosophising tired Rob out, so he had a quick break, settling down for a bit of a read:
I had to tear him away from the ribbeting (!) tales of Toad and Mr. Hedgehog, because we still had clearing to do.
So we are finished. But we are left with this:
This:
This:
And all this:
If anyone would like a large amount of smelly, dirty carpet, 27 bags of woodchip wallpaper, or an enormous quantity of lino in various shades, do let us know.
